Gilgamesh and Native Americans

My language arts classes have moved on from their research projects to literature study. We have begun The Epic of Gilgamesh in Soph LA (world lit), and are studying Native American origin myths in Jr LA (American lit).

Teaching Gilgamesh--or any lengthy work--to ESOL students is a challenge. Their brains can only handle so many new words at once, and their attention span dwindles after about 2 pages of reading (on a good day). I knew going into this year that I wanted to shorten our study of Gilgamesh. The textbook gives us adapted versions of "The Battle with Humbaba," "The Death of Enkidu," "The Story of the Flood," and "The Return." Since we basically teach Gilgamesh to compare and contrast it to the story of Noah and the flood from the Bible and study archetype and archetypal setting, I've limited our reading to "The Story of the Flood" and "The Return." To give the students necessary background on Gilgamesh as a king and the parts of the story we didn't read, I put together a beautiful slide show in which I condensed the information and included pictures scanned from the illustrated trilogy of Gilgamesh for young readers (see links below). Also, remembering that my students have problems keeping the plot and character names straight, I included an overview of what happens in the two parts of the story that we would read together. I showed the slide show in class yesterday, and the students loved listening to it. If felt like story time in the library! :) Some of the students asked questions about the characters or plot, and they all seemed to have a general understanding of what to expect. After the slide show, we read "The Story of the Flood" together. Many of the students immediately made the connection of similarities between this flood and Noah's flood.

Today, in Soph LA, we read "The Return" together, and then students completed a table asks them to recall details about "The Story of the Flood." These details are similar to those stated in the story of Noah and the flood, so they will complete the table tomorrow after we read the excerpt from the Bible. When the table is complete, they should clearly see how the details of the stories are similar, but not exactly the same. I did notice that there were some changes to the handout that I should have made last year when I realized there was a way to make my expectations clearer. I neglected to make the changes, though. Note to self: make changes on worksheets or handouts as soon as you notice the need for correction. You won't remember to make those changes next year!

In my Jr LA class, the origin myths we're reading are "The Earth on Turtle's Back," and "When Grizzlies Walked Upright." These stories are easy to understand, and the students think it's so strange how people used to explain the natural phenomena of this world. Some of them thought the stories were cute, some thought they were funny. Since I knew they understood the stories themselves, I wanted the students to practice their organization and linear detail. They were allowed to work in small groups (3), with a partner, or as an individual; and they had to storyboard on of the origin myths we read the day before. They were limited to 8 squares, and could only use pictures. Most students have difficulty choosing which scenes to include on their storyboard. Students, overall, have very poor organization skills. This is just another area where that becomes evident. They have difficulty compartmentalizing information, too. When I first assigned the activity, the students thought it was a fun "kindergarten" activity. They soon discovered otherwise. :)

Quote of the Day:

During popcorn reading in class, a student skipped a line during her read aloud.

J_____, a short-tempered, pushy Mexican student yelled at the reader: "C____, you skipped a line, man!"

"First of all, I'm a girl not a man," she retorted in her assertive Domincan accent. "Secondly, I'm human, OK? You don't have to jump all over me for my mistakes. Now be quiet so I can read!"