Unit Overview: Read more about the unit and find all unit materials here on the Fishtank website

In this unit, students read multiple versions of a classic fairy tale, Cinderella. Through reading various versions of the same story, students are not only exposed to a wide variety of cultures, but they are also challenged to think about how the culture, or setting, of the story influences the plot. In 1st Grade ELA, students explored a wide variety of themes and stories from all over in order to build the foundational understanding that our world is made up of many diverse cultures. This unit builds on that foundational understanding and provides an opportunity for students to explore the idea that even though cultures may appear to be different, there are many things that make them similar. Storytelling, and the role of storytelling, is one of those similarities. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with others in the sequence, helps students build empathy and understanding of people and cultures that might be different from theirs.                                  

The different versions of Cinderella help students understand the components of a fairy tale and the lessons associated with traditional fairy tales. Over the course of the unit, students will be challenged to ask and answer questions about the text and illustrations as a way of deepening their understanding of the plot, setting, and characters. In the first part of the unit, students will learn to compare and contrast the nuances across different versions. In the second part of the unit, students will read Cinderella stories that vary from the traditional plot structure but still include the underlying theme that a person’s actions (good or bad) influence their life outcomes. In this section, students will dive deeply into three texts to analyze different characters’ traits and how the author uses those traits to help reveal the lesson of the story. Based on the complexities of the text, all texts in this unit are read aloud. Additionally, students will use discussion and oral discourse to show their understanding of texts. 

Students begin to build their writing fluency by writing daily in response to the Target Task question with an emphasis on writing complete sentences. Throughout the unit, students also have multiple opportunities to develop their narrative writing skills with a focus on crafting a strong beginning, middle, and end, using show not tell to describe characters’ thoughts and feelings, and temporal words to show passing time.