REPO R T R E S U M E S ED 013 818 24 TE ODD 060 A CURRICULUM FOR ENGLISH ; STUDENT PACKET, GRACE 7. NEBRASKA UNIV., LINCOLN,CURRICULUM DEV. CTR. PUB DATE 65 CONTRACT OEC-2-10-119 EDRS PRICE MF-$1.00 HCNOT AVAILABLE rROM MRS. 258F. DESCRIPTORS- *CURR/CULUM GUIDES,*ENGLISH CURRICULUM, *ENGLISH INSTRUCTION, *GRADE 7,*INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS, COMPOSIIION (LITERARY), LINGUISTICS,LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, LITERARY ANALYSIS, MYTHOLOGY, SPELLING,SHORT STORIES; FORM CLASSES (LANGUAGES), DICTIONARIES,NEBRASKA CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT CENTER THE SEVENTH-GRADE STUDENTPACKET, PRODUCED BY THE NE9RASKA CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENTCENTER, BEGINS WITH THEUNIT ENTITLED "THE MAKING OF STORIES"IN WHICH STUDENTS CONSIDER WRITERS' AUDIENCES AND METHODSCF COMPOSITION AND PRESENTATION. SUCH MATERIAL AS "ACHRISTMAS CAROL" AND SELECTIONS FROM "THE ODYSSEY,""BEOWULF," "HYMN TO HERMES," AND GRIMM'S "FAIRY TALES"ARE STUDIED TO SHOW THEDIFFERENT SETS Cf CONDITIONS UNDERWHICH AUTHORS "MAKE UF"STORIES. A RELATED UNIT, "THE MEANING OFSTORIES," ATTEMPTS TO TEACH STUDENTS, THROUGH POEMS ANDSTORIES, TO ASK WHAT A STORY MEANS AND FICAd THE MEANING ISCOMMUNICATED. WITH THIS BACKGROUND, STUDENTS ARE PREPAREDTO STUDY SELECTIONS IN THREE UNITS ON MYTHOLOGYGREEKMYTHS; HECREW LITERATURE,AND AMERICAN INDIAN MYTHS. IN THEFOLLOWING UNIT, STUDENTS ENCOUNTER BALLADS, AMERICANFOLKLORE, AND A WESTERN NOVEL, "SHANE." THE FINAL LITERATUREUNIT, "AUTOBIOGRAPHYBENJAMIN FRANKLIN," IS DESIGNED FOR THESTUDY Cf A LITERARY GENRE AND THE WRITING OF PERSONALAUTOBIOGRAPHIES. IN THE LANGUAGE UNITS, STUDENTS STUDY FORMS OFWORDS AND POSITIONS Cf WORDS IN SENTENCES, THE ORGANIZATIONAND USE CF THE DICTIONARY,AND METHODS OF SOLVING INDIVIDUALSPELLING PROBLEMS. UNITS CONTAIN OVERVIEWS OF MATERIALTO OE STUDIED, DISCUSSIONS Of LITERARY GENRES, HISTORICALBACKGROUNDS OF WORKS, STUDY AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS, COMPOSITIONASSIGNMENTS, EXERCISES; SUPPLEMENTARY READING LISTS, VOCABULARYLISTS, AND GLOSSARIES. LITERARY SELECTIONSNOT READILY AVAILABLE IN TEXTDOOKS ARE REPRINTED IN THE STUDENTPACKET. THIS MANUAL (THREE VOLUMES) IS AVAILABLEFROM THE UNIVERSITY Cf NEBRASKA PRESS, 215 NEBRASKA HALL, LINCOLN,NEBRASKA 68508. THE RELATED TEACHER PACKET FOR GRADESEVEN IS TE 000 059. (LK) .11111t116.2.10L. a.- ,, 11":4116.; 0:11 Abouol.116.2.7-4.....4- 1r. ..444,141.elitAL-LeaUtionlir .461.1116. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT.POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. A CURRICULUM FCR ENGLISH Student Packet THE MAKING OF STORIES Grade7 CopyrightThe University of Nebraska., 1965 ExperimentalMaterials Nebraskg6 Curriculum Development Center PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHT( D MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY...ta-e-e) Ao TO ERIC AAt ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREMENTS WITH THE U.S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REOUIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIG IT OWNER." L THE MAKING OF STORIES Grade 7 CORE TEXTS: Charles Dickens, A ChristmasCarol Selections from "The Songof Milman Parry,"The Odyssey, Beowulf, "Hymn to Hermes," etc, includedin the student packet. SUPPLEMENTARY TUTS: None. Additional readings andassignments as required b eacher. OVERVIEW: This unit deals withsome of the problems an author has when he "makes up" a story. You have been readingand enjoying stories fora long time, and you know that these stories were "made up" once by someone. But have you ever really thought seriously about how or whyan author makes up a story?Have you ever wondered how it was possible for people to enjoy storieseven before writing was invented or people could read?Do you realize that there are people in some foreign lands who, even today,cannot read and write, but who enjoy stories anyway? What were the first stories "made up" in such"illiterate" cultures like? The answers to questionslike these can helpyou to increase your enjoyment, understanding,andappreciation of many of the truly wonderful stories produced byyour cultural heritage. When you analyzea story situation,you will constantly be faced with these major considerations: (1) the author'smethod of composing his "story; (2) the author's method of presentinghis "story" to his audience, and (3)the nature of the audience to which the "story" is presented. Weput "story" in quotation =sks here becausewe do not want to limitour discussion to works of "prose fiction," the kind of works thatmost people refer to when theyuse the word "story." We wantto recognize in thestudy of this unit that "poems" can be stories, too; and this unitwill include a number of selectionsthat are not even "narratives" in a strict sense. But they are "stor.Les" in thesense that they were "made up"by some "author" andthey are to be communicated to some "audience." As you read the selectionsof the unit,you will examine rather closely the methods of composition andpresentation, and the nature of the audience for which theyare composed and to which theyare presented. You will recognize immediatelyof course thata countless number of story situations exists, but theselections of this unitare so selected and arranged that you will study them as representative of four basicallydifferent sets of ceinditirns =der which authorsare brought to "make up" stories: (1) that in which the author composes his "story" as he recites itorally, using traditional tales and devices, delivering the storyto an audience madeup entirely of people who are "like" the author and who are representativeof the whole of the author's society; (2) that in which theauthor composes his "story"before he is to deliver it for a specific occasion,delivering the stody ina relatively set pattern, perhaps through memorization,to as audience again closely relatedto the author; (3) that in which theauthor again composes his"story" before he 2 delivers it, either orally or in written form, toa special audienoe,just a part of the society of the author; and (4) that inwhich the author, while writing his "story" according toa specific plan, is completely divorced from his audience, knowingvery little or perhaps nothing about that audience's cultural tradition or literary tastes,and possibly sharing very few of the audience's values.After you have examineda number of selections representing each of these sets of conditions,you wx11 examine a set of "lyric" poems in order to see if youcan tell anything about these poems using the same "sets of conditions" that you used toexamine the "narrative." I. THE POET COMPOSES AS HE RECITES. A. Introduction: The first stories were madeup by their authors at the very moment that they were told. In ancient Greece, for instance, before the people could read and write, certainmen stood in the middle of groups of people and sang about events which had happenedyears before in Greece. Their songs told about great battles and brave warriors.These taleswere at first little more than accounts of happenings suchas we now find in our newspapers; but as the years passed, some of the minor incidents inthe stories about wars were forgotten and the more important incidents were changed slowly and,in some cases, were greatly exag- gerated. You no doubt knowthat this happens whena person tells the story of something which happenedlong ago. For instance, you know that there -rea,47 was a man named Daniel Boone whowas an early pioneer in Kentucky. But you also know that the stories toldabout him have become greatly exaggeratedas they have been handed down fromone person to another. This is what happened to the first stories told about thingsthat happened in Greece. After the first storieswere told, they were not forgotten, but were retold time after tim. But each time theperson who retold these stories would change them slightly and wouldmany times mix them up with otherstories, so that the story was really new anddifferent at each telling.Nor would a story-teller plan his tale before hesang it; he would begin and relate the incidents that he wanted to or that he knewhis audience would wantto hear. Such early story-tellershad however, certainways in which they cold relate their stories more easily. They had certainways of expressing what they told which did not change.You know that whenyou were younger and were told stories by older people, these stories usually beganwith "once upon a time" and ended with "and they lived happilyever after." Well, early story-tellers made use of certain devices likethese to help themin presenting their tales, and you ehouldtry to find such devicesas you read the following selections. B. "The Song of Nilman Parry" This story-poem,or narrative poem, wassung in Yugoslavia in 1933 by a guslar,, or story-teller. Do you wonder why sucha newly-made story is the first one you are to read?In many ways, Yugoslaviain 1933 was very much like ancient Greece. There were many people whocould neither readnor write, and so many of the stories told in Yugoslaviawere sung just as stories hadbeenmany ages be- fore in Greece. The singers of stories, thegnaw, told about great things that had happened involving theircountry ana their people, andsome of the things 4 3 they told about had happened many years before. In 1933, an American named Milman Parry, auniversity professor, wentto Yugoslavia and traveled tbnyeett that country. Parry was interested he went from place tp placewith a young in collecting very oldt4Ongs3 so Yugoslavian man named Nikola Vujnovic and lis to guslars inall parts of