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Begin your American Literature study with Native American creation stories. This resource provides a rhetorical study of the opening of The Walam Olum, from the Delawares. Then, students write their own creation myth using the rhetorical devices studied.
 
Materials
Resource is scaffolded for students to access this text:
(1) Sentence level close reading: Resource provides a definition of each rhetorical term and an example, then has students find examples of each from The Walam Olum. (Answer key provided.)
(2) Structure & Purpose: Students zoom out their focus to evaluate the text's use of shift and balance.
(3) Meaning & Extending: Students consider how the way in which the text is written supports its meaning.
(4) Application: Students construct their own creation story imitating the style of The Walam Olum.
 
Rhetorical Terms
Parallel Structure
Anaphora
Epistrophe
Periodic
Tricolon
Asyndeton
Polysyndeton
Shift
Balance
Juxtaposition
Repetition
 
Note: Resource only applies to the initial excerpt from The Walam Olum, not the whole text.