UNIT 1 - READING 1 “Grandmother Spider Brings the Sun.”

This Native American myth explains how light came to the world and why certain animals look the way they do. In the story, half of the world had the sun and half of the world was dark. The animals in the dark decided to steal a piece of the sun. Possum dug a tunnel and hid a piece of the sun in his bushy tail. But the sun blinded him and burned the hair from his tail. Next, Buzzard hid a piece in the feathers on his head. But the sun burned his feathers and made him bald.
Finally, Spider carried a piece of the sun back in a bowl. The sun grew bigger and bounced up to the sky, lighting the world. After that, Spider always spun the shape of the sun in the center of her web.

Literary Words

onomatopoeia: the use of words that imitate sounds
repetition: the act of saying or doing something again

Academic Words

• author = someone who writes a book, story,

article, or play 

➡ Geri Keams is the author who retold the story you are about to read.

• culture = the art, literature, music, beliefs,

and practices of a particular group of people 

➡ Myths in the Cherokee culture include

animal characters.

• text = the words in a printed piece of writing 

➡ Colorful illustrations go with the text of this story.

• tradition = a belief, custom, or way of doing

something that has existed for a long time 

➡ Telling stories is a Cherokee tradition.

Highlighted Words

chant, sing words on one tone

Compound Words

Compound Words and Sequences of Words

Point out that when a compound is written as two words, it is not clear whether

the resulting combination is a compound or a sequence of nouns. In true 

compounds, like heart attack, high school, role play, stress falls on the first

element. Examples of Noun + Noun sequences (as opposed to compounds)

include: tomato sauce, glass door, computer file, radio station, or labor force, 

with stress on the second element. As a working rule, when a sequence of words 

can be rewritten using a preposition between the two members, the resulting

combination is likely to be a sequence as opposed to a true compound: sauce

from tomato, door (made) of glass, file from a computer.