The+Brave+Little+Tailor

= The Brave Little Tailor =

Pre-reading Activity:
The tailor in our story has a complex personality. The other characters have strong reactions to the tailor. Think about characteristics that you admire or would rather avoid in people you meet. Remember that this is your personal opinion - there are no wrong answers here!

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Vocabulary: As you read the story, find and highlight each of these vocabulary words.
tailor, unbidden, unmerciful, valor, ransack, embroidered, contemptuous, pipsqueak, runt, exhausted, sapling, thicket, chipper, bold, counsel, dismiss, dowry, companions, bounded, peering, desperate, wounded, reception, woe, scoundrel, jerkin, breeches, infuriated, belabor, inscription

Choose 1 of the following activities to complete on your own paper.
 * 1) Group and Regroup - think about these words. Choose 15-18 of the vocabulary words listed and create a Tree Map showing 5 ways you could categorize these words. Some words may fall into more than 1 category. (i.e. Words that Describe a Character, Nouns, Words with More Than 3 Syllables, etc.). Every category has to have at least 2 words in it and every word must be placed in at least 1 category.
 * 2) Vocabulary Analysis - Choose 5 words to work with. For each word create a Tree Map with the following headings: Definition, Part of Speech, How Used in Story, My Own Sentence
 * 3) Use at least 20 of these vocabulary words to retell the story. Underline the vocabulary words you use in your retelling. (Your retelling should be 60+ words long.) Then take the vocabulary challenge and summarize the story using less than 25 total words and at least 7 of the vocabulary words listed above. Be sure to think about the difference between //retelling// a story and //summarizing// a story!

Directed Notes Activity:
The brave, little tailor has created a slogan to describe himself - Seven at one blow. When you read the story a second time, mark or highlight the **seven** places in the story where the tailor says or shows his slogan, "Seven at one blow". Think about why this slogan is so important to the little tailor and about how it helps him become king.

After you have read the story and marked the passages choose one of the places you marked, (be sure to include the page number) and give several ** reasons ** (more than two) ** why ** you think he says or shows the slogan at this point in the story. (Questions to help you think about this might include... //How does the little tailor think others will respond to his slogan? Does he just want to be accepted by people, or does he want to dominate them? What is he feeling when he says or shows his slogan at that point of the story?//)

You may write your answer on paper or go to [|Our Class Blog]and write your answer there in a new post. Remember that your paragraph not only explains which time you are talking about. It also gives a minimum of two reasons why you feel this was an interesting place for the tailor to make this remark again. Why...Why...Why...

Other Activities:
4. Becoming a King - in our story we meet a king who has dealings with the tailor and at the end of the story we are told the tailor became a king for the rest of his days. Think about the qualities a good king should have - look at the list below and decide which ones you think are important. Then go to our class blog or write your response on paper and decide: ** Do you think the tailor will make a good king? ** Remember - no matter where you write your thoughts - to support your claim with evidence and reasoning! You should be able to cite 3 examples or reasons to support your claim.
 * 1) Read the story through one more time. As you read this time write questions (in the margins of the story) that come to your mind about things happening in the story or why characters might be acting the way they are. For example on page 148 - Why did the giant offer the cherries to the tailor first, before eating any himself? Write at least 6 questions (in the margin of the story) as you reread the whole story, then choose the question that interests you the most and post it as a new post on our class blog. Read questions posted by other students in our class and respond to 2 of them using CER writing. Each response should be at least 30 words long.. Be sure to read what others are saying about your question!
 * 2) Interpreting Words 1: In this story the interpretation of words is very important. The tailor is extremely proud of his accomplishment of killing seven flies with one swat of his cloth. So proud in fact that he creates a belt for himself on which he has inscribed "Seven at one blow!" As others hear of this statement - the words are interpreted differently. Choose 3 characters that the tailor meets along his journey and explain how each of them interpreted his words and how it affected the interaction between them and the tailor.
 * 3) Comparing fairy tales - we have read 2 fairy tales from the Brothers' Grimm in this study. They have written many, many more. Read one of the following stories also written by the Brother's Grimm and create a 3 way Venn diagram to compare and contrast the fairy tales. Rapunzel, Hansel & Gretel, The Bremen Town Musicians, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin

Blogging:
__**You**__ will write our blogging choices this time. See activity choice #1 below.
 * 1) Read the story through one more time. As you read this time write questions (in the margins of the story) that come to your mind about things happening in the story or why characters might be acting the way they are. For example on page 148 - Why did the giant offer the cherries to the tailor first, before eating any himself? Write at least 6 questions (in the margin of the story) as you reread the whole story, then choose the question that interests you the most and post it as a new post on our class blog. Read questions posted by other students in our class and respond to 2 of them using CER writing. Each response should be at least 30 words long. Be sure to read what others are saying about your question!

OR if you would prefer - here are two blog choices for you to consider:
 * 1) Why does the tailor think that the whole world must hear of his brave deed: killing seven at one blow?
 * 2) Do you think the tailor fools himself along with everyone else?