2.1 Read: The Power of Oral Traditions
| Site: | Cowichan Valley School District - Moodle |
| Course: | ELA8, CSS, Sferrazza |
| Book: | 2.1 Read: The Power of Oral Traditions |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Thursday, 16 May 2024, 7:38 PM |
Preview
Get ready to learn by thinking about this:
Oral traditions are “the means by which knowledge is reproduced, preserved and conveyed from generation to generation. Oral traditions form the foundation of Aboriginal societies, connecting speaker and listener in communal experience and uniting past and present in memory." (Hanson 2009)
Why are oral traditions so important to First Nations and what skills are needed for effective oral communication?
Overview of Lessons:
1. Read and listen to a variety of resources that give answers to the above question.
2. Complete the activities in the learning guide and submit.
3. Complete a reading project.
4. In the writer's workshop, you will go through the writing project to create an oral speech.
 |
Learning Targets By the end of this lesson, you should be able to: 1. Describe good storytelling techniques. 2. Understand the role of oral tradition in different cultures. 3. Describe the difference between oral and written storytelling. |
2.1: Article First Nations Storytelling
Read this article from First Nations Pedagogy Online and complete the learning guide 2.1 activity.
2.2 Story (Video) Cree Creation Story
Listen to this Cree Creation Story told by Norm Wesley, a member of Moose Cree First Nation. While listening complete entry 2.2 in your learning guide.
Note: Part of becoming able to communicate effectively is to be a good listener. This means showing respect by being quiet, making eye contact and showing appreciation when the orator is finished. This also means focusing on your speaker without other distractions. Keep this in mind as you watch the video. Although you aren't face to face with an actual person, you can practice being a good listener. Review the storytelling skills on the next page.
Storytelling Skills
2.3 Oral Telling: Flight of the Hummingbird
Listen carefully to the parable, " Flight of the Hummingbird" and answer the questions below in your learning guide - Assignment 2.3 Oral Telling: Flight of the Hummingbird.
This story is making a comment about activism (bringing about some kind of change, whether it be social, environmental, or political). In a few sentences, describe in your own words what this story is teaching. Also write about how you might become like the little hummingbird in your own world. What is one small thing you could do to bring about change?
2.4 Video: It Matters
Telling a story out loud is a powerful way to heal and reach others to create empathy.
Watch this video from the Sikh Organization of Canada talk about the Legacy of Residential School. While watching, complete the exercise in your learning guide for 2.4
2.5 Earth Story
Read this story by an aboriginal student-contest winner. See if you notice several deliberate ways the story is organized. Then read the artist's statement below the story.
After that answer the questions in your learning guide for Assignment 2.5 - Earth Story.
Earth Story
My ancestors' stories are written
In the Air that fills us, frosty breath of the
Buffalo in winter. Cold, lung-burning,
Hot and heavy, blowing waves across the
Prairies, drawing the pregnant clouds
Slowly, heavily, wetly across the sky.
My ancestors' stories are in the Air.
My parents' stories are written in the Water. Cool
Spring droplets on brown skin, diving from the clouds above,
Hurtling towards the muddy rivers below, still frosty. Small streams
Race down the sides of tipis, skins stretching into the sky and reaching
Tentatively towards the ground, anchored, solid. Crushed-berry paints
Trace fish, buffalo, deer, caribou, beaver, goose, bear on
The tense canvas, dried and from the Earth.
My stories are written in the grooves of bark. My family tree is the Oak which sprawls,
Every leaf a new chapter, every bud a new character, every Summer a new generation.
My stories are written in the Earth, upheaval of dirt beneath roots, the smooth-polished
Stones of rivers and streams. The valleys and canyons carved between mountains
Describe the plot of my destiny, every twist, every turn a new challenge with rock.
The Earth I trod on carries my footprints, the letters printed on the novel of the Earth,
A typewriter of my own, a breathing interpretation.
Les Français écrivent sur des morceaux d'arbres morts. They arrived: they, who write on dead tree, paper, bound and restricted in covers of leather. The pages lay stabbed by sharp quills, bleeding ink onto the sheets suffocated against each other. Words lie limp, lifeless, hanging. clinging to the yellow paper for dear life. No life. This is not adventure, this is not legend, this is not culture. This is history, cold fact. The characters are not people, they are inscriptions, emotionless words. My ancestors' stories are in the Air, dancing on our tongues, swaying in the breeze with the leaves, struggling against the current with the salmon.
http://www.our-story.ca/winners/writing/5093:earth-story#story