“So there’s this king and queen and they’ve been trying for ages to have a baby. They’ve tried IVF, surrogacy… you name it, they’ve tried it. This goes on for years, then all of a sudden, the queen finds she’s pregnant and there’s joy all around the kingdom. Nine months go by and this baby girl is born and the king is so chuffed he decides to hold this really flashy party. Everyone’s invited. Everyone that is, except me. Every morning for weeks, I go outside and wait for the postman. But no deckle-edged invite arrives. Can’t understand it. After all, all the other folk of the…how can I put this? Magical persuasion… gets invited. Even that stupid cat with the boot fetish gets invited! But not me! OK, so I’ve been a bit naughty in my day…well who hasn’t cast the occasional spell for goodness’ sake! I really can’t believe the king’s so narrow-minded as to bear a grudge all these years!
Anyway, the party day arrives and I decide to go. I put on my really fancy black cloak, the one with the red lining…and gatecrash…”
And that’s how my lesson today began.
I was explaining to my class about narrative perspective, so telling them the story of the Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the Bad (‘misunderstood’ is how she would describe herself!) Fairy, seemed a good way of going about it.
It’s not as crazy as it sounds. I’ve done it several times before (there’s the tale of the poor old lady whose house is eaten by vandals…or that really silly girl of dubious morality who goes and lives with seven men…). And it works really well, not only as entertainment (I got a round of applause today!) but it demonstrates exactly what a narrative viewpoint is. And how changing the narrator changes the story.(The film Shrek exploits this technique beautifully. It’s one of the reasons why adults find the film so funny.)
When I’m convinced the students have got the point I tell them that it’s now their turn and that they are to find a really well-known fairy tale and retell it from the perspective of one of the less ‘heroic’ characters. This leads to highly amusing story-telling sessions and some really inspired original writing for GCSE.
I did this today with my lovely year 9s, but I’ve done it with high ability GCSE groups as well as mixed ability and it works equally well. If enough of an effort is made to fire the students’ imagination, which in this case requires some serious modelling, then the results are fabulous.
It’s a highly enjoyable way to start the GCSE course or to end a long term. I like it and I know that the students like it too.
And I remember with fondness the effort of a previous student who related the musings of a seriously pissed-off Rudolph as he moaned about his old employer, Santa Clause. I laughed out loud when I read the story and it still makes me smile to think about it now.
Getting it right
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
