THE TRUE STORY

of the...

In this activity, students will be creating a slide show presentation of a popular children's storybook. The story will be retold by the "villain" in an effort to explain his side of the story. This activity is based on "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith where the story of "The Three Little Pigs" is retold by the wolf with very humourous results.

Grade Level:

• 6

Cross Curricular Subject Areas:

• Language Arts, Math, and Art.

Technology Skills Integrated into Activity:

• Word Processing
• Use of a scanner
• Use of Presentation Software

Process:

verybody knows the story of the Three Little Pigs. Or at least they think they do. But I'll let you in on a little secret. Nobody knows the real story, because nobody has ever heard my side of the story.

1. So says the wolf as he introduces "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs". Read the story to your class and discuss Point of View. Examine how it has been changed from the traditional versions. In the traditional stories, it is very clear who the good and bad guys are. In this story, the wolf explains that he really wasn't doing anything wrong; he was framed by the pigs who were the real villains.
   
2. Using other traditional stories such as Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel etc., discuss the point of view of these stories and brainstorm on ways that these stories could be retold from the "bad guy's" point of view.
   
3. Discuss the use of humour in "The True Story of The Three Little Pigs". Have students point out ways that humour could be inserted into the traditional stories. Ask students to try to use "realistic" humour such as when the Wolf explains in Scieszka's story that maybe the reason the whole big bad wolf thing started was because of his diet. "Hey, it's not my fault wolves eat cute little animals like bunnies and sheep and pigs. That's just the way we are. If cheeseburgers were cute, folks would probably think you were Big and Bad, too."
   
4. Discuss the techniques used to illustrate stories. These stories are really told through pictures. The text beneath each picture helps to illustrate the scene depicted. In the scene described in #3, a picture of a giant "cheeseburger", with bunny ears and mouse tails sticking out between the layers in the sandwich, accompanies the text explaining how maybe the whole big bad wolf thing got started in the first place.
   
   The size of the picture is also important. Students should be drawing on 8.5" by 11" cartridge paper which can easily be scanned by all scanners. Make sure that the colours used are deep and rich so that they scan well, but be careful that the background of each scene does not blend into the foreground as the image will not look good when scanned. The picture should take up the whole page so that it can be resized to fit a slide without any loss in picture quality.
   
5. Once the picture has been drawn, scan the drawing and resize it to fit on one page of your word processing document. There must be enough room left at the bottom of the page to type in your text (usually around 36 pt size). Discuss the math concepts of creating similar shapes, by enlargement or reduction, and distorting shapes. Similar shapes are created when the height and width of a shape is enlarged or reduced by the same amount. For example, if you want to make a new triangle similar to an original triangle, but you wish to double the size, measure the dimensions of the original triangle, multiple them by two, and then redraw the triangle. Distorted shapes are created when not all the dimensions of an object are enlarged or reduced by the same amount. For example, the height of a square is doubled, but the width remains the same results in a distorted image.
   
6. It is easy to see these math concepts in action when you insert a scanned picture of a drawing into a word processing document. Click on the picture and a border will appear around it which contain little boxes on all four sides and corners. These boxes are called sizing handles. When moved over a sizing handle, the mouse arrow changes to a resizing tool. By clicking on and dragging a handle located on the side of the picture, the height or width of the picture can be distorted. By using the sizing handle in the corner of the picture, a similar but smaller or larger picture can be created. Students must use the corner resizing handles to resize their drawing so that it doesn't become distorted. Resizing mistakes can be corrected by clicking on Edit and Undo on the toolbar before a document is saved. Click here to see examples of similar and distorted images.
   
7. In ClarisWorks, it is very easy to create a Slide Show. Students create a new word processing document and each page of that document becomes a slide in their presentation. When your document is complete, open it in ClarisWorks and choose Slide Show from the View Menu. A dialogue box opens which allows you to change the order of the slides, adjust the slide options such as fitting the whole page to the screen, center the slide on the screen, use of a background or border, slide fade, slide loop, and slide advance timing. Select the options that create the best presentation and press Start to view the show. You can always go back and readjust the options to create a different look for the presentation.
   
8. When the project is completed, have students present their retold stories to the class. Coupled with an overhead projection panel, projector, or an AVerKey television converter the slide show can be viewed clearly by the entire class.
   

Evaluation:  

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4
Art Work	No creativity - drawings are lifeless.	Some creativity shown.	Drawings are creative.	Drawings are extremely creative.
Viewpoint	Does not retell the story from the villain's point of view. a	Somewhat retells the story from the villain's point of view. a	Retells the story from the villain's point of view well. a	Retells the story from the villain's viewpoint in an exemplary fashion.
Use of scanner	Is unable to scan and save images. a	Scans and saves images with some problem. a	Is usually able to scan and save images with no problem.	Is able to scan and save images with no problem. a
Math Concepts	Does not understand the concept and is not able to create similar images.	Partially understands the concept and is able to create similar images some of the time.	Understands the concept and is able to create similar images most of the time. a	Understands the concept and is able to create similar images all of the time.  a
Conventions of Print	Very frequent grammar and spelling errors which makes the writing impossible to understand.	Frequent grammar and spelling errors which make the writing difficult to understand.a	Grammar and spelling errors do not detract from understanding the writing. a	Grammar and spelling errors are infrequent, and writing is clear. a