Wolf blows out perspective

Is the wolf really the bad guy for trying to eat the three little pigs?

It depends on who you ask.

In November, when third-grade students at Willis Elementary School seemed to be having a hard time understanding the concept of author perspective/purpose, their teachers put on their thinking caps.

At a joint planning session, they shared ideas and lesson plans and ended their brainstorming meeting with an event to help measure their students’ understanding. 

Over three weeks of classes, students ventured to each third-grade teacher’s classroom to hear stories, such as “The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs,” written from an alternative character’s perspective. Then, each student picked an overlooked character from a classic fairy tale and rewrote the story, or wrote a letter to the author or to another character, from their character’s perspective. They also created a poster board to help him or her “look the part,”  of their character when they gathered Jan. 8 in the school media center to share with each other about their characters, third-grade teacher Emily Ross said. 

Ross said her students loved the project and even had students turn in their assignments early because they were so excited.

“If they are laughing and enjoying themselves, they have enhanced learning,” Ross said.