Our Native Americans: Iroquois

 A Thematic Unit for English Language Learners

 

Walter Eliason, Rider UniversityJoyce May, Fisher Middle School

NJ TESOL NJBESpring Conference - May 2009

Presentation Overview• Process for Creating a Thematic Unit

• Rationale – Native Americans• Enduring Understandings• Learner Considerations• WIDA Standards• L2 and Content Areas

• Instructional Planning - Iroquois• Essential Questions• Lesson Plans• Assessment• Resources/Technology

Thematic Unit

Thematic Unit for

Instruction

School Curriculum and Resources

Lesson Segments

Full Lesson

Building a Thematic Unit - Guidelines • MEANINGFUL CONTENT - Language can be

developed when teaching content• Consider the school’s C & I requirements • Set the TIME and PLACE• Incorporate ELP standards • Gather resources• Collaborate • Develop instructional plan

Unit Context

Colonies: Jamestown

and Plymouth

Thanksgiving then and

today

Colonies develop:

regions produce and trade

Philadelphia 1776 town crier reads Declaration

Native Americans

and today

Native Americans - Rationale • To learn about another culture is a path to

understanding one’s own culture. • Middle school ELLs missed Native

Americans elementary schools curricula. • Background knowledge valuable to the

ELLs; develop in literacy and cross-cultural empathy

Enduring Understandings• Understand native inhabitants and immigration as

a foundation for growth of USA • Demonstrate empathy for both natives and

colonists• Recognize the study of history as important to

knowledge of self• Show respect and tolerance for all Americans• Compare/contrast Native Americans with today’s

people 

Learner Considerations• English language proficiency levels according to

ACCESS • Age and interests of the students• Learning styles and personalities • Variations in the development of skills: listening,

reading, writing and speaking • Ability to contrast another culture to their own

culture • Conferences with School personnel regarding

ELLs  

Standards

• NJ DOE recognizes WIDA Standards • Performance Definition:

level of proficiency • Model performance

indicators (MPI) will be identified: expected outcomes

 

WIDA Standard Description

Standards 1, 2, 5 - Communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content areas of Classroom Language, Language Arts, and Social Studies.

The language of classroom, language arts, social studies used in all four domains: listening, speaking, reading, writing

Framework: Formative, Gradelevel cluster: 6-8 Levels: Developing and Expanding

Example topic: Wampum

L2 and Content • Content Objectives

• Iroquois Indians: Location, Shelter, Clothing, Family, Government

• Language Objectives• Vocabulary development

• Native to Modern American• Structure development

• Verb structures: simple present to past, used to + verb

• Adverbs: now, then, usually, always, sometimes• Possessives

Essential Questions• Who were the first people to live in the

USA?• Can you tell us how the Iroquois lived in

the Colonial times (1600-1700)? • Can you compare these things with how

you live in 2009? • Can you talk about clothing, food, shelter,

family life, history, and government?

Lesson Plans• Part 1: Map Study - Building Background

Knowledge• Part 2: Storytellers• Part 3: Wampum• Part 4: Shelter and Clothing• Part 5: Family and Government

Assessment - How do you assess language development and content learning at the same

time?

Can Do Descriptors - ELPs Levels Pre K-12 Developing Expanding

Listening

Locate, select, order info. Follow multi-step directions. Categorize info using pictures, objects

Compare contrast functions and relationships. Analyze apply info. Identify cause effect.

Speaking

Formulate hypothesis, make predictions. Describe processes. Retell stories.

Discuss stories, issues, concepts. Give speeches, oral reports. Offer creative solutions.

Reading

Sequence pictures, events processes. Identify main ideas. Use context clues to determines word meanings.

Interpret info. Find details that support main ideas. Identify word families, figures of speech.

Writing Produce bare-bones texts. Comparecontrast info. Describe people, events, processes.

Summarize from graphics, notes. Edit/revise writing. Create original ideas, responses.

WIDA 2007

Resources/Technology• Librarians from middle and elementary schools,

and county libraries offered suggestions for resources and teaching materials.

• Internet yielded valuable resources. • www.nativeamericansunit.wikispaces.com

YOUR Ideas for Thematic Units

Lesson 1Students will interact with website: The Journey of Mankind. http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/ This interactive site provides an overview of man’s migration for the past 160,000 years. Students will identify reasons for migration and relate to their individual reasons for their (im)migration to the US. Students will note the migration patterns into North and South America.

Using Inspiration, students will create webs identifying what they would like to learn about people who settled in the northeastern United States where they currently live. Students will read text If You Lived With the Iroquois by Ellen Levine pp. 6-7 on where the Iroquois settled.

Pre-European maps with Native American Settlements will be compared to present day map of the United States. http://www.nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/pdf/outline/states.pdfhttp://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/early_indian_east.jpg

Lesson 2Students will read Levine text pp. 11-13, 79, about

Iroquois language and storytellers. Students will brainstorm ways storytellers could remember their stories.

Introduce key vocabulary before reading stories: tracks, moccasins, fooled / boast, bidding, horizon, stripe. Students will read Iroquois folktales “Rabbit and Fox” and “Chipmunk and Bear” and retell using either written or picture prompts. Using a Venn diagram, students will identify common elements in two Iroquois folktales.

Students will identify personal and universal themes in the stories and connect them to their lives and the today’s world. http://www.readingquest.org/pdf/story_map.pdfStudents will write an OEQ related to the story/ies. Rabbit/Chipmunk uses trickery to outsmart Fox/Bear.

- Describe how Rabbit/Chipmunk outsmarts Fox/Bear. - Why is Rabbit/Chipmunk trickery successful? What lesson

does this teach about life?

Lesson 3Introduce key vocabulary related to reading: beads, shell, messenger. Students will read Levine text pp. 14-15 about wampum. Students will view sample wampum on the projected screen http://www.nativetech.org/wampum/wamphist.htm.

Students will create a virtual wampum using website http://nativetech.org/wampum . Students will identify 5 significant life events and create a paper wampum with symbols to represent those events. A culminating activity will be the creation a modern day wampum, a bead keychain with a symbol in the pattern.

Lesson 4Introduce key vocabulary related to reading: Stockade, logs, storage, compartments. Students will read Levine text pp.16-20 about Iroquois longhouses. Students will view pictures/drawings of longhouses on a projected screen. http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/clothing.html http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/regions/region5.html

Using graph paper and oaktag, students will create a scale model of a longhouse or using natural materials students will create a replica of a longhouse.

Students will read Levine text pp.33, 36, and 38, about Iroquois clothing. Students will view pictures/drawings of clothing on the projected screen. Students will dress a virtual paper doll in Native American dress.http://www.nativetech.org/games/paperdolls/index.html Students will create a moccasin out of felt and sew with plastic gimp.

Lesson 5• Students will read Levine text p.23. Students will create a new

family incorporating Iroquois family definitions (fireside family and longhouse family) to their present day family. Students will share the names of their new mothers and siblings. Students will read Levine text p.39, 46. Students will read Levine text p.24-5 about Iroquois family. Students will read Levine text pp. 71-4.

• Using information fro the text, make a Venn diagram comparing/contrasting Iroquois government to US government. Discuss aspects of the Iroquois government you feel positive. Read p. 76 of Levine text about government leaders.

• Write OEQ: How is government of the Iroquois similar to US government? What aspects of Iroquois government do you feel should be a part of the US government?