Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian: Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide
The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide by by Marjorie Hunt is an excellent resource for collecting family and community cultural information. It provides step-by-step information on how to plan and conduct...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: American Masters Collection: N. Scott Momaday
This is a collection of three video lessons from N. Scott Momaday about Kiowa Native American stories, storytelling, and their oral traditions.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Native Voices
This unit features the rich oral tradition of Native Americans storytelling in various genres predating the introduction and influence of English writings, bringing three contemporary authors to light. RI.11-12.8 seminal U.S. texts,...
University of Pennsylvania
Upenn: Oral Traditions in Africa (Lesson Plan)
This website features a lesson plan that can be used by teachers K-12 on oral traditions found in Africa.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide
If you set out to do your own primary research with a tradition-bearer in your community, this guide will be very valuable. Get information about how to get the best results, along with an extensive list of possible questions for the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Fable and Trickster Tales Around the World
The lessons presented in this website "introduce children to folk tales" and how these folktales are changed and affected by generational and cultural values. Includes several links to further related information on folktales, fables,...
PBS
Pbs: Using Supporting Evidence to Interpret Meaning a Native American Folktale
In this lesson, students will watch a video clip with a Native American storyteller telling a traditional story. Students will use supporting evidence from the story to give meaning to oral and written texts.
Alberta Online Encyclopedia
Alberta Online Encyclopedia: Tus: Aboriginal Traditions and Knowledge
The TUS website examines the history and methodologies of land use by Aboriginal peoples. The Multimedia link is an excellent source of oral histories through interviews with elders as well as other knowledgeable people.
Topmarks Online
Topmarks Education: A Traditional Story: The Gingerbread Man
Read the traditional story of the Gingerbread Man who runs from the little old woman who made him, and from several other characters who want to eat him, until he comes across a fox who offers to help.
Read Works
Read Works: Oral Histories
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the importance of listening to and writing about people's life stories. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
ibiblio
Ibiblio: Cherokee Sacred Stories & Sacred Rituals
Explains the traditional Cherokee rules that surround both telling and listening to oral tradition. Identifies two basic types of Cherokee oral tradition: sacred stories and small animal stories. This site also contains a video of a...
PBS
Pbs: A World of Stories: The Beaded Bag
Kentucky-based storyteller Mary Hamilton tells a haunting tale set in Victorian times, about a man who gives a young lady a ride across the Ohio River to her home in Louisville. When she disappears, he learns that he has become part of a...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Storytelling in Ritual and Performance in Bali
Balinese stories are continually told and retold. The Kayonan is the first and last puppet seen in the Balinese wayang shadow theater. As it dances, it symbolizes the living tradition of storytelling that deeply explains and entertains,...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 3: The Stories Julian Tells
Third graders learn that stories and books are important for learning about themselves and others. This unit allows students to learn how storytelling can be a way to learn about other cultures, pass on family history and traditions, and...
Other
Native American Indian Legends: Origin of the Saguaro and Palo Verde Cacti: A Pi
A Native American Pima legend on how the saguaro and palo verde cacti came into existence. With links to other Native American legends, artwork, photographs, articles, and more.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Digital Storytelling With Class Flow Technology
[Free Registration/Login Required] Digital storytelling is the combination of the ancient art of oral storytelling with today's technology, enabling students to write their own uniquely personal tales and then personalize them even more...
Other
Chaver: The Mishnah
This research site from Chaver.com describes the Mishnah in-depth: "The Art of Writing the Oral Tradition," "The Decalog as Wisdom Literature," and "Woven Texts: Literary Form in Ancient Hebrew Legal Codes."
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Medieval Sourcebook: Law of the Salian Franks
This site from the Medieval Sourcebook of the Fordham University provides an example of a Germanic law code taken from oral tradition and set down in writing.
Other
Story Arts:storytelling Activities & Lesson Ideas
Use this site to get pupils interested in and enthusiastic about storytelling with these cool lesson ideas. Look through these short descriptions of lesson ideas to help develop a lesson to fit your classroom needs.
Other
Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation: Family Histories
Follow the stories of six Americans with different backgrounds who wanted to know more about their ancestors' journeys to America and used immigration and genealogy records to complete their family histories.
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Elements of Fables
This ArtsEdge unit on fables shows how to compare and contrast, read and write fables, and discuss the elements they contain. Has great links, definitions, and fable examples.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: American Colonial Literature: Native American Myths
This lesson focuses on Native American myths including the creation myth "The Earth on Turtle's Back." It includes links to the above myth, a self-assessment quiz, and an assignment for a mini-report over a Native American tribe.
Other
Bedtime Story: Whimsical Stories for Reading
Awesome site with hundreds of stories by published and unpublished authors to encourage reading stories together and out loud. Each story also has a section titled "What's it all about" which gives background information along with...
Broward Education Foundation
Broward Education Foundation: The Arts and Crafts of Storytelling [Pdf]
In the Arts and Crafts of Storytelling, American folk heroes come to life, help students expand their vocabulary and increase knowledge of figurative language. Students identify figurative language like similes, idioms and hyperboles....