**This is a complete unit of lessons for this topic**
Unit Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of storytelling, especially in Native American cultures, by exploring and telling stories in role.
National Theatre Standards:
TH: Cr1.1.3 a. Create roles, imagined worlds, and improvised stories in a drama/theatre work.
Cr.2.3 b.: Compare ideas with peers and make selections that will enhance and deepen group theatrical work
TH: Cr2.1.3 a. Participate in methods of investigation to devise original ideas for a drama/theatre work.
Cr.3.3 b.: Participate and contribute to physical and vocal exploration in an improvised or scripted theatrical work.
TH:Cr 3.1.3 a. Collaborate with peers to revise, refine, and adapt ideas to fit the given parameters of a drama/theatre work.
TH:Pr 4.1.3 b. Investigate how movement and voice are incorporated into drama/theatre work.
TH:Re 7.1.3 a. Understand why artistic choices are made in a drama/theatre work
TH:Cn 11.2.3 a. Explore how stories are adapted from literature to drama/theatre work.
TH:Cn 11.2.3 b. Examine how artists have historically presented the same stories using different art forms, genres, or drama/theatre conventions.
TH:Cn10.1.3 a. Use personal experiences and knowledge to make connections to community and culture in a drama/theatre work.
TH:Cr1.1.3 b. Imagine and articulate ideas for costumes, props and sets for the environment and characters in a drama/theatre work.
Utah Core Standards:
Objective 2: Explain how selected indigenous cultures of the Americas have changed over time.
Describe and compare early indigenous people of the Americas (e.g. Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Great Basin, Southwestern, Artic, Incan, Aztec, Mayan).
Identify how indigenous people maintain cultural traditions today.
Big Ideas:
Performing Identity
Story
Connecting with culture
Understanding Differences
Self-expression
Self-presentation
Image
Practicality
Locational history
Creation of humanity
Family
Symbolism
Essential Questions:
How does the way that we tell stories influence others?
Why is it important to make connections with cultures that are not our own?
How do we tell our own stories?
Why do we share stories with others?
How does where you come from inform who you are?
How do different people express the same ideas artistically?
How does location affect artistic culture?
What are the methods we use to express who we are?
How does clothing inform and express who we are?
Key Knowledge and Skills:
Understanding components of storytelling
Basic structure of storytelling
Basic understanding of different aspects of Native American storytelling
Basic understanding of conflict
Basic understanding of self-representation
Basic understanding of costume
Authentic Performance Tasks:
Learning and exploring in role
Creating a story through drawing
Using your body to tell a story
Enacting origin myths
Using face and symbols to tell a story
Creating costumes to match a character
Telling stories through movement, orally, frozen images, and clothing
Lessons:
Introduction Lesson
Lesson Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of making creative choices by participating in a series of introductory drama games as a class.
Searching for Stories
Lesson Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the basic climactic structure of storytelling by working together as a class to interpret a story from Native American “cave paintings.”
The Structure of Storytelling
Lesson Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the structure of storytelling by telling their own story using and highlighting the people, place, problem and progress aspects of telling a story.
Painting Your Own Story
Lesson Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of basic climactic structure of storytelling by working in role to create a story using Native American “cave paintings.”
Movement in Telling Stories
Lesson Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of using their bodies and movement in telling stories by pantomiming and moving through the telling of a Native American folk tale.
Where Did You Come From?
Lesson Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the importance of setting by reading and enacting origin stories of different tribes in role as explorers.
Carving out Stories
Lesson Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of how character is expressed physically by creating and interpreting human “totem poles.”
Dressing the Part
Lesson Objective: Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of how appearance, especially clothing, contributes to character expression by exploring and drawing costumes.
