Family story with research

Using the book, When The Legends Die and a Native American story-telling unit, students gather a family story of their own.

A lesson plan for grades 11–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies

By Eric Broer

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Related pages

• Along the Trail of Tears: A part of history is often forgotten when teaching younger students. This is the relocation of the Cherokee Indians when the white settlers wanted their property. The US Government moved whole groups of Indians under harsh conditions. This trip became known as the Trail of Tears. Using this as a background students will explore and experiment with persuasive writing as they try to express the position of Cherokee leaders.
• North Carolina Cherokee Indians: The Trail of Tears: In this two week unit, students will study the Cherokee by participating in literature circles, learning about Native American story telling, writing a letter to Andrew Jackson to protest against the Creek War, and more.
• Museum of the Cherokee Indian: Official site of the museum of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina.

Related topics

• Learn more about American Indians, United States, history, language arts, oral histories, stories, and writing.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• understand the oral tradition of other cultures
• become more familiar with the history and culture of other societies
• record information relevant to a specific person/event
• communicate with an adult figure
• recognize necessary components of an oral story
• produce a written story by understanding the oral form

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

4 hours

Materials/resources

• Any one of several Native American story books. I have used:
  • American Indian Myths and Legends edited by Erdoes and Ortiz
  • Voices of the Winds editor Margot Edmonds
• Examples of how to use citation (how to create a works cited page, how to write creative dialogue, etc.)

Pre-activities

• I read to the class many examples of Native Stories from any of several excellent books, or from the Internet.
• I also discussed the idea of The Odyssey being told first, and then being written. We talked about how the wording changes, story changes, and ownership of story.
• For the research component, the class and I dealt with the standards: reliability and relevance of sources. I also showed examples of how to use quotations for support.

Activities

1. Go home and collect a story from someone at least 30 years older than you. The story you are told must have taken place before 1970. Copy down/record the character, action, setting, plot, and details of the story. Make sure the story reflects the ideas and behavior of the times. (Remember, stories are a product of a specific culture--time and place and morals. Your story needs to reflect this as well.) Think who, what, where, when, why and how.
2. Come to class with notes of your story. Rewrite story as accurately as possible. The story should be written in first person point of view. This means that the teller of the story is the main character. Write the story so the person who is telling you the story is the one who narrates it. Include details, dialogue, language, diction, setting, characters, themes, symbols, etc.
3. Add discussion at the end of the story about the story itself. This is separate and should be told from your perspective. Here are some questions to trigger your thinking. What does this story teach you about the culture which produced it? Give information about the teller which could enhance the story. What is interesting about the story? Why does the teller remember the story?
4. Go to the library. You will need to select one person or event from the same period as the story.
   • Day One: General research about the period. You are looking for one person/event from that time to write a one page research paper about.
   • Day Two: Take notes concerning your event/person. See if you can find something which is relevant to your story. Taking your notes, organize them into an interesting research paper. Include citations and a works cited page.

NOTE: Throughout this four week unit, I was constantly discussing with students the ideas of story telling and the qualities of good stories. For the more practical side of the lesson, I used an overhead with examples of how to write dialogue, how to use citations and the like.

Assessment

Here is the rubric I used for the Story portion. Having stressed in class dialogue, and “show, don’t tell”, these are part of the rubric. I also spent much time and examples dealing with setting and its importance to the characters.

• Story Component
• First Person Narrator: developed and identified 10 points
• Setting: Time and place are recognized 15 points
• Plot: Realistic, reaches a climax, movement, interesting entertaining 20 points
• Dialogue: Interesting, realistic, used to show 10 points

Details SHOW the story. Not telling story 15 points

• Notes, prewriting 15 points
• Grammar, diction, punctuation 15 points
• Research Component
• Event/person explained 20 points
• Use of quotations is done correctly 10 pointsWorks Cited page with at least three sources 10 points
• Grammar, diction, punctuation 10 points

Supplemental information

Comments

To Teachers:
There is some prep work involved in this activity. I spent many days discussing and showing examples of dialogue, citation, and organization of story. However, the students seemed to really enjoy speaking with an adult about a story from the adult’s childhood. (This, of course, was one of my objectives.) The students found it challenging to take an oral story, and the notes taken, and rewrite it into a non-verbal story.

The results varied. The brighter students did exceedingly well. The less capable students struggled with the concept. However, most everyone turned in a story that was interesting, colorful and fun. I was pleased.

While it is not needed, I have used the Prentice Hall Writer’s Solution software which accompanies their series of English text books. This software helps the students to organize and think through the idea of story telling. It helped as well with prewriting and final drafting.