8100-ABED_1: Lesson 15 — Activity 1: Assignment

In the next activity in this lesson, you will read a selection from the book A Book of Tricksters: Tales from Many Lands retold by Jon C. Stott.

Before reading the selection, you will complete this assignment to practise the Before Reading Strategies of predicting, making connections, and asking questions.

A Book of Tricksters belongs to the folktale genre. You know that folktales are short, traditional stories that teach lessons, sometimes through the experiences of animals. Some folktales include tricksters who play tricks on or outsmart other characters.

Do the following:

1. Look at the front cover of the book:

"A Book of Tricksters" retold be Jon C. Stott

2. Click this box to read the introduction that Jon Stott wrote at the beginning of the book:

"For centuries, people around the world have been telling stories about tricksters, characters who solve problems by using their wits to fool others. Sometimes, these tricksters want to help people. Other times, they use their cleverness for selfish reasons. Occasionally, they aren’t as clever as they think they are and get tricked themselves.

A Book of Tricksters retells stories from 14 different countries. Many of the tricksters in these stories say and do similar things. However, there are differences in the personalities of these characters and in the lessons in the stories. That is because, although people all over the world are alike in many ways, people from one cultural group have different attitudes about life than people from another cultural group.

There’s a reason trickster stories have been popular all around the world for hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. People who heard or read them found them entertaining. When they thought about them, they often learned more about themselves as members of their group.

I hope that you will find these stories entertaining and that they will help you to better understand people from many different lands." Jon C. Stott

3. Look at the title of the story “How Nanabozho Lost His Big Feast.” Then click this box to read the short introduction:

"The Ojibway people living in the areas around Lake Superior often told stories about how Nanabozho used his wits to help others. However, because he was sometimes very greedy, he often played tricks for selfish reasons. These old stories were first written down more than 150 years ago by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, a white trader."

4. Practise the strategies of making predictions, making connections, and asking questions.

Click on the Making Predictions tab when you are ready to begin.

Click here for the Making Predictions page and complete the BEFORE questions:

What I think the story will be about?
Why I think that.

Then go to the Making Connections tab.

Click here for the Making Connections page.

Complete the three sections on this page.

Think about experiences you have had or things you know about being tricked.
Think about other stories you have read in other books about someone getting tricked.
Think about things in the world that have happened when someone tried to trick someone.

Then go to the Asking Questions tab.

Click here for the Asking Questions page.

Complete the Skim and Ask section by designing questions that you want to find the answers to while reading. (Try to ask at least three questions.)

You may use a computer or paper to complete this assignment.

When you are done, review for spelling and punctuation.

Please do one of the following:

1. You can type your work directly into the assignment box on the next page by clicking the "add submission" button under the orange box at the bottom of this page.
2. If you type your work into the attached Word documents, save your documents, and either send them to your teacher as an e-mail attachment or print them off and then hand them in to your teacher so they can be marked.
3. You can also choose to complete a hand-written assignment on a piece of paper. If so, please hand in your assignment to your teacher so it can be marked.

When you receive this assignment back from your teacher, keep it. You will use these pages after you finish reading the selection.

See the Marking Guide below to see how your teacher will grade this assignment.

Marking Guide:

This assignment is worth 11 marks. Marks will be awarded as follows:

Making Predictions: 2 marks

Making Connections: 6 marks

Asking Questions: 3 marks

If you choose to answer in the assignment box, when you are ready to begin writing, click the "add submission" button below. Be sure to save your work as you go!