This was the opening lesson in this unit and if you look at the bottom of the lesson plan I amended it after I taught the lesson. The documents are pulled from Stanford History Education Group, SHEG, and so have been modified for students already, however I did not use the SHEG lesson. For the sake of this inquiry, the amended lesson plan gets at the importance of tieing the Trail of Tears to modern day and the fate of Native Americans today. By introducing students to the Scatter Their Own song, I am able to show them a form of self-advocacy.
Essential Question: As is with the last lesson plan we looked at, the essential question for the entire unit, “What is oppression? What makes people advocates for themselves or others?” or others?” Instead I think I would ask, “What characteristics does an advocate have?” While this is still specific the results of the question, namely a list of qualities or actions, is something students can implement in other areas of their life (Wiggins & McTighe 106).
Historical Lesson: This lesson has a CHQ: “How did people justify the removal of Native Americans?” This question asks students to dig into the texts because the gut reaction is that no one should justify the removal of the Native Americans. I asked students to look at the argument from a different perspective then they were used to and this helped to challenge them. Tomlinson and McTighe (2006) write, “Therefore instead of merely covering the content, effective educators “uncover” the most enduring ideas and processes in ways that engage students in constructing meaning for themselves” (p. 123). This CHQ did exactly that—required students to make meaning themselves from the text we looked at however it was difficult to elicit responses from students and had I used the lesson SHEG provided with the documents, I may have been able to get more of a response.
Modern Connection: There was no modern connection in this lesson and I realized that after I taught the lesson so the next day I showed students a music video from Scatter Their Own, a Lakota band that travels the country raising awareness for the terrible conditions currently on the reservations. This would have been a perfect modern connection for the lesson and I am glad that students got to see it the next day but I think it would have been more powerful on the same day that we talked about the Trail of Tears, which is why I included it in the revised lesson plan, that can be seen at the end of the lesson plan above.
Historical Lesson: This lesson has a CHQ: “How did people justify the removal of Native Americans?” This question asks students to dig into the texts because the gut reaction is that no one should justify the removal of the Native Americans. I asked students to look at the argument from a different perspective then they were used to and this helped to challenge them. Tomlinson and McTighe (2006) write, “Therefore instead of merely covering the content, effective educators “uncover” the most enduring ideas and processes in ways that engage students in constructing meaning for themselves” (p. 123). This CHQ did exactly that—required students to make meaning themselves from the text we looked at however it was difficult to elicit responses from students and had I used the lesson SHEG provided with the documents, I may have been able to get more of a response.
Modern Connection: There was no modern connection in this lesson and I realized that after I taught the lesson so the next day I showed students a music video from Scatter Their Own, a Lakota band that travels the country raising awareness for the terrible conditions currently on the reservations. This would have been a perfect modern connection for the lesson and I am glad that students got to see it the next day but I think it would have been more powerful on the same day that we talked about the Trail of Tears, which is why I included it in the revised lesson plan, that can be seen at the end of the lesson plan above.