This is a collection of three video lessons from N. Scott Momaday about Kiowa Native American stories, storytelling, and their oral traditions.

The lessons presented in this website "introduce children to folk tales" and how these folktales are changed and affected by generational and cultural values. Includes several links to further related information on folktales, fables,...

This research site from Chaver.com describes the Mishnah in-depth: "The Art of Writing the Oral Tradition," "The Decalog as Wisdom Literature," and "Woven Texts: Literary Form in Ancient Hebrew Legal Codes."

The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide by by Marjorie Hunt is an excellent resource for collecting family and community cultural information. It provides step-by-step information on how to plan and conduct...

In this instructional activity, students will watch a video clip with a Native American storyteller telling a traditional story. Students will use supporting evidence from the story to give meaning to oral and written texts.

A Native American Pima legend on how the saguaro and palo verde cacti came into existence. With links to other Native American legends, artwork, photographs, articles, and more.

This ArtsEdge unit on fables shows how to compare and contrast, read and write fables, and discuss the elements they contain. Has great links, definitions, and fable examples.

This unit features the rich oral tradition of Native Americans storytelling in various genres predating the introduction and influence of English writings, bringing three contemporary authors to light. RI.11-12.8 seminal U.S. texts,...

[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the importance of listening to and writing about people's life stories. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.

Kentucky-based storyteller Mary Hamilton tells a haunting tale set in Victorian times, about a man who gives a young lady a ride across the Ohio River to her home in Louisville. When she disappears, he learns that he has become part of a...

Third graders learn that stories and books are important for learning about themselves and others. This unit allows students to learn how storytelling can be a way to learn about other cultures, pass on family history and traditions, and...

If you set out to do your own primary research with a tradition-bearer in your community, this guide will be very valuable. Get information about how to get the best results, along with an extensive list of possible questions for the...

This site from the Medieval Sourcebook of the Fordham University provides an example of a Germanic law code taken from oral tradition and set down in writing.

In the Arts and Crafts of Storytelling, American folk heroes come to life, help students expand their vocabulary and increase knowledge of figurative language. Students identify figurative language like similes, idioms and hyperboles....

The TUS website examines the history and methodologies of land use by Aboriginal peoples. The Multimedia link is an excellent source of oral histories through interviews with elders as well as other knowledgeable people.

This lesson focuses on Native American myths including the creation myth "The Earth on Turtle's Back." It includes links to the above myth, a self-assessment quiz, and an assignment for a mini-report over a Native American tribe.

The University of Victoria's English department gives a comprehensive definition of fables. Example included.

Read the traditional story of the Gingerbread Man who runs from the little old woman who made him, and from several other characters who want to eat him, until he comes across a fox who offers to help.

Click through the pages of this beautifully illustrated story book to read about a little girl who listens to her grandmother tell a story about two dancers and their performance at a carnival that ended up saving the whole village from...

Balinese stories are continually told and retold. The Kayonan is the first and last puppet seen in the Balinese wayang shadow theater. As it dances, it symbolizes the living tradition of storytelling that deeply explains and entertains,...

Painting on animal hides is a longstanding tradition of the Great Basin and Great Plains people of the United States. Painting, in tandem with oral traditions, functioned to record history.Cotsiogo, a member of the Eastern Shoshone...

Explains the traditional Cherokee rules that surround both telling and listening to oral tradition. Identifies two basic types of Cherokee oral tradition: sacred stories and small animal stories. This site also contains a video of a...

This site features links to lesson plans and activities for the book "Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko. Come and explore the world of this amazing author.

Follow the stories of six Americans with different backgrounds who wanted to know more about their ancestors' journeys to America and used immigration and genealogy records to complete their family histories.