"The Sea Hare" by the Brothers Grimm Close Reading Worksheet

Engage a variety of middle and high school students with the incorporation of Grimm’s fairy tales into the classroom. “The Sea Hare” by the Brothers Grimm is a short story about characters who defy expectations in order to achieve personal goals. With this set of high-order questions, teachers will be able to extend reading comprehension and support the development of close reading analysis skills. While the close reading activity upholds academic rigor, the brevity of the narrative helps teachers fill awkward gaps in their teaching schedules. An answer key and copy of the public domain narrative are included. Materials are delivered in a zip file containing editable Word Documents and printable PDFs. By completing this activity, students will perform the following tasks:

• Identify what the text states explicitly and implicitly
• Examine how complex characters think, behave, develop, and interact
• Evaluate whether the relationship between the princess and the young suitor is healthy or unhealthy
• Explore aspects of the princess’ characterization that make her sympathetic to the audience
• Define complex words as they are used in the text
• Compare and contrast characters (the young suitor and the previous 99)
• Apply knowledge of literary devices including onomatopoeia, symbolism, foreshadowing, and dramatic irony
• Explore cause-and-effect relationships
• Defend claims and ideas with valid reasoning and relevant textual evidence
• Write ideas with clarity, accuracy, and precision
• Come to class/leave class better prepared to discuss literary material