1. Use of the overhead or blackboard to help students take accurate notes of the initial periods in America.
2. Using directed small group activities, given students specifics tasks to determine:
a. What is the characteristic of the environment (weather, resources, and animals).
b. What sort of things the inhabitants needed to protect themselves from predators, heat, cold, rain, and other people.
c. The architecture of the different shelters we are studying. What do they look like? How and with what are they built?
d. How did they decorate the shelters? And who did it?
3. Students will need to prepare a report that include shelters satisfied human needs, list of materials that were used in constructing the shelter, and the problems they faced when staying in some places.
The report will be prepared as if this project were to go before a tribal leader for approval, providing details of the shelters and their impact on the environment.
4. The course will consist of reading, essays-writing and individual or group project work supported by the curriculum and district standards. Student performance will be assessed through course-workgroup project and group dissertation.
5. Topics for written reports may be assigned and a time limit set. Theses topics are related to each of the 4 regions of the Native American people and will expose the students to more depth in some areas and allow practice in writing skills. An introduction to the different shelters the Native American built and the name of them will follow the assignments of report topics. It will also be related to the strength of native family bonds and the belief in the supernatural.
6. Woodlands, Indians, Coastal Indians, Desert Indians and Plains Indians will be read and discussed in class in 4 parts distributed over four- weeks and extension if needed. After each region has been read through once, students can be assigned characters and design some shelters.
7. Audio-visual material should be included in the unit as much as possible. There are many sources to be investigated, like pictures, slides, films, film-strips and records. Museums should also be explored when they have related exhibits. All these activities should increase the interest and motivation of the students as other possibilities mentioned next.
8. A film of Native Americans will be shown and discussed. Since the students have completed their outside reading and the sources given during classes or library, they should be able to discuss the movie.
9. At the end of the unit student should be able to discuss the theme of the unit and answer general questions about the material that has been presented discussing similarities and differences among the 4 regions, and drawing conclusions as to the view of each culture, (including systems of life) toward the others
10. Parallels can be drawn in a chart comparing early Native American Cultures in four different regions of North America. How were they alike? How were they different?
This is an orientation in the form of a "big picture" snapshot of the unit steps or events.
My central goal is a flexible sort of instruction. I will teach the whole class when that makes sense – and small groups when it is more suitable. I will support students in attaching their own interest to the curricular goals. I will provide multiple ways of learning what needs to be learned. I will help students come to understand which approaches work best for them under particular circumstances. We will share responsibilities; every student will consistently have work that respects him or her as an individual. This means each student is responsible for working as much as he or she can towards goals that are personally challenging.
