Unit Plan:
Storytelling, Cultural Identity and First Nations Culture
FSL / Grade 6-7
Big Ideas
Stories communicate ideas in a meaningful way.
Concepts:
- Culture
- Identity
- Communication
Essential Questions
Students will keep considering…
- Why do we tell stories?
- How does the way we tell a story reflect our cultural identity?
Evaluative Criteria
- Students will be evaluated by teacher using a rubric*
- Students will be evaluated by their peers using a rubric*
- Rubrics can be teacher generated, or generated together with students or can be a rubric that you use already for oral presentations.
- Please see Learning plan for more details.
- Teacher developed rubric for performance task including oral and cultural components.
- Rubric: Create a rubric which evaluates both French oral language skills and the cultural message in the story. Reflective process should also be used.
Monitoring Progress
Teacher will monitor progress:
Teachers can monitor progress through ongoing formative assessment including but not limited to:
N/A
Resources
WEBSITES
TEXTS
- La Danse d’Anisha. (Les Echos de l’île de la Tortue)
- C’est le temps de céléber ( Les Echos de l’île de la Tortue)
- “La famille, c’est special “ Echos 2 literacy book.
Reflection
How will teachers and their students reflect on and evaluate the completed project?
Teacher Reflection
- What aspects of the unit went well?
- What did students struggle with?
- What did you struggle with?
- What would you add/revise the next time you taught this unit?
- Were there any unintended outcomes?
- Were students engaged?
Downloads
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
EXECUTE THE LEARNING PLAN
LEARNING EVENTS:
- These learning events/activities are suggested activities only.
- In some cases the plans are not fully completed lesson plans.
- The teacher may choose some lessons/activities to span over several lessons.
- Teachers may add, revise and adapt these lessons based on the needs of their students, their personal preferences for resources, and the use of a variety of instructional techniques.
Learning events are enriched for students when teachers consider the “WHERE TO” acronym and guiding organizer by Wiggins and McTighe.
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why do we tell stories?
- How does the way we tell a story reflect our cultural identity?
Acquisition-Meaning-Transfer
Lesson 1 - Why Do We Tell Stories?
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why do we tell stories?
- How does the way we tell a story reflect our cultural identity?
Why Do We Tell Stories? (Lesson 1)
1) Show students examples of unique and inspiring ways to tell stories (consider you audience); song, dance, puppet shadow, books, oral history etc…(A) (M)
2) Ensure that brainstorming ideas are comprised as a “French Word Wall” for future reference to high- frequency words used in this unit. (A)
3) Students should reflect on; favourite stories, stories they have never forgotten, why they love stories, their favourite way to listen to, read, view stories are. (M)
Formative Task: Students create a reflective document based on favourite story memory. (M)
Lesson 2 - What Is Culture? What Is Your Culture?
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why do we tell stories?
- How does the way we tell a story reflect our cultural identity?
What Is Culture? What Is Your Culture? (Lesson 2)
1) How do we define culture? Students will likely discuss; food, traditions, holidays, music, celebrations etc… (A)
2) Students will reflect on the culture of; their home, their school, sports teams, classrooms etc… (M) (T)
Lesson 3 - Reading of First Nations Story “La Danse D’Anisha”
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why do we tell stories?
- How does the way we tell a story reflect our cultural identity?
Reading of First Nations Story “La Danse D’Anisha” (Lesson 3)
1) Review reading strategies with students. Use of cognates, images, familiar words, voice intonation and teacher gestures will help ensure comprehension of text. Images will help students with less French Fluency get the gist of the text. (A)
2) Use prediction activity to ensure students use the images as their first tool. (A)
3) Teacher guided reading of La Danse D’Anisha. Students should repeat and practice words that might be useful in their Performance task. (A)
Formative Task: Students will re-enact their favourite part of the story and their peers can guess the part. A tableau format is useful for students with less French Fluency. (A)
4. Use vocabulary warm up games (charades etc…) at the beginning of subsequent lessons to ensure that students retain new vocabulary throughout the unit. (A)
Lesson 4 - Student Creation of Story that Explores an Aspect of Culture
The Learning Events should always be prefaced by focusing on the essential questions:
- Why do we tell stories?
- How does the way we tell a story reflect our cultural identity?
Student Creation of Story that Explores an Aspect of Culture (Lesson 4)
1) Students will choose between creating their own cultural story or choose to re-enact a story that they already know or is provided for them. (This will depend on the level of French Fluency in your classroom.) (T)
2) Students should be encouraged to include previously acquired vocabulary in their skits, but also to use gesture and image to relay their messages. (A) (T)
3) Formative Task: students should reflect on their cultural message and ensure that it will be clear to their audience. My message is: ___________. My audience will understand my message through____________________.
4) Students should reflect on their peers work in a reflective task that demonstrates how their cultural identity is explored through story. (T)
5) Summative Task: Teacher evaluation: rubric that focuses on both oral use of French language and clarity of cultural message and above all an understand Teachers can include written high-frequency words as part of evaluation. Also, evaluation of the students reflective process. (T)
Peer evaluation: rubric that focuses on clarity of cultural message similar to above formative task. (T)
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.
