12th Grade Lesson Plan for Leslie Marmon Silko's Storyteller

Abstract

In Storyteller, Leslie Marmon Silko weaves the oral stories of her ancestors into a craftily designed novel that not only retells their cultural history, but also follows the cultural shifts and struggles of Native Americans after European contact. The history of Native Americans is rarely seen through the eyes of those Natives; therefore, the proposed poster presents a senior level high school lesson plan that uses Silko‟s text to explore the effects the Europeans had on Native American storytelling and the survival of the oral tradition. My approach for teaching this novel to high school students between the ages of sixteen and eighteen is to begin with a thorough exploration of the Pueblo Indian culture. Then, I would like to discuss the discrepancy between the culture of the Natives presented by the Westernized man and the actual culture and proceedings of the Pueblo Indians we have studied. I would like the students to then be able to discuss the reasons for the United States‟ continued reliance on a curriculum that omits the truth behind the history and culture of Native Americans today. By having the students read the stories so commonly told to Native Americans at their age even today, I hope to immerse them into the truth behind the tactics of the Natives in the time of European colonization. I would like them to conceptualize the differences in the cultures and how those differences caused the fear exhibited in the actions of the settlers. Also, I would like them to decide how, through the obvious continuation of the traditional storytelling, the Native Americans have revived their culture even in the confines of Indian Reservations strategically placed in the plains of the country.