Summary
In this lesson, students explore how an artist's cultural background and personal perspective shape the work they create and the career they choose. Students learn about the elements of an author's style, read and annotate an excerpt of literary nonfiction, and analyze how the author's background shaped their stylistic choices.
Essential Question(s)
How do people use their personal and cultural backgrounds to create art?
Learning Objectives
Understand how cultural perspectives shape an artist’s work.
Analyze how an author’s perspective influences their style.
Snapshot
Engage
Students think of something that is meaningful to them, consider why it holds meaning, and think about what that conveys to others.
Explore
Students watch an interview with a fashion designer who integrates her culture into her creations.
Explain
Students formalize their understanding of an author’s style and its connection to an author’s perspective.
Extend
Students read the introduction of The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday and identify elements of the author’s style.
Evaluate
Students justify how identified elements of an author’s style reveal the author’s perspective by writing paragraphs using a claim, evidence, reasoning structure.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Making Meaning handout (attached; one per student; print one-sided)
Note Catcher handout (attached; one per student; print one-sided)
Analyzing Momaday’s Style handout (attached; one per student; print two-sided)
Highlighters (one per student)
Engage
15 Minute(s)
Introduce the lesson using the attached Lesson Slides. Share the essential question on slide 3, and then share the learning objectives on slide 4. Review each of these with your class to the extent you feel necessary.
Display slide 5 and ask students to think of a place or object that holds special meaning to them. If necessary, give students ideas using the following examples on the slide: a gift from someone special, the setting of an important life event, a family heirloom, or a place connected to their family or ancestors. Allow students 30 seconds to quietly think about their choice. While they are thinking, give each student one copy of the attached Making Meaning handout.
Show slide 6 and have students use their chosen places or objects to complete the handout. Share that each student should draw their place or object and answer the questions about their drawing. Share that students have eight minutes to complete the task and begin the 8-minute timer on the slide.
When time is up, move to slide 7. Ask students to share out what place or object they chose.
Explore
20 Minute(s)
Display slide 8 and share that students should now watch a video featuring fashion designer Leslie Deer. Tell students that Deer is a fashion designer who shares how the knowledge of her tribe and her culture influences her work. Ask students to think about the following questions as they watch the video:
Is apparel design or a similar career something that interests you?
What classes should someone take in high school or college to prepare for this type of career?
Show slide 9 and play the video Cultural Perspectives through Apparel Design on the slide.
When the video ends, transition to slide 10 and facilitate a whole-class discussion using the questions on the slide, which are the same as those above.
Explain
15 Minute(s)
Show slide 11 and discuss how, like an apparel designer, authors use their medium of writing to convey their perspectives. Give each student one copy of the attached Note Catcher handout.
Display slide 12 and introduce the meaning of author’s perspective and its implications. Move to slide 13 and discuss the connection between author’s perspective and author’s style.
Transition through slides 14–16 to introduce the different elements of author’s style: diction, imagery, figurative language, mood, and tone. Discuss the meaning of each term using the example included and anything else you want to include to help students understand the terms. Encourage students to take notes in the second column of the table on their Note Catcher.
Move to slide 17 and introduce the Creative Annotations strategy. Have students use the last column of their Note Catcher to sketch a visual representation of each vocabulary term. Remind students that the purpose of this activity is to create a symbol that represents the meaning of the term. Share that they will redraw the symbol multiple times as they annotate a text, so the drawing should be relatively simple.
When students are finished, have them keep their Note Catcher in a safe place. They will use their illustrations in the next phase of the lesson.
Extend
30 Minute(s)
Show slide 18 and preview what students are going to do during this portion of the lesson. Share that they will do the following:
Learn about the author, N. Scott Momaday.
Identify ways his background influenced his perspective.
Read an example of his writing to identify elements of his writing style.
Analyze how his perspective may have affected his writing style.
Display slide 19 and let students know that they should watch two videos about N. Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer Prize winner with strong Oklahoma roots. Ask students to think about the following questions while they watch the videos:
What do you think is important to Momaday?
What likely influenced his perspective?
Show slide 20 and play the video, The First Native American to Win the Pulitzer, on the slide.
Then, display slide 21 and play the video, How N. Scott Momaday Connected with his Kiowa Ancestry, on the slide.
When the second video ends, transition to slide 22. Facilitate a whole-class discussion using the questions on the slide, which are the same as those above.
Show slide 23 and give each student a copy of the attached Analyzing Momaday's Style handout. Use the slide to introduce the reading and the book it comes from, The Way to Rainy Mountain.
Display slide 24 and give each student one highlighter. Have students highlight examples of each element of the author’s style as they read the text. For every element they highlight, have them draw the corresponding Creative Annotations element from their Note Catchers in the margins. Encourage students to try to find at least two examples of each element.
Evaluate
25 Minute(s)
Show slide 25 and have students select two of the elements they think best illustrate the author’s perspective. Let students know that they will use these elements to write two analysis paragraphs.
Transition to slide 26 and prompt students to critically think about what each element reveals to the reader about the author’s perspective. Give students approximately 5 minutes to select their two elements and determine their reasoning. Have students use the back of their Note Catchers to jot down their thoughts.
Display slide 27 and have students now justify why their two selected elements best represent the author’s perspective. Have students write a paragraph for each of their elements using a claim, supporting it with evidence, and justifying their reasoning.
Share slide 28 if students need additional clarification on the CER structure. Consider displaying this slide while students work on their assignments so they can use it as a reference. Have students submit their paragraphs once they are finished.
Resources
American Masters PBS. (2019, November 4). The first Native American to win the Pulitzer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h7N_bcNeu0
American Masters PBS. (2019, November 27). How N. Scott Momaday connected with his Kiowa ancestry [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kgtYM1iliQ
K20 Center. (n.d.). Creative annotations. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/5629
K20 Center. (2026, August 4). Cultural perspectives through apparel design [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np521LvQchs
K20 Center. (2021, September 21). K20 Center 8 minute timer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-21YM7Ey7k
Momaday, N. S. (1969). The way to rainy mountain. The University of New Mexico Press.