Classroom Activities
Flower Power
This activity will take place after students have viewed either The Secret of Roan Inish or Into the West, and will enable students to analyze a legend on a deeper level. I will create a large flower out of construction paper. The center of the flower will have the word legend written in it, with five large petals surrounding it (you may draw a stem, but that would just be for aesthetics). Each petal will have one phrase written on it: purpose of, details about, function of, value of, condition of. I will model how to answer each "petal" by using a simpler concept in the center - for example, fashion. Students will help me determine responses to write on each petal as a warm-up for their independent work. Next, students will work in five groups where they will be assigned one of the five petals. Students are required to draw the flower into their notebooks and as each group shares their answers, I will write them on the flower in front of the class and they will record them in their notes. This purpose of this activity is to have students analyze a legend beyond just the dictionary definition they already have. After the flower is filled with their answers, I will ask them to make generalizations, or statements about a legend based on what they have recorded on the petals. My goal is for the students to make the connection between legends and the theme "Origins" we will be studying throughout this unit. If they do not come up with that connection on their own I can lead them there with probing questions. After they complete this activity we will begin to examine the three types of storytellers and their respective epic tales, focusing our discussion on the theme of "Origins." This flower will remain posted near the front of the room for the duration of the unit so we can refer back to it during discussions.s.
Story Board
This activity will be created in conjunction with the Graphic Aids described in the Strategies section above. After reading Sundiata, the longest epic we will read, students will work in pairs to create a storyboard of the hinge functions. They will be able to use the graphic organizer they created to help them determine which events they will draw. Each story board must contain eight illustrations; two sheets of white paper per pair folded into quadrants. They will not be allowed to write any words on the story boards and when they present them to the class they provide an oral summary of their story board. These will be displayed throughout the classroom so we can reference them when discussing Sundiata, reviewing hinge functions, or examining similarities in the Irish and Japanese epics.
"I Am" Poem
This is a poem you could easily find on the internet. I did not include it here because there are many variations of it. The "I Am" poem is a great tool for teaching perspective. This poem provides a skeletal format for all students to follow. For example, the first line reads, "I Am (two characteristics), and each subsequent line asks students to list things like "I feel, I wonder." Students become the character, setting, or object they have been studying and have historically created really powerful poems. For this unit, I would ask students to write from the point of view of either the griot, fili, or a person performing a Biwa recitation. They would bet able to choose the storyteller for whom they would write, but all students would have to follow the skeletal format of the poem. In keeping with the focus of the unit, oral storytelling, students will have to memorize their poems and present them to the class. This will be completed before the above-mentioned journal activity where students have to commit to memory two stories about themselves. I will have the skeletal frame on a large poster in the back of the room so students can reference it if they get stuck on a line of their poem during the presentation. This will be one way of helping them on their journey as oral storytellers later in the unit (see Strategies above).
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