I have always felt somewhat ridiculous teaching the grade 6 First Nation's history unit. I teach it, we learn, but it always feels somewhat false. After all, I am not First Nations and the best I can do is give my interpretation of First Nation's history and culture in conjunction with the resources and first hand accounts that I am able to cobble together.
This year I consider myself very fortunate that Denise Montgomery, a parent and educator in our community has offered to assist. Ms. Montgomery is Metis; she is active in the First Nation's community, has a wealth of resources and knowledge and will guide our class through this unit. I am grateful. Ms. Montgomery has already given me much to think about, including who I might choose to contact to provide interpretation of First Nation's culture. The choices I make as a teacher say a great deal about whether I am continuing to reinforce colonialism or permitting a civilization to define itself.
In working together, I very much wish to use an inquiry-based learning approach to constructing our knowledge.
I am following the #pbl hashtag on twitter closely.
I am using project-based learning resources, including the Buck Institute for Education: http://www.bie.org/about/
Our discussion platform will be Collaborize. http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com/, although we will continue to use blogs, twitter, Skype and our boards's sharing platform: The Commons
The key now is to come up with a rich question. http://www.bie.org/about/what_is_pbl/ I think I've got one: How can the knowledge, skills, insights and worldview of First Nation's people assist us or be applied today? This umbrella question will allow us to explore a vast array of topics such as technology, recent scientific discoveries, storytelling, nature, government, societal roles and .... well ... a great deal more. It will allow us to approach our learning from many different points of view and transmit a sense of respect for the place of FN culture in modern day Canada.
Survival and technology have caught my students' interests and so we will begin with an investigation of arrowheads. Dr Bruce Bradley explains the physics of arrowhead construction in his Flintknapping instructional video sent to us last year. The forces at work in arrowhead design are the same forces at work in modern day bridge or car design. Creativity, innovation and resiliency were key to survival then, and are a haul mark of 21 century fluencies. Designing an inquiry to facilitate these connections is the overall goal.
Providing a forum during our learning about First Nations is key. I would hope that First Nations communities across Canada who discover our work feel free to add their voices and share their insights on what we are learning.
Please, please feel free to critique, comment, provide feedback and ask questions as I document this shift into a much more structured approach to PBL.
This year I consider myself very fortunate that Denise Montgomery, a parent and educator in our community has offered to assist. Ms. Montgomery is Metis; she is active in the First Nation's community, has a wealth of resources and knowledge and will guide our class through this unit. I am grateful. Ms. Montgomery has already given me much to think about, including who I might choose to contact to provide interpretation of First Nation's culture. The choices I make as a teacher say a great deal about whether I am continuing to reinforce colonialism or permitting a civilization to define itself.
In working together, I very much wish to use an inquiry-based learning approach to constructing our knowledge.
I am following the #pbl hashtag on twitter closely.
I am using project-based learning resources, including the Buck Institute for Education: http://www.bie.org/about/
Our discussion platform will be Collaborize. http://www.collaborizeclassroom.com/, although we will continue to use blogs, twitter, Skype and our boards's sharing platform: The Commons
The key now is to come up with a rich question. http://www.bie.org/about/what_is_pbl/ I think I've got one: How can the knowledge, skills, insights and worldview of First Nation's people assist us or be applied today? This umbrella question will allow us to explore a vast array of topics such as technology, recent scientific discoveries, storytelling, nature, government, societal roles and .... well ... a great deal more. It will allow us to approach our learning from many different points of view and transmit a sense of respect for the place of FN culture in modern day Canada.
Survival and technology have caught my students' interests and so we will begin with an investigation of arrowheads. Dr Bruce Bradley explains the physics of arrowhead construction in his Flintknapping instructional video sent to us last year. The forces at work in arrowhead design are the same forces at work in modern day bridge or car design. Creativity, innovation and resiliency were key to survival then, and are a haul mark of 21 century fluencies. Designing an inquiry to facilitate these connections is the overall goal.
Providing a forum during our learning about First Nations is key. I would hope that First Nations communities across Canada who discover our work feel free to add their voices and share their insights on what we are learning.
Please, please feel free to critique, comment, provide feedback and ask questions as I document this shift into a much more structured approach to PBL.
Hi Heidi,
ReplyDeleteWe've been working on inquiry-based learning and teaching in our classroom. I would like to hear more about how you design your inquiry and I'm curious about whether you hear from First Nations communities. Thanks, Louise
Hi Louise,
ReplyDeleteI document everything as I go in the hope that someone might find it useful or will provide feedback to improve how we learn. I, too, am curious about whether any communities will respond.
Louise,
ReplyDeleteStep 1 of this inquiry is to begin developing a purposeful PLN - professional learning network specific to this inquiry. I have connected with @janaslyndsay on twitter, an instructional consultant from SK. She has begun sharing connections and resources to broaden our approach to this topic. I will document how this happened on this blog, but you might wish to join/follow our discussions.
I think this is a really interesting way to learn. I will be learning right with you.
ReplyDeleteFor such a broad and rich topic, I would probably go with a jigsaw approach and have different groups on becoming experts on various aspects, e.g. survival and technology. What about stories/myths/heroes? This is a good way to broaden and deepen the scope of your inquiry. The PBL approach will give focus to your students and PLN.
What will the end products be? Presentations? Movies? Posters? Can I suggest "creating an experience" (interactive drama) - e.g. let kids have a go at shooting arrows (foam ones) to have a feel of the difficulty and what it meant to train as a hunter or to go home without anything. What was the food like back then - how has it changed now?
I'm excited for you and your students. Thank you for letting me in on this.
cheers,
Malyn
Hi Mrs. Siwak ,my name is Donte Todd, I am a student at USA in Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class. I agree with project- based learning to the fullest extent. I think teachers should give students the opportunity to learn about a situation from somebody that has actually participated or been a part of that situation as well. I also believe that it would give students many different viewpoints of the First Nation cultures. Mrs. Siwak, I strongly agree with your methods and I hope i can influence my class the way you seem to influence yours. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Donte, Thank you for taking the time to comment. Social media definitely provides us with the opportunity to engage with learners in a different way by accessing primary sources. Good luck with your studies.
ReplyDeleteHi Malyn,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback. You've made some very good suggestions. We haven't decided on an end product yet. I think students need to have a feel for the topic before we make that decision. I've added some excellent planning resources courtesy of another of the parents in the class to the google doc where I am pulling the inquiry together. I'll keep you posted as things develop.