Lesson Plan #6
Moshup Tale
Grade: 3
Unit: Wampanoag Tribe
Goal: (*Enduring Understanding)
Students will discover that Native Americans used oral storytelling to account for things found in nature.*
Students will analyze a Native American legend and discuss important characteristics.
Students will apply knowledge of Native American legends and compose their own legend.
Essential Question:
How did Native Americans use legends to explain things found in nature?
Resources:
Moshup the Giant
Retrieved on 4/12/03 from: http://newigwam.com/moshup.html
Moshup
From, The Wampanoag: The People of First Light
(See references)
Chart paper
Development and
Selection of Activities:
¨ Students will listen to the teacher read two versions of Moshup the Giant aloud.
¨ Students will break into small groups and discuss/underline parts of each legend that address physical characteristics of the land. (Students will have a photocopy of both versions)
¨ Whole group discussion on students’ findings, including differences in the versions.
¨ The class will create a list (written on chart paper and hung in the classroom) of characteristics of the Native American legend.
¨ Students will review their list of characteristics from Moshup the Giant.
¨ Students will choose a land feature with which they are familiar (i.e. a large boulder in their backyard) and write a legend accounting for its existence.
Content:
¨ Native Americans used oral histories to account for events, there was not a written language. Therefore varied versions of the same legend exist.
¨ Legends explain things in nature and were passed on through generations.
Curriculum Standard:
“Make judgements about setting, characters, and events and support them with evidence from the text.”
“Write stories that have a beginning, middle, and end and contain details of setting.”
Assignment:
1. Edit your legend and hand it in the next day.
How will the
understanding of the essential question be assessed?
¨ Students will be informally evaluated on their participation and input during small and whole group discussions.
¨ Students will be evaluated according to how their written legend compares with a Native American legend. Student legends must include characteristics common to the Native American legends. Ideas from the class list must be incorporated into the legend.