LEARN NC

3.2 Why the opossum's tail is bare

Here, the ancient Cherokee legend “Why the opossum’s tail is bare” is adapted for radio.

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Listen to “Why the Opossum’s Tail is Bare.” Recording by Native Voice One. Used by permission.
Download recording (Right-click or option-click)

Using the story in the classroom

This recording features the Cherokee tale produced for Native Radio Theater by Kevin Norris, Shawn Crowe, and the Cherokee High School Theatre Arts Class. There are a number of ways this recording could be used in the classroom:

A written form of the story as told by Freeman Owle is available in Living Stories of the Cherokee, ed. Barbara R. Duncan (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Pp. 212--215.) and a version from James Mooney’s Myths of the Cherokee is available in print and online.

  • This recording could be made available for young students in a listening station during centers or free time. To enhance the activity, the teacher could provide puppets or images of the animals featured in the story, or non-fiction books about those animals and their habitats.
  • Older students could use this recording as the basis for creating their own radio theatre performance of other traditional tales which could be recorded and made available for students in earlier grades.
  • Students could use this story as the basis for writing their own tale about why something that they have observed in the natural world is the way that it is. Combined with nature study and research on a particular animal, this kind of activity could incorporate science and language arts in valuable ways.