The Great Wisdom Keeper

Day 1 Instruction: Hook (5 minutes)

 To grab students' attention from the start, the librarian will tell the class that one of the book nominated for the 016-2017 Texas Bluebonnet Award is a legend-based tale titled Hiawatha and the Peacemaker, and we will preview the book trailer before reading the ancient story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4eEy0sWAHs&list=PLmIp4XYo92bvc6bhqX39a01gU1cCZk3LW&index=4

The Great Wisdom Keeper Activity:  Direct Instruction and Guided Practice

Direct Instruction (5 minutes): Ask students to share what they know about Hiawatha and the Mohawk Indian tribe. Discuss the Native American culture and why it is important to recognize this group's past and present place in history. Guide students in establishing the context in which many groups, including Native Americans, have survived despite efforts by other powers to displace them.

(10 minutes) Read and discuss the 2016 Texas Bluebonnet Book, Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson and David Shannon. Share the author's historical note that describes the role of the wisdom keeper in the preservation of this folk tale and its significance today. Define a wisdom keeper as one who safeguards the knowledge and traditions of a specific culture. 

Guided Practice: (10-15 minutes) 

After reading, ask the students the following questions:

1. What were the lessons of this story that were preserved by its retelling? How are they different from the standard lessons we study at school?
2. Do we have a wisdom keeper for our family or school?
3. If so, who is it? And if not, why not? How do we preserve our heritage today? What can we do to preserve our past? (Answers will vary, but should include school archivists, artists, family scrap bookers, yearbooks, social media accounts, journals, diaries, recordings).
4. What traditions do we use at our school, in our families or in groups outside of family and school to preserve and study the pieces of wisdom that we learn from our family members and friends every day?
5. Pass out small white boards and markers to the students. In groups of three, ask them to brainstorm and write down examples of wisdom keepers, past and present. They can use computers or tablets to search for ideas, using the Gale databases or an advanced Google search. (It would be essential that I had given the students training on this type of search prior to this lesson.)

This should include fictional characters such as The Giver/Receiver of Memory in Lois Lowry's novel. While the students are working, check progress and encourage student effort.

Present/share responses: (10 minutes)

(Possible answers would include works by authors such as Aesop, Greek philosophers, WWII survivors, biographers, religious writers, as well as myths and folk tales from cultures around the world.) Ask students to defend their answers and share the search skills they used to obtain successful results.

Conclude the lesson by asking students to begin reflecting on innovative ways we could act as Receivers of Memory in our present day lives for our families or communities.

Define innovative as a new method or idea.

Day 2: Guided Instruction (10 minutes)

 Review the specific life lessons that were expressed in the tale. Guide students in generating possible ideas that would be noted as significant by a present-day wisdom keeper. Encourage students to think about lessons learned at home or school. Examples would include stories told by grandparents, lessons learned from reading books such as Wonder, song lyrics, events in the classroom that fostered a teachable moment, significant experiences that taught a lesson in sports or other extracurricular activities and/or truisms emphasized by teachers, parents or other. I will give a few examples from my own "Wisdom Keeper" based on my experiences and what I selected as critical learning moments in my life.

My examples: I will share the feather pillow metaphor that illustrates the ramifications of gossip in the movie Doubt. Next I will tell them a story a yoga teacher told me that reinforces the principle, "Quiet the mind and the soul will speak" (Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati). I will also share what I most valued from the book by Viktor Frankl Man's Search for Meaning, his life lesson that, "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

 After sharing I will tell the students that I continually add to my Wisdom Keeper, as I learn important life lessons every day, many from my students and many from children's books. If there are no questions, following this discussion the students will be asked to create a "wisdom keeper" for their class or family. 

Independent Practice: (20 minutes) 

Before designing their own Wisdom Keepers, ask students to think about what will be important to them in this design. Students should be mindful of Stripling's Inquiry Model as they approach the design process. Encourage students to connect the design to their own lives and how it will benefit their community and themselves. It would be helpful for the students to make a list of questions they hope to answer with the development of this Wisdom Keeper and the sorts of knowledge they hope to preserve. Research other types of Wisdom Keepers, ways that past and present cultures and individuals store their important ideas and messages. Elicit examples such as diaries, museums, time capsules, crypts, recordings. Give students the remainder of the class to begin planning and constructing their Wisdom Keepers using any of these items: a variety of jars, boxes, paper, glue, scissors, markers, other art resources such as stickers, felt, ribbon, and tissue paper, access to computers or tablets.