Kate Carey Abenaki Grade 3 Narrative

Teacher Kate Carey Class 3 Date 7/30/09 Writing genre narrative

CENTRAL IDEAS:

Content: Woodland Native Americans teach their children how to survive in the wilderness and to respect themselves, their heritage, and their environment using stories, rituals, play, and example.

Reading: Students will read Native American Stories, magazine articles, chapter books, and passages from non resource books to become informed about the Native American’s culture and daily life.

Writing: To show an understanding of rhetorical effectiveness and knowledge of the Woodland Native American culture, students’ final project will be a narrative centered around a problem experienced by a Native American child learning to live within the his tribe.

Focusing Question:

What do you know about Native American culture and individual tribe members’ responsibilities after reading these stories, articles, and books?

Focus (answer):

Native Americans believe in a spiritual world where one’s behavior is rewarded or punished. If respect and generosity are not shown to all living things on Earth then disease and poor hunting and poor harvest will prevail. Each member of the tribe has a definite role. Men hunt, protect, fish and build tools and weapons. Women cook, care for the young, gather, plant, tan skins, sew, make baskets, repair clothing, and tend the fires and the home. Young children stay with the women and aging members of the tribe all day watching, listening and playing with each other and older members of the tribe. Adults make them miniature tools and weapons to help them learn about their important uses through play. Children are seldom told, “No.” They learn from their mistakes. They observe adults and older children doing their daily tasks. They are allowed to participate in most activities when they are comfortable doing so. Children also gather wood, sing songs, listen to stories, and scare the birds away from the Three Sisters planting grounds. As the youngsters get older and prove themselves capable, they accompany the adults while they work. Without co-operation, respect, and hard work the Woodland Native Americans Tribes would not survive.

Building Content Knowledge, Understanding of Writer’s Craft

Pictures, videos, web sites, Smart board presentations, and illustrations will be examined. Children will be asked what they know to be true about these peoples by examining these closely. Public Notes, drawings, and charts will record the facts and observations discovered by the students within the pictures.
Guided reading, guided conversations, oral processing, questioning, and summarizing of multiple text and articles will take place. After readings public notes will be created by the class and by small groups to record information learned about daily Native American life and Woodland Culture
Children will create murals or dioramas using the information gathered on the charts and public notes to illustrate a typical day in a typical Woodland Native American Village.
Students will pantomime one Native American’s responsibility, custom, or daily activity. Classmates will guess what daily activity is being dramatized.
Children with the teacher will choose and record important NA facts in their Social Studies Notebook.
Students, with teacher’s guidance, will develop a list of topic sentences for “hamburger paragraphs.” Together they will list topic sentences which could be used and also find supporting details on the public notes. The topic sentences and the possible details will be color coded to identify supporting evidence for the paragraph.

Structure

Use a Graphic organizers of a hamburger paragraph to remind third graders to write using a topic sentence/ controlling idea, details to prove focus, and conclusion/ “Aha comment
Introduce a graphic organizer for Character Description – (Worksheet 2 Exemplar from kursman@adelphia.net)
Fill out a sensory description worksheet of one Native American character. On this worksheet list what the character saw, heard, smelled, tasted, felt, said, and thought.
Review and display a poster with the elements of a narrative. (characters, setting, character motivation, problem/conflict, and resolution.)
Support organizing ideas with a planning sheet acquired from K. Kursman labeled “An Icon At A Time” Writing Narratives In Steps”
Organize narrative using a graphic organizer called “Planning Your Narrative.”
Prepare to write the narrative in chunks using the individual graphic organizer for each section.
Motivate students to think about “leads or hooks. “ Read, question, and share emotions acquired from published literature opening sentences.

Writing/Revising

During Writing Workshop students will write different types of leads with the teacher and independently. The leads will be shared. Students will make supporting comments and offer suggestions.
Selected hamburger paragraphs will be placed on the Smart Board to stimulate conversation and understanding about content and writer’s craft.
Character descriptions and story maps will be shared. Students will help each other expand their ideas and Native American understandings
Students will be encouraged to offer and discuss ideas to improve their written work and the description of the Native American events being presented.
All narratives will be written in chunks. Each chunk will be read to the teacher and the class. Revisions for clarity, organization, elaboration, voice, and GUM will be addressed during this sharing time. Each chunk will be put into final copy form prior to moving on to next chunk.
Mini lesson will be prepared and presented to the class, small groups, and individuals by the teacher as “needs” become clear.

Lesson Sequence

1. Students will be asked to draw a Native American person. This will be put away until the end of this study when the students will again draw a Native American person. At this time, a comparison will be made between the first and second drawings.

2. Together the class will compose a list of facts they know about Woodland Native Americans and questions they might have about these people’s daily life and customs.

3. Examine a bulletin board displaying these people’s homes, food, shelters, tools, weapons, and ceremonies.

4. Start forming a variety of Public Notes. Teacher and students discuss the best way to organize new Native American facts and decide what title or focus each public note should have.

5. Watch video about showing Northeast native Americans life

6. Northeast Native Americans – discuss content of video and place information learned on appropriate public note.

7. Review information learned from the video yesterday and watch Pixie Slide show about the natural resources used by the NA. Using a “Talking Stick” students discuss which natural resources were used, how difficult it is the acquire them, and what is done with each to help the NA tribe survive. One pupil makes a comment and passes the stick to another person. The students add these new facts to the Public Notes in the appropriate categories.

8. Listen to the play “Moose Meets His Match.” Have multiple readings so a variety of student volunteers may have a part. A discussion will be had to discuss the message of the play which is both strong and weak characters must co-operate in order to survive.

9. Make stick puppets of the main characters. Perform the play for the k/1 class.

10.Using articles from the Cobblestone Magazine’s Indians of the Northeast read articles together, with partners, and small groups. These articles will give needed information about building Longhouses/wigwams, cultivating the Three Sisters, Wampum, and NA games. The class will break into groups. Each group will make a presentation to their class describing the information within their assigned article. They will have with visual aids and vocabulary lists to accompany this presentation.

11. Children will add more facts to their public notes.

12, Introduce children to the basic of NA sign language. Share different messages with each other. Organize in groups of three and tell a short story to the class about a NA daily life.

13. Read the NA story “Coyote and the Stars” by Tsonakwato to the class. Discuss the author’s purpose and determine why this story is told to NA children. Place new information about NA beliefs on the Public Note Posters

14. Do the same with selected stories about Gluscabi from Joseph Bruchac’s book The Keepers of the Earth.

15. After completing the hamburger paragraph lesson as described in “Writing and Revising” have the students write one. Follow this, with a sharing time where new NA knowledge will be reinforced and students will revise their writing with partner and teacher assistance.

16. Have students go to the Public Notes and point out which ones were used the most. Examine the unused facts. Review those by asking children questions to enhance their understandings. Suggest that students try to use these unused facts in their next paragraph. Have students write many paragraphs throughout this study following the above procedure so they will have lots of practice writing and reviewing NA facts.

17. Read aloud excerpts from Colin Calloway’s The Abenaki. Review information gained by listening about survival of these people and their culture. Add the facts to the Public notes.

18. Break children into partners and give them articles to read in Wolfson’s Growing Up Indian and Levine’s If you Lived with the Iroquois. Using a Venn diagram take notes about important facts about the daily life of children and adults.

19. To break up reading and writing times teach Native American Toe-heel Dance and, if time allows make dance rattles with soda cans, dowels, and dried beans.

20. After two days ask each group to present their finding. Students add more to the Public Notes.

21. Plan 4 murals designed to show the students’ understanding of men’s, women’s, elders’ and children’s daily activities to promote the tribe’s well-being and culture. Have students volunteer for one mural. Break into groups and discuss what should be illustrated. Examine their public notes for reminders. Each group brainstorms a list of happenings to be illustrated

22. Share the brainstorm lists with the class and students make further suggestions where needed. Children are given large mural paper. Each student chooses one item on the brainstormed list to illustrate and begins to create. When he completes his first chosen item he goes to the list and selects another to create. He puts his initials next to the item on the brainstormed list so others will know it is being done. All members of the group must be able to fit around the paper and work together forming one scene. First they complete the illustrated scene in pencil. They must be sure to draw these brainstormed activities within a NA village scene. Teacher checks the penciled drawing to be sure all the happenings are clearly present for all to understand. Then the children paint, color, and marker.

23. Examine the finished murals and invite other classes to enjoy. Discuss the content of each. This will be a review of all that has been learned during this unit. Ask: What are some important natural resources NA use each day to survive? What are some important things children must learn to have food to eat? How are NA children taught? What are some different ways Native Americans find food? How is a longhouse built? Who is in charge of the tribe, house, and children? What happens when a NA become sick? How do they make canoes? What are some of the tools and weapons NA must make? How do NA treat other members of the tribe?

24. Discuss how NA children’s lives are different from the students at SES. Share some of the pupils’ problems and list problems NA children might experience.

25. Together discuss and list some scenarios NA children might experience. Fishhooks are difficult to make, birch bark canoe might leak, birds are eating all the corn, a young boy longs to go hunting, etc.

26. Review the structure of a narrative as described in Writing and Revising. Think about creating a narrative using one of the scenarios.

27. Talk with a partner about what might happen in your narrative using your selected scenario. Share ideas with each other.

28. Make a list of happenings using your story map. Fill in just the: first, next, then, after that, finally. Read your list to your partner and get some new ideas.

29. Think about your main character. Use the worksheet draw a picture of the person. What does your character think, say, and like? Fill in the template and share your ideas with the class.

30. Its time to organize student’s ideas. Use the template; “An Icon at a Time” fill in the lines where is says character, setting, what the character wants, the problem, solution, and wrap up.

31. Before the class starts writing using one sheet for each Icon have a review lesson on leads or hooks. Have students write three possible leads for their story. One hook might be an important fact, another a quote, and a third dialogue. Share these and help each other come up with a good one.

32. Write the narrative using the Icon templates for narratives. Students write their story in chunks. Each chunk will be self edited, revised, teacher edit, perhaps class shared, and put in final copy prior to moving to the next icon. In this way the entire narrative will be complete when the wrap is finalized.

33. Narratives will be illustrated as time allows and bound for all the read. Comment sheets will be placed in the back of the books, dedications will be suggested, and pictures of the author and a paragraph about the author will be placed on the back laminated cover.

34. When all narratives are complete a celebration will take place where stories will be shared and NA food will be served followed by NA games and dances.

Assessment

Expectations for each child will be designed to challenge their abilities and support their needs.
Students are constantly assessed and notes are recorded about the student’s strengths and needs by the teacher
Students will assess their own work, using Rubrics for writing paragraphs, filling out templates, writing narratives, and participating in discussions. Pupils will be introduced to these rubrics before each activity so the expectations are clearly known.

The paragraphs, murals, illustrations, and discussion will impact this teacher understanding of her students growth and needs. These new understandings will influence what units of study and writer’s craft should be taught next.

Release of Responsibility

After reviewing the assessments, it will be clear that some children will be ready to write their own narrative without this time consuming step by step process however others will need further practice, guidance, and encouragement.

Model
Listen, Learn Lead
The stars blinked through the dark blanketed sky as Smiling Sun stared into the fire’s glowing coals and listened to Grandfather retell the story of the red-tail hawk. Her eyes were heavy and wanted to close but her ears were eager to hear. She loved her wise grandfather, the shaman of her tribe. Her head was dropping as she heard,” Remember to watch and listen for signs. The WakanTanka sends us messages. He gives us these lands and these animals. We must treat them with respect. They sacrifice themselves so we may live.”

Suddenly Smiling Sun felt herself being lifted up into her mother’s arms and carried through the deerskin door of her longhouse. There she was placed on her family’s platform and covered with a fur blanket. How cozy she felt under its warmth as she fell back to sleep with all her mother’s people. “Sleep well tonight for tomorrow is the start of the Sweet Berry Moon. Now you are old enough to gather my daughter,” whispered Singing Bird.
“I’ll do so gladly,” answered Smiling Sun and she fell into a deep sleep. She dreamed of the red-tailed hawk in Grandfather ‘s story. The one she should listen for and observe, the one with great powers who protects her people.
When morning came every member of the tribe was making preparations for their day. Some men were filling parched corn into their deerskin pouches, and reaching for their quivers. They were heading out to their hunting grounds where the trees were cleared in the middle of the forest. Others were meeting at the river’s edge to continue scraping the soaked remains of the charred wood from their fallen log. They were constructing a “dug out canoe “with their sharpened tools. Women were tending the fire pits and pounding corn kernels to make meal. The children were gathering firewood and collecting water at the stream. Some were running off to the garden to frighten away the crows that constantly steal corn from the garden of the Three Sisters.
Smiling Sun climbed off her platform, put on her deerskin shift, and soft moccasins with their porcupine needle decoration. She was feeling rested and excited. Oh she thought, now I can go up to Blueberry Hill that looks down on my village and the Poultney River. This was an important day. Today she would prove that she could gather necessary food for her tribe like older girls. So she ate her corn mush hurriedly and set off behind the others.
She walked over the stream and up the path through the woods to the mountain meadow where the blueberry bushes flourished. She used her grandmother’s birch bark basket. The one she just mended with sinew and a bone needle. The berries looked ripe and yummy. The sweet smell and deep blue color was tempting. Her mouth watered. It was hard to pick and not eat. The older girls chose the biggest berries that hung on the highest branches. They worked quickly and moved from one bush to another without stopping. Smiling Sun found this to be harder work than she expected. She filled her basket and walked over a flat ledge to join the other girls.
As she crossed to the edge of the meadow she looked south into the valley. There she could see her whole village. Women were tanning skins, smoking fish, weaving baskets, and cooking in skin pots. Old people were encouraging a young boy to walk and singing songs to a baby in a cradleboard. Smiling Sun looked to the north and saw two boys spearing fish and men filing rocks making arrows. She sat down on the warm rock and reached into her basket. Certainly it would be okay to take just one sweet smelling berry. Her fingers felt the smooth bottom of the birch bark. Startled she looked inside. All but three berries were gone. “My mending stitches were not strong. The basket has a large hole and all of my berries have fallen out.!’ thought Smiling Sun.
Just then she saw a small brown furry nose poking through the basket’s gapping hole. A pink tongue tried to reach for the remaining berries. Above the nose were two dark glassy eyes and tiny ears. Soon the basket was off the ground, upside down and on the head of a little brown cub. This fat ball of fur had followed a blueberry path made by the hole in her birch bark basket out to the ledge where Smiling Sun sat. He looked at her through the basket as if he expected her to give him more berries. Of course she had none. He started to make quiet little complaining noises.
Not knowing what to do, Smiling Sun rose and looked around. She heard a scrambling sound behind her and a screeching sound above. She turned to see a mother bear ambling from the berry patch towards the rock. She looked above her head and saw a red-tailed hawk swooping down towards the ledge where she stood frozen. It was just a matter of minutes before mother bear would come to check on her cub’s complaints.
The hawk peered down at the Smiling Sun. He plummeted towards her screeching and rising towards the east. He dropped a feather on the rock where she stood. It pointed east. Smiling Sun quietly edged her body in that direction. The hawk kept rising and screeching guiding the girl away from the rock and away from the bears. Soon she was on a steep trail leading towards the river. The noise brought the older girls towards the rock with baskets laden with berries. They spied the bears. The mother bear stared at the girls. The hawk swooped down close to the girls’ heads. They screamed and cried. The bears were alarmed and came after them. Smiling Sun heard the commotion and crept back up the trail to the girls. She called to the frightened girls and motioned them to follow her. They ran to Smiling Sun. The hawk flew at the bears. He pushed the bears away from the rock and away from the girls with his rising, swooping, and screeching. The girls scrambled down the trail following Smiling Sun’s running feet. After several minutes, they reached the edge of the Poultney River. The older girls were terrified of the bears and relieved to have escaped them. They thanked Smiling Sun for bringing them safely away from the dangerous bears. Quickly they walked home along the well-worn riverbank to their village.
The older girls told the elders about their adventure and praised Smiling Sun for her bravery and cleverness. But Smiling Sun knew that it was really Grandfather’s story of the Red Tailed Hawk that saved them. She also knew that she needed to learn how to mend and sew correctly. If the berries didn’t fall through the hole in her basket there would have been no blueberry trail for the baby cub to follow. The girls would not have been in danger. Native Americans must practice and become skilled at their work so that everyone is safe. From that day on Smiling Sun happily stayed with the woman of her tribe learning the skills needed to help her tribe survive.
Smiling Sun realized the importance of listening, learning, and leading.