Grades 11-12: We Are Our Stories
Resources for Grades 11-12: We Are Our Stories.
Synopsis:
"Stories are wondrous things," award-winning author and scholar Thomas King declares in his 2003 CBC Massey Lectures. "And they are dangerous." In his 2003 Massey lectures, award-winning author and scholar Thomas King looks at the breadth and depth of Native experience and imagination.
Beginning with a traditional Native oral story, King weaves his way through literature and history, religion and politics, popular culture and social protest, gracefully elucidating North America's relationship with its Native peoples.
Native culture has deep ties to storytelling, and yet no other North American culture has been the subject of more erroneous stories. The Indian of fact, as King says, bears little resemblance to the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the construct so powerfully and often destructively projected by White North America. With keen perception and wit, King illustrates that stories are the key to, and only hope for, human understanding. He compels us to listen well.
Reviews
"Trust a novelist and English professor to get to the heart of how stories and storytelling shape our perceptions. This is a wonderful study of the power of words." — Booklist
"A collection of thought-provoking essays examining the importance of the oral tradition. Storyteller Thomas King addresses Native cultural concerns and their primal link to storytelling. Intriguing and entertaining. Highly recommended for all tribal college collections and literature classes."— Tribal College Journal
"What is revealed in this graceful, even seductive book of essays about storytelling by the esteemed Cherokee novelist, radio personality, university professor, and Canadian émigré is that what is as important as the stories we tell about the world are the ways in which we interpret those stories." — World Literature in Review
"King’s addresses artfully combine literary and cultural criticism, traditional Native American stories, and personal experience." — The Bloomsbury Review
Educator Information
Essay series that is a study of First Peoples' storytelling in North America.
Grades 10-12 English First Peoples Resource for various units.
Curriculum Connections: English, Indigenous Studies, Civics and Careers, History, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Additional Information
208 pages | 5.08" x 8.00"
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