Fairy tales in primary school. A lesson plan

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Didactics for the subject German - Pedagogy, Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Koblenz-Landau (Institut fur Bildung im Kindes-und Jugendalter), language: English, abstract: Since the discovery of fairy tales as children's literature by the Brothers Grimm, there seems to be a connection between children and fairy tales. When dealing with the topic of "e;children and fairy tale"e;, questions arise that I would like to answer in my paper:Can fairy tales be of help to children in their development? And if so, how can this happen and what is the basis of this power of a single story to be an aid to children's development? Aren't fairy tales far too cruel and brutal for a child? Shouldn't fairy tales rather be dispensed with as a subject of primary school teaching because of their brutality alone?I will mainly refer to folk tales, as these are the first and most well-known fairy tales that most children are confronted with. In almost all cases it is the folk tales, and especially those from the Grimm collection of "e;Children's and Household Tales"e;, which represent the first contact with literature for children. In the first part of my paper, I will explore the meaning of the term "e;fairy tale"e; and its genre-typical characteristics in order to create a basis for further considerations. In the second part, I will examine how, where and when folk tales came into being in the first place and what function they were originally intended to fulfil. After a short section in which the fairy tale is distinguished from related genres, I would like to look at the relationship between fairy tales and children. In this part, I would like to discuss their values for children, what positive possibilities fairy tales have to offer children and the question of the topicality and necessity of fairy tales today. Then, I would like to deal with the fairy tale as a subject of teaching and examine whether the folk tale finds its justification in today's primary school.