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Ethics13, 2016
April
Teacher Essentials
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Using Fairy Tales to

Debate Ethics
Subjects
Arts & Humanities
Language Arts
Literature

Return to It's Up for Debate!

Social Studies
Psychology

Grades
K-2
3-5
6-8
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Brief Description
Three fairy tales challenge students to think about honesty, right and
wrong, and other questions of ethics.

Objectives
Students will
listen to or read three popular fairy tales.
respond to questions those tales raise about ethical issues.
take a stand on the ethical question raised by the story From the
Elephant Pit.

Keywords
fairy tale, ethics, honesty, self-esteem, Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in
Boots, folk tale, debate

Materials Needed[shopmaterials]

Lesson Plans

Technology

PD Tips

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copies of the stories "Puss in Boots" and "Jack and the Beanstalk" from
the library
copies of two stories from the Internet: Jack and the Beanstalk (an
older version of the familiar story) and From the Elephant Pit
the Education World article, Using Fairy Tales to Debate Ethics

Lesson Plan
In this lesson, students consider the ethics of characters in three fairy
tales.
In "Puss in Boots," a clever cat engineers a succession of hoaxes
and lies for the benet of its master. As a result, the master
eventually marries the king's daughter and appoints Puss in
Boots prime minister, and all parties live happily ever after.
Among the debatable questions inspired by this fairy tale are
Was Puss in Boots wrong to lie to the king and deceive him?, Was
the cat wrong to trick the ogre and then kill him?, and Is trickery
ever justied? Challenge students to support their positions with
at least three cogent arguments.
In "Jack and the Beanstalk," young Jack, whose impoverished
mother is left with nothing but the family cow, is sent to market
to trade the cow for as much money as he can. Jack trades the
cow for a handful of beans and, in despair, his mother throws
the beans out the window. Jack narrowly escapes from the giant
with two stolen treasures that will secure the future for himself
and his mother. Among the debatable questions posed by this
story are Since the giant wanted to eat Jack, was it OK that Jack
stole the giant's goose and harp? An older version of this familiar
tale oers up some unique twists that will add to the debate:
Since the giant had stolen everything from Jack's father, do you
think it was OK for Jack to take it back?
A lesser-known Tibetan folk tale, From the Elephant Pit is about
a hunter who happens upon an elephant pit, in which a man, a
lion, a mouse, a snake, and a falcon are trapped. Among the
debatable questions posed by this story are Was the hunter
better o because he rescued the man from the pit? If yes, why? If
no, why not?
Create a two-column graphic organizer for the rst two fairy tales above.
Print one of the ethical questions raised by the tale at the top of the
graphic organizer. Print "Yes" at the top of the rst column and "No" at
the top of the other. As students share their responses to the questions,
write the responses in the appropriate columns.
For a printable comparison chart, see Comparison Chart.
Provide students with a copy of a two-column graphic organizer such as
the Comparison Chart. After reading the story "From the Elephant Pit,"
pose the question Was the hunter better o because he rescued the man
from the pit? Let students consider both sides of the question by writing
statements in support of a "Yes" and "No" answer in the appropriate
columns on their charts. Then give students an opportunity to take a
stand; they use the information on their graphic organizers to support
that stand.
The lesson ideas above and more are posed in an Education World article by
Elaine Lindy, an expert on storytelling for character education and CEO of
Whootie Owl Productions. Lindy created the popular children's storytelling
Web site, Absolutely Whootie: Stories to Grow By. To nd more ideas for using

fairy tales in classroom debates, as well as tips for managing a classroom

debate on ethics, see the complete Education World article Using Fairy Tales to
Debate Ethics.

Assessment
Students write a brief response to any one of the questions posed in the
lesson; in addition, they might draw an illustration to accompany their
writing.

Lesson Plan Source

Education World (with resources from Absolutely Whootie: Stories to
Grow By

Submitted By
Elaine L. Lindy

National Standards
LANGUAGE ARTS: English
NL-ENG.K-12.1NL-ENG.K-12.2NL-ENG.K-12.3NL-ENG.K-12.4NL-ENG.K12.6NL-ENG.K-12.9NL-ENG.K-12.11NL-ENG.K-12.12
GRADES K - 12
Reading for Perspective
Reading for Understanding
Evaluation Strategies
Communication Skills
Applying Knowledge
Multicultural Understanding
Participating in Society
Applying Language Skills
SOCIAL SCIENCES: Civics NSS-C.K-4.2
GRADES K - 4
Values and Principles of Democracy
NSS-C.5-8.5
GRADES 5 - 8
Roles of the Citizen
Find more Debate Resources or click to return to this week's Lesson
Planning article, It's Up for Debate!

Comments

3 Comments

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Bren Mary
Very interesting
Like Reply May 22, 2015 6:42pm

Gulfam Samoo
Army Public School and Collage Thata

very very interesting

Like Reply Jun 6, 2015 5:44am

Kathy Day-Bobb
Educator at Los Altos School District

looks great! It will work wonderfully with my opinion writing standard.

Like Reply Aug 7, 2015 6:35am
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