The Student Assessment
Students will complete a variety of tasks and activities, which will give them the information they need to answer the unit’s compelling question. The compelling question is the culminating activity that will give students the opportunity to write an opinion piece using evidence from a variety of tasks including primary and secondary sources, video excerpts, transcripts, website pages, and photographs. The sources will provide a variety of perspectives including that of American Indians, executive branch cabinet members, non-Native community members, state officials, celebrities, federal treaties, and state laws. Students will have the resources needed to draw an informed conclusion, which will ultimately lead them to take civic action to support tribal sovereignty and tribal self-determination today.
The compelling unit question will read as follows: “Much of what Americans learn about American Indian cultures comes from sensationalized accounts of Disney characters such as Pocahontas and instances of early cooperation and conflict. In addition, many public school history curricula do not cover contemporary American Indians societies. After reading primary and secondary text sources, watching videos, and analyzing photographs, draw a conclusion about the contemporary American Indian Movement. Use evidence from a variety of sources to support your claim.”
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