Popular Culture Task 4!!

Year 5 Spring Term 2
Word

Fiction and poetry: (i) traditional stories, myths, legends, fables from a range of cultures; (ii) longer classic poetry, including narrative poetry.

The objective that this activity is designed to meet is to look at traditional stories and the portrayal of women in gender stereotypes.

Our activity begins with the children creating a character, either male or female, that may be found in a fairytale. They only have 10 minutes to complete this activity. Children are then asked to compare each others characters, looking specifically at male and female characteristics associated with each character. This is then fed back to the whole class with the teacher directing a discussion about gender stereotypes that the children have or haven’t associated with each character.

This activity then progresses onto a short film clip of Cinderella in which the two ugly sisters dictate to Cinderella the chores that she is to carry out. This clip particularly demonstrates the role of females in housework and also goes onto look at issues of power.

The clip should then be discussed looking particularly at how the main character of Cinderella is portrayed. Compare this to how other main characters in traditional stories are portrayed. Are these typical portrayals of gender roles and would you find these roles today.

A future lesson could see children adapting a traditional tale to remove typical gender stereotypes and bring the traditional tale into the modern era.