Turtle's Race with Beaver by Joseph and James Bruchac
In this video, Sydney reviews Turtle’s Race with Beaver by Joseph Bruchac, of the Abenaki Nation. He wrote this story along with his son, James. Joseph has written many excellent books for children and young adults.
This story is one you may have heard other places as it is, according to Joseph, a traditional Iroquois story, but many other Nations also tell it. This is a story of a smaller and weaker (but very wise) animal winning a race, much like in The Tortoise and the Hare.
When reading this story it is easy to make lots of connections. This book has a great connection to treaties and can be used as a conversation starter to include treaty education in your classroom. After Beaver leaves the pond because he has lost the race he comes upon another pond with a turtle living in it. I am left with many questions about this relationship. Why did this relationship between a beaver and a turtle work, when the other didn’t? Did Beaver and this new turtle agree upon a treaty? What were the responsibilities and agreements present in this treaty? Is there a story beyond this book? I think there probably is.
Where to next?
Your students could work on writing a treaty between Beaver and the new turtle. What do these characters need to do to uphold this treaty so they can live happily together in the pond?
What agreements do you have in your classroom? How do you know if these agreements are working? What can you do as a classroom to represent these agreements and hold each other accountable?
Check out Joseph Bruchac’s website for more resources to use in your classroom.
http://josephbruchac.com/
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