Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What is a fairytale? What do you associate with this genre in terms of tropes, character, conflict, structure, and literary devices? Can you think of any media that makes use of the fairytale genre or retells a specific fairytale with a twist? How did it work and which do you prefer—the straight genre or the twisted version? Why? What benefits do both provide in terms of storytelling?

Teaching Suggestion: These questions can be used before, during, and after reading the following resources to activate prior knowledge, guide reading, and reflect in discussion afterwards.

• This subject guide from Missouri Southern State University provides an extensive overview of the subject of fairy tales for reference.

2. What are social norms and where do they come from? What kinds of norms are you familiar with and what are the consequences of both meeting and not meeting these norms? How might norms relate to stereotyping? What evidence supports the idea that norms are socially constructed?

Teaching Suggestion: These questions can be used before, during, and after reading the following resources to activate prior knowledge, guide reading, and reflect in discussion afterward.