LessonPlan – Lewis Additional Story Resources
D) A culturally-responsive curriculum fosters a complementary relationship across knowledge derived from diverse knowledge systems.
(1) draws parallels between knowledge derived from oral tradition and that derived from books.
This lesson takes the knowledge and information of the elders or culture bearers and combines it with that of written knowledge. The stories that will be examined in this lesson will be told via oratory, but can also be read. I feel that it will be more culturally responsible to include culture bearers into the classroom.
Not only do the culture bearers have the information told in their stories, but they will also have background knowledge of the area that they’re from. Students can learn so much from elders and culture bearers; this lesson will try and harness some of this knowledge.
I remember being invited to write my own stories in high school and college and how transformative it was for my confidence level and identity formation. Thank you for inviting students to think about their own values and how they would portray them in the form of a story! I think as an element of closure, you could consider inviting the Elder in again and having your students orate their stories to the class.
Joe, you tapped into the standard are group focused and presented the other day. I like the way that you’ve used the cultural standard in your lesson plan by including cultural bearers in the class room. I hope to build some connections in the community to bring in storytellers who have the background knowledge that brings more gravity and understanding of a story.
This is an excellent lesson plan. I am from Sitka, and I have never had an elder come into any of my classes. In fact, I have rarely had any classroom guests. However, I like the idea of having culture bearers coming in to teach their stories and tying that into your lesson. Your lesson is perfect and I like having the elders come in.
On another note, I like the idea of having an elder tell a story, but also letting it be on paper for the students to read. This taps into the learning styles of multiple students. I assume you already understand that it would have to be consulted with the elder or culture bearer to see if the story is allowed to be written down.
There is something about having a story spoken in the native language, but then the teacher (or the speaker) reading the english version.