LESSON PLAN

Subject: ​ Social Studies Grade: 8 Date: Sept.10

Critical Inquiry Question:​​ To what extent can we understand the Worldviews of the
people in the past through folktales?
Lesson: Worldviews and Folktales Time: 70 minutes
SLOs:
8.1.1 - appreciate the roles of time and geographic location in shaping a society's
worldview

8.1.4 - appreciate how a society's worldview shapes individual citizenship and identity

8.2.2 - demonstrate a willingness to consider differing beliefs, values and worldviews

8.2.3 - recognize how beliefs and values are shaped by time, geographic location and
societal context

Instructional Objectives:
Knowledge:
Students will understand the connections between folktales and and the worldviews.
students will also understand that folktales were used as a tool by people to pass on their
culture’s worldviews to the next generation. The students will also better understand what
elements makes up an individual’s/society’s worldviews.

Skill:
Students will be able to identify worldviews of the folktale author using contextual and
content cues from folktales presented in various media forms(video and text).

Key Questions:
What is a worldview and how do we identify it?

How much of the author’s worldview is reflected in a cultural folktale and what did that
mean for their culture/society?

How can we use folktales as a tool to gain insight into the past?

Materials:
lesson powerpoint, Print out of ​Visu the Woodsman​, Folktales & Worldviews worksheet
Preparation:
- find 2 folktales(preferably in varied mediums, and from different cultures)
- ensure that there are enough copies of the print outs for each student to have
Adaptations:
- The powerpoint will have key phrases/words/ideas italicized and highlighted in order to
help those students that struggle with efficiently obtaining information from texts.
- Each slide will be read aloud and explained by the teacher to accommodate auditory
learners.
- A folktale will be provided through a video medium
- The text folktale will be read aloud once by the teacher after a copy has been handed out
to each student.
- The teacher will also walk around the class during discussions throughout the lesson in
order to pick up quick formative assessment of students’ understanding of the material.

Lesson Procedure:
- Begin the class with the attendance question and take attendance
- Explain to the students that their previous assignment, ​Worldviews of a fictional
character​ will be temporarily put on hold for the day in order to ensure that they
have enough knowledge to effectively complete it.
- begin the slide - review of the previous day’s ​Elements of Worldview
- go over this slide as it is only a review, but also due to the fact that last day, they
were bored to death by it.
- Introduce today’s topic by discussing the term ​Folktale
- What is a folktale?
- what is the difference between a regular story and a folktale?
- what was the purpose of a folktale?
- Before showing the video ask the students to think about the 7 elements of
Worldview, think about which of those (may be just 1 or many, or all) elements
are reflected in the folktale
- Show Coyote dream and explain that it is a folktale from a Native American Tribe
somewhere West of the Mississippi(couldn’t find the exact origin, unfortunately).
- Once the video is finished, bring up the 7 elements of worldviews back up on the
board and give the students to think and discuss for a minute or two before
opening up the discussion.
- Explain to the students that this video contains many worldview points of the
Native American people that have written it
- Present the quote by Therry and Deviney and make the connections to the 6th
element of worldviews.
- Hand out the ​Visu the Woodsman​ and the worksheet and explain that we will be
pulling worldviews of the japanese culture that wrote it
- read aloud the folktale to the students
- have the students work independently or with a partner to try and decipher which
worldview this folktale may be passing on.
- Begin discussion with the students about what they have learned from Visu the
woodsman
- show slide 34 but explain that this is “Mr. Kim’s interpretation”
 - finish the lesson with the exit slip question.

Assessment:
Students will be assessed formative through the teacher led discussions, by listening in on
student discussions, and the Visu the Woodsman worksheet

Lesson Reflection: