Lesson 5: Braiding Sweetgrass, “The Council of Pecans” and “The Gift of Strawberries”

Students review their homework from the previous lesson.

Retell & Paraphrase Partner Check

Have students take out their copies of Braiding Sweetgrass and turn to the chapters “The Council of Pecans” and “The Gift of Strawberries.” Assign student partnerships, with each student assigned as Partner A or Partner B.

Instruct students to take turns retelling and paraphrasing what they read for homework last night with their partner.

Say these Directions: With your partner, take turns retelling and paraphrasing the chapters you read for homework. Partner A will retell and paraphrase what they read in “The Council of Pecans” the best they can. Partner B will listen and then compare what they heard to their own understanding of the same chapter. Then Partner B will retell and paraphrase what they read in “The Gift of Strawberries,” and Partner A will compare it to their own understanding of the same chapter.

• I remembered the story from “The Council of Pecans” about the boys carrying pecans home in their pants and that it had something to do with them later getting sent to the boarding school that tried to erase their culture. My partner remembered that they talked about how all the trees grow nuts at the same time, which is an example of cooperation and reciprocity in nature.

Annotation Spot-Check

While students work with their partners, spot-check the annotations they made for homework for the key concept of reciprocity.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Today, you will discuss how the stories and examples the author shares in these two chapters of Braiding Sweetgrass help develop the central ideas of reciprocity and abundance in nature.

Word Associations

Target Word: abundance

Review the Previous Word: Review the word flourish, which was the target word for Lesson 4. Remind students of how they decoded the word, what exactly it means, and how it relates to the central ideas of the text (i.e., humans and nature can both flourish when they have respect and reciprocity between them).

Say: In the last lesson, we used context clues and a Latin root to define the word flourish, which means to grow in a healthy way. We also talked about how this relates to the text’s major central idea of reciprocity, because the author shows how humans and nature both flourish when there is reciprocity and respect between them.

Introduce the New Word: Present the word abundance to students. Explain that something is abundant when you have a lot of it and that the suffix -ance means a state or condition, so we have an abundance of something when we have a lot of it.

Say: In this classroom, pencils [or substitute other abundant supply] are abundant, which means we have a lot of them. Adding the suffix -ance turns an adjective into a noun, meaning the state or condition of that adjective. For example, when you perform, you give a performance. Can you think of other examples of words that turn adjectives into nouns using -ance?

• brilliance, appearance, significance

Say: So, abundance means a state or condition of being abundant. We have an abundance of pencils in this classroom, which means we have plenty of pencils for everyone.

Associate the Two Words with Each Other and with the Text’s Central Ideas: Have students discuss and explore how the words flourish and abundance are related to each other and how they both relate to the text’s major central idea of reciprocity between humans and nature.

Say these directions: Work with your partner to write a short description of a situation or context that uses both flourish and abundance. It can describe something from the text or anything else that you choose.

• • My family’s garden has an abundance of tomatoes because all the water and sunlight help them flourish.

• Say: Then, use your description to write a short explanation of how the words flourish and abundance are related. You can include both how they are similar and how they are different.

  • If animals or plants flourish in a place, there will usually be a lot of them, so they will also be in abundance. If there is an abundance of a type of plant or animal in an area, it probably means they are flourishing there, too. Their meanings are also different because abundance only means there’s a lot, while flourishing means they’re doing very well.

• Say: Discuss with your partner how both words relate to the central idea of reciprocity between humans and nature. Write one sentence describing the relationship.

  • The author says that reciprocity between humans and nature will be better for both, allowing humans, plants, and animals to flourish and be abundant.

Allow students to share their work. Once sharing is complete, affirm the connection. 

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Today, we will discuss how the author contrasts the “gift economy” of strawberries with the “market economy” that our society is based on. You will use words like flourish and abundance to discuss what the author believes are the benefits of a gift economy based on gratitude and reciprocity versus a market economy.

Part A: Making and Supporting Inferences About the Author’s Point of View (RI.8.1, RI.8.3, RI.8.6) (15 minutes)

Transition students into partnerships.

Use a Reflect-and-Respond Dialogue to help students practice citing textual evidence to support inferences about the author’s point of view.

• Say: Think about what the author’s purpose for writing these chapters seems to be. Today, we are going to pick out words, phrases, or sentences that support our ideas about the author’s point of view and how she differentiates it from other points of view.

Reflect and Respond Dialogue

Use an “I do, we do, you do” structure to help students practice identifying important quotes, explaining their significance, and using the quotes to support inferences about the author’s point of view.

I Do (Modeling): Model choosing a quote, explaining its significance, and using it as evidence to support an inference about the author’s point of view.

• Say: I am drawn to the last paragraph of “The Council of Pecans,” where the author explains how nut trees all fruit at the same time when the conditions are right to support all of them. She says, “What happens to one, happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together. All flourishing is mutual” (p. 38). To me, this shows that the author’s point of view is to make a case for a relationship of respect and reciprocity between humans and nature. She uses examples of cooperation to achieve mutual flourishing between trees to show that humans can follow the trees’ example.

We Do (Guided Practice): Have pairs identify a quote and prepare an explanation of its significance related to the author’s point of view. Choose a few pairs to share their explanations, and prompt them to develop the explanations further by using the response stem “The quote ____ stood out because ____.”

Say these Directions: With your partner, choose a quote that you think shows the author’s point of view. Then work with your partner to explain how the quote shows her point of view.

• The author sees strawberries as a gift from nature instead of something you buy at a store. For example, she says, “If we view strawberries as objects or property, they can be exploited as a commodity” (p. 42).

Say: Try to develop that idea more by using “The quote ____ stands out because ____.”

• The quote “The abundance of strawberries felt like and still feels like a pure gift from the land” (p. 41) stands out because it shows that the author wants people to feel gratitude toward the land for gifts rather than trying to get as much from the land as they can.

Invite other students to respond to these thoughts, and prompt them to further develop their thoughts by using the response stem “After hearing ____, I think ____.”

You Do (Independent Practice): Have students independently practice searching for quotes that help establish the author’s point of view, sharing them with their partners, and encouraging their partners to expand on their thoughts by using the previous response stems. If desired and if time allows, students can rotate partners for each new quote.

Say: Now you’re going to work with your partners to find quotes that show how the author develops her point of view in these two chapters. Be sure to explain how the quotes show the author’s point of view.

• The quote “Gratitude creates a sense of abundance” (p. 42) stands out because it shows that the author thinks we will see situations differently if we focus on gratitude for gifts from the land and how we can repay them. After hearing my partner share their thoughts on this quote, I think the author is trying to say that the way we think about nature is almost as important as how we act toward nature.

Reflect: Ask students about new perspectives they gained by listening and discussing with their peers during this activity.

Ask: What new perspective did you hear from a peer during this activity?

• A new perspective I heard is the idea that we can view food that we consume as gifts from the earth, even if we buy it at the grocery store, and that just viewing nature’s food differently could change how we act.

Provide students with a confidence continuum (i.e., 1–5). As needed, model how to demonstrate a level of confidence using the continuum.

Part B: Analyzing the Author’s Comparison of Different Economies (RI.8.3, RI.8.6) (15 minutes)

Transition students into groups of four by combining two pairs from the previous activity for each group. Groups will analyze Braiding Sweetgrass together.

Group Accountability Share

Say: Your group will use the Group Accountability Share routine to analyze and cite specific text evidence about how the author contrasts the gift economy of strawberries with the market economy at the center of Western society.

I Do (Modeling): Model the consensus process and how to build on each other’s ideas in a group discussion using the Group Accountability Share protocol.

Say: Try to build on each other’s ideas and work toward an answer you can all agree on. For example, if a member of my group said, “I liked how the Skywoman story showed her helping the plants and animals out of gratitude for when they helped her,” I might add, “Yes, and that helps make the author’s larger point about reciprocity between humans and nature.”

We Do (Guided Practice): Practice responding to one prompt as a class group model. Give the prompt, let groups briefly discuss, then have students share answers and practice building on each other’s ideas out loud as a class.

Say: Now, let’s practice responding to one prompt altogether. The prompt is: How does the author describe strawberries as a “gift” from the earth?

• “The author talks about how you feel grateful when you get strawberries for free in the wild instead of buying them.” “Yes, and she also says it makes you want to give something back, like helping scatter the seeds so more strawberries can grow next year.”

You Do (Independent Practice): Provide students with several prompts for this part of the lesson, then have them discuss them in their groups. Remind them that any member of the group can be called upon to share what the group discussed, so they will need to reach a consensus and record their thoughts before the whole group shares out.

Say these Directions: You’re going to discuss the following prompts with your group. Remember that any member can be called upon to share the group’s thoughts. That means you will need to take good notes and find some evidence and analysis that you can all agree on.

How does the author contrast the “gift economy” with the “market economy”?

• She contrasts the “market economy” with the “gift economy” by saying, “A market economy is based on scarcity” (p. 43), which influences our mindset about everything being a commodity. She says that “thinking of something as a gift changes your relationship with it” (p. 44). She makes the point that you would take good care of a hat someone made for you, but you wouldn’t care as much about a hat you bought for yourself.

What is the author’s point of view about the gift economy versus the market economy? How does she differentiate her point of view from others’?

• She is saying that much of what we believe about produce like strawberries is based on a market economy mentality that turns nature’s gifts into products. Her point of view is that we need to change “how we think about our relationship to the living world” (p. 43) by thinking more about “the relationship of gratitude and reciprocity” (p. 46), and that is what comes from a “gift economy” mentality. She differentiates her point of view by saying that “Western thinking” sees private property as rights, but a gift economy sees property as having responsibilities (p. 46). She makes the point that “when we view the world as a gift,” then nature’s produce—like strawberries and human beings—is changed or “transformed” (p. 46).

Reflect: Ask students to reflect on the process they used to decide on answers as a group.

Ask: How did your group come to a consensus about your answers? Did everyone agree right away, or did you need to balance different ideas? Did you build on each other’s ideas? How?

• We mostly agreed that the author did a good job of explaining why the gift economy was better, but some of us didn’t understand how it could be a gift economy for things that aren’t just free, like wild strawberries. We ended up focusing on the idea that we take care of nature better if we think of nature as gifts, even if they are not actually free for us.

3-2-1 Summary

Students will summarize their analysis of this lesson’s excerpts from Braiding Sweetgrass by using a 3–2–1 Summary.

Say these Directions: To summarize your learning from today, you will complete a 3-2-1 Summary of the chapters we analyzed during this lesson. You will record:

• Three important words or phrases from the text,

• Two key ideas or details, and

• One sentence explaining what the text is mostly about

Instruct students to complete the following homework:

Read the following chapters of Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults for homework:

• “An Offering”

• “Asters and Goldenrod”

• “Maple Sugar Moon”

As you read, annotate where Kimmerer describes giving something back to the land. Then, in your Journal, take notes on the following prompt:

• How does Kimmerer’s description connect to the idea of reciprocity we’ve been studying?