Focus 5: Aboriginal Stories and Legends (Lessons 12-14)

Objectives   Recognize cause and effect relationships. Access and build upon related prior knowledge and experience.   Focus on and complete learning tasks (IL).     Create original texts to demonstrate understanding.	Activities Exploring Activities Discuss cause and effect relationships among story events and list the boy's actions. What lesson did the boy learn? Ask students to respond individually by relating this story to personal experiences. Suggest they explore the boy's experiences and similar experiences of their own through writing. As students are writing or are reading legends, informally confer with them to determine if they are relating story characters and events to previous reading and to personal experiences. Lesson Extensions Students could write stories based on their personal experiences. Students could make books and illustrate their stories. These could be added to the classroom collection after students read them to peers or younger students.
	Sample Lesson 12 (A Cree Legend) Assessment and Evaluation Conferences Resource How The Mouse Got Brown Teeth (also available in Cree)
Share experiences in large group talk. Listen attentively to a range of texts for pleasure and information.   Identify and set purpose for listening.   Listen without interrupting. Recognize cause and effect relationships. Access and build upon related prior knowledge and experience.   Focus on and complete learning tasks (IL).	Engaging Activities Ask students if they remember a time when they got into difficulty for doing something they had been told not to do. Introduce the legend How the Mouse Got Brown Teeth by explaining that amongst Aboriginal peoples, certain legends are told to children so they will avoid danger and learn a lesson. Ask students to listen for the warning that the young boy receives and to discover whether or not he obeys that warning. Tell or read the legend to students. Exploring Activities Discuss cause and effect relationships among story events and list the boy's actions. What lesson did the boy learn? Ask students to respond individually by relating this story to personal experiences. Suggest they explore the boy's experiences and similar experiences of their own through writing. As students are writing or are reading legends, informally confer with them to determine if they are relating story characters and events to previous reading and to personal experiences.
Create original texts to demonstrate understanding.	Lesson Extensions Students could write stories based on their personal experiences. Students could make books and illustrate their stories. These could be added to the classroom collection after students read them to peers or younger students.
	Sample Lesson 13 (A Shuswap Legend) Assessment and Evaluation Observation Resource The Big Tree and The Little Tree (big book format)
Demonstrate appropriate viewing behaviours. Make careful observations and discuss with others (CCT). Make inferences about a character's actions or feelings. Explore and develop empathy through imagining themselves in the situations of others (PSVS). Predict what will happen next based on previously read material and background experiences. Ask questions to clarify information. Recall details, summarize major ideas or events, and draw conclusions. Explain own point of view and consider others' points of view. Create original representations to communicate and demonstrate understandings of forms and techniques.	Engaging Activities Share with students the big book The Big Tree and the Little Tree. Ask them to look closely at the cover illustration, and have them predict what the story is about. List ideas on the blackboard or on chart paper. Read the first four pages with students and ask them to clarify how the big tree feels about himself. Ask students how they would feel if they were little trees in the presence of the big tree. Have students predict what might become of the little tree as the legend continues. Record these predictions on the blackboard or on chart paper. Ask students to predict what might happen to the big tree as the little tree matures. Complete the legend. Exploring Activities Address any questions or comments students may have. As a large group, have students identify what they have learned about each character in the legend. In pairs or small groups, have students brainstorm a list of descriptions for each character. Have students create a puppet of their favourite character from the legend. Pairs or small groups could compose scripts for the puppet characters and respond to this legend through puppetry.
Express ideas orally in a variety of situations, including with a group of classmates. Listen attentively and courteously to a guest speaker.   Compare characters, events, and texts.	Lesson Extensions (choose one or two) Ask students to share orally, or explore through writing, experiences of being treated like a "little tree" by an older person. What happened? How did it make them feel? Conversely, ask students if they have ever behaved like the big tree. When? What happened? Invite an Elder or an older Aboriginal person to the classroom to share a growing up story. Ask students to compare the behaviour and actions of the young and older characters in The Big Tree and The Little Tree and How the Mouse Got Brown Teeth.
	Sample Lesson 14 (A Tsimshian Legend) Assessment and Evaluation Conference Observation Rating scale Resources The Loon's Necklace Community storyteller or Elder Materials such as scissors, glue, coloured tissue paper, heavier black and white paper, video camera, tripod, VCR and monitor Note: This lesson encompasses a project that may extend over several days and involve the class in various activities including creating text, exploration of illustrating techniques, and video production.
Listen attentively to a range of texts for pleasure and information. Access and build upon related prior knowledge and experience. Identify and set purpose for listening Identify the main ideas and important details. Recall details, summarize major events or ideas, share conclusions. Retell stories in own words.   Create original representations to demonstrate understanding. Make basic decisions about their method and materials (arts ed). Use all phases of a writing process. Organize ideas to make sense. Choose from a variety of forms for particular purposes and audiences. Explain own point of view. Use a variety of oral, print, and other media to enhance communication. Seek alternative ways of responding to assignments (CCT). Learn to co-operate and collaborate (PSVS).     Understand that forms displace space (arts ed). Begin to apply their knowledge of size relationships (arts ed). Understand that their visual images communicate non-verbally (arts ed). Identify personal accomplishments and set goals for improvement of own representing skills. Revise to accommodate new ideas and information.	Engaging Activities Prior to this lesson, invite an Elder or storyteller from the community to the classroom to tell the legend of The Loon's Necklace, or prepare to tell the story yourself. Print the title of the legend and the name of the originating Indian nation, Tsimshian, on the chalkboard. Ask students if they are familiar with the story or the Indian name. Invite students to share their ideas and knowledge. Introduce the guest storyteller, if one has come. Focus students' listening by explaining that later they can explore the story events in detail in preparation for making a video production of this legend. Tell the legend to students. Exploring Activities Review the story events. Retell the legend, if necessary, prior to constructing a collaborative story map. Have small groups of students review the story and practise retelling the legend so they visualize the events once more. Have each student choose one story event, scene, or visual image to illustrate. Suggest that students review various picture books (preferably by Aboriginal illustrators) and discuss different illustrative techniques before they illustrate their chosen scenes. Encourage individuals or groups to try new drawing, painting, or collage techniques. Have students create text to accompany their illustrations. This could be an individual or group writing activity. When the first drafts are completed, have students read the text in sequence. Does each group's sequence of scenes and events follow the story map? Groups can present their illustrations and text to one another to share responses and revision ideas. Discuss how illustrations support story text. Explain the process of filming still-frames and adding narration. View videos that employ this technique. Tape one group's illustrations in sequence and have members read the accompanying text. Review the product. What, if anything, would students change or do differently? Introduce The Loon's Necklace by William Toye. Read this version to students. Observe the illustrations. Explain the technique of silhouetting to students. Students may wish to explore this technique and make a video using silhouettes. Procedure: Create backgrounds by layering coloured tissue paper strips on sheets of white paper. Students can cut out silhouettes of the boy, his father, the woman, and the loon. (These may be modelled after the illustrations in Toye's book.) Have students glue the characters to the background sheets to depict story events. Mount these scenes in frames of black paper. The frame size should match the camera's visual scope. Paint the title of the legend, students' names, the school, and the date on black paper with white paint or marker. Film the title or first frame, then proceed to film each illustration as students read the text. At the story's conclusion, film the list of student credits - the participating students and the production crew. (Ideas and procedure adapted with the permission of Joanne Pelletier, Indian and Métis Curriculum Developer, Regina Public School Board.) Assess this project by using a co-operative group learning rating scale or conference guide to determine students' participation and group skills. As a class, view the video. Students may suggest changes and options for future productions. They may also wish to add appropriate background music.
Revise to accommodate new ideas and information. Write invitations.   Experiment with language and non-verbal elements.	Lesson Extensions (choose one or two) As a class, assess the production's strengths and discuss possible changes. Students may wish to re-do the video before sharing it with other audiences. Student-written invitations could be distributed to guest audiences for viewing the video. Students could write and illustrate, then record on video tape, their own version of pourquoi tales and legends.