Lesson on new stories, same plot

Copy and paste this story for small groups or pairs of pupils – best if they collaborate and discuss, not just write alone. – If working on paper, double space at least, so the pupils can write in the spaces beneath the original.

The purpose is to use the identical plot, but write a new story in a different genre. – If working on computers, everyone has a copy of this story – but then they have to use Ctrl H – the find and replace command – and they select Red Riding Hood – then replace with – whatever. For example, James Bond – so now James Bond was a curly haired little girl with eyes that sparkled… And so the pupils have to change the descriptions, the locations, where James is going, what James is carrying, who is waiting in ambush. You should finish with an identical plot – but a different story. Different groups of children chose a different Find and Replace – could be a crime story (Sherlock Holmes), could be historical, a western, science-fiction (Luke Skywalker), romance (Mr. Darcy) –  Choose your own selections – I have just put egs in brackets) – Just cut and paste this story in, get them to save it with a new title and then Find and Replace…

Red Riding Hood was a curly haired little girl with eyes that sparkled when she saw her mother bring in a delicious apple pie. As she stood in the kitchen of the tiny cottage, her mother spoke,

“This pie must go to grandma. It is important that it arrives by nightfall.”

“So I must skip happily through the wood,” said Red Riding Hood.

But outside hairy ears were listening. The wolf heard every word. “So,” he thought, “I must lie in wait near the stream in the wood. She must come that way to cross the bridge.”

So it was that Red Riding Hood set out. Mother waved a handkerchief as she walked towards the wood and disappeared into the trees. The wolf waited, hid in the shadows beneath the old bridge, his teeth glistening ready to attack.

Grandma’s cottage was the cosiest you have ever seen. It had a roof of thatch, and the prettiest garden with yellow roses all around the door. The Big Bad Wolf didn’t lose any time at all in getting there. He wanted to be sure that he was well ahead of Red Riding Hood. So he scampered through the wood and reached the cottage at lightning speed.  Once there, he quietly turned the polished, brass handle and pushed open the wooden door. He peered around it sneakily. There she was, fast asleep and looking as warm as toast in her enormous four-poster bed.  All that showed of Grandma above the covers was her wonderful lacy nightcap. Very soon the wolf had grandma tied up and bundled into a cupboard. Very soon it was the wolf, and not poor Grandma, who was lying in the cosy bed disguised with a flowery nightcap pulled between his pointed ears.

As for Red Riding Hood, she was skipping through the forest without a care in the world. She hummed softly to herself as she went. Little did she know what awaited her at Grandma’s house.

As she arrived and pushed open the door the saw the disguised wolf peering out from his hiding place in the bed.  Red Riding Hood stared at the shape of that head that just did not seem to look like her grandma.  She leaned closer and it was then that wolf pounced, but no sooner had his paws touched her shoulders than the door burst open and there stood Red Riding Hood’s father, a woodcutter who worked in the wood. The last thing the wolf saw was the glint of steel as the axe came crashing down.  Once the furry body had been dragged out of the cottage and once grandma had been released, Red Riding Hood, the woodcutter and Grandma looked at the apple pie and knew what to do next.