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TEACHER COMMENTARY:
I was extremely happy with this unit. It was wonderful to
have enough books to let the students take them home, and
most of them did their homework, which is unusual . I truly
believe that the fact that they had their own book to take
home inspired them greatly to do their homework. I hate to
say this, but our students often totally ignore homework,
even very intellectually competent students do so. I believe,
now, that the very fact that they are often denied to opportunity
to take a novel home makes them feel like they are not expected
to perform at all and that they can just position themselves
into the backwaters of society and this will please everyone.
My students responded very well to this novel, and I think
that all of them who pursued it with attention got a great
deal out of it. The project: the Totem Cord Project, was also
very successful. This enabled the students to use their creativity,
which is always a successful educational opportunity with
our students. Looking at education from the point of view
of "multiple intelligences,"our students often perform
better, and exhibit what they have learned better, when given
such opportunities.
Two other factors influenced this unit strongly. First,
I teach in a team-teaching situation with Mike Dunlap. For
these students, the Juniors, he does the American History
while I do the American Literature. In the afternoon, we have
all the same students: his 5th period is my 6th and visa versa.
Also, most of these students were also ours last year as 10th
graders. This is a great advantage in working with students
because of the relationship we develop with them. There are
references to some of our collaborative assignments, which
occurred in the middle of this unit, in my Lesson
Plans section. Second, we have a new student in our program
who is a leader among students. He also is extremely intelligent,
but has, in the past, been a student who was not appreciated
by many teachers, and has often, I hear, taken an adversarial
position in the classroom. Anyway, this student, although
he is African-American, not Native-American, related strongly
to this novel, and, by using his enthusiasm and intelligence,
was able to bring an enthusiasm for this book to some who
might otherwise have not responded to it so positively. I
used his enthusiasm to invigorate the classes and to make
decisions about ways to present new questions.
There are changes I would like to make in the future:
1. The next time, I plan to record, with a tape recorder,
the Totem Cord Presentations.
(Perhaps, I might also record them on video, I have not decided).
2. The next time, I plan to develop a more detailed rubric
for the Totem Cord Essay.
3. I realize that having the students choose to write about
only one character for the Social Justice essay, they only
answer half of Essential Question "b." That is, they explore
a successful approach to self-liberation, or a negative approach.
Next time, I will change the assignment so that they must
write about one of each, and contrast them persuasively.
4. Next time, I will incorporate the technological project
NATIVE AMERICAN WEB QUEST NativeAmericanWebQuest.pdf
pdf file
5. Next time, I will be incorporating many of the reading
strategies I have been studying this spring and summer. These
strategies I have gleaned from the reading component of a
week-long course I took at Cal State University at Hayward,
(the CAPI project) , my involvement with the Academic Literacy
Project at Oakland Tech, materials provided by Urban Dreams
during the "Writing Week" of June 24-28, and The West Ed three-day
workshop I will be attending in August..
Reading strategies which I plan to use are:
1. Question and Response
2. Prediction and Metacognition (use together)
3. Reciprocal Teaching
4. Graphic Organizers
CEREMONY PILOT GUIDELINES, URBAN DREAMS DISK #2 and FOLDER
OF THE SAME NAME
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