Making connections to myth and folktale: The many ways to “Rainy Mountain”
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=281
A lesson plan for grades 9–10 English Language Arts
Students explore the three-voice narrative in this lesson that focuses on N. Scott Momaday’s structure in The Way to Rainy Mountain. After reading the novel, the class discusses the themes and symbolism and then reviews the characteristics of folklore and mythology. The teacher then explains the word “triadic&rdquo,; using modern references for connections. After the class explores Momaday’s technique of using three voices to tell the story, students are challenged to write their own three-voice narrative. The teacher engages students in a brainstorming activity to list themes from the book they would like to focus their narrative on. Then, after reviewing the characteristics of mythology and folktale, students re-write popular myths in their own words. After students interview an elder in their family or community and share the responses with the class, they compose a personal response to the story told by the elder and the myth they re-wrote. When students have reviewed their work using a Venn diagram, they compose their three-voice narrative. After working in pairs to revise and edit their work, students print their narrative to be included in a class anthology. Readwritethink provides links to guidelines for the three-voice writing assignment, sample narratives, a rubric for evaluation, questions for reflection, and several other helpful web resources.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 9
- Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text and personal experiences.
- Objective 1.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print expressive texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
- selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
- identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
- providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
- demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
- summarizing key events and/or points from text.
- making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
- identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
- making connections between works, self and related topics.
- analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
- analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
- identifying and analyzing elements of expressive environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
- Objective 1.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print expressive texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
- Goal 5: The learner will demonstrate understanding of various literary genres, concepts, elements, and terms.
- Objective 5.01: Read and analyze various literary works by:
- using effective reading strategies for preparation, engagement, reflection.
- recognizing and analyzing the characteristics of literary genres, including fiction (e.g., myths, legends, short stories, novels), non-fiction (e.g., essays, biographies, autobiographies, historical documents), poetry (e.g., epics, sonnets, lyric poetry, ballads) and drama (e.g., tragedy, comedy).
- interpreting literary devices such as allusion, symbolism, figurative language, flashback, dramatic irony, dialogue, diction, and imagery.
- understanding the importance of tone, mood, diction, and style.
- explaining and interpreting archetypal characters, themes, settings.
- explaining how point of view is developed and its effect on literary texts.
- determining a character's traits from his/her actions, speech, appearance, or what others say about him or her.
- explaining how the writer creates character, setting, motif, theme, and other elements.
- making thematic connections among literary texts and media and contemporary issues.
- understanding the importance of cultural and historical impact on literary texts.
- producing creative responses that follow the conventions of a specific genre and using appropriate literary devices for that genre.
- Objective 5.01: Read and analyze various literary works by:
Grade 10
- Goal 1: The learner will react to and reflect upon print and non-print text and personal experiences by examining situations from both subjective and objective perspectives.
- Objective 1.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print expressive texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
- selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
- identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
- providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
- demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
- summarizing key events and/or points from text.
- making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
- identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
- making connections between works, self and related topics.
- analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
- analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
- identifying and analyzing elements of expressive environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.
- Objective 1.03: Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print expressive texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:
