TelePoetic
Parody
Project Summary
This telecommunications project exchanges students' parodies of well-known tales such as The
Miller's Tale, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Princess and the Pea, Three Little Pigs, and
Rumplestilskin with distant audiences. The students read the original work and then
create a poetic parody of the work which is exchanged with a partner school. Participating
schools may wish to publish the "best" parodies in a literary anthology.
For younger students, Mother Goose rhymes provide an excellent vehicle for teaching the technique of humor and writing silly or funny endings.
Suggested Grade Level and Audience
7th through 12th
Estimated Time Required
4 to 6 weeks
Student Learning Objectives
- To practice rhyme and meter
- To illustrate knowledge of parody
- To participate in a creative writing experience with a distant audience.
- To practice writing, editing, and revising.
- To practice word processing and telecommunications skills.
Writing Prompt
Description
A parody is the imitation of a particular style of someone else's work which
is sometimes funny or ridiculous.
Create your own poetic parody of a popular tale and exchange it with your distant partners.
Steps
- In small groups, select a popular fairy tale, Aesop fable or other well-known children's story.
- Together, write a poetic parody and save it on a data disk.
- Print out and exchange your parody with other groups to obtain advice and feedback.
- After editing and revising parodies, send them via email to your partner school.
- Publish an anthology of your favorite parodies and share your anthology with your partner schools.
Example
Some story, "The Princess and the Pea."
It was told all wrong, so listen to me.
There was a prince looking for a wife,
Who would care for him the rest of his life.
He could call any princess "mine,"
They were all so pretty and fine.
Now there was one lass too ugly to see.
Royalty she was never to be.
She had heard of the prince wanting a bride.
When he saw her, he nearly died.
She approached the house and knocked on the door.
He thought, "That's no princess, but a bore."
The prince wanted to send her away,
Not next week, but that very same day.
But his mother who was loving and kind,
Or just out of her cotton-picking mind,
Said, "Wait a minute, let me see that young lass.
We'll give her a test and see if she'll pass."
The young lady spied the test it would be,
A wife if she could just feel a pea.
That night she pretended to toss and turn,
Her secret no one would ever learn.
In the morning she complained of the lump in her bed,
No sleep, so she would be the one to be wed.
Since no beautiful girl felt the pea,
The ugly lass it had to be!
