Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“What Does Cinderella Have to do with Cinder?”

After reading Cinder and considering Meyer’s use of elements of the Cinderella folktale within this text, students create presentations that convey the significance of these intertextual elements of the story.

Cinder includes several elements from the “Cinderella” story, a very old folktale that has been told in many ways in different cultures. In this activity, you will create a presentation that discusses why Meyer chose to use elements of the Cinderella story in Cinder. Your goal will be to both identify these elements and convey to your audience what is significant about their use.

Part A: Analyzing How Meyer Uses the Cinderella Story

• Read this version of the Cinderella story. This Grimm’s fairy tale (attributed to Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm) is the basis of most Western Cinderella stories and is a reasonable representation of the story that Meyer likely had in mind when she wrote Cinder.
• Review the text of Cinder and gather examples of references to the Cinderella story in a notetaking document.
• Think about how and why Meyer included these references.