Lessons in The Birchbark House: Using Textual Evidence

In this activity, students will be provided a question or prompt to answer using textual evidence. The prompt here is, “What lessons about life did Omakayas learn?” The four examples provided are:

• Death and sickness affect people differently.

  "It was difficult for Omakayas to understand all that had happened. Why Neewo was gone, though at night she imagined that she heard his cries."

• Things are not always what they seem.

  "What other story do you know about me?"

• Family and tradition are important.

  "Although the family did not return with as much rice as they needed, Omakayas and Two Strike Girl became such good friends that, ever after, they called each other sister."

• Laughter and happiness helps cure sadness and loss.

  "Ever after that terrible winter, as though he understood from then on how important it was to be funny, Pinch gave laughter to them all."

Student Instructions

Create a storyboard that answers the prompt using at least three examples from The Birchbark House. Click on "Add / Delete Cells" to change the number of examples.

1. Type the question into the central black box.
2. Type a response to the question in your own words in the title box.
3. Think about examples from the text that support your answer.
4. Type text evidence in the description boxes. Paraphrase or quote directly from the text.
5. Illustrate each example using scenes, characters, items, etc.