Early American Oral Tradition Lesson Plans

When teaching students about American literature, we often begin with our Native American oral tradition myths and legends.  Although I find the subject interesting, I also have found that many of my students do not share my sense of fascination.  Many students' faces gloss over when being taught about ancient writings, such as creation myths or early American legends.  Sometimes they don’t “get it”, and sometimes they appear to not want to “get it” because it seems to have no bearing on their present day life.    

I decided to find a way to teach students about oral traditions so that they could apply it to their present day lives. I first began with the idea that all families still have oral traditions, stories that are told at family get-togethers about a favorite relative or memorable occasion. I invite my students to share one of their stories with a partner. After giving them several minutes with a partner, I enlarge their groups to four to six students.  As a group they have to pick one story that they will present to the class. They evaluate the stories based on the following criteria: 1) it should be entertaining and 2) it should teach a lesson of some sort.  This takes one to two class periods, and gives students the opportunity to engage in some wonderful group discussions.

This can lead to students sharing personally relevant stories with one another, finding lessons to be learned about life in each one, and pointing out cultural details within each story.  Students love stories that they don’t have to read!  Once we start to read some of the myths and legends in early American literature, I find that the students approach them with more interest, and a better ability to see life lessons and cultural details in each story.  The following three lessons can help encourage students in their study of early American literature:

Early American Oral Tradition Myth and Legend Lesson Plans:

Family Story With Research:   This is an interesting lesson that uses the genre of oral tradition to provide opportunities for lessons on interviewing, researching and documenting skills. Students use their own personal examples of oral tradition. 

It’s All Part Of The Story:  This is a wonderful PBS site that, with educators in mind, outlines three separate lessons that can come from information provided on the site.  This site even includes small video clips of Native storytellers that can be used in class, or for a computer lab assignment.

Sharing Stories; Discovering Cultures:  This is a lesson that uses nature stories, such as “How the Natural World Came to Be” to help students understand other cultures.  Students will have an opportunity to read several myths (links provided) and interview classmates.