Eloquence

Rationale

Learning about our history is an enormous concept that we as elementary teachers cannot even begin to explain, let alone the history's influence on our society. Leaders of the past from United States and the Navajo Nation have changed ways and our perceptions of the people with their speeches. As I read books from 1978 to 2000's about the Navajo History and their earliest recordings of Navajo existence, questions arose about how our clans' head men knew what to say in their speeches. Leaders we know as Barboncito and Manuelito chose the right words so Dine could have a better quality of life. I am sure ideas of how the Navajo generations were discussed deeply. What is interesting is the leaders at Fort Sumner were looked at as the chief of all Navajos, but they were merely head leaders of bands of Navajos. These bands of Navajos worked as a team. Their head leaders were true leaders because they accomplished their goals. The goals were to move back to their home land, negotiated for certain types of assistants to restart their lives, and of course a pathway for Dine people to have quality education, too. To show the people that the new talk about education is okay, Manuelito put his own children in school to model the importance of education. ¹ Manuelito was one of the great leaders and a warrior of the Navajo Nation that spoke for his people. He voiced his concerns to protect the land and people. He even battled against the Mexicans in 1820's and was regarded as one of the most aggressive warriors and was recognized as a leader for the Navajo people. ²

Not only do our students need to learn about the history of people but also how the past leaders incorporated their eloquence from Native song and chants and transferred it back to speech. Clearly, the leaders had the skills of persuasion but how did they choose certain words to help them convey their concerns? As for the Dine Nation, how did the leaders that signed the Treaty of 1868 deliver their message?

For our fourth graders to understand the main idea of Eloquence, a teacher has to know the different elements in a speech. Three elements that drive speeches are emotion, personal traits, and logical reasoning. Every element can be illustrated with the right tone, gestures, and articulation. Teacher and student analyses of speeches are crucial to see the pathos, ethos, and logos. By displaying excellent speeches, students can begin to understand the art of persuading audiences. All these elements of speaking can be displayed on poster paper. Along with poster representation, video clips and pictures of famous orators can be posted. Posting such information, fourth graders can associate all the terms and ideas to see that eloquence is an art.

Students will share and discuss thoughts about current leaders of the United States and Navajo Nation. In my case, students will have a lot of background information about the American Revolution. The unit on American Revolution will be fresh in our student's minds because it will be covered before this unit eloquence. Fourth graders will have a lot to share in groups. Key speakers' actions and words will be reviewed and referred to help students understand United State leaders in comparison to Dine leaders. Famous speeches from both sides will help my unit of eloquence.

Most students will have some information on our leaders of the Dine Nation. Prior knowledge on American leaders American would help students get a good start. Definitely those traits and ideas will be posted in the classroom for reference. Collecting information on famous Navajo leader as elicited by students, will help the teacher collect further more in-depth, supporting information from the school and library and related websites. However, their information on how words were used to reclaim Dine territories may need further teaching through lessons. After a good amount of information is collected and shared, students will begin to see that the use of correct wording in a eloquent way did earn the Dine a pathway to journey home to Dine Tah (the people's land).

It was not surprising to find that documents of our Dine leaders in the 1600's were not in abundant. However, by reading the small amount of available documents, the readings from various sources were informative enough for fourth graders to learn about eloquence. It is intriguing to read scholars writing and notes taken from the 1800's. Recorders had to have great knowledge or excellent interpreters to transcribe the Navajo leader's speeches at the treaty signing. The word choices Navajo leaders were strong to make an impact on Leaders from the United States Government. Eloquence was present in our past leaders. Then I think to myself, every culture has eloquence in their speeches, and the Native American Indians are no different. The notes even showed how Native people were ambitious through certain word choice in order to share their concerns.