Who are American Indians today?
Lesson #: 1
Grade: 4th
Subject Area: Social Studies
Context:
This lesson is the first lesson with actual content around American Indians and this lesson is meant to frame American Indians as a contemporary population and not a population that you only can learn about their history. It helps for the students to grasp this idea of American Indians being a part of the larger Wisconsin culture and landscape. This lesson is crucial to making sure that American Indians in Wisconsin are not seen only as a historical group.
Introduction/Investment:
With this part of the unit being dedicated to contemporary American Indians, show the students a video of an American Indian Pow-Wow.
•What were the participants wearing?
•What do you think of when you hear the music?
•Do you think about something very old or something new?
Content:
For this lesson, it is imperative to know as much as you can about American Indians today and much of the information that is included in this unit. Some of the content can be a brief reading over content but just make sure that you would be able to talk in some capacity. Pay attention to the major areas listed below.
Music
Whole-Class Activity:
After the video, show the students different pictures of contemporary American Indians and traditional but make sure to offer some pictures that will not fit either realm or fit more in one realm but are better off in the other. (An new picture that shows a traditional look)
The activity for this will be a line-based evaluation. As the teacher, set up areas in a line that represent where they think the picture should be (Present-day American Indians or Traditional Indians). This will allow for the class to be up and moving and make sure to engage them in a moving way.
Ask the students anything that they noticed:
Practice:
The practice for this lesson will be having the students think about the activity for the rest of the day and have them write a response as homework and they will have to talk about it at the beginning of class tomorrow. The reason to have the students do this at home is for them to digest the information and activity.
Assessment:
Informal assessment based on the participation of the students during the video and the line activity and the formal assessment will be the written response the students complete at home and then the conversation that you will have as a class.
Extension:
As a means of connecting this unit to other aspects, you can have a student record the number of people that are at the given locations of the line activity. With this information, you can use these authentic numbers to analyze each of the pictures based on the percentages, graphical representations and other math concepts for 4th grade.
Grade: 4th
Subject Area: Social Studies
Context:
This lesson is the first lesson with actual content around American Indians and this lesson is meant to frame American Indians as a contemporary population and not a population that you only can learn about their history. It helps for the students to grasp this idea of American Indians being a part of the larger Wisconsin culture and landscape. This lesson is crucial to making sure that American Indians in Wisconsin are not seen only as a historical group.
Introduction/Investment:
With this part of the unit being dedicated to contemporary American Indians, show the students a video of an American Indian Pow-Wow.
- This video is only meant to take a few minutes and serve as a framing of the lesson and will take you to a Pow-Wow video of the Lac Courte Ojibwe Pow-Wow during 2009
•What were the participants wearing?
•What do you think of when you hear the music?
•Do you think about something very old or something new?
Content:
For this lesson, it is imperative to know as much as you can about American Indians today and much of the information that is included in this unit. Some of the content can be a brief reading over content but just make sure that you would be able to talk in some capacity. Pay attention to the major areas listed below.
Music
- Is the music seen representative of the whole American Indian continuum?
- Art motifs and styles are very old and sacred to the specific tribes, especially when
- The clothing worn during the powwows depend on the nature of the ceremony. As seen in the video, those Ojibwe dressed in a similar fashion to mainstream culture.
Whole-Class Activity:
After the video, show the students different pictures of contemporary American Indians and traditional but make sure to offer some pictures that will not fit either realm or fit more in one realm but are better off in the other. (An new picture that shows a traditional look)
The activity for this will be a line-based evaluation. As the teacher, set up areas in a line that represent where they think the picture should be (Present-day American Indians or Traditional Indians). This will allow for the class to be up and moving and make sure to engage them in a moving way.
Ask the students anything that they noticed:
- Did everyone have the same opinion?
- Were there pictures that had a wide range?
- Were there any that you had no idea about?Pictures of Contemporary and traditional American Indians
Practice:
The practice for this lesson will be having the students think about the activity for the rest of the day and have them write a response as homework and they will have to talk about it at the beginning of class tomorrow. The reason to have the students do this at home is for them to digest the information and activity.
Assessment:
Informal assessment based on the participation of the students during the video and the line activity and the formal assessment will be the written response the students complete at home and then the conversation that you will have as a class.
Extension:
As a means of connecting this unit to other aspects, you can have a student record the number of people that are at the given locations of the line activity. With this information, you can use these authentic numbers to analyze each of the pictures based on the percentages, graphical representations and other math concepts for 4th grade.
