Language Arts/Literacy Lesson
Grade Level: 7th & 8th Grade

Oral Traditions
Coyote Tales are literary example of an oral tradition and as such the form or structure of the tale follows a circular or cumulative design. Traditional tales from European cultures, such as Cinderella or Little Red Riding Hood, are told following a trajectory or rising action plot. Stories from oral traditions utilize the word and to move the story, events are added to the plot, but the action does not accelerate or close with a culminating event or climax. Listen to Coyote Creates Spokane Falls and note the additive plot. Read the transcript for the tale and map the movement of the plot.

Idaho Standards
The skill building portions of this lesson plan are directly related to Idaho Standards:

734-01 The student will read a variety of traditional and electronic materials for information and understanding:
a). Use decoding strategies and other visual information to fluently read grade-level text.
b) Search purposefully for particular information.
c) Predict alternatives or probabilities in text on basis of prior knowledge and information within text.
e) Confirm or self-correct predictions in response to grade-level text.
f.) Identify literary devices.

734-02 Read and respond to a variety of literature to compare and contrast the many dimensions of human experience.
c) Relate social, cultural, and historical aspects of literature to reader's personal experience.
d) Analyze narrative literature according to the following text elements:
Character; Setting; Conflict; Plot structure; Theme; Point of view.

Pre-lesson:
Retell or read aloud a traditional European Tale. Construct a plot map on an overhead or at the board with the class. Introduce the literary term trajectory or rising action to prompt the students. Briefly discuss students' response to this plot structure.

Skill building:

• Predict the plot structure of Coyote Creates Spokane Falls. Note the use of circular or additive plots in oral traditions.
• Create a visual map of the plot in the coyote tale.
• Compare the plot line of the traditional tale to the coyote tale.

Oral traditions unique to North American Indians contain a focus on landscape. Often the coyote or other members of the First Persons (Coyote, Crane, Raven, Chipmunk, etc.) will travel across specific landscape, noting specific landmarks as they travel in the tale. In other tales, the member of the First Persons will rescue a significant landmark (mountain, river, etc.) from a monster or one who seeks to harm the tribal group often through trickery or by outsmarting the monster. Coyote is a symbolic animal in American Indian narratives. His actions represent both good and bad human characteristics. Unlike a hero or heroine in European traditional tales, his behavior is not predictable and moves in and out of a range of behaviors. See the list of coyote roles. Discuss Coyote Creates Spokane Falls with students and decide which characteristics coyote is displaying in this tale. Focus on where he travels and what his actions cause to be altered in the landscape. Place his actions or the events in the tale along the diagram of the circular plot in order of significance to the lesson embedded in the tale. Note if the actions accumulate or rise.

Skill building:

Text to text comparison

• Plot construction
• Role of landscape or setting in the tale
• Review literary devices of tone and style
• Listen to the coyote story again and note if coyote is rescuing or destroying a landmark
• Which of coyote's many roles is assuming in this tale?
• What are the consequences of his actions?
• Who suffers or gains from his actions?
• In small groups create inferences that describe the short term and long term consequences resulting from coyote's actions in this tale.

The theme or lesson in a coyote story is often developed around group identity, community, landscape and the well being of the tribe. In coyote stories no one is a hero, individual actions gain meaning in relation to the group's well being. Landscape plays an integral part to the plot, theme and overall lesson the listener is expected to internalize.

Skill building:

• Compare contrast oral tradition with European plot structures.
• Compare contrast themes that emerge from the different plots.

After listening to the coyote tale, break into small groups. Each group should review the plot construction, the role of coyote and then, construct a lesson or theme the tale has woven throughout the narrative. Compare this theme to the theme(s) possibly in a trajectory plot, with a hero or heroine. Note the significant role of landscape in coyote tales. Discuss the role of place or setting in a theme. Discuss why an elder tells an oral tale. Why is this detail important in an oral tradition?