Unit One: Origin Myths and Oral Tradition

Opening:

Please spend a moment or two reviewing the following Georgia Performance Standards and essential questions.  The unit you are about to begin will be centered around these items:

ELAALRL1.1.e: The student analyzes the influence of mythic, traditional, or classical literature on American literature.

ELAALRL1.1.f: The student traces the history of the development of American fiction.

ELAALRL1.3.c: The student traces the historical development of poetic styles and forms in American literature.


Essential Questions:

1. How can we use oral stories from ancient cultures to discover what was important to them?
2. What oral traditions do we use, and what does it reflect about our culture?

Key Terms:

Oral Tradition
Creation Myths

On your blog:

1. After reviewing the standards, key terms, and essential questions, take a moment to write a short paragraph (3-4 sentences) explaining what you think this unit will cover.  You may also choose to provide some answers to the essential questions or rewrite some of the standards in your own words.

Mini-Lesson:

Many people would like to believe North America was an empty place with no people or cultures when the Europeans started arriving in the "New World", but this is not so.  Native Americans were living in very diverse societies and had very developed cultures before the explorers arrived.

When studying the folktales and myths of the Native Americans, it is important to remember that most of these cultures did not have a written language, so every bit of their culture had to be delivered orally.

Oral Tradition: The act of delivering important cultural information (myths, customs, history, etc.) by word of mouth.

One of the most common folktales we see in many cultures is the creation myth.  Creation myths are the type of  tale that explains something that cannot be completely understood.  In this case, they explain how the world was created.  Do we use any creation myths in our culture?  Do we use other myths to explain things that may not be understood (think about Santa Claus, or telling a child where babies come from).

Creation Myth: A folktale that explains how the world was created.  These vary from culture to culture, and can be a good way to understand what they felt was important.

Work Period:

On your blog:

2.Since we are starting at the beginning of American literature, we should start at a time before where we live was called America. Use your favorite search engine to find an example of Native American Literature (a poem, short folktale, or a prayer will work best). Read a few before you choose one. You need to be familiar with the example you choose because you will need to answer some questions about it. Copy and paste the example into your blog post.

3. What do you think of your example? What is it about? Write a 2-3 sentence response to what you chose.

4. Read the following creation myth and then post responses to my questions on your blog.  Your response should be at least one short paragraph.

The Earth on the Turtle's Back

We can use the myths a culture tells to discover what was important to them.  Can you tell what was important to the Onandaga people (the culture who told this story)?  How can you tell?  Paste a line from the story that proves what you say.

5. Choose one myth from this site to read and then respond to my questions on your blog.  Your response should be at least two short paragraphs.

http://www.crystalinks.com/nativeamcreation.html

Briefly summarize the myth you read and identify the culture from which it came (one paragraph).
What was important to the culture who created the tale you chose?  Provide evidence from the story to support what you claim.  Do you see any similarities between the myths you have read in this unit?  Are there any similarities to our culture? (another paragraph)

Closing:
Review the Georgia Performance Standards above.  It may also help to review your interpretation of them you created in the opening.

Review your work, and explain how you have addressed these standards.  If you find that your work does not address these standards, you may need to make improvements.  Have you grasped an understanding of the key vocabulary?  Have you formulated answers to the essential questions.

Please make specific references to your work when answering these closing questions.  For instance, you should tell me exactly where in your posts I would find these things.

Self evaluate your work, and when you feel as though you have completed this work, leave me a comment on this post so I know it is time to view your work.