Tag Archives: lesson planning

M4P5: AlbertaEd – Walking Together & Talking Together

Alberta Education created a very comprehensive and interactive guide called Walking Together that provides educators with the necessary resources needed to incorporate FNMI perspectives into the curriculum.

One of my goals in my final project is to create a teacher self-reflection tool to determine which Indigenous perspectives are addressed in a particular lesson. The self-reflection tool would be a circle, similar to the front page of Walking Together, with the perspectives around the outside divided into pie pieces and then specific keywords underneath each perspective, to help guide the teacher in really analyzing their lessons.

I think this resource could also be used as a student activity, perhaps with the student reflecting on how the participation in the activity aligned with Indigenous perspectives. The student version would have student friendly language and offer sentence starter prompts for each perspective/keyword.

However, before introducing this self-reflection tool, students and teachers would both need to have an awareness of Indigenous knowledge and these various perspectives before the tool would be used meaningfully. I plan on creating an interactive multimodal game where these perspectives will be explored as a part of my final project.

M4P2: SFU Museum of Archeology and Ethnology

My focus for the final module has been on local sources that can enhance my students’ understanding of the area around them. Given my school’s proximity to Simon Fraser University (SFU), there are many resources that directly relate to this subject. SFU’s Museum of Archeology and Ethnology is primarily designed to be enjoyed in person. With COVID, however, the museum has shifted to creating online content for educators, the majority of which relates to First Nations culture (though not all). While the site offers many resources, of particular note is the Tse’K’wa history of project that raises some interesting discussion around archeology and who owns what.

A lesson planning framework M4 P3

In 565-T Perspectives in Anti-racist education we looked at this book on Anti-racism that provides as fantastic framework for teachers who want to be more than just multi-cultural, but wants to bring anti-racist approaches into their classroom.  This certainly connects to any lesson planning that would incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing, learning, perspectives or culture into their classroom in more than a multi-cultural light. Dr Muhammad focuses on 5 pillars that help guide teachers:

  • identity: helping students develop a sense of who they are and want to be
  • skills: proficiencies in academic content and literacy skills
  • intellect: gaining new and authentic knowledge about the world
  • criticality: understanding the relations between literacy, power, and oppression
  • joy: not just focusing on negative aspects, but letting the students see the joy

These 5 pillars are something that Sarah and I hope to use as a framework to not just incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing as a “one off” for the students, but use the criticality sections to ensure that we are educating our learners about WHY it’s important that we’re looking at other perspectives.  For a teacher who isn’t yet comfortable, having simpler things that they ARE comfortable with and go deeper as they get more experience and confidence.

 

Module 4 – Post 2

Alberta Grasslands: A World at Your Feet is a teacher resource put together by Alberta Environment. This guide is aimed for grades 7-9 and the focus of the guide is to provide resource material focused at, “Increasing students awareness, understanding, and appreciation for the native grassland ecosystem of Alberta.” Within the resource students are introduced to the history, biology and geography of the grasslands of Alberta. This resource also discusses, The Ways of the Aboriginal People as well as Aboriginal Uses of Plants, both of which would work well within a place based lesson plan. Teachers will have access to posters to help introduce students to the landscape with embedded information about the grasslands, as well as a Teacher’s Guide with Activity Masters. The resource guide focuses on six learning objectives: learn about Alberta’s geological formation, study aboriginal connections to the grasslands, discover the inter-relationships of grassland organisms, learn about basic grassland ecological processes,  explore current environmental issues and  apply new knowledge to conserve and protect the environment.

Access to pdf document:  https://www.albertapcf.org/rsu_docs/grasslands_teacher_guide_march2005.pdf

Alberta Environment. (2005). Alberta grasslands: A world at your feet. Alberta Environment. 

 

Module 4 – Post 1

Our Words, Our Ways: Teaching First Nations, Metis and Inuit learners is a resource guide put out by Alberta Education. It is a bit dated (2005) but one of the main things that drew me to this resource was that it was created to support how Aboriginal students learn as well as a variety of strategies to help with lesson planning. As I am looking for ways to support bringing in western and traditional ways together through place based learning, I thought this resource would be helpful. Within the resource you can find information about Aboriginal cultures, history, perspectives, strategies such as rubrics and ideas to help support teachers in meeting the needs of Aboriginal students when they are planning for their lessons. Aboriginal Elders, teachers and psychologists as well as other members of Alberta’s Aboriginal communities helped to contribute to the making of this resource guide and it is aimed to support administrators, teachers, school staff, counselors and even liaison workers. 

Access to the pdf document: https://education.alberta.ca/media/3615876/our-words-our-ways.pdf

Alberta Education. (2005). Our Words, Our Ways: Teaching First Nations, Metis and Inuit learners. Alberta Education. Aboriginal Services Branch and Learning and Teaching Resources Branch. 

Module 3 – Post 5

Stepping Stones – I have shared the Alberta Teachers’ Association Walking Together Project in the first module but did not discuss the Stepping Stones publications that are also available from that project. The Stepping Stones helps to support teachers to learn and understand First Nations, Métis and Inuit Foundational Knowledge competencies. One Stepping Stone publication that I wanted to focus in on is the one on Traditional Plants. This publication would be a great resource to help teachers weave in traditional plants into their place based lessons. The publication discusses different types of plants and their uses and even goes further to discuss smudging. One question that stood out from the publication was: How does understanding traditional plants and uses assist educators to build respectful relationships and create inclusive environments?

Alberta Teachers Association. (January, 2019). Walking Together Project. Stepping Stones: First Nations traditional plants and uses. Retrieved from: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/For%20Members/ProfessionalDevelopment/Walking%20Together/PD-WT-16i%20-%209%20First%20Nations%20Traditional%20Plants%20and%20Uses-2019%2001%2028.pdf

 

Module 3 – Post 2

Within the Glenbow Museum website, there are links to the Indigenous Exhibitions as well as to a Learning Resource section. Within the Learning Resource section you can find protocols to support teachers in teaching First Nations students as well as access to instructional units and other resources to support lesson planning through the Teacher’s Toolkit. All the units provided have been designed to work with the Blackfoot Virtual Exhibit activities and provide cultural and historical resources, strategies for assessment as well as various activities. When you access the Blackfoot Virtual Exhibit there are three language options: English, French and even Blackfoot. There are also four main sections of focus: How we lived with the buffalo, How we lived with the land, How we lived with our families and How we lived with other people. These are great topics that can be used when teachers are planning their lessons and I can see an extension to fit into Place Based Learning. Beyond that there are also links to Treaties, The Whiskey Trade, Reserves, Residential Schools, Language etc. 

The Glenbow Museum. (2021). Niitsitapiisini Teacher Toolkit. Glenbow Museum. https://www.glenbow.org/blackfoot/teacher_toolkit/index.html

 

Module 3 – Post 1

While looking around for resources, I came across the Building Brains Together website. It was a resource that had been previously shared within my school division. The main mission of the Building Brains website is, “to build adult capabilities to improve brain development and executive functions in children through research and education.” The part of the website that drew me to take a closer look was the area on Resources. Under the resource links, you can find Blackfoot Songs as well as Indigenous Games. Each song is shared in a video format and the games are a mixture of video and written instructions on how to play. 

I wanted to take a closer look at these resources to see how their songs and games could fit with my project focus of Place Based Learning. The interesting part with the resource links is that the individual that helped to organize the creation and development of the songs and games is Mary Ellen Little Mustache who used to be an Educational Assistant at one of the schools in my school division. One quote stood out to me under the acknowledgement of the Indigenous Games resource and that was, “The Indigenous Games takes all people into account with great consideration to recognize other’s beliefs and practices. There isn’t a right way or wrong way to play the games, just different ways that reflect different societies.” I found it very powerful as a way to build in Indigenous culture into Place Based Learning. 

Building Brains Together

Building Brains Together, (n.d.). Blackfoot children’s songs. Building Brains Together. https://www.buildingbrains.ca/blackfoot-songs

Building Brains Together, (n.d.). Indigenous games. Building Brains Together. https://www.buildingbrains.ca/indigenous-games