The Common Core places a lot of emphasis on text types, with traditional tales being one of the main types of literature mentioned in the ELA standards. We created the  Story World Real World  series to meet a need for paired texts and traditional tales, and coming soon is a Common Core-correlated teacher's guide to assist you with making these lessons easy! Here's a sample of a lesson based on  Cinderella !

Features of the Text:

• Traditional story.
• Aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). See   CCSS Reading Standards for Literature, Grade 1: #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10.
• Punctuation: speech punctuation, exclamation marks, questions marks.
• Opportunities to develop reading for inference skills.
• Dialogue between characters.
• Vocabulary development (e.g. , mean, work, ugly, magic, sparkling, slipper, midnight, charmed, hurts ) .
• Words and phrases that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses ( CCSS Reading Standards for Literature, Grade 1: #3).
• The characters’ actions and feelings ( CCSS Reading Standards for Literature, Grade 1: #4 ) .

Before Reading:

• Tell the children you are going to read a story that people have loved so much they have been telling it for hundreds of years.
• Examine the cover and the title.
  • What do you think this story is going to be about?
  • Why does it say “retold by”?
• Make a connection with the children’s experience:
  • Do you know the story of Cinderella? It is probably one of the most well-known fairy tales. Let’s find out why.

During Reading:

• Read the text with the children, encouraging them to join in with the reading when they think they know the words.
• Before turning the page, encourage the children to predict what will happen next.

• Discuss vocabulary e.g.,  mean ,  work ,  ugly ,  magic , 
  sparkling ,  slippers ,  midnight ,  charmed ,  hurts .
  
  
• Discuss text features such as speech punctuation.
  • How do we know who is talking? How do we know where the talk starts and ends?   (A: speech punctuation.)
• Discuss the illustrations.
  • What do the illustrations tell us about the characters? For example, look at Cinderella’s clothes at the start of the story. What do you think they tell us about how she was treated?
  • Do the two sisters look ugly or beautiful to you?
  • Look at the illustration on page 13 showing the prince holding the glass slipper. What do you think he is thinking and feeling?
• Reread pages 2–3:
  • Do you think Cinderella was treated fairly?
  • How do you think she felt when the ugly sisters made fun of her and made her do all the work?
  • Role play:   If you were Cinderella, what would you like to say to your mean stepmother and your two unkind sisters?
• Reread pages 4–5:
  • How do you think the sisters felt about the invitation to the ball? How do you think Cinderella felt?
  • Role play:   If you were one of Cinderella’s sisters, what would you have said when you read the king’s invitation? What would you have said to Cinderella? If you were Cinderella, what would you have said when you saw the invitation? What would you have said to the sisters?
  • What do you think Cinderella felt when her sisters went off to the ball?
• Reread pages 6–7:
  • What do you think Cinderella felt when she saw her fairy godmother appear?
  • Role play:   If you were Cinderella and you suddenly found yourself wearing a beautiful ball gown and sparkling glass slippers, what do you think you would say to your fairy godmother? What would you tell her about how you felt?
  • Look at the illustrations. Is there anything in the picture that might help you predict what is going to happen next?   (A: The pumpkin and the mice.)
• Reread pages 8–9:
  • Look at the illustrations. How can you tell what the coach was made from? What about the “horses”?
  • Can you draw a clock and show where the hands would be at midnight?
  • What does the fairy godmother mean when she says about the clock “striking” twelve?
  • How do you think Cinderella was feeling as she rode off in the coach?
    

• Reread pages 10–11:
  • Look at the illustrations. What do you think each person looking at Cinderella was thinking or whispering to the people nearby?
  • Role play this as a “still frame.” Choose children to be the different people in the illustration. Get them to stand as if they are in a still photograph. Make sure each is facing the same way and has a similar expression as in the book illustration. Then let each person, one at a time, come alive and speak, expressing thoughts and feelings.  How do some of the words used in the text help us understand what they are feeling? (“beautiful,” “wonderful,” “charmed,” etc.)
  • If you have a class dress-up box (assorted pieces of cloth, old drapes, etc., rather than actual costumes), help the students dress up a little for the still-frame role play. You might also like to practice this a little, then videotape the sequence. Play it back and talk about the characters and what they are feeling.
• Reread pages 12–13:
  • Talk about how Cinderella must have been feeling as she danced. Remind the children about Cinderella’s life just a few hours before. Help the children make a list of words to describe how she was feeling .
  • Why do you think Cinderella had forgotten about the clock striking twelve?   (A: She was having such a wonderful time.)
  • How do you think she felt when she heard the clock start to strike?   Help the children write down the thoughts that were going through her head as she heard this. Use quotation marks to indicate Cinderella’s own words or thoughts. Talk about speech punctuation—the way we show our readers who is talking and what they say.
  • On page 13, what is the clock showing? What do you think the prince felt when Cinderella suddenly ran off? What do you think he thought and felt when he discovered her glass slipper?
• Reread pages 14–15:
  • Why do you think so many people wanted to try on the glass slipper?   (A: Perhaps they all wanted to marry the Prince!)
  • Do you think the prince would have liked to marry one of Cinderella’s sisters? Why not?
  • Look at the illustration closely—what do you think Cinderella is thinking and feeling?
• Reread age 16:
  • The prince is “so happy” that the slipper fits. What does it feel like to be “so happy”?
  • What do you think Cinderella was feeling when the prince asked her to marry him?
  • Look at the stepmother’s face in the illustration. What do you think she is thinking and feeling?   (A: Maybe she is thinking there is some advantage for her in this too!)
• Shared writing activity:
  • Get the children to retell the events of the story ( CCSS, Grade 1: #2 ), then help them turn this retelling into captions, e.g. ,   “Cinderella is made to do all the work. Her ugly sisters do nothing.” What happens next?   “The king’s invitation to the ball arrives.”   What happens next?   “Cinderella’s fairy godmother gets Cinderella ready for the ball.”   What happens next?   “Cinderella dances all night with the Prince.”
  • Write each caption for the children on large cards, then divide the children into groups.
  • Give each group a caption, a sheet of art paper each, and suitable art materials. Help them plan and complete their own illustration for each caption ( CCSS, Grade 1: #7 ).
  • Mount their drawings on the wall with the captions in sequence to make a wall story. Prepare a “title page” too. “ Cinderella   retold by room 4 at Sunshine School. Illustrated by (the children’s names).” Read the story with the children.
  • You might like to share your   Cinderella   wall story with another class.   Congratulations, you are published authors!

Check back frequently for more news of our upcoming teacher's guides—for this series and others!

For more information on  Story World Real World , you can click the image below to download a series information sheet with key features, or you can  click here to visit our website . Click  here to download a brochure.