Page 96 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade7_Flipbook

Creation Myths from around the Globe
aCTIvITy 1.15
Learning Targets
• Use ideas presented in an informational text to analyze and compare creation myths.
• Create an original myth explaining a phenomenon of nature.
Preview
In this activity, you will read about creation myths in an informational text and then read, analyze, and compare three creation myths from around the globe.
Setting a Purpose for Reading
• As you read the informational text, underline words that help you understand what a creation myth is.
• Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.
“A Note from the Author”
Excerpted from Virginia Hamilton’s 1988 Newbery Honor Book In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World.
1 Myth stories about creation are different. In a prophetic voice, they relate events that seem outside of time and even beyond time itself. Creation myths . . . go back beyond anything that ever was and begin before anything has happened.
2 The classic opening, although not the only opening, of a creation myth is
“In the beginning . . .” The most striking purpose of a creation myth is to explain something. Yet it also asks questions and gives reasons why groups of people perform certain rituals and live in a particular way. Creation myths describe a place and
time impossible for us to see for ourselves. People everywhere have creation myths, revealing how they view themselves to themselves in ways that are movingly personal.
3 Creation, then, means the act of bringing into existence — something. These myths from around the world were created by people who sensed the wonder and glory of the universe. Lonely as they were, by themselves, early people looked inside themselves and expressed a longing to discover, to explain who they were, why they were, and from what and where they came.
Second Read
• Reread the informational text to answer these text-dependent questions.
• Write any additional questions you have about the text in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
My Notes
Informational Text
Unit 1 • The Choices We Make 69
LearNING sTraTeGIes:
Diffusing, Close Reading, Paraphrasing, Visualizing, Drafting
prophetic: relating to a divinely inspired instruction or prediction
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