This rap, Subverting fairytales: Who’s afraid of the big bad book? and other titles, will be available during Term 3, 2005. It will focus on working towards Stage 4 outcomes in the new English Years 7-10 syllabus.

The Subverting fairytales rap is suitable for Stage 4 (Years 7 and 8)

Dates

Coordinators

Karen Yager, Mark Ippolito and Jeff Larkin, English teachers, and Helen Creagh, teacher-librarian at Richmond River High School

Joining the rap

From 18 July 2005, you may participate in the Subverting fairytales rap by entering your email address in the boxes below and clicking the Submit buttons. Please ensure you have registered the email addresses before doing so.

Teacher email will not be archived to protect privacy. The teacher rap runs concurrently with the book rap to provide additional support for teachers, and the opportunity to discuss issues which may arise during the rap.

You will receive confirmation emails for your Class group and the Teacher support listserv. Please save these messages as they contain important email addresses, and simply follow the instructions these contain when posting messages.

Archives of the class email discussion

Book rap support materials

These discussion questions guide the film rap. The question for the week is posted to the rap at the beginning of that week by the coordinator. Class groups post their answers and can respond via the rap to other school's replies during the relevant week for that rap point.

Rap point 1
Rap point 2
Rap point 3

Rap point 1 (For related class activities see Program and planning)

Term 3, Week 3: week beginning 1 August 2005

In the picture book, Who’s afraid of the big bad book ?, the fairy godmother from Cinderella says to Herb: ‘Jumping into other people’s stories, really is rude.’ The composer, Childs, is ironically commenting on how composers have retold, recontextualised and subverted traditional fairytales.

• Which fairytale did you enjoy that Herb jumped into?
• Explain in your response why you enjoyed the representation of this fairytale in the book?
• Refer to any alterations made to the original fairytale character/s.
• Discuss the visual features used to represent the story and the character/s.

 Jointly compose and post a one page response.

Post your class answer to the rap once the teacher has approved the final text. Use the four parts to the question to compose an extended piece of writing consisting of at least four paragraphs.

Rap point 2 (For related class activities see Program and planning)

Term 3, Week 4: week beginning 8 August 2005

The animation, Shrek,  parodies fairytales by subverting the traditional representation of the heroic, handsome prince and the submissive, gentle princess. View the establishing sequence of Shrek and comment on how the antihero, Shrek, the giant, green ogre, has been represented. In your response discuss:

1. how our expectations of this film as a traditional fairytale are challenged at the very start of the film
2. how filmic techniques are used to challenge the traditional representation of a hero such as:
   
   • mise-en-scene: composition: Shrek’s appearance, voice, actions and his home
   • non- diegetic sound (music external to the world of the narrative) and the diegetic sound (sound that is naturally part of the scene)
   • camera angles and movement
     
3. how the audience is positioned to respond to Shrek through humour

Your answer should be an extended piece of writing consisting of at least four paragraphs.

Once you have posted your class response you may wish to respond to one or more of the responses from other class groups. You can do this by posting your comments to the rap so all rappers can share your ideas.

Rap point 3 (For related class activities see Program and planning)

Term 3, Week 5: week beginning 15 August 2005

Subverting fairytales is enjoyable because we are all so familiar with the plots, characters and conventions of traditional fairytales. Childs and Katezenberg have had fun playing with fairytales, so now it is your group’s turn to compose a subverted fairytale. The possibilities are endless. You could reverse gender roles, tell the story from the perspective of the villain such as the wicked stepmother, or like Childs and Katezenberg, create a tale using a number of fairytale characters. To make it easier, some scenarios have been included that you might like to use.

The group jointly constructs a subverted fairytale and posts it once the teacher has approved the final text so other schools can enjoy the subversion.

Rap sheets

Rap maps

Find examples of maps and tally sheets

Students may use these to identify and locate schools participating in the book rap. Use these or create your own based on ideas from these examples.

Rap lingo

Credits

Thanks to the English faculty of Richmond River High School, especially Karen Yager, Mark Ippolito and Jeff Larkin and to the teacher-librarian Helen Creagh for developing the programming and support material for this rap, and to Kerry Underhill, Senior Curriculum Adviser, English 7-12.

Additional resources provided by the School Libraries and Information Literacy unit.

This rap is a joint project of the School Libraries and Information Literacy and English Units, Curriculum K-12 Directorate.