• You have 3 minutes to complete this pretest.
• Answer in COMPLETE sentences and put thought into your answers.
• If you absolutely don’t know an answer after at least trying to figure it out, leave it blank!

• *Show actions that facilitate learning for the self and others
• *Actively participate and be cognitively present
• *Learn to be open to new learning
• *Set cell phone to off and Send to backpack
• *Act with a positive attitude

How do people communicate? Why do people communicate?

From the following slides, fill in any
“answers” you may not have gotten.

• The World on the Turtle’s Back, When Grizzlies
Walked Upright, Navajo Origin Legend, and
Grandmother Spider Steals the Sun.
– All offer explanations of where the people who inhabit the
Earth came from.
• What other sources take on the challenge of explaining this phenomenon?
- the Bible, geneticists
• Based on the titles alone, how do you think you are going to respond to the Native American
Selections to how the Earth/World was formed?

• The word itself comes from the Greek
“mythos” which originally meant “speech.”
• The purpose is to seek to explain or rationalize one or more aspects of the world or a society.
• Usually have religious or supernatural elements and have a character that is immortal.
• Origin myth: a myth that explains how something began.

• Many cultures around the world have stories about creation.
• Four Native American creation myths:
– The World on the Turtle’s Back- Onondaga
– When Grizzlies Walked Upright- Modoc
– Navajo Origin Legend- Navajo
– Grandmother Spider Steals the Sun- Cherokee
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3X oYZgvEH8
• Jot notes on anything you learn

• The First Nation's Peoples had a value system. There were only four commandments from the Great Spirits:
– 1.Respect Mother Earth
– 2.Respect the Great Spirit
– 3.Respect our fellow man and woman
– 4.Respect for individual freedom

• Native American myths originated as oral tradition: Stories passed down verbally from generation to generation.
• Native American creation myths were not written down until just a few hundred years ago.

• The population of the native civilizations of the current territory of the United States fell from about 20 million to the present level of less than
2 million.
• Beyond the shrinking size of the ethnic populations, the languages have also suffered die to the prevalence of English among those of
Native American ancestry.
• Most Native American languages have ceased to exist, or are spoken only by older speakers, with whom the language will die in the coming decades.

• You will be divided into groups each having a different myth to study and present.
• Suggestion: Read the myth silently first and then read it aloud to emphasize the importance of the oral tradition
• Look at your study packet and assign the following roles:
Summarizer, Questioner/Discussion Director, Vocabulary
Enricher, Literary Luminary. ALL contribute to illustrator and connector jobs
• Then, complete the response sheets
• Next, discuss how best to present your myth- you must
TEACH the myth to the class
• Finally, presentations!

You will have 10 minutes.
REMEMBER: YOU ARE
TEACHING THE STORY! Don’t forget to tell what part of the natural world is explained. Your presentation will be graded therefore YOU ALL
MUST SPEAK!

Audience, be prepared to take notes and ask questions! You will be tested on all of these stories!

• Please fill in the Self-Assessment sheet
– turn in with your hw on the next slide
• Group packet- please turn in

1.
Create your own mythic tale! This can be about anything. What story will you tell your kids one day about how the world was created? Tossing out all that you know biblically, creatively come up with a new version. One page, single spaced, college ruled paper.
Or one page typed, double space, 12 pt font.
OR
2.
This myth is part of the oral tradition of stories being told in various ways- usually depending on beliefs and customs. Interview someone “older” to find a story that has been passed down from generation to generation. One page, single spaced, college ruled paper. Or one page typed, double space, 12 pt font.
DUE Monday 8/24 in class handwritten or student portal