Source: Nature: "Dogs That Changed the World"
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This video from Nature describes the history and uses of the dogs of Papua New Guinea. Men from the Akepangi tribe set out to hunt at dawn. They believe the dogs they take with them have supernatural abilities to track down prey. The dogs are called the singing dogs because they howl but do not bark. In the hunt, the dogs find an opossum in the canopy (upper layer of vegetation). The dogs are more valuable to the hunters than their bows and arrows. The tribe believes the dogs tell them where the evil spirits lie in the jungle.
Download and ShareThe following Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions are best suited for elementary or middle school students using this video in an English language arts lesson. Be sure to modify the questions to meet your students' instructional needs.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame (ELA) When you read a well-constructed paragraph, what does it include? How is it put together? How does the writer construct it so it makes sense to the reader? As a writer, what do we know about writing a paragraph? What do you think about when you construct the structure and content of a paragraph?
Focus (ELA) Today we are going to see a video about a tribe of people who use dogs to hunt in the jungle. View the video as if you were a reporter looking for a story to write for a newspaper or magazine. Think about how you would create an interesting, focused and well-constructed paragraph about the information in the video.
Follow Up (ELA) As a writer, discuss your paragraph idea (special-interest story) with someone. As a reader, listen to others’ ideas for their paragraph. Give each other feedback on your ideas. Describe how these two perspectives--talking like a writer and listening like a reader--can help your writing.
NARRATOR: Thousands of years ago, the wolf stepped out of the forest and transformed, in an evolutionary blink of the eye, into the dog.
NARRATOR: This remarkable animal followed us and understood us.
NARRATOR: And we embraced him like no other creature.
NARRATOR: From the descendents of ancient wild dogs in Papua New Guinea, to a hairless breed thought to have magical powers in Mexico, dogs have made a lasting impact on cultures and civilizations around the world.
NARRATOR: They are healers and skilled herders.
SERPELL: Maybe we would be still hunters and gathers if it wasn’t for dogs. NARRATOR: They act as guardians and expert guides.
LEVI: Without them we would have never survived, without them we wouldn’t be here.
NARRATOR: Now, a controversial theory suggests the birthplace of the dog can be narrowed down to one corner of the globe.
NARRATOR: Through DNA evidence, scientists are trying to pinpoint that spot - the motherland of all dogs that would adapt and eventually change the world.
NARRATOR: At dawn in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea a band of men set out to hunt. Their village is desperate for meat.
NARRATOR: The men believe the dogs they take with them have supernatural abilities to track down prey.
NARRATOR: The Akepangi (Ack-ah-PAN-gee) tribe affirm that their hunting dogs are descended from an ancient and mysterious wild dog that still roams the mountains of Papua New Guinea.
NARRATOR: The singing dog of New Guinea doesn’t bark but howls like a wolf.
NARRATOR: Heard here in a rare recording, the singing dog is seldom, if ever, seen today. But the Akepangi believe it to be unchanged by time, and the mother of all dogs.
NARRATOR: The men are hunting for marsupial tree kangaroos, bandicoots and possums, but it’s the dogs that will find them.
NARRATOR: The dogs have detected the scent of a possum, up in the canopy.
NARRATOR: The men check the possum’s claws haven’t cut the dogs’ mouths; these dogs are more valuable to them than their bows and arrows.
PNG HUNTER: If I go to the forest without a dog I just feel like I am going there without anything and I know that I will not be able to catch anything, and when we go out into the bush there is some forces of the spirits so the dogs, they warn us, don’t go to that place because there are spirits there, and their tails will be stuck behind their back and they will come and look scared and that is a signal that there is something out there.
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