When reading the classic story of The Emperor's New Clothes you don't want to use the "n" word unless you want a riot of giggly girls and baffled boys, yelling to their neighbor how ridiculous the situation would be. Murphy's Law states that when your classroom is most unruly is when your principle visits for an unexpected evaluation... So, just use proper judgment and a different word. However, no matter the way one describes the lack of clothes of the emperor, the students will be appalled.
For classroom purposes, let's discuss what kind of text the story is. The Emperor's New Clothes is a piece of traditional literature by Hans Christian Anderson . Other examples of traditional literature would be any fairy tales, folklore, or legends, such as Cinderella, The Tale of Johnny Appleseed, or Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears. These types of literature consist of simple, sequential, and cyclical plots, vague settings, and motifs.
In case you have never read The Emperor's New Clothes, the story takes place in an unnamed kingdom, ruled by a king who's idol is self-image. He always wears the latest fashions and is tune with what others think of him. When a couple of mysterious newcomers arrive in the kingdom claiming to be clothesmakers, the conceited king commands them to make him beautiful clothes. He is willing to pay them a great deal of money. Little does he know, the newcomers are tricksters. They tell the king that the clothes they make are different from any others because they are invisible to anyone who is either a simpleton, or unfit to hold their office. The king believes them, and they start sewing the "magical" clothes. After a while, the king sends various people to check on the progress of the new clothes: a minister and other officers. None of the people who check on the tricksters' progress can see the clothes, but they are too prideful to admit it; they are afraid of being considered simple or unfit for their offices. They send word to the king that the clothes are quite wonderful. The tricksters convince the king to wear the new clothes for the great parade, and he agrees. The tricksters are paid and the king wears his grand new clothes through the town in the parade. It takes the innocence of a child to say aloud that the king has no clothes on at all. Then the people see the reality of the situation: their emperor has been fooled and made a fool of himself. The people laugh at the king, who is very embarrassed indeed.Throughout the tale are the elements of traditional literature, such as a simple and sequential plot. It also has a vague setting, and motifs like trickery. If you read the book with pictures or watch an animated version, the tricksters usually have sly, untrustworthy faces with mischievous eyes and malicious smiles.
If you're going to be one of those (awesome) teachers that incorporate character education, there are obviously important morals to this story: don't be wrapped up in self, don't be led by what's popular, don't be a fool, use discretion in making decisions, etc.
For lessons concerning language arts, there are many possibilities:
- One could have two variants of the story and compare and contrast them.
- Students could be paired or put into groups and create a story map, showing the background, climax, and resolution of the story.
- As a class or in groups, students could create fractured folk tales, or modernized re-tellings of the story.
- Students could pretend they attended the parade and are journalists writing a news article about what happened in the story.
One idea that is usually beneficial for developing oral skills is to act out traditional literature pieces. However, for (hopefully) evident reasons, this would be a poor choice. Even if there are students who wouldn't mind acting out the king's part, you never know when some out-of-his-mind student will strip. And, of course, Murphy's Law comes to mind again.
Here's a link to watch an animated version of the story:
I have to admitt when I was little I also laughed at the "n word!" Whenever a child or a parent would say the word naked I always laugh and say "ewww" that is nasty! I also have never read this book either, but it sounds like it would be a good one to read! Y'all's preview of the story wass great and I watched the video y'all provided and loved it! Thanks for sharing the video and ways we could use this in our classroom! Great post!
ReplyDelete--Kayla Phillips
Ya'll definitely had me curious with the title of this post! I think ya'll picked a great piece of tradtional literature and in picking out the morals of it as well. It is so important to instill in students that it is okay to be different! Dr. Venable told us last semester to relate whatever we are teaching to the children's own lives, and although this is a funny story, it gives them a serious message. This story also makes me think of the Disney movie, "The Emperor's New Groove." I think that would be a good variant to the original story ya'll have here!
ReplyDeleteAh! I love that you guys included a link to the video. I agree with Lauren, it reminded me of that disney movies as well. I think that as a teacher, you would definitely have to use good judgement about if your class could handle the use of the "n word" or not. You don't want kids to get too caught up on that one thing and miss the rest of the story
ReplyDeleteThis story seems to be very interesting! Bringing different variants into the classroom after reading the Anderson version or another specific version. Using a Venn diagram, you as a teacher could have the students compare and contrast the elements and on-goings of the plots as a whole group, in small groups, or even individually. I definitely agree that this is not a story to have the class act out, unless they make up their own variant piece that doesn't require a student to strip (and make sure to approve the variant before they act it out!).
ReplyDelete~Jenni