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Aboriginal Curriculum Integration Project

English

(Writing and Representing)

Analyzing and Understanding Creation Stories

Teacher Note: Depending on the length of class time available, this lesson may take 3-4 sessions to complete.

Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the main ideas, events, or themes of a variety of novels, stories, poetry, other print material, and electronic media.

Students will locate and interpret details in stories, articles, novels, poetry, or non-print media to respond to a range of tasks.

Steps to the Lesson

  1. Discuss the significance of creation stories in various cultures.
  2. Listen/Read/View four different creation stories. (Please see Note below)
  3. Compare the characteristics of four creation stories using a Placemat activity.
  4. Create a Fishbone Diagram to sort and organize the characteristics of Creation Stories.
  5. Reflect on the process.

CONNECT

Goals:

Students will:

Tasks:

Students will create a Fishbone graphic organizer to demonstrate their understanding of creation stories.

Activate Prior Knowledge:

Creation stories are an important way of obtaining information regarding people's beliefs about how the world originated. However, obtaining the information is not always easy as the creators of the myths or legends did not always write in simple terms. The stories were often written in a way that encoded the information that one was seeking regarding the origin of a particular culture. Thus, creation stories are very common throughout most global societies and cultures.

Teachers conduct a class discussion and brainstorm on the board what creation stories the students are already familiar with (ie. Great Flood stories).

Predict and Question:

As mentioned, creation stories were very important in global cultures as they attempted to explain how the world was created. Some questions the teacher should ask the students to consider include:

PROCESS

Audio/Video

Students will now listen to and view three different creation stories; identifying and comparing their characteristics. Using a Graphic Organizer, students should consider the following elements of the stories while listening and viewing:

(Note: Students should use one Graphic Organizer per story. However, if students use small print, one sheet could be used for all three stories.)

Reminder: It is important to stop throughout the story and give students (A/B partners) opportunity to talk or respond to the story.

 

Cowichan Creation Story

Click on Player to Listen to Story
(Story Length: 6 minutes)
Click here to Read Transcript

 

Ktunaxa Creation Story

Click on Player to Listen to Story
(Story Length: 30 minutes)
Click here to Read Transcript

 

Sinixt Creation Story

Click above to view video in Mac OSX (Quicktime)
(Story Length: 7 minutes)

Sinixt Creation Story

acipthumbnail

Click above to view video in Windows (Media Player)
(Story Length: 7 minutes)

Click here to Read Transcript

Using their completed Graphic Organizers for reference, students move into groups of three or four and complete a Placemat Activity (click link to view the procedure of a Placemat Activity) to record their observations on the creation stories they have just listened to or viewed. Once students have recorded their observations on their placemat, student groups discuss and highlight what they feel are the most important ideas/elements they have discovered about creation stories and what make them unique. Students then write these key ideas/elements in the center of their placemat.

Once the Placemat Activity is complete, student groups then create a Fishbone Diagram (click link to view the procedure of a Fishbone Diagram ) to demonstrate their understanding of the key elements of creation stories; providing evidence from the specific creation stories. To view examples of Fishbone Diagrams, please view samples on the Instructional Intelligence website.

TRANSFORM

Students will now view an episode from the animated series Raven Tales (seen on APTN) called How Raven Stole the Sun.

raventales

Students create their own, individual Fishbone Diagram that identifies key elements of the Raven Tales episode and deciding whether the episode meets the criteria of a creation story.

Supporting evidence from the episode needs to be included with the identified key elements. Students can use another Graphic Organizer to track their thinking while viewing the episode.

(Note: The Raven Tales animated series is available at your School District Resource Centre and the episode How Raven Stole the Sun should be booked in advance of this lesson)

REFLECT

Students reflect on the creation stories they have seen/heard and, using the back of their Graphic Organizer sheets, consider the following questions:

Extend learning or next lesson

Using the Fishbone Organizers as a framework for building story structure, students write their own creation story and, when completed, share their written creations with the class.