Activities
The activities are based on two things – text sets and dramatic readings. Read, Write Think describes a text set “collections of resources from different genre, media, and levels of reading difficulty that are designed to be supportive of the learning of readers with a range of experiences and interests.”58 A variety of primary source documents will be used for the text sets. These will include personal letters and narratives, photographs, maps, data charts, and government documents. Each text within the text set will reflect the information from one of the three topics: assimilation, resilience, or resistance. This is also very useful for students as it is the format used for various AP exams in which students need to analyze multiple documents and synthesize their meanings.
The second focus of the activities is based on drama. I was very struck by the performance that we watched in seminar, a dramatic reading about the 1978 Violence Against Women Act. I thought this format would be an excellent way for students to synthesize the texts within the text set as well as work collaboratively with each other from the three different schools. Additionally, it provides our students with an even more important avenue for better understanding Native Americans as “Drama develops empathy and new perspectives Taking on various roles in character allows students to use all senses and characteristics in order to understand the character, as well as, the scenario or story at hand. Learning how to express oneself in different ways and through different means, helps build a strong character and personality.”59 Students will be randomly assigned to one of the themes – assimilation, resistance, or resilience. After viewing a portion of what we saw in seminar, students will use this model to create a dramatic reading of the facts they have collected.
Text Set One
What is assimilation and its’ variety of terms and how are these sociological concepts related to Native American people? and How was assimilation used as a discrimination tool against Native American people?
In this activity students will view, read, and analyze them using National Archives document analysis guides. This will help students to closely read/listen to each document, follow along, and answer the questions to help with their analysis. The following documents about the sociological term assimilation: (1) Richard Henry Pratt Speech “Kill the Indian, and Save the Man”: Capt. Richard H. Pratt on the Education of Native Americans (2) The West Television Series video clip/Hair Cutting scene found on YouTube, (3) Photographs of students (before/after entering boarding school), (4) Our seminar text, Blood Struggle, the section on Language which will accompany (5) The Ways video on Language Apprentice, (6) and (7) two sections in Pratt’s book, Battlefield to Classroom pages 162 – 164 letter to the editor 4/1/1876 from Bishop Whipple and pages 181 – 183 entry in the National Teachers’ Monthly, August 1877 by Mrs. J. Dorman Steele , (8) and the photographs on Modern American Poetry’s website of the American Indian boarding schools and schools. This activity will happen after the introduction to the sociological component of assimilation.
Text Set Two
How have Native American people resisted to these assimilation attempts?
Much like in the first activity, students will read a variety of excerpts from the Bibliography list. These will include first-person accounts of ways in which Native American people resisted the boarding school experience. They range from individual youngsters stories of running away or secretly meeting to tell tribal stories to the 19 Hopi men who were imprisoned on Alcatraz in 1895 for refusing to send their children to boarding school. Again, these documents will be analyzed using the National Archives document analysis guides.
Text Set Three
How have Native American people demonstrated their resilience to these assimilation policies over time? Students will read through the 1928 Meriam Report and the 1978 Child Welfare Act as well as information regarding the Society of the American Indian. Using a Classroom Blog, they will write a description of what they have learned so far – their understandings – in regard to assimilation and resistance. Next, they will present what they have written and compare and contrast each other’s responses having them pay attention to their prior knowledge – of what do they think and where do their textual evidence comes from. Afterwards, they will be divided into small groups and read either the Meriam Report or the Child Welfare Act. In these small groups using Google Docs, students will collaboratively take notes about their assigned legal document. Afterwards, they will present their court case to the whole group – teaching everyone what they now know from their readings. Lastly, with this new information, students will return to their Blog entry and add details/update what they now know about Assimilation (resilience).
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