Unit Plan:
Storytelling, Identity, and First Nations’ Culture
Core French / Grade 8-10
Big Ideas
Stories (i.e. First Nations’ oral histories, personal stories) provide unique ways to interpret and share knowledge, thoughts, and feelings.
Concepts:
- Communication
- Storytelling
- Oral history
Essential Questions
Students will keep considering…
- How does story telling shape and reflect culture?
Evaluative Criteria
Formative:
Teacher directs guided discussion of:
- Stories
- Storytelling
- Culture
Summative:
Teacher determines rubric for oral presentation of Performance Task.
Extension:
Writing rubric for possible written submission.
Monitoring Progress
Ensure that students are familiar with how to identify, pronounce, and write: le présent, le passé composé, and le futur proche (provide practice).
Ensure that students have an understanding of what culture can mean and how it would apply to their own lives and communities.
Ask students to provide a (glossary) lexique of vocabulary for their own story to explain to you and/or the class.
Ask students to provide a rationale for the cultural component of their lesson.
Ensure that students are given class time for peer review before summative assessment.
Resources
Les Échos de l’Île de la Tortue:
1) La fille-aigle, Robert Cutting
2) Le mystère de la brume, Robert Cutting
Additional:
1) Dansons, Jessice Athlueetuk
2) YouTube Video: Csetkwe Fortier Okanagan Song (50 video mix)
Reflection
How will teachers and their students reflect on and evaluate the completed project?
Constant feedback from students and dialogue after each activity outlined in the Learning Events will help to direct and adapt what is explored in the next activity. Self, peer and teacher evaluation of the Performance Task and its alignment with the essential questions.
Teacher:
Next time I teach this unit I would…
Allow students to select the short stories that link to Identity.
Student:
My students needed:
Process:
Product:
Content:
Potential Student Misunderstanding:
Downloads
Stage 1 – Desired Results
Big Ideas
Stories (i.e. First Nations’ oral histories, personal stories) provide unique ways to interpret and share knowledge, thoughts, and feelings.
Concepts:
- Communication
- Storytelling
- Oral history
Transfer Goals
Students will be able to independently use their learning to…
- Share culture through storytelling.
- Make personal connections to a variety of cultural traditions and experiences.
Meaning
Students will understand that…
- Storytelling is a rich part of First Nations’ culture.
- Sharing cultural traditions helps people to understand and reflect on their own cultures.
- How a story is told influences the listener’s engagement.
Students will keep considering…
- Who am I? How do I define myself? How does my identity change and evolve?
- How does making connections between text and self deepen my understanding of my own identity
- How does understanding my own identity help me to connect and empathize with others?
Acquisition
Students will be skilled at…
- Understanding key information and events in a story and retelling it to others.
- Narrating simple stories in written and oral form.
- Using a variety of strategies to increase understanding (i.e. key words, cognates, illustrations, verb tense, etc.)
CONTENT
Students will know…
- How to describe common elements of a story (i.e. character, plot, setting).
- That verb tenses change according to when events occur: past, present, and future timelines.
- Cultural aspects of communities, practices, and traditions.
Which Core Competencies will be integrated into the unit?
Communication: Oral, written and visual
Critical and Creative Thinking: Story creation, critically explore diverse methods of story telling
Personal and Social: Respect of other cultures’ stories, collaboration with others to tell stories
First People's Principles of Learning
The unit will make connections with:
Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.
Learning requires exploration of one’s identity.
The following resources are made available through the British Columbia Ministry of Education. For more information, please visit BC’s New Curriculum.
Big Ideas
The Big Ideas consist of generalizations and principles and the key concepts important in an area of learning. The Big Ideas represent what students will understand at the completion of the curriculum for their grade. They are intended to endure beyond a single grade and contribute to future understanding.
Core Competencies
Communications Competency
The set of abilities that students use to impart and exchange information, experiences and ideas, to explore the world around them, and to understand and effectively engage in the use of digital media
Thinking Competency
The knowledge, skills and processes we associate with intellectual development
Social Competency
The set of abilities that relate to students’ identity in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society
Curricular Competencies & Content
Curricular Competencies are the skills, strategies, and processes that students develop over time. They reflect the “Do” in the Know-Do-Understand model of curriculum. The Curricular Competencies are built on the thinking, communicating, and personal and social competencies relevant to disciplines that make up an area of learning.
Additional Resources
First People's Principles of Learning
To read more about First People’s Principles of Learning, please click here.
For classroom resources, please visit the First Nations Education Steering Committee.
