Robert M. Schwartz
The average American high school student, and particularly urban student, struggles with every stress of an evolving, global landscape, and many continue to struggle after the school day is over. Many have issues with poverty, obesity, child-care, adverse family situations, and so many unique circumstances that myriad research has been conducted on just that. Not every inner-city student struggles this way, but the statistics confirm that it is a prevalent enough problem to note.
When they enter an English classroom, there is an opportunity: self-actualization, catharsis, and healthy doses of perspective are not uncommon for any student when they come upon compelling literature. In an inner-city English classroom, this can be particularly powerful.
Therefore, choosing effective themes and topics to teach and learn in this type of classroom is imperative. There exists a foundational American culture that is all-too familiar with struggle, persecution, adverse and even horrific circumstances, yet so many high school students are unfamiliar with their history. American Indians have a rich, tragic, artistic, adverse, profound history, the study of which is essential for an English classroom that promotes self-actualization and perspective; that promotes a holistic view of American history for the purposes of literary study in order to steward globally-minded high school graduates. This curricular unit aims to foster that inclusion in the reading intervention classroom (Read 180, a highly structured program designed by the Scholastic company and used to bring struggling readers up to their grade-level reading skill), and Junior English classroom through interpretation and analysis of American Indian texts, plays, books, culture and history.
In every English classroom, different types of instruction are necessary - from foundational literary theory to examples in literature and nonfiction, to more authentic activities and experience. This curricular unit aims to enhance these approaches to student learning by developing an understanding, or at least an awareness, through a foundational study of American Indian history; then, further that understanding through analysis of example texts. The greatest advantage of learning something so visceral as the experience of Native peoples is that students can synthesize their learning with authentic activities - such as museum trips, film and art related activities, and writing.
Read 180 is a reading intervention course designed to encourage improvement in reading skills through studies of fundamentals, and students often use non-fiction texts. Read 180 students learn about “Survivors” in their first unit – encompassing stories of Latin America, the American west, and of urban gangland violence. But this unit does not include the first American survivors – the American Indians. In addition to being a foundational aspect of American history and culture, the stories of American Indian survival is high interest, deeming it advantageous in a class with learners who are struggling with their skills, and often interest, in reading. This unit may apply to any reading intervention classroom.
Across the hallway from Read 180, many American high school juniors study American Literature. This curricular unit will focus on the study of the “American Dream,” utilizing the text
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry – the study of African-American struggle in mid-20th century Chicago. For these purposes, students will conduct a comparative analysis of the classic play with a modern American Indian play,
Sliver of a Full Moon
by Mary Katherine Nagle. This contemporary story of the legal battle of modern tribes to attain sovereign jurisdiction over perpetrators of violent crimes against women, will contribute to further synthesis of what it means to thrive as opposed to simply surviving when experiencing struggle and strife.
For both the freshmen reading seminar and the junior American Dream concept, the unit will begin with a study of American Indian history and culture, and its impact on the America we know today. It will then foray into the respective texts of each class for which the unit will be used.
The explicit inclusion of the study of Native America as a foundation for literature is too infrequent in its incidences. Too many high school students become familiar with the history of a nation, while an entire portion of that history is excluded.
The Surviving and Thriving of Cultures: Foundational American Indian Study for Literature
is intended to provide educators with a basis to include this as part of literary study, so that they may paint a more complete picture for their students of the social, cultural, and political history of this nation.