Caribou Man - Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans for CARIBOU MAN level T

Text Type:
Fiction / Folktale

Reading Level:
T

Word Count:
1,901

Pages:
28

Text Summary
Caribou Man is an adaptation of an Eskimo folktale. Onhgarouk is an Eskimo man who lives in a village near the sea with his wife and two sons. After hearing his wife's father say that he is a terrible husband, Onhgarouk decides to leave home and learn how to become a better man. He becomes many different animals during his search. After many years, Onhgarouk returns home and becomes human again. He then devotes the rest of his life to applying the lessons he learned on his journey.

Suggested Lesson Focus
Comprehension/Literary Element Strategies
Identify and discuss the theme of a folktale.

Word Skills
Identify and syllabify words with a double medial consonant.

Grammar Skills
Describe and provide examples of conjunctions.

Phonics Skills
List words with silent letters.

Targeted Vocabulary Words
ptarmigan, meager, furnish

Before Reading

Introducing the Book
Hand out the books and have children read the title and scan the illustrations to make an initial prediction about the setting and the plot.
Ask: What do you think this story is about? Do you recognize the animals in the illustrations? What do the illustrations tell you about the setting? Can you tell where and when this story might be happening? Why do you think the author called this story Caribou Man?

Build Background
Discuss the animals that may be unfamiliar to children.
Ask: Who knows what a ptarmigan is? (A game bird that is a type of grouse related to a pheasant.) What you think ptarmigans eat? What animals do you think might prey on ptarmigans? What is a caribou? What other animals are caribou related to? What do caribou eat? What animals might hunt and kill caribou for food?
Discuss with children how some native peoples may have world views different from the world view of their own culture. In the stories of many of the world’s aboriginal peoples (the original occupants of a given land), animals are treated as though they are human. For example, among the Eskimo, an original story would refer to the animals as people (the rabbit people, the seal people, the caribou people). One possible explanation is the belief that non-human animals have spirits, as humans do; therefore, they are our brothers and sisters.
Animal groups are sometimes referred to as clans, as in the bear clan. Among many native peoples, including the Eskimo, human beings had animal ancestors. The name of a given tribe or clan often makes reference to this animal ancestor. For this reason, the animals themselves are referred to as people, honoring them as ancestors.
Finally, an aboriginal people who still believe in their mythology are living in a world where magic is a powerful force. Men, particularly shamans, are capable of becoming animals. Likewise, animals with powerful spirits, like Coyote in the western United States, are capable of taking on human form.
Because most of the myths and stories we have from aboriginal peoples were recorded during the period when they were losing their ancestral lands, these stories remain mostly intact. There are few native peoples left on Earth at this point who have not had their traditions and mythologies corrupted by Western civilization. We are fortunate to have collections of myths that give us insight into the ways these people once lived.

Book Walk
Ask children to read page 3 to find out where and when the story is set.
Say and ask: Now that you know the setting of the story, does it cause you to alter your initial predictions? If so, in what ways?
Read the second sentence on page 4 to the children. The traps were almost always empty, and the hunting was meager. Ask children what meager means.
Ask: Who can use the word meager in another sentence?
Have children read the next sentence. Ongharouk tried to furnish meat to feed his family, but the winter was long and he grew weary.
Ask: What does furnish mean in this sentence? Does it have the same meaning as when you say, "They were going to furnish their house?"
Have children turn to page 7 and scan the first sentence on the page.
Say: Now let’s talk about this sentence. Let’s discuss what it means. What does this sentence tell you about the plot? Can you predict what might happen further into the story? What do you think Onhgarouk might find on the tundra? Can you now add anything to your initial predictions?
Have children turn to page 9 and read the last paragraph.
Ask: Do you think that Onhgarouk will become a ptarmigan? Can this sort of thing happen in folktales?
Ask children to turn to page 15 and discuss what is meant by uphold his responsibilities.
Have children turn to page 23 and read the last sentence on the page.
Ask: What does sympathetic mean? What is the noun that the word sympathetic comes from? Does this sentence help you make further predictions about how the story will end?
Have children return to page 3.

During Reading

Say: Read to the end of page 6.
When children have finished reading, discuss the initiating events.
Ask: What events have happened in the story so far? How do these events determine what Onhgarouk does next? Would the story have been different if the winter had not been harsh? How? Would the story have been different if Onhgarouk had not overheard his wife’s father talking?
Ask children to read to the end of page 10 and then discuss whether they have revised or confirmed their initial predictions.
Ask: What do you think will happen next? What makes you think that?
Have children read the rest of the book independently. Have them mark with a sticky note any word or phrase they did not understand or could not pronounce. You can clarify these later. During this time, you may choose to work with another group. Alternately, you may wish to work individually with some children to monitor their oral reading and comprehension of parts of the text.
Say: I want you to finish reading the book at your own pace. As you read, stop at the end of pages 14 and 18 and think about a pattern that is emerging in the folktale. Think about whether you think Onhgarouk will ever find happiness. When you have finished reading, we are going to talk about this.

Using the Worksheet
Introduce and explain the Worksheet. Have children start work on the Worksheet as they finish reading the text.

After Reading

Comprehending the Text
Draw the group together again, and ask children to discuss the plot.
Ask: What was the main event that set the rest of the story in motion? Where did Onhgarouk go? Why did he leave? Who did he follow first? Next? After that? Why did he leave? What happened when he got home again?
Discuss the pattern in the text.
Ask: What did you notice about the pattern that emerged? Why do you think the author wrote the story like that?
Discuss the theme.
Say and ask: Let’s talk about the underlying meaning or theme? Share with the group what you think this is. Do you think that there is such a thing as a perfect life? Does the grass always seem greener on the other side? Did Onhgarouk need to go away to become a better man? Why or why not?

Building Skills

Word Skills
Discuss words with double medial consonants. Write the word little on the board.
Say: Little is a word that has a double consonant in the middle. The double consonant is tt. When two consonants are the same are in the middle of a word they are called double medial consonants. If you want to break a word with a double medial consonant into syllables, you break the word between the two consonants.
Demonstrate as you talk by putting a slash between the two t's—for example, lit/tle. Then write the word little with a space between the syllables—lit tle. Write the word appear on the board.
Say: The word appear also has a double consonant in it. Who can show me where you would break this word into syllables?
Write the word disappearing on the board.
Say: Some words with double consonants also have prefixes and suffixes. If you want to break these words into syllables you need to break the word after the prefix, then between the double consonants, and then before the suffix.
Demonstrate as you speak—dis/ap/pear/ing dis ap pear ing
Have children practice breaking words into syllables by completing the Worksheet.

Phonics
Write ptarmigan on the board.
Say: What do you notice about the pronunciation of this word? Who can tell me another word that starts with a silent letter?
Provide riddle sentences to help the students supply words with initial silent letters. For example

It’s part of my leg above the ankle and below the thigh. (knee)
These people were men who lived in castles many years ago. They wore armor when they fought. (knight)
It’s a kind of dinosaur that flies. (pterodactyl)

Grammar
Discuss conjunctions with children.
Say: A conjunction is a word that is used to join words or groups of words. Who can tell me a word that is a conjunction?
List children’s responses on the board. Words should include and, but, or, because, while, however, since, for, either, neither. Have children search through Caribou Man to locate conjunctions.

Expand the Reading

Writing Connection
Writing another episode
Say: I want you to think back to our discussion about the patterns in the story. Remember, Caribou Man first followed the ptarmigans, then rabbits, then seals, before finally becoming a caribou. I want you to think of another animal that he could have followed and write another episode. Use the book to help you with the format. Be sure to include what the animals said to Caribou Man to discourage him from staying with them.

Science Connection
Have children use the library and the Internet to further research either caribou, seals, or ptarmigans. Have them present their findings as an information report.

Reading Independently
Invite children to reread the book, Caribou Man, independently or with a partner. They could then look for and read other books about folktales from different cultures. Children should also read each other’s new episodes and the information reports that they prepare.

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