Lesson 4: Braiding Sweetgrass, “An Invitation to Remember,” “Skywoman Falling,” and “Wiingaashk”

Turn and Talk

Have students take out their copies of Braiding Sweetgrass and their Homework Journals.

• Lesson 3 Homework: Students were instructed to read chapters: “An Invitation to Remember,” “Skywoman Falling,” and “Wiingaashk” of Braiding Sweetgrass and annotate in their Journal by marking passages where Kimmerer describes relationships between humans and nature, answering the question:

  • What does Kimmerer suggest about how humans should relate to the natural world?

Assign student partners. Instruct students to do a turn-and-talk discussion with their partners to share their annotations with each other.

Say these directions: Take out your Homework Journals and copies of Braiding Sweetgrass. Discuss the annotations you made in your Journal about what the author suggests about how humans should relate to the natural world.

• I marked the part of the Skywoman Falling story where the animals all helped Skywoman when she fell, and she was grateful and helped them in return by spreading seeds. This story shows that the author thinks humans should be grateful and cooperative toward nature.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Today, you will analyze how the words, images, and symbols that authors choose help to create the tone and meaning of their work. You will choose particular words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs and explain how they help the author develop central ideas and ideas.

Introduce New Words Using Morphology

Target Word: flourish (also appears as flourished and flourishing in the text)

Say these directions: We’re learning about the word flourish today. It shows up in Braiding Sweetgrass to describe the results of Skywoman and the animals helping each other. Let’s explore this word more deeply.

Review the Word: Present the word flourish and pronounce it.

• Ask: This word appeared on p. 21 of the reading you did for homework. Did you know the meaning of this word when you first read it?

  • Yes, I knew it because I’ve heard it before about gardens.

• Ask: If you did not know the meaning of the word, could you use the context of the story or the pictures to help figure out what it might mean?

  • Yes, I was able to figure it out based on the surrounding words.

• Say: We can also figure out what the word means by examining its roots.

Identify the Roots: Underline the root flour within the word flourish and explain that it is also sometimes spelled flor. This is a Latin root meaning “to bloom.”

• Ask: Do you know any other words with the root flour or flor?

  • floral, florist, florid

Language Connection: In Spanish, flor means “flower,” which is something that blooms. This connects to the idea that something flourishes when it blooms like a healthy flower.

Determine Meaning:

• Ask: Using what you know about the root flour/flor, what do you think flourish means? Remember, you can also use the context of the story where the word appeared.

  • I think flourish means to grow or develop in a healthy way.

Tell the students that they will further analyze this word later in the lesson to show how it contributes to the tone and meaning of the text.

Check for Understanding

List the word flourish in your Personal Dictionary. Underline the root. Write the definition of the root and the full word. 

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Understanding words like flourish will help you to understand how the author of this text carefully chooses her words, symbols, and imagery to create deeper meaning and a unique tone in her writing. As you analyze the text and answer text-dependent questions, think about what kind of tone and meaning the author aims for and how her choices of words help support them.

Part A: Analyze “An Invitation to Remember” (RI.8.3, RI.8.4) (15 minutes)

Students will analyze the language Kimmerer uses to express the relationship between human beings and nature.

Instruct students to turn to the chapter “An Invitation to Remember” on p. 10 in their Braiding Sweetgrass books and display the following questions. Place students into pairs to reread the chapter.

Turn and Talk

Say these directions: With your partner, reread the chapter “An Invitation to Remember” and discuss the following questions:

• How does Kimmer describe “kinship” on p. 10? What does “kinship” mean to her?

  • Kimmerer believes that “kinship” goes beyond being in relationships with just human beings. She believes that “kinship includes plants and animals” (p. 10) and that our families include plants and animals and not just fellow human beings.

• What is the “grammar of animacy,” and how is it different from the English language? (pp. 11-13)

  • According to Kimmerer, the English language lacks words for living things like “plants, animals, and the earth herself” (p. 12). Instead, the “grammar of animacy” is a language that uses “words to address the living world” instead of calling a bird “it” (p. 12). The “grammar of animacy” is a language that creates “equality” between the species and sees the living world as our “family” (pp. 12–13). Instead, the English language prioritizes humans and “puts the earth outside of our circle of compassion” (p. 12). The “grammar of animacy” is a language that creates kinship and equality with plants and animals.

• How will Kimmerer use “capitalization” in this book to further demonstrate the “grammar of animacy”? (p. 15)

  • Kimmerer explains that capitalization “conveys a certain distinction” about which living creatures are more important than others. For example, human names are capitalized, while “common names of plants and animals” are not. In this book, to show that there is not a “hierarchy, but a circle,” she will be using capitalization to describe certain living things when she wants the reader to think of them as a person (p. 15). This way, she can use capitalization to show the equality between species, which is a key tenet of the “grammar of animacy.”

After partners have finished discussing, facilitate a whole-class discussion of the questions.

Part B: Exploring “Skywoman Falling” (RI.8.2, RI.8.4, RI.8.5, L.8.5.a) (15 minutes)

In this section, students will annotate “Skywoman Falling” from Braiding Sweetgrass (pp. 17–21) for the development of a central idea, the use of figurative language, and the significance of the target vocabulary word flourish.

Close Read and Annotation

Hand out copies of the Three-Column Chart graphic organizer to each student.

Set the purpose for this read-aloud. Because students have already read “Skywoman Falling” for homework, they can now follow along and annotate more closely.

Say These directions: Write the headings “Reciprocity,” “Figurative Language,” and “Flourish” in the columns of your organizer. Then, listen carefully as I read this chapter out loud. Follow along with your copy of the book, and use your graphic organizer to annotate for the three elements:

1. Reciprocity: Note how the author develops the central ideas of reciprocity (as defined on p. 10).

2. Figurative Language: Note when the author develops her ideas by using figurative language, such as imagery and comparisons.

3. Flourish (p. 21): Star the word when it appears and note what or who flourishes and why.

Record your annotations in your graphic organizer, referring back to the text as needed.

Read Chapter 2: “Skywoman Falling” from Braiding Sweetgrass aloud, modeling fluent reading, while students follow along and annotate using their graphic organizers.

Invite a few volunteers to share their annotations and write student responses on a three-column chart that is displayed.

Turn and Talk

Next, students will analyze how individual sentences from this chapter help develop the tone and central ideas of the chapter.

Say these directions: We will now reread and focus closely on a few sentences from the text. We’ll talk about how the sentences help develop the tone and central ideas of the chapter. As I present each sentence, turn and talk to a partner about the questions I will be asking you about each sentence.

Display the first sentence:

She fell like a maple seed, pirouetting on an autumn breeze" (p. 18).

• Ask: What does Kimmerer compare Skywoman's fall to?

  • a maple seed spinning in the wind

• Ask: Why does the author choose this image? What tone does it create?

  • Maple seeds fall slowly and spin a lot, so this creates a more natural, peaceful tone than if Skywoman were just falling straight down.

Display the next sentence:

“The geese rose from the water, flying beneath her to break her fall.” (p. 18)

• Ask: What do the geese do for Skywoman after catching her? Cite the specific line.

  • After catching her, they realize they can only hold her for a short time. So they call a meeting to figure out what to do next: “The geese could not hold the woman for long, so they called a council to decide what to do” (p. 19). Eventually, the geese help Skywoman get onto the giant turtle’s back.

• Ask: What do these actions show about reciprocity?

  • This scene shows that reciprocity involves mutual dependence and mutual responsibilities. The geese know that they cannot continue to hold Skywoman, so they work together to determine what to do. Many animals come together to decide what to do, and the turtle offers his help. This shows that many parts of the world work together to care for one another.

Display the last sentence:

“As she carefully scattered them [branches, fruits, and seeds] on the earth, sunlight streamed through the hole from Skyworld, and the seeds flourished.” (p. 21)

• Ask: What flourishes?

  • The seeds flourish.

• Ask: What does flourishes mean in this context?

  • It means they grow strong and thrive.

• Ask: Why do they flourish? What allows them to grow?

  • The seeds flourish because Skywoman gives them sunlight from Skyworld. She does this because of the gratitude she feels for the animals who save and protect her, so her sense of gratitude and reciprocity allows them to grow.

• Ask: What is Kimmerer teaching us through Skywoman's story? What is the central idea?

  • She is teaching us to see what we get from nature as gifts and to feel gratitude for those gifts. The central ideas are gratitude and reciprocity toward the earth for the gifts it gives to humans.

Invite a few volunteers to share responses as time allows.

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

Transition students into reflecting on their learning from the lesson by completing a Quick Write response.

Quick Write

Say these directions: Complete a Quick Write response based on the following prompt.

• Based on Chapters 1–3, what did you learn about reciprocity? Use the word flourish or flourishes in your response. Include at least one piece of evidence from the text.

  • I learned that the idea of reciprocity is in a lot of ancient Indigenous stories because it’s a very important value in a lot of Indigenous cultures. The Skywoman Falling story shows how the earth flourishes because of the gifts the animals give Skywoman and the gratitude she feels for them.

Instruct students to read chapters “The Council of Pecans” and “The Gift of Strawberries” from Braiding Sweetgrass (pp. 31–48) and take notes in their Journal on the following prompt.

• As you read chapters “The Council of Pecans” and “The Gift of Strawberries” from Braiding Sweetgrass (pp. 31–48), annotate the text for the following: Identify and explain examples of reciprocity in these chapters of Braiding Sweetgrass.