Native American Wisdom in the EFL Classroom

Most people around the world do not value the wisdom of their indigenous people. Kristen Marée Cleary states in the foreword of the book Native American Wisdom that “the Awaunageesuck (strangers) have, at last, begun to appreciate and learn the values of these great nations”. That, I think, is also happening in our country as we can see people learning Mapudungún or being more interested in this people’s health knowledge. Thus, in this essay, I will try to present the incredible value of the literature of the Native American People and how we can transmit their wisdom into the EFL classroom. This essay will include a brief glance to the reader—response approach, brief history of Native American people literature and different activities that can be done with school students along with the values we can extract from these readings.

In order to use these legends, poetry and stories in the EFL classroom is important to mention the approach to literature I will be using in my classes. The Reader-Response approach is the most appealing to me because people get to bring themselves into their own readings. Readers’ experiences play a fundamental role in interpreting and understanding any piece of literature. This approach can be defined as the approach which emphasizes the individual as a reader—responder, the role of the reader as a re-creator who with his/her experience, previous readings, thoughts and feelings enrich any text. Also, the reader interacts with the text mainly because of the objectives of this approach such as encouraging individual readers to feel more comfortable with their responses to a literary text, encouraging them to understand themselves better by giving arguments to their responses which will make them be aware of themselves (Chen).

This literature has a long story. From an early age, before the English Empire came to conquer North America, indigenous people had their different tribes which all together constituted one civilization. They taught their children orally as displayed in the following:

There are stories and stories….There are the songs, also, that are taught. Some are whimsical. Some are very intense. Some are documentary….Everything I have known is through teachings, by word of mouth, either by song or legends.

Terrance Honvantewa, Hopi (Cleary).

Therefore, some of their legends, tales and stories have been lost. Some others have not because they have been transmitted until this day by the members of the different tribes. Some of them are now in a written form and accessible to people world-wide. These texts are valuable because of the great teaching that their words have and also because they are simple and easy to understand. With this literature “teachers see how folk literature can extend their students’ literacy and love of reading through a range of classroom applications spanning the full range of the language arts” (Young). I am very interested in fostering students’ passion for reading, so with this literature I will be contributing to develop their literacy and love of reading because we will be constantly using it to produce other outcomes such as plays, journals and even stories.

In this part, I will specifically work with methodological aspects of the reader response approach and how we can use various selected pieces of Native American People literature in the classroom. I will first present the text and immediately after it, the values that we can transmit through the reading. Afterwards, I will mention and explain the activities with which we can work in class.

It is no longer good enough to cry peace, we must act peace, live peace, and live in peace.

Shenandoah proverb (Cleary)

After reading this proverb I just thought of the value of coherence. As it states, it is not enough to speak about peace, but that our actions are embedded with peace.

How can I work with this value and the reading in the classroom? Response journals are one of the activities which follow the methodology of the reader response approach (Chen). By asking different questions we can ask our students to write a 150 word entry giving answer to a question and including their own reflection about the reading. For example, I could ask them to reflect on how coherent they think they are between what they say, think and do. I could ask them exemplify their answers. This way, they will have an opportunity of getting to know themselves through the task.

Deer, I am sorry to hurt you, but the people are hungry.

Choctaw Hunter’s Prayer (Cleary)

The value of this prayer is the caring for other living beings. We can see that even when the Native American people hunted, they just did it because they had to and not because it was fun. There was a reason behind the hunting, so they did care about the animals.

With this prayer my students can have a discussion about the slaughtering of animals without being concerned or even caring for them. We can plan a debate based on this prayer in which the students can have a position about it. One group would agree and the other would disagree with the prayer. They would have to find out for more information and in the process they will be thinking about many things that are related to the topic of animal mistreatment.

You Are Part Of Me

You are part of me now

You touched me,

With your kindness and love

So enchanted.

Your soft lips are kind.

Your eyes glow with life.

I'm glad you touched me,

You're part of me now.

Lloyd Carl Owle, Cherokke. (First People)

With this poem we can see the value of respect. It is very much like do not do something that you would not like to be done. So, we can teach respect through this poem because when you are part of something you cannot do wrong. This can also be related to nature since we are all part of nature; consequently, we should not harm or damage our world.

The activity that can be developed with this poem is the oral interpretation. I can ask my students to rehearse and later read the poem aloud. By doing this, they will bring their own interpretation of the poems and feelings towards it dramatically. With this, my students can be practicing their oral skills and features outside the language itself such as rhythm, intonation and stress.

The last piece of folk literature is a longer one. It is the legend of the origin of the Hopi Snake Clan. (Appendix 1)

With this legend we can have very interesting activities. After we have read the legend in class, all together, we can act it out (Chen). As a class, we can create a dialogue based on the legend and create different costumes for the characters that are present in the story. I think this activity will be very successful because students really like to have creative activities in which they are fully involved. Constructivist theory claims that by the fully engagement and level of involvedness students can truly learn. With this activity, they will be bringing themselves into the reading. Another activity is to ask them to create their own legend based on their family tradition (Chen). They will be writing based on the same model of the legend presented in class a story of their own life and that of their family. In order to do this, they will have to interview their family members such as grandparents, parents and uncles and aunts who will eventually end up sharing stories and tales about the family. Then, with students’ imagination they will write their own story and learn about themselves and their respective families.

As you can see, teachers can definitely and should absolutely use folk literature in the EFL classroom. In my constant search for more interactive and fun activities, I think that the proposed activities to include folk literature in the class will be challenging and motivating for students and they will be learning. Using the reader response approach allows us to understand our students better and to include them in our activities; thus, creating a more student-centered classroom. Involving the students is essential in order to have a more effective classroom and I am sure they always have something to say: I think we should listen to them more often. At the same time, they will be learning about themselves and their origins and they will begin to have an opinion about different topics and issues that are posed in the beautiful folk literature. Fortunately, there is more access to folk literature and there are so many more poems, prayers, legends and tales with which we can work.

Bibliography

Chen, Chi-Fen Emily. Teaching Literature to Children. <http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/CLit/Teaching.htm>.

Cleary, Kristen Marée. Native American Wisdom. New York: Fall River Press, 1996.

First People: American Indian Poems and Prayers. <http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/The_Origin_Of_The_Hopi_Snake_Clan-Hopi.html>.

Young, Terrell. Happily Ever After: Sharing Folk Literature with Elementary and Middle School Students. Newark: International Reading Association, 2004.