Yeh Shen - A Chinese Cinderella Story for Reader's Theater

This Reader's Theater is for 4 students. It is the Chinese version of Cinderella. In the script, Yeh Shen’s mother died and then her father. Now she has a stepmother who does not like her. They are very poor and so the stepmother makes Yeh Shen a servant in their home. Yeh Shen is lonely until she makes a friend. It is a large goldfish from the lake and it has been sent by her mother to make her feel better. When her stepmother learns about it she plots to catch and kill the fish. Once she has the fish the stepmother eats it. Yeh Shen keeps the bones under her bed. The spirit of the fish tells her that if she will tell the bones what she needs they will give it to her. Thanks to the bones Yeh Shen is able to go to the festival and later meets and marries the prince. There is a short writing assignment afterwards for the students to respond to.

The largest part is the stepmother's part. You can also have your students compare and contrast the standard version with this one using a Venn Diagram. I have one pack based only on Cinderella stories from around the world called 'Cinderella Around the World' and it also includes twisted versions of the story. I use reader's theaters to encourage my students to practice fluency. It is a fun way to do something that they need.

My scripts are in black and white with only the occasional color picture on front so they photo copy easily. The problem with many other reader's theaters is that students spend a lot of time waiting for their part. When you have a small group they get more practice in and less off task behaviors take place.

My name is Melanie Whitesides but my store name is Wonbyone and, if your students enjoy this script, look for more fairy tales and twisted tales at my site. I hope that your students enjoy this script as much as mine did. Let me know how things go!

Yeh Shen - A Chinese Cinderella Story by Melanie Whitesides is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.