Draft Lesson Plan: South Central Alaska legends compared with Western fairy tales.
Objective: Students will be able to write a short, hybrid story/legend combining elements from already-familiar stories (e.g. fairy tales) and Alaska Native legend. Students should be able to identify the characters and values in their story and how they relate to other stories.
(15min) – (Background Knowledge) Talk about fairy tales/myths/legends/folklore students already know: note the characters involved, their traits, and the values that are presented in each story. Include sufficient wait time.
e.g.
Story Characters Traits
| Cinderella | Cinderella | Good, hardworking |
| Step Sisters | Cruel, lazy | |
| Step Mother | Cruel, unfair | |
| Values: Karma (good things to good people, bad things to bad), and trickery is unrewarded. | ||
| Hansel and Grettle | Hansel and Grettle | Curious, disobedient |
| Witch | Opportunistic | |
| Values: Listen to your parents/elders, don’t trust strangers | ||
| Boy who cried wolf | Boy | Mischievous |
| Townsfolk | Trusting, sensible, betrayed | |
| Values: People remember one’s reputation and act accordingly. | ||
(10min) – (New Information) Read the legend: The Woman Who Became A Bear
(15min) – Note the characters, traits, and values in the story.
e.g.
Characters Traits
| Husband | Dishonest, untrustworthy |
| Wife | Honest, trusting, vengeful |
| Values: Be truthful, Reciprocity (husband gets food, wife does housework), Retribution for extreme emotions/anger, Interrelationship between nature and humans | |
(20min) – Students write their own story/legend incorporating elements from The Woman Who Became A Bear and another story of their choice. Incorporated elements could be characters, traits, or values.
Let me know what you think! Where is it strong? Where can I improve? What doesn’t make sense?
Lots of great opportunities here. Could compare similar stories or story elements across cultures. Student could create their own using set parameters – you could define theme, goals or let students first identify themes to be promoted, then create a story to match
I especially like the idea of multicultural mashups with students combining elements from different cultures into a new hybrid story. You might also consider them illustrating their stories with image and / or creating a background soundtrack of music or ambient sounds. A chance for them to perform their stories for younger kids. Could turn that into a folktale “slam” with younger kids voting on the best story?
Did you come across any stories of actual fairies up north? I have a book of stories that have been collected from around the world on the subject of little flying people. It is pretty interesting and fun to read.