WISDOM OF THE ELDERS RADIO: SERIES 3, PROGRAM 5
HONORING THE UMATILLA NATIONS
Lesson plan written by Esther Stutzman.
SUBJECT AREAS
Listening Interpretation
Speaking Analysis
Writing Literature (oral and written)
SKILLS
Communication Writing
Oral skills Language arts
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students who complete the lessons will:
- Understand several forms of oral literature
- Understand importance of storytelling
- Be able to tell a story
- Critique a story
INTRODUCTION
Overview
This lesson plan is comprised of five lessons which include activities to enhance the standards and common curriculum goals of literature, writing, speaking, listening and reading.
Lesson 1: Introducing Stories
Lesson 2: Using Experiences to Shape Stories
Lesson 3: How Stories are Remembered
Lesson 4: Contemporary Stories
Lesson 5: Telling Your Own Stories
GUIDING QUESTIONS
- Why are stories told?
- How are stories preserved?
- What constitutes a contemporary story?
- How can we tell our family stories?
PREPARING TO TEACH THIS LESSON
- At least a week prior to the study of the unit, have the students check out library books that contain traditional stories. The stories need not be from the Umatilla area. Reading the stories will give the students a feel for a variety of oral literature types.
SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
Lesson 1: Introducing Stories
Standards
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
- EL.CM.RE.02—Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and narrative text.
- EL.CM.SL.05—Analyze the occasion and the interests of the audience, and choose effective verbal techniques and language.
- EL.CM.WR.02—Discuss ideas for writing with classmates, teachers, and other writers, and develop drafts alone and collaboratively.
- EL.CM.WR.04—Choose the form of writing that best suits the intended purpose.
- EL.CM.WR.21—Write biographical or autobiographical narratives or short stories.
CD Segments to Play
For this lesson, go to Elder Wisdom.
Background
American Indian people have told traditional stories for thousands of years. Many stories are about Creation or tell of how certain landmarks came to be. Other stories are of the animals and how they helped (or sometimes hindered) people’s lives. These oral traditions are often teaching tools that storytellers used to reinforce customs, tradition and behavior. Many stories contain a moral lesson that the elders require to be repeated frequently.
Many stories contain close connections to philosophy or “religion” that is ingrained into the lives of traditional Native people.
But storytelling isn’t always a tale of long ago in a time when the world looked different. Many storytellers tell stories of their lives or their family’s adventures. Personal recollections often reinforce a family’s history and serve as a tool to remember a chain of events that happened to a certain person or group of people. These stories are also classified as oral literature to serve as remembrances of past generations.
Suggested Strategies
Activities
1. Listen
Listen to Wisdom of the Elders Radio Series 3, Program 5, Track 4. This track is a reminiscence of Kathleen Gordon, a Umatilla elder. Listen carefully to the portion of the story in which Kathleen Gordon talks of her birth.
2. Storytelling
Ask the class to tell family stories of their birth. It will not be unusual that each student has a certain story to tell that has been told to them by someone in the family. Discuss how these stories might be an important part of each person’s identity and how these stories have been passed on to other relatives or friends. This activity demonstrates a personal side of stories and how those stories can become a part of family history. These stories, if humorous, adventuresome, or serious, may be repeated and told for generations.
3. Share
Ask the class to be thinking about a family story to write and to share during the next lesson. This will allow time for students to ask their families to refresh their memory about a certain story.
Lesson 2: Using Experiences to Shape Stories
Standards
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
- EL.CM.RE.02—Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and narrative text.
- EL.CM.RE.35—Extend ideas presented in primary or secondary sources through original analysis, evaluation, and elaboration.
- EL.CM.SL.10—Formulate judgments about ideas under discussion, and support those judgments with convincing evidence.
- EL.CM.WR.21—Write biographical or autobiographical narratives or short stories.
CD Segments to Play
Background
Traditional stories are often based on values that have been established within tribes and families. Often these stories and values are applied to an “adventure” involving an animal figure or human-animal interaction. In this way, stories are shaped to share the guidelines of how people should behave.
But many stories come from a personal experience, either the storyteller’s own or that of an observation of other events. Based on this an event becomes a story that is retold because of its interest, excitement or humor. We can all recall “Grandpa’s fishing adventure” because as children we may have heard it over and over. This, then, becomes a family story that is shared through generations.
Within Indian communities, stories are fashioned in the same way. Often, stories are told based on a certain person’s life that is used as a good example for children and future generations.
Suggested Strategies
Activities
1. Discuss
Kathleen Gordon, a Umatilla elder remembers:
“In our old days, they would always try to teach us to always have a good heart, to always treat people in a good way and to always feed people when they came to your presence. You offer them food or you offer them drink. You offer them whatever you have, even if it’s your last piece of bread, you share it with them. And so we were taught to share and care for others.”
- How could this simple statement become a “story?”
- How would this story be told?
- Who would the story be told to?
- How would the story “change” to make it relevant to children, older youth and elders?
2. Writing exercise
Ask each student to write a few paragraphs about a story that they have heard from their family. In the conclusion of the writing, each student should write why the story is important to the family. Have several of the students read their stories to the class.
3. Reflect
Ask the students to be thinking about an event that happened to them. Encourage them to use a story that teaches a lesson or teaches them something that is useful to them (for example, “How I lost my dog or cat” or “The day I got a speeding ticket”). The story should not be just a statement of fact, but rather a narrative, with events leading up to the finale and, of course, a conclusion. These stories will be told in front of the class during Lesson 5.
Lesson 3: How Stories are Remembered
Standards
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
- EL.CM.RE.02—Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and narrative text.
- EL.CM.SL.05—Analyze the occasion and the interests of the audience, and choose effective verbal techniques and language.
CD Segments to Play
Background
We are all storytellers, but some have the exceptional gift to engage and entrance the audience. Traditional Indian storytellers practice their art by repetition, with many stories requiring exact words be used in the same sequence. For many tribes, it is believed that the sequence of words and phrases give the story “power.”
Many storytellers work with an “apprentice” who will learn the stories and are shown the proper way to have presence before an audience. The storyteller guides the apprentice for as long as is necessary.
ASK THE UMATILLA REVIEW GROUP IF THERE ARE SPECIFIC GUIDELINES FOR TELLING UMATILLA STORIES.
Suggested Strategies
Activities
1. Play a game
The following exercise is a good example of how much concentration it takes to remember the sequence of events in a story.
- Line up at least ten students in the front of the room.
- Select one person to start the game by saying “This is my story” and at the same time, clapping hands once.
- The second person says the same thing, clapping hands once and then adding another motion such as crossing their arms.
- The next person says the same thing and repeats the two previous motions—clapping, crossing the arms—and then adds another simple motion.
- See how far the students progress before someone forgets all the previous motions.
- If the ten students remember everything, add four or five more to see if everyone remembers.
This illustrates the repetition and concentration required to make a good storyteller.
2. Remembering
ASK THE UMATILLA REVIEW GROUP TO RECOMMEND A TRADITIONAL STORY THAT MAY BE USED.
ACTIVITY #2 (SEQUENCING AND REMEMBERING) WILL BE BASED UPON THAT STORY
Lesson 4: Contemporary Stories
Standards
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
- EL.CM.RE.02—Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and narrative text.
- EL.CM.RE.04—Demonstrate listening comprehension of more complex text through class and/or small group interpretive discussions across the subject areas.
- EL.CM.WR.21—Write biographical or autobiographical narratives or short stories.
CD Segments to Play
For this lesson, go to Tribal Rhythms.
Background
Contemporary stories eventually become “historic” stories. Events that have happened at a certain time in history are often retold for generations to become a standard story of a culture. For example, stories of the Revolutionary War (Paul Revere) or Civil War (the battle of Gettysburg) have all become stories told in literature or history books.
Stories of the battles during the era of the Indian Wars have also become narratives of the time. For many years, the only story of “Custer’s Last Stand” was from the viewpoint of the soldiers. Now, we have the reminiscences of the tribal warriors and other Indian witnesses to the event that shed a new light on the events.
And so, family stories do become historic stories with the passing of time. We can all remember stories we heard about how our ancestors farmed a certain piece of land or traveled from one state to the other during the Depression.
These contemporary stories are told and retold to reflect important events in a family’s life. The same holds true of Indian stories. And those stories may not just be adventures, but stories of how some things came to be, such as music and dance…and most tribal stories teach a lesson or moral.
Suggested Strategies
Activities
1. Listen
Listen to Wisdom of the Elders Radio Series 3, Program 5, Track 8. Pay special attention to the portion of the track in which Fred Hill talks about the War Dance.
“We used to go to war with other tribes around here; that they were always tormenting our people. There are some areas here, where the stories go, where they would really fight and kill them all off except one and they would send that one back.
“You tell your people this is what is going to happen if you keep doing this; keep coming here trying to steal our women and our children.
“But as time went on and the fighting ceased, when the railroad came through, that these people wanted to come back and have a truce. And as they did come back they also shared their dancing and singing. And so from just a little bit I learned the Shoshone people are the ones that showed us the dance. The wars have ceased, the tribal wars, but yet the war still remains in the dance arena.”
2. Discuss
Discuss how this bit of history might be important to the people of the Umatilla.
- What is the lesson in this story?
- Why is this story worth repeating?
3. Writing exercise
Have the class write a few paragraphs about an event they have heard about (not experienced) and how that event taught them a lesson or cautioned them about something. At the end of the essay, students should answer these questions:
- Why was this event important to you?
- Would you tell this story to others? Why?
Lesson 5: Telling Your Own Stories
Standards
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
- EL.CM.RE.02—Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and narrative text.
- EL.CM.RE.04—Demonstrate listening comprehension of more complex text through class and/or small group interpretive discussions across the subject areas.
- EL.CM.SL.05—Analyze the occasion and the interests of the audience, and choose effective verbal techniques and language.
- EL.CM.WR.21—Write biographical or autobiographical narratives or short stories.
- EL.CM.WR.02—Discuss ideas for writing with classmates, teachers, and other writers, and develop drafts alone and collaboratively.
CD Segments to Play
Background
To be a storyteller, a person has to do just that: tell a story.
But a storyteller who engages an audience works with many techniques to keep the audience interested. Many tellers have distinctive voices or gestures; others use sounds or alter their voices to emphasize characters or events.
It is important that storytellers use movement so that the audience’s attention will be drawn to one place.
In the following activity, encourage the students to use some of these methods when they tell their story. Also, encourage each student to attempt to memorize what they will be telling.
Suggested Strategies
Activities
1. Share
Before this activity students might play the memorizing game described in Lesson 3.
Allow enough time for each student to tell their story to the class. This activity might take place over several days.
Before the students begin, remind them of how stories are told and how gestures, inflection and countenance are important to telling an engaging story.
2. Discuss
- Was there a lesson in the story?
- Did it teach YOU a lesson?
- Will you tell the story to others? Why?
- Will you tell the stories when you become a parent?
EXTENDING THE LESSON/REFERENCES
1. Any and all parts of the storytelling/arts lessons can be used in other class activities such as reading, writing, oral literature, drama.
2. Books containing stories of American Indians are useful in understanding many aspects of the culture: how lessons are learned, how history is passed down, etc.
3. During regular reading periods, choose a book that contains Indian stories and reference previous learning about storytelling.
4. In writing segments, consider repeating the exercise of students collecting a family story.
