Which assignment would prompt students to think about fairy tales in novel ways?

Rewriting a popular fairy tale in a modern setting with a different outcome for the main character encourages students to engage deeply with the original narrative while simultaneously stimulating their creativity and critical thinking. This assignment invites students to analyze character motivations, plot structures, and themes inherent in traditional fairy tales, and then challenge those elements by placing them in contemporary contexts where they may resonate differently with today’s audience.

By altering the outcome for the main character, students are prompted to think critically about the implications of those changes, such as how character agency and social norms could shift. This process fosters not just imaginative thinking, but also a deeper understanding of the moral and cultural underpinnings of the original tales. Such a transformative approach to storytelling invites students to explore complex ideas about identity, morality, and societal values in a more nuanced manner than simply retelling or analyzing the tales as they stand.