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← Unit 2: Oral Traditions and Storytelling

NBE3U · Unit 2 test review

Oral Traditions and Storytelling: Test Review

Everything for the Unit 2 test on one page: the key facts from all 6 lessons, the mistakes that cost the most marks, and a practice test that points you back to the lessons you need.

Key facts

Forms of the Oral Tradition

  • Oral traditions carry history, law, values, relationships and language — they are records, not just entertainment.
  • Forms belong to specific nations: Haudenosaunee wampum and the Thanksgiving Address, Gitxsan adaawk, Anishinaabe aadizookaanag and dibaajimowinan, Inuit katajjaq, Métis fiddle and Michif storytelling.
  • Oral records stay reliable through trained tellers, repetition, public witnessing and objects such as wampum.
  • In Delgamuukw v. British Columbia (1997), the Supreme Court of Canada required that Indigenous oral histories be given real weight as evidence.
  • Audible features — naming the source, repetition, place names, direct address, humour and pause — carry meaning the way punctuation and structure do on a page.

Culturally Appropriate Listening

  • Protocols belong to specific nations and communities, so the respectful approach is to ask rather than assume.
  • Hearing a story does not give you permission to retell, record or publish it.
  • Some stories belong to particular people or groups — for example, a Gitxsan adaawk belongs to a specific House.
  • In Anishinaabe tradition, certain traditional stories are told only in winter, when snow is on the ground.
  • Listen to the end without interrupting, hold questions until invited, and treat pauses as part of the text.
  • Acknowledge a teller by name, nation or community, setting and date, and share only what you were permitted to.

Talking Circles, Discussion and Respectful Dialogue

  • In a talking circle only the person holding the talking piece speaks, the piece moves in order, and anyone may pass.
  • Circle practices differ between nations; follow the keeper's instructions rather than a general rule.
  • Seminar moves respond to others: build on, ask for evidence, clarify, disagree respectfully, synthesize and invite.
  • Respectful disagreement targets an idea, offers another reading, and gives evidence.
  • Discuss sensitive history as real events affecting real families, and never ask a classmate to speak for their people.
  • Self-assessment looks at the kind and balance of your contributions, then sets one specific goal.

Story Structure and Worldview

  • Structure carries worldview: how a story is shaped suggests how time, change and responsibility work.
  • A linear plot moves through exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.
  • Cyclical stories return to their start with a difference; episodic stories build meaning across connected, self-contained episodes.
  • Trickster and transformer figures belong to specific nations — Nanabush (Anishinaabe), Wesakechak (Cree), Raven (Haida and other Northwest Coast nations), Kluskap (Mi'kmaq and other Wabanaki nations) — and are not interchangeable.
  • Describe a figure's role and what their stories teach; do not retell sacred or ceremonial stories.

Analysing Speeches and Oratory

  • Analyze a speech through speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject and tone before looking at devices.
  • Ethos is credibility, pathos is emotion and values, logos is reason and evidence, and kairos is the fit with the moment.
  • Chief Dan George delivered 'A Lament for Confederation' at Empire Stadium in Vancouver on July 1, 1967, Canada's centennial.
  • Autumn Peltier of Wiikwemkoong addressed the UN General Assembly on World Water Day in 2018, at age 13.
  • Mary Simon, an Inuk from Nunavik, was installed as the first Indigenous Governor General on July 26, 2021, and began her address in Inuktitut.
  • In spoken texts, delivery, language choice and tone shifts are evidence to analyze alongside the words.

Speaking to Communicate

  • Tell stories you have the right to tell — your own, your family's with agreement, or ones you wrote — and never speak for First Nations, Métis or Inuit people.
  • Pace, pauses, volume, repetition and responding to the audience are the core storytelling skills.
  • A meaningful land acknowledgement names specific nations and treaties, uses present tense, is in your own words, is pronounced correctly and points to learning or action.
  • An acknowledgement is not permission to use a nation's stories or symbols, and it is not a substitute for action.
  • Record, edit and publish someone's voice only with their informed consent, and never cut it so the meaning changes.
  • Good reflection uses evidence and ends in one specific, practical next step.

Where marks get lost

  • Calling every oral text a 'myth' or 'legend', which implies it is untrue and erases the difference between a history, an agreement and a teaching story. (Forms of the Oral Tradition)
  • Describing a practice from one nation — wampum, throat singing, winter storytelling — as if every First Nations, Métis and Inuit community shares it. (Forms of the Oral Tradition)
  • Treating oral traditions as something that belongs to the past, instead of recognizing their use in governance, courts, language programs and contemporary art today. (Forms of the Oral Tradition)
  • Assuming a written account is automatically more accurate than an oral one, when oral records have their own methods of checking accuracy. (Forms of the Oral Tradition)
  • Analysing only the plot of an oral text and ignoring how it is told — the named source, the place names, the pauses and the direct address. (Forms of the Oral Tradition)
  • Retelling, posting or presenting a story because you heard it at a public event, without asking the person who has the right to share it. (Culturally Appropriate Listening)
  • Recording or photographing a speaker without asking first, or asking and then recording anyway 'just for notes'. (Culturally Appropriate Listening)
  • Assuming one nation's protocol — such as offering tobacco or telling certain stories only in winter — applies to every community. (Culturally Appropriate Listening)
  • Interrupting with questions mid-story, or treating a pause as the end and starting to talk. (Culturally Appropriate Listening)
  • Referring to what you heard as 'an Indigenous story' without naming the teller, their nation or community, and the setting. (Culturally Appropriate Listening)
  • Treating the number of times you spoke as the measure of a good contribution, instead of looking at the kind of moves you made. (Talking Circles, Discussion and Respectful Dialogue)
  • Rehearsing your next point while others speak, then making it whether or not it connects to what was just said. (Talking Circles, Discussion and Respectful Dialogue)
  • Disagreeing with the person ('that's wrong') instead of with the reading, and offering no evidence. (Talking Circles, Discussion and Respectful Dialogue)
  • Asking a First Nations, Métis or Inuit classmate to explain what their people think. (Talking Circles, Discussion and Respectful Dialogue)
  • Adding ceremonial elements to a class circle, or calling it sacred, when no community member is leading it. (Talking Circles, Discussion and Respectful Dialogue)
  • Stating that 'Indigenous stories are circular', which turns an analytical tool into a stereotype and ignores differences between nations and contemporary writers. (Story Structure and Worldview)
  • Calling a story 'pointless' or 'unfinished' because it does not fit a plot pyramid, instead of asking what its actual structure is doing. (Story Structure and Worldview)
  • Treating trickster figures as interchangeable — for example, calling Raven 'the same as' Nanabush — instead of attributing each to its own nation. (Story Structure and Worldview)
  • Retelling a sacred or ceremonial story as evidence in an essay, instead of describing the figure's role and analysing the contemporary text. (Story Structure and Worldview)
  • Dismissing humour as light relief rather than analysing what the laugh teaches. (Story Structure and Worldview)
  • Listing devices ('he uses pathos') without explaining how the device works on this audience at this moment. (Analysing Speeches and Oratory)
  • Ignoring the occasion, so the analysis misses that a speech's power comes from its fit, or clash, with the setting. (Analysing Speeches and Oratory)
  • Quoting long stretches of a speech instead of describing and paraphrasing, and quoting only the phrase being analyzed. (Analysing Speeches and Oratory)
  • Analyzing only the words of a speech that exists as a recording, and missing delivery, language choice and setting. (Analysing Speeches and Oratory)
  • Calling Indigenous speakers 'naturally eloquent' instead of analyzing their deliberate choices as craft. (Analysing Speeches and Oratory)
  • Retelling a traditional story from another nation as a 'storytelling performance' instead of choosing a story you have the right to tell. (Speaking to Communicate)
  • Reading a copied land acknowledgement quickly, in past tense, with no nation named and names mispronounced. (Speaking to Communicate)
  • Treating an acknowledgement as permission to use a nation's symbols or stories later in the presentation. (Speaking to Communicate)
  • Recording or editing a guest's words without informed consent, or trimming them so they seem to say something different. (Speaking to Communicate)
  • Writing a vague reflection ('I need to be more confident') with no evidence and no specific next step. (Speaking to Communicate)

Practice test

24 questions from across the unit. Each one shows the lesson it comes from.

  1. Forms of the Oral Tradition
    1
    Which statement best describes what the Haudenosaunee use wampum for?
  2. Forms of the Oral Tradition
    2
    A student's essay says, 'Indigenous people use throat singing to tell their stories.' What is the main problem?
  3. Forms of the Oral Tradition
    3
    Match each oral form to the nation it belongs to.
    Wampum belts and the Thanksgiving Address
    Adaawk held by each House
    Katajjaq
    Aadizookaanag told in winter
    Fiddle tunes and stories told in Michif
  4. Forms of the Oral Tradition
    4
    In the sample passage written for this lesson, what is the main effect of ending with 'That's why I take you there'?
  5. Culturally Appropriate Listening
    5
    You are unsure of the protocol for an event where a Knowledge Keeper will share stories. What should you do?
  6. Culturally Appropriate Listening
    6
    During a story, the teller pauses for several seconds. What is the most appropriate response?
  7. Culturally Appropriate Listening
    7
    Match each listening strategy to what it helps you notice.
    Listening for purpose
    Listening for structure
    Listening for tone
    Reading the silence
    Paraphrasing afterwards
  8. Culturally Appropriate Listening
    8
    Why did outside collectors publishing stories without consent lead communities to emphasize protocols about sharing? Answer in a few words.
  9. Talking Circles, Discussion and Respectful Dialogue
    9
    Why does the circle format change how people listen?
  10. Talking Circles, Discussion and Respectful Dialogue
    10
    Match each sentence starter to its seminar move.
    'Adding to what Sam said…'
    'Where in the text do you see that?'
    'I read that scene differently, because…'
    'So far we have three readings…'
    'We haven't heard from this side yet…'
  11. Talking Circles, Discussion and Respectful Dialogue
    11
    A group is discussing a novel about residential schools. Which question is appropriate for the discussion?
  12. Talking Circles, Discussion and Respectful Dialogue
    12
    Match each discussion habit to dialogue or debate.
    Listening for weaknesses to attack
    Treating a change of mind as a result
    Rewarding speed and confidence
    Building on others' points
  13. Story Structure and Worldview
    13
    In the Mara sample passage, what makes the structure cyclical rather than linear?
  14. Story Structure and Worldview
    14
    Match each figure to the nation whose tradition it belongs to.
    Nanabush (Nanabozho)
    Wesakechak
    Raven
    Kluskap (Glooscap)
  15. Story Structure and Worldview
    15
    What type of structure links a series of complete, self-contained stories through a recurring figure or place?
  16. Story Structure and Worldview
    16
    What do you call an ending that does not state the lesson and leaves the meaning for the listener to work out?
  17. Analysing Speeches and Oratory
    17
    Chief Dan George delivered 'A Lament for Confederation' at Canada's centennial in 1967. Confederation was in 1867. How many years had passed? (Give a whole number.)
    years
  18. Analysing Speeches and Oratory
    18
    What is the strongest reading of Mary Simon's choice to begin her installation address in Inuktitut?
  19. Analysing Speeches and Oratory
    19
    Put these events in order from earliest to latest.
    1. 1Mary Simon is installed as Governor General
    2. 2Peltier is named Chief Water Commissioner of the Anishinabek Nation
    3. 3Autumn Peltier addresses the UN General Assembly on World Water Day
    4. 4Confederation
    5. 5Chief Dan George delivers 'A Lament for Confederation'
  20. Analysing Speeches and Oratory
    20
    Which sentence is the strongest analysis?
  21. Speaking to Communicate
    21
    Which land acknowledgement is the most meaningful?
  22. Speaking to Communicate
    22
    Order the steps for preparing a respectful oral presentation about an oral tradition.
    1. 1Write a researched land acknowledgement in your own words
    2. 2Present, crediting your sources aloud
    3. 3Rehearse pacing, pauses and pronunciation
    4. 4Set your purpose and your position as a learner
    5. 5Research using sources from the nation itself and record them
    6. 6Decide what sacred or ceremonial material to leave out
    7. 7Organize three or four main points
  23. Speaking to Communicate
    23
    While editing a podcast interview, you realize that removing one clause would make the guest's answer sound more dramatic but would change what they meant. What should you do?
  24. Speaking to Communicate
    24
    What kind of question invites a story or explanation instead of a one-word answer?

Endless drill

Fresh numbers every time, for the calculation questions in this unit.

Endless drillnew numbers every time

Generating a problem…

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