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Exploring Values Towards Conservation |
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In a Nutshell:
Each group of students will read a First Nation story, identify
the values expressed in it and discuss how those values relate
to conservation issues we face today. With the knowledge that
Elders and other respected community members have important stories
to tell, students will then seek out stories relevant to climate
change from their own Elders and respected community members. |
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Goal:
To help students to define First Nation “values” and
recognize the relevance of First Nation stories to today’s conservation
issues – including climate change. |
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Background Learning:
Teachers should be familiar with the basic science of climate
change and its anticipated impacts as reviewed in:
Teachers should read the backgrounders that correspond specifically
to this lesson plan:
Teachers may want to be familiar with two additional backgrounders
for enrichment activities:
Students should be familiar with the basic science of climate
change and its anticipated impacts as reviewed in:
Students should also read the backgrounders that corresponds
specifically to this lesson plan:
Students may want to be familiar with two additional backgrounders
for enrichment activities:
Students should read at least one of the following stories around
which this lesson plan is constructed:
- “Skookum Jim’s Frog Helper”
- “How the Animals Broke Through the Sky”
- “Kaax’achgook”
The stories are found in Part Two of: Julie Cruikshank, “Life
Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Native
Elders,” (Vancouver:
UBC Press, 1991), pp. 57-62, 48-9, 139-145. |
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Learning Outcomes:
Click on the icon for your territory to review the learning outcomes that are addressed by this lesson:
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Introduction to Lesson Plan:
In all cultures, values are reinforced through storytelling.
This is particularly true in First Nation cultures. This lesson,
based on Julie Cruikshank’s book, Life lived like a Story
introduces some key First Nation values as expressed through
the stories of three Yukon Elders.
The following excerpt from the UBC Press web site (www.ubcpress.ca)
describes the book and its authors:
“Storytelling is a universal activity and may well be
the oldest of the arts. It has always provided a vehicle for
the expression of ideas, particularly in societies relying on
oral tradition…
“The life stories appearing in this volume come from communities
where storytelling provides a customary framework for discussing
the past. Angela Sidney, Kitty Smith and Annie Ned are three
remarkable and gifted women of Athapaskan and Tlingit ancestry
who were born in the southern Yukon Territory around the
turn of the century. Their life stories tell us as much about the
present as about the past, as much about ideas of community
as about individual experience. They call our attention to
the diverse ways humans formulate such linkages.”
The Oxford Dictionary of Current English defines values as “one’s
principles, priorities, or standards.” Values incorporate
cultural ideals, customs, and institutions. Some First Nation
values are respect, connectedness, conservation and clear vision.(Della
Thompson, ed, The Oxford Dictionary of Current English, (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1996), p.1017.)
This lesson allows teachers to explore ‘Indigenous’ values
across the north – through the use of myths and legends. Selecting
myths and legends from your part of the north will make it relevant
for your students. Stories often describe conflicts that lead
to the development of values; this lesson examines how three
particular stories teach values that relate to conservation.
This activity can come alive for your students if Elders and
other respected community members are willing to offer their
knowledge and the experience of their culture as expressed through
their own stories.
The activity approach that follows has been adapted from:
Jennifer Cuthbertson, Wolves: a Yukon Learning Resource, (Whitehorse:
Government of Yukon, 1997), pp. 78-79.
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Activity:
- Divide the class into three groups and give each group
one of the stories from Life Lived Like a Story to read.
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 For lessons on the value of respect read “Skookum Jim’s
Frog Helper” (pp. 57-62). In this story, as told by Mrs.
Angela Sidney, Skookum Jim assists a frog and this frog turns
into to a beautiful woman who points him to the discovery of
gold. Skookum Jim’s kindness, understanding, compassion
and service to others are rewarded by material wealth,
which is to be used in moderation and in balance.
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For lessons on the value of connectedness read “How Animals
Broke Through the Sky” (pp. 48-9). As told by Mrs. Angela
Sidney, animals use thinking, analyzing, awareness and clear
vision to help them through apparent climate change. The animals
in this story are committed to universal life values and high
moral conduct (essential characteristics in the development of
one’s higher self).
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For lessons on the value of conservation read “Kaax’achgook” (pp.
139-145). As told by Mrs. Angela Sidney, Kaax’achgook
takes only what he needs and uses everything. This story
is about balance,
completion, reflection and contemplation. Kaax’achgook
gives us a sense of how to live a balanced life.
- Ask each student to consider some or all of the questions
in the Teacher Handout:
Question and Answer Key, and
to write out their answers on paper. Each small group can
then discuss
their answers.
- Ask a student from each group to present
a verbal summary of the discussion his or her group had about
one of the questions.
- To reinforce and clarify the lesson,
summarize on a flipchart with the whole class the key values
identified in each story.
Examine how these values relate to conservation
behaviour today that would help reduce climate change.
-
 Ask
each group to interview a community resource person or storyteller
about climate change. It is strongly recommended
that the teacher be familiar with appropriate
and accepted methods for interviewing community members and
reviews
these
with the students. Encourage students to learn
interview/research techniques that are appropriate to the
culture, community and
individual. Make sure that interviewees know
how their stories will be used, and offer to give them copies
of
the results
if they would like them. Students should prepare
some questions beforehand, and identify who will ask which
questions. This
activity could take place in the school, if interviewees
are willing to come in, or could take place after school
hours. Consider placing any transcripts in the school or local
library.
- Ask students to identify the similarities and differences
between the stories in Life Lived Like
a Story and their own
research findings by recording their ideas
as a group on a
wall mural or on paper.
Each group will then work their
findings into a presentation format. They may do this in
whatever way is most effective.
For example, they may present a wall mural,
distribute copies of an essay, or create an audio documentary
(a radio-style
documentary) that they play to the class,
or use a combination of all of the above.
- Post the results
from activity step 5 in the classroom and/or to the Student
Web- Exchange.
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Handouts:
Click on the icon for the handout that supports this lesson
– Teacher Handout: Question
and Answer Key. |
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Student Web-Exchange:
Students may post their presentations. Click on the icon for
information on how to post material. |
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Evaluation:
Define the terms: “values” “conservation” and “global
warming.” Identify examples of each of the following, as
they relate to conservation: personal responsibility, group responsibility,
school responsibility, town responsibility, national responsibility,
and international responsibility. The exercises in the Activities
section will also evaluate the effectiveness of the lesson. |
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Enrichment Ideas:
Social Studies
Reduce, Re-use, Recycle: Visit the local dump and/or recycling
centre and get involved with their educational programs, or start
a program if one doesn’t exist.
Community Contacts: Expand the community research to include
other community resource people or storytellers. Ask them as
well about stories that their parents may have told them about
climate change.
Action on the Home Front: Research how local and national First
Nation governments have addressed climate change.
Website Winner: Design a website that features some or all of
your sources with a transcript of their story and a commentary
on the link between the story and climate change. Post it to
the Student Web-Exchange.
English, First Nation Languages
The Poetry of Conservation: Put one of the stories you received
from a community member, or your feelings about it, into a poetry
form.
Drama
Song and Dance: Develop a song, or song and dance project, that
expresses the values and attitudes needed for conservation.
Art
Creative Conservation: Create a craft project that expresses
the values and attitudes needed for conservation.
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About the Author:
My name is Norma Shorty and I live in Marsh Lake, Yukon, located
south of Whitehorse. I have a Bachelor of Education and I am
a certified teacher and I am a Masters Degree Candidate at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa.
I am very involved in the political aspects of First Nation education.
I am of Tlingit Ancestry. My mother was born on the banks of
the Nisutlin River (near Teslin, Yukon and my father was born
on the banks of the Big Salmon River (near Ross River). My mother
went to residential school my father was self taught. I was born
in a hospital and am very successful in school learning; I have
much to learn in being Tlingit (language included), therefore,
I am very concerned about creating ways for our people to pass
on traditional knowledge and to have this knowledge valued in
classroom settings. My Elders have always stated that knowledge
is power; therefore the more I know about myself the more powerful
I will be. I believe this attitude of success and connectiveness
is needed in order for indigenous peoples of the north to succeed
in all walks of life.
Norma Shorty was recommended by the Council of Yukon First
Nations in Whitehorse to create a lesson plan for the Climate
Change
North website.
The three women on whose stories this lesson is based were Angela
Sidney, Kitty Smith, and Annie Ned. Of Athapaskan and Tlingit
ancestry, they lived in the southern Yukon Territory for nearly
a century. They collaborated with Julie Cruikshank, an assistant
professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University
of British Columbia, to produce a unique kind of autobiography.
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