James P. Brochin
Students should come to the subject with some basic understanding of American Indian History, including the Indian Wars, the start of the reservation system, as well as White society's efforts to assimilate Indians.
QUESTIONS NEEDED TO BE ANSWERED IN ORDER FOR THE UNIT TO BE MOST EFFECTIVE:
1) How can students quickly get into a dialogue about the subject (s) so that they are learning from one another and so that I lecture only when necessary? (What the learning will look like)
2) How can students teach themselves and each other, in such a way that deepens, extends, and makes relevant the subject matter? (What the learning will be about)
3) How can students explain and interpret Indian History so that the usual narrative is replaced by a narrative which include sovereignty and self determination, identity, memoir, irony, and respect for Indian heritage?
Day One Classroom Activities: Sherman Alexie, Introduction to The Unit and the Unit Themes
A. Learning Objectives-The students will be able to
-
describe their personal reactions to the reading from
ATDPTI
;
-
interpret the reading from the diary;
-
describe students' prior knowledge about Indian wars and establishment of reservations, Indian religion, Indian life and culture
-
describe classic views by white society of Indian life and culture.
B.Initiation Strategy: TW, for no more than 10 minutes, describe the Unit and its Essential Questions: 1) How do we internalize our identity? 2) Is our identity as a result of history or what adults do, or is our identity self created? 3) How can we describe American Indian culture and identity as it is today as opposed to how it has been described in the past? and 4) What were the cause and the effects of the white/Indian conflicts of the past and the near disappearance of many Tribes?
C. Lesson Strategy:
In order to get them right into it, students broken into six groups of four, and students take turns reading aloud from
ATDPTI,
for about 20 minutes or so.
-
Students discuss their reactions and their interpretations within the group.
-
Students share their reactions and interpretations with the class, group by group.
-
Students are given another section of the book, and again read aloud, this time with the readings being recorded as a podcast on Garageband.
-
Students are recorded one by one giving their reactions and interpretations to the second section of the book.
-
Keeping in mind the questions of identity, students have an open discussion of who they are and how they got this way, which will also be recorded.
D. Closure: Teacher poses and explains the homework question.
Day Two Classroom Activities:
Little Big Man
A. Learning Objectives-The students will be able to:
-
describe their personal reactions to the reading from
ATDPTI
;
-
interpret the reading from the diary;
-
describe new knowledge about Indian wars and establishment of reservations, Indian religion, Indian life and culture;
-
describe classic views by white society of Indian life and culture, and
-
Actively view and take notes about the film
Little Big Man
B. Initiation Strategy:
Students share their homework on Alexie reading from the class before. TW inquire about students’ prior knowledge of General Custer, Little Big Horn, and will introduce the film especially as it 1) explains or uses satire to criticize white society; and 2) uses “tall tales” to tell history, and 3) explains the developing identity of Jack Crabb through his back and forthing between white and Indian society.
C. Lesson Strategy:
Teacher starts and plays the film, stopping intermittently in order to point our what is notable: use of satire, back and forth, white hypocrisy, turning points. Students use a handout as a guide. Here is a series of quotes:
Jack goes back to the white world and is living with Reverend and Mrs. Pendrake (Jack’s “religion period”):
Reverend Pendrake:
We shall have to beat the lying out of him.
(while Mrs. Pendrake gives Jack a bath)
Jack Crabb
: I love Jesus and Moses and all of them...
Louise Pendrake
: [authoritatively] There's quite a difference. Moses was a Hebrew, but Jesus was a gentile, like you and me.
Jack Crabb
: She was calling him a devil and moaning for help, but I didn't get no idea she wanted to be rescued. That was the end of my religion period. I ain’t sung a hymn in 110 years.
D. Closure: Teacher stops the film in order to get students to discuss their reactions among themselves and then to share out (the last 10 minutes of the class)
E. Homework: Each student completes the part of the note-taking guide up to that point in the film. (can use 20 minutes of the start of the next class)
Day Three Classroom Activities:
Little Big Man
A. Learning Objectives-The students will be able to:
-
describe new knowledge about Indian wars and establishment of reservations, Indian religion, Indian life and culture;
-
describe classic views by white society of Indian life and culture;
-
Actively view and take notes about the film
Little Big Man
B. Initiation Strategy:
Students discuss film in groups for 5 minutes and share 5 minutes; then teacher restarts the film.
C. Lesson Strategy:
Teacher completes the film, stopping intermittently in order to point our what is notable: use of satire, back and forth, white hypocrisy, and turning points:
Grandfather (Old Lodge Skins), who has laid himself down to die, wakes up
:
Old Lodge Skins
: Am I still in this world?
Jack Crabb
: Yes, Grandfather.
Old Lodge Skins
: [groans] I was afraid of that. Well, sometimes the magic works. Sometimes, it doesn't.
Old Lodge Skins
: Let's go back to the teepee and eat, my son. My new snake wife cooks dog very well.
Jack Crabb
: All right, Grandfather.
Old Lodge Skins
: She also has a very soft skin. The only trouble with snake women is they copulate with horses, which makes them strange to me. She say's she doesn't. That's why I call her "Doesn't Like Horses". But, of course, she's lying.
(last lines of the film)
Jack Crabb
: Well, that's the story of this old Indian fighter. That's the story of the Human Beings, who was promised land where they could live in peace. Land that would be theirs as long as grass grow, wind blow, and the sky is blue.
Historian
: Mr. Crabb, I didn't know...
Jack Crabb
: Get out. Get out.
D. Closure: If time allows, students work on handout, and discuss for plans for podcast about the film on Day Four.
E. Homework: Each student completes the handout and prepares something to say during the podcast.
Day Four Classroom Activities: Podcast about
Little Big Man
, etc.
A. Learning Objectives-The students will be able to:
-
record a podcast about
Little Big Man
(30 min);
-
describe photos and reactions to text from
Touch the Earth (30 min);
-
read and respond to another segment of
ATDPTI
B. Initiation Strategy: Student introduces podcast about
Little Big Man
C. Lesson Strategy:
-
Students record podcast about
Little Big Man;
-
TW project about 5 images and text selections from
Touch the Earth;
-
SW be given time to write one-paragraph descriptions/reactions to the photos and the text. TW will give guidance/students will come up on their own with the observation that the book is about a lost world, about what Indians were, not what they are.
-
SW be given relevant section of
ATDPTI
and will read it aloud and respond on tape. They will be directed to address the was/are issue and how it fits into an understanding of
ATDPTI
and the issue of identity in general.
D. Closing: Teacher previews
Blood Struggle
for day five
Day Five Classroom Activities: Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations
A. Learning Objectives-The students will be able to:
-
research a topic from
Blood Struggle
-
present, in groups, that topic, making a podcast
B. Initiation Strategy: Teacher assigns each group a topic from
Blood Struggle
C. Lesson Strategy:
-
Students research a topic from
Blood Struggle.
Examples: the rise and fall of the termination movement, leaders on the reservation, turning points for self-determination, tribal gaming and Connecticut’s casinos, major legal cases in the history of reservations and self-determination.
-
Students will present each of their topics, in groups, while recording the presentations as podcasts either on that day or the next day.
D. Closing: Teacher previews
Strong Hearts
for day six:
Day Six Classroom Activities: Strong Hearts: Native American Visions and Voices
A. Learning Objectives-The students will be able to:
-
respond to photos and text from the book
-
discuss the book and how it reveals a change from “Indians were” to modern/contemporary perspective on Indian culture and identity.
-
read a relevant third section from Alexie, and compare his writing to
Strong Hearts
focusing on the change from
Touch the Earth
B. Initiation Strategy: Teacher projects and/or hands out material from the book.
C. Lesson Strategy:
-
Students write their descriptions/responses to the images, writing from the book;
-
Students will present, in groups, and recorded as podcast, their descriptions and responses;
D. Closing: Teacher previews
Smoke Signals
for day six:
Day Seven and Eight Classroom Activities:
Smoke Signals
and
ATDPTI
A. Learning Objectives-The students will be able to:
-
Actively view the film
Smoke Signals
-
read a fourth and final section from Alexie, and compare his writing to
Smoke Signals.
-
Create a podcast about the film also addresses students’ understanding of Indian culture and identity from Alexie’s work
B. Initiation Strategy: Teacher hands out final segment of Alexie’s book, and begins the film
C. Lesson Strategy:
-
Students actively view the film over two days;
-
Students read, for homework the first of the two last class days, the final segment from
ATDPTI;
-
Students discuss film and record podcast about the film, ATDPTI, and the unit as a whole, addressing the Unit Themes and Objectives.
D. Closing: Students take an exam in the form of a survey/student evaluation about the unit.