“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Albert Einstein

Analyze a fairy tale

using a LinkNotions sociogram

We took as example the tale “The Frog King or Iron Henry” by the Grimm brothers.

The diagram provides the versions of 1812 and 1857 in three languages: German, French and English. It shows and analyzes their differences.

LinkNotions map: interactive, multilingual, with content in notions and links. Try by clicking, right-clicking or double-clicking notions and links in the map below !

Click here to open the diagram in bigger size.

A few tips on how to read an interactive diagram of LinkNotions.

CREATE your sociogram of a fairy tale

First create your LinkNotions account : click any of the buttons at the right.

Then you have two options:

1. Start from scratch. Here’s how.
2. Use the free template of a sociogram provided by LinkNotions. Open the template and simply click the green button on the top right of the diagram. A window opens. Click “Create”. A copy will be created into your account. It is opened in edit mode. You now can edit this copy.

• You will be able to adapt the model of sociogram by introducing the characters, the objects, the places and the scenes of your tale while taking advantage of the structure provided.

How to edit an interactive diagram of LinkNotions.

Create your LinkNotions account

EDIT the sociogram of the tale “The Frog King or Iron Henry”

If you have a LinkNotions account, you can copy the diagram into your LinkNotions account and modify it. To do so, enter the diagram and click the icon left to the title in the tool bar. Then click create. A copy will be created in your account. You now can modify this copy. (add, change notions or links

How to edit an interactive diagram of LinkNotions.

Create your LinkNotions account

Please click the image to see a notion’s information structure about a scene.

The sociogram of LinkNotions is very flexible:

• You can add, delete and edit tabs
• You can also add, delete and edit the fields in each tab.

View images explaining the sociogram

The scenes, characters, objects and locations (description and comparison of versions 1812 and 1857)

Create your LinkNotions account

Create your LinkNotions account

Why make a sociogram of a fairy tale?

By creating together with pupils, a sociogram, they learn to be aware of the structure of a story:

• who is related to whom ?
• who is related with which object ?
• who is in what place ?
• who is in what scene ?

Using a LinkNotions sociogram 

We show it with the fairy tale “The Frog King”, but you can do it with any tale or story. LinkNotions offers three sociograms of the tale and this in three languages: French, German and English (select the language in the sociogram):

• The empty sociogram
• The sociogram containing only the notions
• The sociogram containing notions and links

In these sociograms you will also find the entire text of the tale (square A12) and explanations concerning the use of a sociogram (squares B12 and C12) and how to use LinkNotions (squares E12 and F12)

Analysis of a fairy tale with LinkNotions

The diagram of the fairy tale: The Frog King or Iron Henri

The diagram distinguishes

4 domains:

• The characters (pink color)
• The important objects (yellow)
• The locations (orange)
• Actions = parts of the story (purple)

Help us improve the sociogram of the tale by sending us your criticisms and proposals.

Submit us your sociogram of another tale to publish it for free on our website.

4 Link Types:

• is in the scene (orange: indicates which character, object, or location is in what action = part of the narrative)
• is mentioned in (turquois: indicates which character, object, or location is mentioned in what action = part of the story without being present)
• is in relation with (red: indicates which character is related to any other character or an object)
• is present in (brown: indicates which character is present in what location).

The LinkNotions diagram allows to analyze a fairy tale by identifying domains and relationships presented above.

The teacher may start from an empty diagram and work it out together with the class.

He / she will read the fairy tale with her class.

Using questions, he / she will develop the diagram.

Questions that the teacher can ask:

As regard to the notions (content of the squares)

1. What persons appear in the history?
   1. What are the characteristics of the person?
2. Which objects play an important role in the story?
   1. Describe these objects.
   2. What is their use?
3. In which places the action takes place?
   1. What happens where?
4. Tell the story
   1. How does it begin?
   2. What happens next?
   3. And then?

As regard to the relationships (the links that are represented by the horizontal and vertical lines).

5. Who is in relationship with whom in the story?
   1. Who takes the initiative? who speaks to whom? who asks which question to whom? who helps whom?
6. Who uses which objects?
7. Who is in which location?
8. Who is in which part of the story?
9. Who is mentioned in which part of the story?
10. Which object is in which part of the story?
11. Which object is mentioned in which part of the story (without being present)
12. Which location is in which part of the story?
13. Which location is mentioned in which part of the story?

The teacher may start from a diagram that contains only concepts

(characters, objects, locations, actions) without links and develop relations with the class (see above).

In this case, he / she may

– Develop relations with his class or

– Ask pupils to complete the links in a diagram (individually or in groups of 2-4 students).

The teacher may start from a complete diagram.

In this case he / she can click on the bottom or top of a square and ask students appropriate questions.

For example:

Click the bottom of the square “princess”. Explain the relationship:

The squares highlighted with red color are the people and objects with which the princess is related.

Questions:

– What is the relationship between the princess and the king?

– What is the relationship between the princess and the frog?

– What is the relationship between the princess and …

The squares highlighted with the brown color are the places in which the characters are present.

Questions:

– When is the princess near the fountain?

– When is the princess in the dining room? What’s going on in this place?

– When is the princess …

– …

The squares highlighted with the color turquoise are the parts of the story where the princess is mentioned (without being present). The squares highlighted with the color orange are the parts of the story where the princess is present.

Question:

– What can you see?

The teacher can now click on another character and continue as above.

He / she can also turn off while clicking in a corridor and ask for example:

In which parts of the story the king’s daughters are mentioned or present. Answer: They are mentioned in the introduction and are present (but not mentioned) in the dining room.

– …

Here are other interesting questions to the pupils:

– Find a part of the story where the frog is mentioned and present.

To find the answer, click on the bottom of the square of the frog; you will see that the

square E4 is highlighted in two colors (brown for “present” and turquoise for “is

mentioned.”

– What is the relationship between Henry and belts? (answer:  He wears them)

why does he wear them ?

– Click “The princess’s explanations to the king” (square E5) and ask: who is present; who is mentioned; what is the difference between being present and being mentioned?

– As for the history of content:

What is the relationship between the princess and the prince?

Why does the princess promise to the frog to become his friend?

Why does she take the frog in her room?

What does the princess do to deliver the prince? Why does she do it? Does she

intend to deliver him?

Why does she go with the prince in his kingdom?

What is the message of the story? (What is the point of the story?).

Goals:

– Understand the structure and learn to classify and list (characters, places, objects, parts of the story)

– To stimulate the intellect of the pupils

– Boosting the capacity of accurate reflection of the pupils

– Learn how to make distinctions and discuss:

• be present / to be mentioned: in some parts of the story the frog is not present, but is mentioned; the king’s daughters are present in the dining room, but they are not mentioned
• object / place: here it would be interesting to discuss whether the carriage can be considered as a place or as an object;
• character / object: Are horses to be considered as a character or an object
• should the wood and the sun be added or not  in the list of characters, objects or locations?

NEW:

Calculate with LinkNotions: calculate the value of a notion with values of other notions.
The concept map becomes a visual spreadsheet! Examples.