by Mary Frances Rogers, University Of Southern Mississippi
This WebQuest is the history of a classic fairy tale and an analysis of that fairy tale.
Teacher Introduction
Welcome teachers! This Webquest will help your students understand fairytales a little better. They will compare, contrast, and analyze two versions of the classic fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood. Your students will present what they find either in groups or individually. This can be presented as a Power Point, on a three-sided display board, or as a book cover that will summarize one of the stories, have illustrations, and also tell the author and year the book was written.
History of Little Red Riding Hood
The version of Little Red Riding Hood that is most known today is the Grimm Brothers version, written in 1857. The story has its beginnings as oral, or spoken, versions from Europe before the 1600s. In these oral stories, the girl is independent and does not get any help from the woodcutter or anyone else. The character of the woodcutter becomes more important in later versions.
The earliest print version was written by Charles Perrault in 1697. His version has a moral, which is not in earlier versions of the story. The Grimm Brothers version followed, which was more sinister at first, but was re-written and made less sinister. Over the past several hundred years, the story of Little Red Riding Hood has been written many times by many different authors.