Teaching Strategies
As I teach my unit, I want my Navajo students to know about native leaders who have made changes with their tribes even though some of these leaders had to conduct radial actions to get the attention of the US government. These leaders share personal experiences shared with others because the majority do not know their activities and causes. Many American Indian tribes have differences and have some similarities within their language and culture. For example, I am reading about Clyde Bellecourt’s autobiography, The Thunder Before the Storm. In one of the chapters, he mentions wolf in his language, and our Dine language wolf has the same wording ma’ii, which was very interesting. I will use some of the literature I have read within my teaching, create pictorial charts about each leader, and then create a chant/song about them. Therefore, when students sing the pieces, they will remember who they are and what they have done to help their people and all natives.
I will use books, videos, newspaper clippings, and interviews to help students understand more about AIM and today’s movement and leaders. Students will interview their grandparents to see if they know about AIM events. The interviews will give the class new insights into the movement. For example, I know Gloria Grant-Means resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and her parents live in Chinle, Arizona, which is not far from Kayenta. She will be one of my interviews to gather more information about Russell Means.
Narrative Input Chart
I teach fifth-grade students, and many of my Navajo students are visual. A narrative input chart focuses on strong oral language tradition like native storytelling. Critical language skills are used in the story format. The story format allows for increased comprehension of academic concepts. While telling the story about Dennis Banks, I will use pictures to aid understanding. Banks was the prominent AIM leader who initiated the movement, focusing on the narrative chart beginning with birth, residential schools, military, prison, AIM movement, aftermath, and death. I will format the oral narrative pattern as an autobiographical genre. I will use critical events of his life from the book he has written to create the visual. In addition to the visuals, key vocabulary terms embedded into the narrative will aid the content.
The process of teaching the narrative input chart is to read the pictures with important events written on the back of the photographs then ask for responses from the students. As I read each photo, they are placed onto a large chart with a background (a sketch of his reservation Leech Lake Indian Reservations in northern Minnesota). This strategy is reviewed throughout the week, focusing on the content, vocabulary, and speech bubble quotes.
Expert Group
Expert groups are 3-4 students in small heterogeneous groups in which each student becomes an expert on a particular topic. Each individual is given an expert paper about a topic (Clyde Bellecourt, Russell Means, and Anna Aquash) with text and boxes and a mind map with categories. Numbered heads is a strategy in which students are assigned a number 1-4. So, a selected expert student is chosen by their number. For example, all the ones from groups are experts in Clyde Bellecourt’s topic, and so on. The teacher and the expert group read the mind map categories. Then the teacher uses pictures to aid comprehension and identify the main ideas to connect with the process grid. The teacher and group read one paragraph at a time, next the teacher guides to highlight the main ideas. For each highlight, students sketch a picture to connect with the underlined words. As the teacher and students progress through the paragraphs, the teacher gradually leads the responsibility to the students to come up with the main ideas. Students record their information onto their mind map. After their mind map is completed, students retell the learned knowledge to the teacher. The teacher explains to the students that they will share the expert information with their group as an expert person about the topic learned.
Process Grid
The Process Grid is a chart that categorizes essential concepts from previous content learned, like the information from the expert groups. The grid is organized at the top and down the side with the topic and facts on the top. For example, the side of the grid can have the leader names, and then the top of the grid can have tribe, location, and the participant in AIM, the goals, and outcomes. The expert teams confer with their group and decide what facts go in the column row. The teacher randomly calls on individual students from the teams to share their answers. In addition, students are allowed to provide information from other charts displayed (pictorial, narrative input charts, exploration charts, the Cognitive Content Dictionary, Chant/Song Chart, Sentence Pattern Chart, and Inquiry Chart) onto the process grid to complete the information.
Teaching Activities
To teach my three-week unit to my Navajo students, I will begin with an inquiry chart. An inquiry chart is a T-chart drawn on a chart paper with two columns. The two questions are written in colored markers in which the teacher records what students quoted. Additional activities like Text & You - writing, Exploration Report - questioning, The Important Thing About – paragraph frame, and interactive journals are assigned to students to attain a depth of knowledge and comprehensible input about the narrative input chart.
While guiding students with the expert groups, the teacher uses photos as visuals to aid understanding. Picture file cards are photos of the unit used in small groups to sort and connect to specific topics, strategies, or activities. Picture file cards of the leaders, maps, events, and documents are realia for students to connect historical information. The teacher needs to create about fifty laminated photos because the picture file cards are helpful when reviewing other charts like the pictorial, narrative, chants & raps, exploration report, observation chart, expert groups, big books, and literacy awards.
After completing the process grid, students will write a comparison and contrast paragraphs about the AIM movement and leaders. The co-operative strip paragraph is an activity that uses sentence strips and pocket charts. The student teams write a collaborative sentence using the information from the process grid. All the sentence strips are inserted into the pocket charts in a paragraph format, and then the teacher edits the team’s writing using an editing checklist with the students. The students are given numerous opportunities to reread and revise the paragraphs. After completing the paragraph, students begin another section working as a team using a team pocket chart and sentence strip.
Throughout the unit, I will review the fundamental questions about leadership and how students understand the leaders of AIM to discuss and share their interpretation about the leader’s way of addressing their issues. I will use the word naat’aanii to explain what leadership means within the Navajo culture. The Navajo (Diné) word naat’aanii is used to signify Diné men and women who are planners, orators, and community leaders.23 Today, Diné uses naat’aanii when referring to the chairman, presidents, council delegates, and chapter officials.24 A naat’aanii carries significant responsibilities, and the individual must always put their people first and not their own goals. The naat’aanii commit to the welfare of the people because they have specific knowledge and experiences. They negotiate, teach, and mediate for the people, and in turn, the naat’aanii is trusted for their leadership.
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