Traveling the Trail of Tears

For the past three semesters, my students and I have learned about the lives of the Cherokee Indians before forced removal, during removal, and after relocation. During the Spring 2014 semester, students made brochures highlighting significant landmarks and other points of interest in states the Cherokee Indians lived and/or traveled through on their forced migration. These brochures are a nice complement to a "This American Life Story" documenting the travels of two sisters who traveled the trail as their ancestors once did (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/107/trail-of-tears). 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuWnpKMF9lc0ZBWWltTmQ5RmRQS005emZVZVln/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuV3JyQml0RTk2ZFk/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuNlNTWlRBek92WWhDVnI0WUhrbnZ4QnkybWRJ/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuSVgwV21ROFVia2RvbDN0M195WUdfYWlxampZ/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuVWs3bHF4Z1EweUFkRFd1RDZJOWw5SG1hV1Jz/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1itcVTg1EuMFBNVVBnLXpxZmJyaEZ0d1dDQUl4bkRFUm44/view?usp=sharing

The Trail of Tears

For the past three semesters, my students and I have learned about the lives of the Cherokee Indians before forced removal, during removal, and after relocation. This semester we added to our discussion the forced relocation of the Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, and Chickasaw Nations. What the students have created are statements to inspire wonder about the lived experiences of these Nations. They have also included the use of a mapping tool to highlight the former and/or current location of each nation. The mapping tools of choice were found to be user friendly for teachers and elementary students.

Native American Heritage Month

November marks the start of Native American Heritage Month. Here are a few resources to consider for your teaching.

We Shall Remain (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/) is a PBS mini-series documenting the history of Native peoples as an essential part fhistory in the United States.

American Indians in Children's Literature, http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/

The Acatraz Proclamation (http://www.tolerance.org/activity/alcatraz-proclamation-primary-document-activity) is an activity from Teaching Tolerance which highlights the Native American Right Movement.

Reframing Our Views of Native Americans,
http://educatingondiversity.blogspot.com/2014/01/reframing-our-views-of-native-americans.html

Celebrate Indigenous People's Day

Rethink how you teach about Columbus Day. Check out these resources collected by the Zinn Education Project, http://zinnedproject.org/tag/columbus/.

More on Sojourner Truth

As my recent sections of Teaching Elementary School Social Studies are using Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Common Core Classroom as our course text, we have discussed the marginalization of social studies in the elementary classroom. In order to expose students to individuals like Sojourner Truth, elementary teachers must purposefully integrate social studies into their comprehensive literacy program. Adding to the videos from this post (http://educatingondiversity.blogspot.com/2014/06/sojourner-truth-puppet-shows.html) students created activities/lessons to accompany an interactive read aloud using a picture book on Sojourner Truth (i.e. Sojourner Truth's Step Stomp Stride by Andrea Davis Pinkney). Below is a link to their creations.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UtyZCOdozMMcHzuRIo7QieQtA-KNcHVB2Adie5znowA/edit?usp=sharing

Recent Historical Events

As today marks the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania let us pause to remember to lives lost.

As social studies educators we know that today's news will become tomorrow's history. Edutopia has a nice resource list of 5 recent historical events to discuss with students (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/recent-historical-events-student-discussion-josh-work). The first event on the list is 9/11 attacks. Edutopia also has a number of other 9/11 teaching ideas.

Rethinking Labor Day

Here are a couple of resources for teaching about Labor Day from the 2014-2015 Planing to Change the World Plan Book for Social Justice Teachers. The first link is a listing of  50 books on labor and the other is a link to a 5th grade unit on the labor movement.

http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/detailListBooks.asp?idBookLists=104

http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/work-workers-us-labor-movement-unit-plan-5th-grade-social-studies