Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Native Voices
This unit features the rich oral tradition of Native Americans storytelling in various genres predating the introduction and influence of English writings, bringing three contemporary authors to light. RI.11-12.8 seminal U.S. texts,...
University of Pennsylvania
Upenn: Oral Traditions in Africa (Lesson Plan)
This website features a lesson plan that can be used by teachers K-12 on oral traditions found in Africa.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide
If you set out to do your own primary research with a tradition-bearer in your community, this guide will be very valuable. Get information about how to get the best results, along with an extensive list of possible questions for the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Fable and Trickster Tales Around the World
The lessons presented in this website "introduce children to folk tales" and how these folktales are changed and affected by generational and cultural values. Includes several links to further related information on folktales, fables,...
PBS
Pbs: Using Supporting Evidence to Interpret Meaning a Native American Folktale
In this lesson, students will watch a video clip with a Native American storyteller telling a traditional story. Students will use supporting evidence from the story to give meaning to oral and written texts.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Storytelling:the Meaning Behind the Mask
In many cultures, masks are used in oral story telling. Many learning activities are described on this site that will help students learn aspects of story telling and the different ways various cultures used masks.
Alberta Online Encyclopedia
Alberta Online Encyclopedia: Tus: Aboriginal Traditions and Knowledge
The TUS website examines the history and methodologies of land use by Aboriginal peoples. The Multimedia link is an excellent source of oral histories through interviews with elders as well as other knowledgeable people.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Storytelling: Performance and Art
Students explore how stories can be told without words, such as through performance and art. This is one of four storytelling lessons.
Topmarks Online
Topmarks Education: A Traditional Story: The Gingerbread Man
Read the traditional story of the Gingerbread Man who runs from the little old woman who made him, and from several other characters who want to eat him, until he comes across a fox who offers to help.
Virtual Museum of Canada
Virtual Museum of Canada: Community Stories: Admiral Digby Museum: Digby County: A Journey Through Time
Digby, Nova Scotia is a community with a long history of oral tradition. This has played a large part in preserving the community's history as elders' stories, gleaned from interviews, have been preserved for the future. This exhibit...
University of Richmond
University of Richmond: Rewriting Ethnography
A literary review and criticism concerning the book "Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko. Analyzes the Laguna oral tradition and its presence in Silko's novel.
Read Works
Read Works: Oral Histories
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the importance of listening to and writing about people's life stories. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
ibiblio
Ibiblio: Cherokee Sacred Stories & Sacred Rituals
Explains the traditional Cherokee rules that surround both telling and listening to oral tradition. Identifies two basic types of Cherokee oral tradition: sacred stories and small animal stories. This site also contains a video of a...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Becoming Visible: N. Scott Momaday
Relying on many elements, including traditional Native American and European American traditions, this biography features the rich literary contributions of N. Scott Momaday. See "N.Scott Momaday Activities" for more resources.
PBS
Pbs: A World of Stories: The Beaded Bag
Kentucky-based storyteller Mary Hamilton tells a haunting tale set in Victorian times, about a man who gives a young lady a ride across the Ohio River to her home in Louisville. When she disappears, he learns that he has become part of a...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Storytelling in Ritual and Performance in Bali
Balinese stories are continually told and retold. The Kayonan is the first and last puppet seen in the Balinese wayang shadow theater. As it dances, it symbolizes the living tradition of storytelling that deeply explains and entertains,...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 3: The Stories Julian Tells
Third graders learn that stories and books are important for learning about themselves and others. This unit allows students to learn how storytelling can be a way to learn about other cultures, pass on family history and traditions, and...
American Indian Heritage Foundation
Native American Eagle Stories
From several Native American tribes come these stories of Eagle. Values of the culture are preserved in the retelling of these stories that show Eagle's value and symbolism for the Native Americans.
Other
Personal: Raven and the Man That Sits on the Tides
This is a Native American Raven tale from a Pacific Northwest tribe provided by Native American Storyteller, Barry McWilliams.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Early American and Colonial Period to 1776
Background information about the literary traditions of the pre-Colonial and Colonial period. Includes information about Native American oral traditions and Native American cultures. Follow the links to the Early American era and to...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Lesson Plan: Writing Folktales
With this lesson plan, students examine the American tradition of folk tales and tall tales, then write and illustrate their own original tale. Provides links to more information, an assessment rubric, extension ideas, and a list of...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Native Voices, Chippewa Songs
Study the great oral tradition of the Chippewa Tribe in the Great Lakes regions through their music collected by Frances Densmore. For classroom activities and lesson enhancements click on the link, "Chippewa Songs Activities."
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Native Voices: Ghost Dance Songs
A Native American Paiute man known as Wovoka, after seeing a vision, started the Ghost Dance religion which had many songs to carry on its oral tradition. Click on the tab "Ghost Dance Songs Activities" to explore activities and photos.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Native Voices: Black Elk
Sioux visionary and leader, Black Elk, and his aide to writing Black Elk Speaks, poet John D. Niehardt, are featured in this lesson with regard to the concept of oral tradition in American and Native American writing. Click on "Black Elk...