Common Core State Standards

Thomas Doty – Storyteller

Common Core State Standards

For Educators

Whether you are elated by the concepts of Common Core State Standards, or not too thrilled, the reality is that teachers in the vast majority of states need to deal with them. I created this web page to show how my stories align with these standards and are relevant across content areas.

All of my stories are based in native traditions. Some are Old Time stories passed through the oral tradition. Others are original native stories that help us connect the ancient days to present days.

I hope you find this web page useful. Clicking on a link will take you to a selection of my writing that illustrates a particular concept. Use your browser's back button to return to this page.

Special thanks to Kris Kibbee for her help in creating this page.

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English Language Arts – Literary

Speaking and Listening – Relevant when students are listening to a story being told by Thomas Doty, listening to a story from his audiobook, or read by a classroom teacher.
- Comprehension and Collaboration
- Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
Reading: Literature – Relevant when students are reading Thomas Doty's stories on his website or in his books.
- Key Ideas and Details
  - Writing: Thomas Doty's writing focuses on key topics and themes on native cultures.
- Craft and Structure
  - On Younger Daldal's Back: This short story is rich in descriptive language.
- Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
  - Writing: Many of Doty's stories interweave traditional cultural knowledge in modern settings.
Reading: Foundational Skills – Stories often contain indigenous words that are unfamiliar in everyday English. As students practice decoding skills and constructing meaning from context, they will be able to retell stories with expression.
- Print Concepts
  - Rocks: The native system of writing is expressed through rock carvings and paintings. Here are several pages that describe and interpret the meanings of the symbols. Symbols are combined to create messages and stories.
- Phonological Awareness
- Phonics and Word Recognition
Writing – Relevant when Thomas Doty is teaching a workshop, or when a teacher uses writing extensions.
- Text Types and Purposes
- Production and Distribution of Writing
- Research to Build and Present Knowledge
- Range of Writing
- Language – Stories are rich in the use of figurative language. They provide good examples of various styles and tones. Because they are based on an oral tradition, they naturally help support meaning for the listener.
  - Conventions of Standard English
    - Writing: All of Thomas Doty's stories show use of various writing conventions.
- Knowledge of Language
- Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
  - On Younger Daldal's Back: This short story contains words which aren't in common usage ... rabbitbrush, mesa, vernal, etc.
Standard 10: Range, Quality, & Complexity – Although native stories are geared to audiences of all ages, they are inherently complex. Multiple layers of meaning are understood in different ways, depending on the maturity of each listener.
- Literature
  - Stories
    - On Younger Daldal's Back: This story illustrates the spirituality that native cultures find in nature, including magic realism. Dragonflies turn into rock mesas.

History / Social Studies

Historical Knowledge – Thomas Doty's traditional and original native stories address pre-contact life and culture, as well as societal changes brought about by the arrival of Europeans.
- Long Walk Home: Doty and Coyote are joined by Coyote's grandmother in a walk from the reservation to their homeland. Following a Trail of Tears in reverse, this journey through landscape and time is edged with unsettling revelations.
- Waiting for Rock Old Woman: There are passages in this Doty & Coyote story that illustrate the juxtaposition of ancient native ways and modern lifestyles, following the arrival of Europeans.
Historical Thinking – Each story contains skills and knowledge relevant to survival.
- All Night Salmon Leap the Falls: There are several examples of native world view in this story.
- Tolowa Creation Story: This passage in The Truths of Trees is set in the Redwoods. It describes the change between all people and the distinction between Human People and Animal People, as the humans spread out across the world.
- The Wind: In this passage from Breath of the Earth, native people learn to celebrate the aliveness of their world.
Geography – A strong sense of place is dramatized in native stories, as well as traditional world view.
- Great Animal that is the World: In this passage in Ribs of the Animal, there is a description of the Takelma view of the universe and the Rogue River.
- On Younger Daldal's Back: This original native story focuses on a cultural sense of place. The Table Rocks are the center of the universe for the Takelmas.
Civics and Government – Stories show interaction between characters and their roles in traditional society.
Economics / Financial Literacy – Aspects of stories are relevant to trading and bartering systems. They also relate to the interactions of groups with the environment in order to access and store resources.
- The Yellowjackets Steal Coyote's Salmon: Coyote interacts with the people in search of a free meal.
Social Science Analysis – Through the eyes of various characters, stories compare different ways of looking at an event or issue and present multiple solutions to a problem.
- Dog Brings Fire to the People: In this Old Time story in Remembering Fire, various animals try to solve the problem of how to cook food. They work together with Dog and get fire.
- Sun and Stories Come into the World Together: In this traditional story, various animals try to solve the problem of no sunlight.

Science and Technical Subjects

Physical Science
- Structure and Properties of Matter – Stories abound with examples of the structure and properties of matter.
  - Dog Brings Fire to the People: In this Old Time story in Remembering Fire, Dog brings fire to the Human People and some Tree People are transformed into firewood.
  - Loss of Celilo Falls: This passage in We Who Watch the River shows how Celilo Falls -- a famous fishing place on the Columbia River -- is drowned by the backwaters of a dam, changing the flow of the river and the lifestyle of the people.
  - The Sun Rolls North and South: In this winter solstice myth, the ocean freezes during a prolonged darkness.
- Forces and Interactions – Native stories show causal effects of forces or motion being applied to a specific character or object.
Life Science
- Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems – Native stories show relationships between humans, animals and plants of a specific region, and the role of native people as caretakers of their homeland. In the native world, all of the People -- Rock People, Tree People, Human People -- are alive and equally important to a healthy ecosystem. Coyote says, "We are all People! And everyone is related to me!"
  - All Night Salmon Leap the Falls: There are several examples of native world view in this story.
  - The Boy Who Became a Salmon: In this passage in All Night Salmon Leap the Falls, a boy is transformed into a salmon. He experiences the relationship between the Salmon People and the Human People from a salmon's point of view.
  - An Elder's Prophecy: In this passage in The Truths of Trees, Minnie Reeves warns of the consequences of the destruction of the Redwoods.
  - Panther and the Deer: This traditional native story in Go Gather Seeds and Eat Them illustrates how important balance is to a healthy ecosystem.
- Structure, Function, and Information Processing – Native stories are matter-of-fact in their presentation of the day-to-day functions of the body. Bear is hungry in the spring -- every day -- and Coyote daily follows his nose in his efforts to satisfy various biological appetites.
  - Coyote in a Hollow Tree: In this passage in Story Tree at Kilchis Point, Coyote takes himself apart and puts himself back together, with unforeseen results.
  - Coyote's Dance: In this passage from Doty Meets Coyote hard lessons are not quite learned!
  - Coyote's Tapeworms: In this passage from Panther and the White Duck Women, Coyote asks his pet tapeworms for advice on love.
- Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems – Native stories illustrate how indigenous people make use of the energy stored in plant and animal life. They gather acorns, they make acorn flour, they consume the flour in soups and bread, they gain energy, and then that matter and energy is returned to the earth.
  - Digging Camas Roots: This passage in Trek to Table Mountain shows an example of the native use of energy.
  - Panther and the Deer: This traditional native story in Go Gather Seeds and Eat Them illustrates how animals get energy from the food they eat.
- Inheritance and Variation of Traits – With few specific descriptors, native stories differentiate between various species. Storytellers use voices, movements, facial expressions, and gestures to dramatize these distinct traits from character to character. In the Old Time, Coyote didn't need a DNA test kit to know that Raven and Crow were different, even though they were from the same family.
  - Coyote Carves Mouths for the People: This passage in We Who Watch the River illustrates how people got mouths.
- Natural Selection and Evolution – As native people migrated to various parts of the world, their physical characteristics adapted to their new living conditions and needs. These changes are dramatized metaphorically in the native stories.
  - The Boy Who Became a Salmon: In this traditional story in All Night Salmon Leap the Falls, an ill-fed boy becomes well-fed Salmon Boy.
  - Coyote and the Eyeball Trick: Badger tricks Coyote, Coyote tricks Mole, and everyone ends up with the eyes they have now.
  - Daldal Goes Upriver: In this traditional story in Ribs of the Animal Dragonfly splits and regenerates into two brothers, and they bring culture to the people.
  - Sun and Stories Come into the World Together: Snake learns to coil to become the sun.
Earth and Space Sciences
- Weather and Climate – Native people adapt as their environment changes ... tribal mobility for hunting and gathering, different clothing for different seasons and regions, and memories preserved in oral tradition of cataclysmic events, from the last ice age to the eruption of Mount Mazama. Coyote says, "I am a shapeshifter and a survivor ... in so many ways!"
  - Drought & Flood: This passage in Breath of the Earth tells a Takelma drought and flood story.
  - The Sun Rolls North and South: In this winter solstice myth, the ocean freezes during a prolonged darkness.
  - Supernova: This passage in Where the Sun and Moon Live describes the creation of the Crab Nebula in 1054.
- Earth Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth – Native stories are filled with examples of earth-changing events: great floods, volcanic eruptions, devastating fires, the ebb and flow of ice ages. In the Old Time, the life cycle of the river parallels the life cycle of the people.
  - Light & Water Cycles: This passage in The Truths of Trees describes how light and water transform a redwood forest.
  - On Younger Daldal's Back: This original native story takes place on Lower Table Rock, a flat-topped mesa made of basalt. It leads into conversations about earth's geologic processes and weather systems.
- Human Impacts – Native stories show how indigenous people live in harmony with nature in order to minimize impact on the environment. For millennia, they changed their lifestyles to adapt to the effects of catastrophic events.
  - Loss of Celilo Falls: This passage in We Who Watch the River shows how industrialization destroys nature and a sacred native site.
  - Jackrabbit Cuts Down Trees: This passage in Trek to Table Mountain is traditional myth. The first war begins as a result of abuse of the environment and misinformation.
  - New Culture Bringers: This passage in Ribs of the Animal describes a modern version of Daldal, the giant dragonfly.
  - Rock Quarry: This passage in Five Nights at Medicine Rock describes the decimation of the Rock People in a rock quarry.
- Human Sustainability – Many native stories illustrate the importance of managing natural resources in order to sustain animal and human populations, and biodiversity.
  - Cycles: This passage in Go Gather Seeds and Eat Them shows the cyclical nature of earth's environment which drives the native culture. The people follow the food.
  - Panther and the Deer: This traditional native story in Go Gather Seeds and Eat Them illustrates how important balance is to a healthy ecosystem.
- Space Systems – Native stories often relate the importance of celestial systems to everyday life. The salmon season, the gathering season, and others are dictated by the stars and moon.
  - Gaukos and Green Frog Woman: This passage in When Animals Talk is a traditional story that explains the native view of the cycles of the moon.
  - Mythology of Bear: Great Bear in the Sky circles the seasons as he dances around his fire.
  - Seasons & Moons: A description of the seasons from the native point of view.
  - Solstice Pictograph: This page describes a rock writing that marks the longest day of the year. It includes an excerpt from Where the Sun and Moon Live.
  - Supernova: This passage in Where the Sun and Moon Live describes the creation of the Crab Nebula in 1054.
  - The Sun Rolls North and South: A traditional winter solstice myth from the Oregon coast.