Native American Text Set

Airports are full of surprises, some not-so-good-- like a cancelled flight, and some good-- like the Smithsonian Museum store in the Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. I discovered this store as I was looking for the nearest Starbucks, or any coffee shop really, of which there was only one, tucked in the back of a news stand (really?). The Smithsonian Museum store drew me in like a moth to a flame, flaunting interesting and fun displays with geodes, solar system models, brightly colored books, and things with feathers. One area in particular featured items from the National Museum of the American Indian. Since the Native American unit is the first Social Studies unit I teach in the year, I naturally approached the merchandise with my classroom in mind.

I bought two books to add to  my classroom library: Do All Indians Live in Tipis? (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, 2007) and American Indian Myths and Legends (Richard Erdoes & Alfonso Ortiz, Ed., Pantheon, 1984). As I read the former, I keep finding connections to the information that is presented in the course textbook, and I am noticing how the same information is presented differently because the author is writing from the Native American perspective. I am also noticing that each question and answer takes up between one to three pages, and is very readable for middle school students. These noticings make me wonder how I can use these texts to enrich and enhance my Native American unit.

My answer is text sets, a set of materials from different genres, at different levels, and from different sources that all address the same topic. Text sets allow students to read a multitude of perspectives and ideas around topics, which enriches and extends the information. Pulling a text set together about Native Americans could include the following resources available in my classroom and on the web:

• The United States through Industrialisation (TCI, 2011)-- our Grade 8 SS textbook-- nonfiction
• Do All Indians Live in Tipis?--Question and Answer format-- nonfiction
• American Indian Myths and Legends-- folktales-- fiction
• Caleb's Crossing (Geraldine Brooks)-- historical fiction about the first Native American boy who attended Harvard University in the 1600s
• I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Margaret Craven)-- realistic fiction about modern Canadian Native Americans and their struggle to balance modern and traditional cultures.
• Julie of the Wolves (Jean Craighead George)-- realistic fiction about an Eskimo girl who is adopted by a pack of wolves in the Alaskan wilderness
• Guns, Germs, & Steel DVD (Jared Diamond)-- a documentary that presents a geographical theory for how Europeans conquered the Native Americans in the 16th century
• Columbus Digital Text Set (Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project)-- a list of informational and opinionated digital texts that explore Christopher Columbus as a hero or a villain. Although the resources focus mostly on Columbus, his impact on Native American populations makes this issue part of the topic to be explored.

Students can read some of the texts on their own, some we could read/view and discuss together, some could be required, and some optional (especially the fiction books, of which I only have single copies). Going back to my previous musings on text annotations (see my August 8 post), students could easily read and annotate one of the question/answer pages from Do All Indians Live in Tipis? within 15 minutes of a class period. The annotations could be good formative assessment to learn what connections they are making between texts and how the texts are deepening their understanding. I could read aloud a few myths and legends to increase engagement and cultural understanding. Together, these texts provide a much more realistic and broader view of Native American civilizations.