Course: American Literature Unit 1: Origins & Encounters Part 1: Native American Traditions

The World on the Turtle’s Back Objectives: 1. Examine the human need for an explanation of creation 2. Compare this Native American story to the Biblical story of creation & find common elements 3. Recognize the oral tradition & how it fits into the literature anthology 4. Consider the Native Amer. ideal of harmony with nature

The World on the Turtle’s Back Activities: Brainstorm 10 major common myths to find the human need or motivation behind them (List & briefly discuss, using Note 1 for projection(see Note 1, BRAINSTORM) Read pp. 25-30, using audio CDs Discuss the worth of literature handed down by oral tradition How does the story show the people’s desire to have harmony with nature? Powerpoint on the 5 vocab. cartoons

The World on the Turtle’s Back Assessment: 1. Find & explain 5 ways this story compares to the story of Adam & Eve, using Photo Story 3 2. Create your own creation myth by making a simple pictograph that will include an oral explanation of the following 6 concepts: a. birth b. mother & father c. supreme being d. above & below e. humans & animals f. sin & innocence Note: Use Ink Art to do #2 3. Do Voc. In Action on p. 32, Ex. A only

Items to Consider 1. How will you get the content into your Tablet so you can use the power of digital ink and other Tablet tools? The teacher will be using the tablet to project students’ brainstorming ideas Also, the vocab. words will be introduced as cartoons on a powerpoint

Items to Consider 2. How will the students receive their portion of the assignment? Their assignment will be in their “assignments” file in the ifolder. It will also be projected onto the whiteboard

Items to Consider 3. What will the students be doing during the lesson presentation? (Student Engagement) They will be brainstorming, listening as the story is read, discussing, & viewing a powerpoint. After the lesson is presented, the students will have an opportunity to use their laptops to create an original piece that they will later use to practice their presentation skills.

Items to Consider 4. How will the student portion be submitted to you for evaluation? The students will submit their work into the ifolder under “turnin,” where the teacher will grade it electronically.

Items to Consider 5. How will you use the TabletPC to evaluate the student work? I will be inking comments, questions, and suggestions on their electronic submissions.

Items to Consider 6. What will be the strategy to return completed assignment to your student? I will place the graded assignment back in the ifolder under “reviewed” where the students can review it electronically.

Items to Consider 7. Will there be time when the lids will be down on the student computers? Yes, the students will not have their laptops open until after the story is read. Possible discussion may take place anonymously using the appropriate program. After the lesson has been presented, they will use the laptops to do their entire assignment.

Items to Consider 8. Describe what challenges you see you may have in managing your classroom and what your thoughts would be for handling those. Having the students view & create content with audio could be a challenge unless headphones are used. With certain creative projects, students might have to be steered back on task occasionally.

Items to Consider 9. How repeatable is this lesson strategy for lessons you will be teaching? Exchanging assignments through the ifolder will be common daily practice. Powerpoint vocab. presentation will also be used frequently. The Ink Art & Photo Story 3 assessments will not be used very often but could easily be adapted to other assignments.

Items to Consider 10. Other considerations? Without an actual stack of papers in front of me, I really have to get in the habit of keeping on top of the assignments in the ifolder so that I don’t forget to correct them.

By Stacy Kingsbury Language Arts Spearfish High School