Subject Areas |
Art and Culture
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Anthropology |
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Folklore |
Literature and Language Arts
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Fiction |
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World |
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Time Required |
| Lesson 1: One class period
Lesson 2: One class period
Lesson 3: One class period
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Skills |
| Analyzing written and oral texts for elements of plot, theme, characterization, and conflict
Working collaboratively
Comparing and contrasting
Gathering, classifying, and interpreting written and oral information
Making inferences and drawing conclusions
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Additional Data |
| Date Created: 05/31/02 |
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Date Posted |
| 5/31/2002 |
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Folktales and Ecology: Animals and Humans in Cooperation and Conflict
Introduction:
Animal
tales are an important part of the folklore of many cultures. While some of these
tales involve only animal characters, many involve cooperative relationships between
people and animals that are ultimately beneficial to both. Others demonstrate
the consequences when people and animals fail to peacefully coexist. Mostly, though,
the study of helpful animal folktales recalls a time when people and animals shared
the earth and when humans respected their animal companions. However, the ever-growing
list of endangered species and ongoing concern with the fate of our environment
reveals that humans and animals do not longer share the cooperative relationship
portrayed in the folktale world. More often than not, human beings are in conflict
with their environment and the animals in it.
Study of humans and animals
in cooperation and conflict within folktales lends itself well to a simple lesson
on ecology and endangered species, where students can explore how humans' cooperative
relationship with nature has been compromised. By studying basic ecology, students
can make connections between the relationships between human beings and animals
in folklore and the relationship between people and the environment in our world.
Note:
While intended for grades 3-5, this lesson could easily be adapted for K-2 by
omitting the group work in favor of whole-group discussion and more teacher direction. Guiding
Questions:
In what ways do animals help each other and humans in animal
folktales? In what ways do animals help each other, humans and the environment
in the real world? Why should we help protect animals in our environment?
Learning
Objectives:
After completing the lessons in this unit, students will be
able to:
- Identify elements of helpful animal stories such as problem/conflict,
roles of specific animals, conflict resolution, and moral/lesson
- Discuss
what kinds of problems would arise in folktales when an important animal such
as a lion or bird is harmed or hindered
- Define the term "keystone species"
and give an example of a case study
- Compare the problems faced by the
animals in the tales with problems faced by the animals in a "keystone species"
cycle
- Discuss what happens if the human is grateful for the animal's
aid and the consequences for being ungrateful within folktales
- Compare
the type of aid humans give to animals with current attempts to protect endangered
species
Preparing to Teach This Lesson:- Review each lesson
in this unit and select the materials you'd like to use in class. The resources
included here can be used alone or in combination with your own or your school's
materials. When locating these resources online, bookmark the materials, along
with other useful websites; download and print out selected documents and duplicate
copies as necessary for student use. **If you teach in a laptop program or have
access to a classroom computer with internet access and a digital projector, consider
creating a simple website that includes links to all online materials, as well
as your own notes and items of interest for the students.
- Familiarize
yourself with the following resources: Extinction
Crisis and Why
it Matters from Bagheera.com,
accessed through the EDSITEment- reviewed resource The
Internet Public Library Youth Division
Suggested Activities:
Lesson
One: An Introduction to Helpful Animal TalesLesson
Two: Introduction to "Keystone Species" Lesson
Three: Animals and Humans in Cooperation and Conflict Lesson
One: An Introduction to Helpful Animal Tales
- Begin
by introducing students to the basic elements of a helpful animal tale: a problem/conflict,
the people or animals in need of aid, the helpful animal, the helpful animal's
solution to the problem, and a moral or lesson learned at the end. Give students
a copy of the Elements of Helpful Animal Tales Chart, provided in pdf format,
to familiarize them with these elements; they can keep track of these elements
as they appear in the folktales they read. Inform students that not every story
will have all of these elements. For example, the two stories in Lesson 1, "Coyote
Brings Fire" and "The Long Winter" are animal tales with no significant human
characters involved.
- Read aloud with the class the tale "Coyote
Brings Fire", located on the website Animals,
Myths and Legends accessed through the EDSITEment-reviewed website The
Internet Public Library.
- Ask the students to complete the story
chart alone or in groups, and then go over responses as a whole group. Next read
"The
Long Winter" from Absolutely Whootie:
Stories to Grow By, accessed through the EDSITEment-reviewed website AskAsia, and have students fill out the story chart again.
- After discussing
the elements of each story, ask the students for their ideas of what might happen
in the story if the "key animals"-- the coyote and the lynx --were taken out of
the story. What would happen to the story if any of the animals were removed from
it? Ask the students to come up with an explanation of the animals' importance
to the two stories. Your class's response might look something like this:
- Because the animals in these stories rely on each other to accomplish
their tasks, removing any one of them from the story would be disastrous, and
the goal would not be accomplished.
Lesson Two:
Introduction to "Keystone Species"
- Introduce students
to the concept of Keystone
Species from Bagheera.com, accessed
through the EDSITEment-reviewed website The Internet
Public Library. Keystone species are ecologically helpful animals that
maintain balance in their ecosystems. Protecting keystone species is a priority
for conservationists because the loss of these species causes destructive ecosystem
changes. The keystone species page includes links to case studies of specific
keystone animals.
- Construct a visual diagram to share with students that
illustrates the way the "keystone animal" in an ecosystem literally supports other
plants and animals in that ecosystem. Then, remove or cross out that animal as
if it were extinct, and ask students what would happen to the "tower" of animals
and plants that rested on the keystone species. For example, you might place people
on top of fish on top of kelp beds on top of sea otters, the keystone species
in that system. If the otters were removed, sea urchins would move in, destroying
the kelp beds, which eliminates the fish, which leaves less food for people. Remove
or cross out the kelp beds, fish, and people as you go, in order to illustrate
the effects of extinction.
- You can also search for the images you
need to construct the diagram on an Internet search engine.
- Review
with students your statement about how animals are important to animal folktales,
and ask them to make comparisons between the roles animals play in helpful animal
tales and the roles they play in the ecosystem.
- Break students into two
groups, and assign one group to "Coyote
Brings Fire" on the website Animals,
Myths and Legends at, accessed through the EDSITEment reviewed website
The Internet Public Library, and assign the
other group to read "The
Long Winter" from Absolutely Whootie:
Stories to Grow By, accessed through the EDSITEment-reviewed website AskAsia. Ask each group to construct a keystone species tower using the characters
from the story. If you have computer and printer access in your classroom, you
might ask students to search for pictures of the animals they need, or they can
simply have fun drawing them!
Lesson
Three: Animals and Humans in Cooperation and Conflict
- Read
aloud the tale "The Slave
and the Lion" on Folklore
and Mythology Electronic Texts, accessed through the EDSITEment reviewed
resource AskAsia, and fill out the story chart as a class. The animal stories in which humans
are involved will be more difficult at first, because there is usually more than
one conflict, and while the human might help the animal, the animal will also
help the human. Point out to students that even very powerful animals, like the
lion, sometimes need the help and protection of humans.
- Break the students
into two groups. Instruct one group to read "The
Kaha Bird" from Tales of
Wonder accessed through the EDSITEment-reviewed website The
Internet Public Library, and the other to read "The
Fisherman and His Wife" on Grimm's
Fairy Tales, accessed through the EDSITEment-reviewed website The
Internet Public Library. Students should fill out their story guides, either
individually or as a group, when they are finished. Ask each group to retell their
story; the other group can listen and complete their story charts. (You might
have the students do this part of the exercise in pairs to encourage more cooperative
learning.)
- Ask the students to think about what the consequences are
when people are not grateful for their relationships with animals, according to
these stories. Responses might look like this:
- The disappearance
of the Kaha bird at the end of that story could represent extinction.
- In
both stories, the people are poorer or worse off because they were ungrateful
towards the animals.
- Discuss the roles of humans in the animal
tales you read, starting with the Fire Beings in "Coyote Brings Fire." Ask the
students to consider how each human could potentially harm the animal in the story.
For example, the Fire Beings hog all the fire and warmth, so that the animals
are freezing. The fisherman is a type of hunter, etc. Then, discuss with students
the problems that people pose for animals today: human growth and consumption,
hunting, poaching.
- Finally, introduce students to the work that "grateful
humans" are doing to protect animals and their rights by discussing the Endangered
Species Act from Bagheera.com,
accessed through the EDSITEment-reviewed website The
Internet Public Library.
Extending the Lesson- As
a culminating activity, have the students write their own helpful animals folktale
based on the elements of those tales learned in the three lessons (the students
could work in small groups of four or with partners). Either in class or as homework,
the students should write a rough draft, edit the draft, and write a final version
including illustrations. The students could then read their folktales aloud to
other groups or act out their folktales in class
Selected EDSITEment
Websites
Standards Alignment
View your state’s standards
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