Teaching suggestions: African and African American storytelling
These teaching suggestions present a variety of ways to work with an article about African and African American storytelling traditions in the context of American slavery. Suggested activities span a wide range of possibilities and offer opportunities for a variety of learning styles.
A lesson plan for grades 7–8 Social Studies
Learn more
- Brer Rabbit stories The American Folklore website offers several Brer Rabbit tales.
- Uncle Remus: Legends of the Old Plantation The first Uncle Remus volume, available online from the University of Virginia, with commentary by the editors.
- American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress includes cultural material from all states. The site includes resources for teachers.
- Gullah Net The Gullah Net website offers Gullah pronunciation, stories, and teacher resources.
Related pages
- African and African American storytelling: The advent of slavery led to changes in the tradition of African storytelling. Tales in Africa had once featured the lion, elephant, and hyena; African tales in America began to star the rabbit, fox, and bear. To the African in slavery, the Brer Rabbit tales became a source of identity.
- A forced migration: Reading lesson: In this lesson plan, students read an article about the slave trade in West Africa, which caused the kidnapping of millions of free West Africans by slave traders. The lesson plan includes reading strategies designed to prepare students for end-of-grade reading test.
- Africans before captivity: Graphic organizer: This activity provides a way for students to further their comprehension as they read an article about the regions of Africa from which most American slaves originated. Students will complete a graphic organizer and answer a series of questions.
Related topics
- Learn more about Africa, African Americans, Brer Rabbit, folklore, slavery, social studies, and storytelling.
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These teaching suggestions will help you discuss the article “African and African American Storytelling” with your class and will provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding of the reading. The activities will encourage students to think critically about the text and to develop historical empathy.
- A preview activity. Ask students to write a short example of their own oral tradition, giving them several minutes. Allow them to struggle with this concept if it is a new term for them. Ask the students for their definition of “oral tradition.” You may need to lead them to an understanding of this term. Ask a few students to share what they have written. Most students will relate a family story. Lead a short discussion about the importance of oral tradition in the lives of the students and their families. Ask how oral tradition might be important in other societies.
- Experiencing oral history. Have each student interview a family member about a childhood experience, memorable historical event, or holiday traditions. Or ask students to write about an experience from their own childhood. Then have them interview a parent or sibling about the same event. Have students consider the similarities and differences in the memories. Why might individuals remember events differently?
- After students have read the article, ask them to explain why slave parents might have told the story to their children. (Students should recognize that the parents would warn their children that they should not share what was discussed in their homes with others.)
- Have students read more of the Brer Rabbit stories (see sidebar for resources) and then explain what underlying messages each story may have contained during the antebellum period.
- Have students read an Anansi story from West Africa and change the story into a Brer Rabbit story. (Many of the Anansi stories are also available in short video clips from YouTube.)
- Allow students to act out either the story on the page or another of the Brer Rabbit stories (see sidebar for resources) or an Anansi story.
- Ask students, individually or in groups, to consider ways slaves may have resisted slavery in more passive ways than open rebellion (work slowdowns, breaking tools, feigning illness, etc.). Have them write their own Brer Rabbit folktale that would pass on this method to other slaves.
North Carolina curriculum alignment
Social Studies (2003)
Grade 8
- Goal 1: The learner will analyze important geographic, political, economic, and social aspects of life in the region prior to the Revolutionary Period.
- Objective 1.04: Evaluate the impact of the Columbian Exchange on the cultures of American Indians, Europeans, and Africans.
- Objective 1.05: Describe the factors that led to the founding and settlement of the American colonies including religious persecution, economic opportunity, adventure, and forced migration.
- Objective 1.07: Describe the roles and contributions of diverse groups, such as American Indians, African Americans, European immigrants, landed gentry, tradesmen, and small farmers to everyday life in colonial North Carolina, and compare them to the other colonies.
- North Carolina Essential Standards
- Social Studies (2010)
Grade 7
- 7.C.1 Understand how cultural values influence relationships between individuals, groups and political entities in modern societies and regions. 7.C.1.1 Explain how culture unites and divides modern societies and regions (e.g. enslavement of various peoples,...
Grade 8
- 8.C.1 Understand how different cultures influenced North Carolina and the United States. 8.C.1.1 Explain how exploration and colonization influenced Africa, Europe and the Americas (e.g. Columbian exchange, slavery and the decline of the American Indian populations)....
- Social Studies (2010)
