Objectives
I am confident that my students will be particularly interested in this unit. Thinking about past assignments and activities that garnered the highest levels of student engagement and learning were putting Christopher Columbus on trial for the death of the Taino people4, class readings and discussion about race as a social construct rooted in Howard Zinn’s A Young People’s History of the United States and any topics where people were treated inhumanely really led students to deeply and actively engage with the content and think critically. Like most people, my students love historical scandal and debate, especially when it relates to any instances of federal mismanagement and wrongdoing. Furthermore, they enjoy reading first-hand accounts of people and groups that are resilient, resistant and able to overcome their circumstances, which is important for inner city youth in a city and school district plagued by low funding, failing schools and gun violence. My students need stories of hope. They need to see that the underdog can come out on top. They need to encounter empowering text about people that got tired of being pushed around and did something to evoke lasting change. Thus, through multiple sources of media and text, I intend for this unit to answer the following essential question: How were the Menominee able to achieve tribal sovereignty?
In Illinois, the Common Core standards govern the way in which students access and interact with both informational and literary text. Even though I am a Social Studies teacher, I infuse Common Core informational text standards within the classroom. To compliment the unit, I will focus on the standards regarding citing textual evidence, central idea, and identifying the author’s purpose and point of view in a text. The common core Reading Informational (RI) text standards that correspond to this unit are as follows: RI 7.1 Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. RI 7.2 Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, RI 7.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.
The strategies that will be employed during this unit are designed to lead students to research and analyze the Menominee tribe of Wisconsin so that they may answer the Essential Question. Through engagement with multiple primary and secondary sources, students will be able to construct sound claims that express how the Menominee tribe was able to achieve tribal sovereignty and self-determination. The goal is to offer a thorough, well rounded view of Menominee history and resistance. In addition, students will be able to explain major concepts of allotment and tribal sovereignty.
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