Curriculum Unit
Find Your “Why”
Pour Quoi Stories and Their Significance
Julie V McCann
Title Author
KEY LEARNING, ENDURING UNDERSTANDING, ETC.
The students will understand: -Cultures have many different origins of life stories with similarities to other cultures
-Pour quoi stories are fictional narratives which explain why something is
- Pour quoi stories have specific characteristics and have a lesson or meaning
ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S) for the UNIT
What is an etiological tale (origin or creation story)?
What are the characteristics of a pour quoi story?
What is the formula or the story parts needed to write a pour quoi story?
CONCEPT A CONCEPT B CONCEPT C
Characteristics or a pour quoi tale
Etiological tale or creation story
How to write your own pour quoi tale
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS A ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS B ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS C
What is an etiological or creation story??
What are some examples from different cultures?
What are illustrated narratives?
What is a play?
What is a pour quoi tale?
What are the characteristics to this particular genre of writing??
VOCABULARY A VOCABULARY B VOCABULARY C
etiological tale, creation story, origin story, culture, moral of a story
pour quoi, natural occurrence, narrator, main character, supporting character, setting, problem/solution, key twist, resolution
rubric, beginning, middle, end, narrator, audience, original idea, play, illustrations
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/MATERIAL/TEXT/FILM/RESOURCES
The Lizard and the Sun by Alma Flor Ada, Arrow to the Sun by Gerald McDermott, Beautiful Blackbird by Ashley Bryan, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema, How Chipmunk Got His Stripes by Joesph and James Bruchac, A Story A Story by Gail E. Haley, Why Raccoon Always Washed His Hands After Eating by Joseph Bruchac, How Buzzard Got His Feathers by Joseph Bruchac, How Bear Got His Tail by Joseph Bruchac, The Legend of Bluebonnet by Tomie De Paola, The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie de Paola, Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling