Thanksgiving Activities, Gratitude, and More

It’s November! We made it through most of the Fall and the election! Thanksgiving (and a break!) is around the corner, so sharing some reminders and activities. Here are some from the past: Thanksgiving & Native American Heritage Month Resources & Reminders. 

Always center Native American perspectives however you address Thanksgiving in your classroom (and in general). For example, you and your students could look at the Native Land map to see whose land you're on and emphasize that they are still here. You could research the tribe whose land you are on and find out about where they are living now.

Also, show students the table depicting original tribal names and note that many tribal names were changed by white settlers. 

Learn about land acknowledgements by watching Land Acknowledgement | Molly of Denali.  (Sidenote, Molly of Denali is a great example of representation, own voices, and a genuine character that has typical trials and tribulations as all kids do. Alaskan Native voices are involved in all aspects of production and research shows positive effects on children’s use of informational text after watching the show.)

You and your students can think about creating a land acknowledgement at your school or in your community. However, keep in mind the limitations of land acknowledgements, and talk to students about how they should just be the first step and DO NOT and CANNOT undo or “fix” past wrongs. For a more in depth analysis from a Indigenous perspective, listen to this story from Oregon Public Broadcasting: As land acknowledgments become more common, Indigenous people grapple with next steps - OPB

A new picture book that is a re-telling of the story of Thanksgiving is Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story. There are discussion guides online, but unfortunately the book is sold out and won’t be back in stock before Thanksgiving. However, something to keep in mind for next year! 

I try to incorporate gratitude into my classroom all year, especially towards people in the building who take care of us. There are many studies about the positive effects of gratitude and students love putting good energy out there and planning surprises or pick-me-ups for others. 

Nikki Grimes expresses it so beautifully:

Find this poem on Twitter here. Use it to inspire students and/or yourself! Another fun idea is tiny gratitude stories from the New York Times. They asked Tell Us What You’re Thankful For, in Six Words in the past. I love these ideas for so many reasons, at the very least because there are plenty of mentor texts for students and it is something quick and easy (and FUN). Students could challenge others in the building to write one as well and add it to a wall or bulletin board.

See other Gratitude Activities We Love from our post last Thanksgiving.

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving. Hope your holidays are relaxing and filled with deliciousness!

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Navigating Fall Holidays

Rebecca Nagle reminded me that it was suddenly fall and a perfect time to share resources and reminders for the upcoming holidays. Her tweet thread explains it beautifully and shares helpful resources. Our blog posts below share different strategies and ideas for addressing Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples Day), Halloween, and Thanksgiving in the classroom. 

We taught these lessons with elementary school students (3rd or 5th grade), but they can easily be adapted for older learners.

Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples Day): October 12th

Unfortunately, Columbus Day is still a federal holiday, although more and more communities have voted to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead. We facilitated Columbus Day Debates with our students one year and led a Holiday Inquiry: Columbus Day another year. If you choose to have a similar debate in your classroom, make sure you have time for debrief and a more general conversation about critical literacy and historical narrative. The holiday inquiry post also shares how we celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day in our classroom.

Halloween: October 31st

Halloween is already a lot for elementary school teachers without adding racist or appropriative costumes to the mix. We found it really helpful to talk to students beforehand and share notes from our conversation with families so everyone knew what the expectations around costumes were before they got around to bringing anything to school. Prevention and preparation are key for Halloween! We also loved having our students investigate and analyze different commercial costumes and share out what they noticed. Read more at Holiday Investigations : Halloween! 

Thanksgiving: November 24th

Here are some Gratitude Activities We Love and Thanksgiving & Native American Heritage Month Resources & Reminders. The second post includes general tips to keep in mind when looking for resources about Native Americans, as well as some of our ideas for addressing Thanksgiving in our 3rd grade class that year. 

We also wrote this post earlier this school year to help frame your thinking as you choose books or other resources for your classrooms (and yourselves!): Choosing Nonfiction Resources Critically.

Happy October!

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Thanksgiving & Native American Heritage Month Resources & Reminders

Resources & Great Place to Start

American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) 

Teaching for Change 2021 Indigenous Peoples’ Day Curriculum Teach-In (especially the section about Native Voices in Children’s Literature by Dr. Debbie Reese, the creator of AICL)

Native American Heritage Month Resources For Teachers

Our ideas for addressing Thanksgiving in 3rd grade this year

(on top of expressing gratitude to all the people who take care of us at school):

• The word Indigenous - explained l CBC Kids News

• Newsela article: A Native American poet reimagines Thanksgiving and the poem referenced in the article: America, I Sing You Back by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

•  Read aloud: We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell

• We also just bought two new books that we are VERY excited about:

  • Classified, The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer by Traci Sorell

  • JoJo Makoons by Dawn Quigley (an early middle grade series with a Native American main character!)

General Tips for Choosing Resources about Native Americans

1. Look at publication dates.  In general, older (sometimes “classic”) books tend to have stereotypical portrayals of Native American peoples or kids dressing up as “Indians” or playing “Indian” games.  

   1. Some examples: Little House on the Prairie, George and Martha (George dresses up as an “Indian”).  We are not saying you cannot use these books, but be prepared to address the problematic images, language, or events.

2. Avoid anything stereotypical, overly simplistic, or cartoonish (think of the Cleveland Indians logo).

3. Look at IMAGES of Native peoples depicted in the books. Does every Indigenous person look exactly the same? Are the characters displayed as 'savage' 'non-human' in some way? Avoid the “how” hand gesture, tomahawks, gratuitous headdresses, dancing around a fire, taking hostages, etc.

4. Ask yourself these questions:

   1. Who wrote this piece? (Even Encyclopedia Britannica articles can be used as examples of problematic language/bias). Use the resources list and look FIRST for Indigenous voices on the topic. 

   2. Does the author/illustrator specify a tribal nation?

   3. What is the time period? 

   4. Is the history accurate? How do I know? 

   5. How does the author/illustrator present gender?

   6. Does the author's word choice indicate bias against Native peoples?

   7. (Some of these questions are from Tips for Choosing Culturally Appropriate Books & Resources About Native Americans).

5. Be mindful of the language used (by the resource and by you): avoid the words chief, squaw, savage, natives, and remember that “Native Americans” refers to thousands of diverse tribes (which means thousands of different cultures and histories) and not just one group of people. 

6. Make sure to proactively balance historical representation of Native American peoples with contemporary voices so as not to perpetuate the idea that American Indians only existed in the past. If a piece speaks of Indigenous peoples only in the past tense-- double triple check why it does that and why you are using it! 

7. Remember that many Indigenous peoples are Americans and were the first Americans.

8. Avoid resources (or saying yourself) that say "We are all immigrants". Not all of us are. Utilizing that immigrant 'melting pot' rhetoric as the foundational metaphor of the US erases the (long) history of Indigenous Americans. 

For more details and tips, please see Tips for Choosing Culturally Appropriate Books & Resources About Native Americans andUnderstanding Prejudice: Teaching About Native American Issues

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Covenant Usurp Simulation: constructing a glimpse of forced assimilation for our students

When we start teaching Native American studies, students often refer to Native Americans only in past tense or as peoples who “used to live here.” We correct this misconception and learn about American Indians TODAY, but we also ask our students where they got this idea from and why this so often is the dominant narrative about indigenous Americans.

This exploration requires some understanding of history (which remains limited by the literal mindedness of 5th graders) and the reality of extermination, eradication, and (forced) assimilation that native peoples experienced. Before we start learning about boarding schools in detail, we want our students to have an experience they can use as a parallel to forced assimilation.

Another student's reflection showing revised thinking!

An important disclaimer is that this simulation (or any simulation) is NOT the same or even close to the actual experience, which we would never ever want to simulate. Ours is temporary; historical experiences were real and permanent. It’s important to acknowledge that we are only getting a tiny glimpse. We tell our students this constantly and have them reflect upon it as one of their homework questions. But there can never be too many reminders.

    This simulation requires some sixth graders to come in and act out the role of the villains. This year, so many of our former students were interested in being a part of the simulation that we had to hold auditions! They were hilarious to watch and we ended confident that we had chosen strong actors and actresses who wouldn’t crack a smile or break character.

    We gave our 5th graders some work to do and had them reading quietly when the 6th graders stormed in at the agreed upon time. The 6th graders (4 in total) announced that they heard our students were having trouble paying attention, using computers responsibly, and kept fighting over who gets to sit where. They told the 5th graders that this was no way to get ready for 6th grade and since their covenant (our class agreement or rules) was clearly not working, they needed to revamp it.

At this point, we joined in and told the 5th graders that we were going to let the 6th graders take the lead and help them re-think their covenant. The 6th graders took some suggestions. All of the 5th graders’ suggestions were shut down. Next, the 6th graders took down our covenant (which we spend over a month working on at the beginning of the year) and put up a 6th grade covenant which declared:

• Respect ourselves, each other, and the environment

• Assigned seats (no couch)

• All voices heard. You are only allowed to participate once per lesson.

• Take notes on everything the teachers say, follow along

• Use computers only to write essays

• The whole class has to do something right or we start over (we are a team).

• Don’t say the words 'like, well, um'

• Don’t use kudos, high fives

• No games or breaks

Our students were upset. No kudos? No high fives? No computers (except for essays) caused a lot of grumpy faces, and even a few tears. One change would be unsettling, but this was turning everything upside down!

We ignored their complaints and told them we had to keep going and the new rules went into action immediately. We wheeled our computer cart out and away, relocated students to their assigned seats, and passed out a new assignment.

When students asked to get a drink or go to the bathroom, they were told “NO! We have new rules now!” After they finished their assignments, we moved into a discussion. Our more verbal students were very frustrated by the rule that “everyone has to speak” as they had already used up their allotted speaking time and had to wait for everyone else to share first.

The simulation lasted less than two hours, but the students were extremely frustrated and angry at the sixth graders. They also engaged in acts of disobedience like trying to give each other kudos and slyly give high fives. They tried to appeal to other teachers or administrators on behalf of their computer time.

Their homework that night was a reflection about the experience of having their covenant usurped. Many students had to be reminded that as much as they may have felt frustrated, their experience lasted less than two hours and was not permanent. They also only had their class culture critiqued and curtailed, instead of their entire way of life. Upon reflection, they were able to reflect upon this distinction.

Here are some of their thoughts:

• “I used to think that turning around and joining another community would not be hard, but now I am thinking it actually is really hard."

• “We can’t say things like ‘well,’ ‘um,’ and ‘like,’ which is like how the Natives had to speak English. And we had to sit in an assigned spot, like how the US made a reservation for the Natives to live on.”

• “I used to think that most of the discrimination is gone but now I think that we still have a long way to go before everything is fair.”

• “Today made me feel like our ‘tribal sovereignty’ had been taken away because the sixth graders came in and took away our covenant. Without asking! Then, the sixth graders replaced it with their covenant, forcing us to assimilate to their ways.”

Please let us know if you have any questions! We'd love to hear what activities you have tried to help students think critically or from other perspectives.

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Tribe Case Studies

Our final Social Studies project for this year was a case study of a Virginia Indian tribe. We wanted students to learn about the peoples who have been in this area for thousands of years and understand that each tribe is different.  For the final product, students wrote a top ten list indicating the top ten things you should know about this tribe. They also designed an annotated illustration to go along with their top ten lists.  We were very impressed with their work. 

One of our students who studied the Rappahanock Tribe reflected: 

"This particular tribe and many other tribes are facing a challenge that is that they do not have enough money. This is because of the white settlers pretty much completely. Many of them live on their reservation but if they did not many of them would be having a tough time finding shelter or even not able to find shelter. Some of them are facing the problem of other people judging them for their race and that they are a Native American. One member said they were in a gas station and going to the bathroom but the station said white on one door and black on the other and they did not know where to go. I think that people do not recognize Native Americans in general nearly as much as they should. Sometimes it seems like people think that Native Americans don’t have feelings. Sometimes people make it seem like Native Americans aren’t even human which is completely false and totally not true. In a couple of the videos we watched in class some people acted like Native American were not humans. When I heard that I thought why don’t they think white people aren’t humans. I think they are facing these challenges because when the white settlers came they acted as if they had lots of power and they were very mean to the Native people. I think these things are happening because of this. If when the white settlers came the Native people acted like the white people I think the people would be saying these rude comments and acting like this to the white people."

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One of our students who studied the Patawomeck Tribe created this illustration to showcase some of the amazing things about the tribe.

Pocahontas Investigation!

In our classroom we have a Social Studies unit focused on Virginia's (and Maryland's) Indigenous people. This unit developed after we noticed that our students had no idea about the people, cultures, and communities that have been on this land for thousands of years.

One part of this unit that we are just getting into is an investigation about the one and only Pocahontas. She is from a tribe in the Virginia area, called the Pamunkey (part of the Powhatan Confederacy) and thus is very relevant. She also was a source of great interest to our students-- so we went with it!

Investigations are a great way to get students (or anyone!) invested in a conversation, and gives the space for everyone to get some more background information before taking on a heavier or more dynamic conversation.

Our Pocahontas Investigation was structured by having small groups (3-4 students) doing what is typically called a jigsaw format. Each group received multiple resources.

The resources were things like:

• letter from the Powhatan nation about Pocahontas
• lyrics from a song in the Disney movie (we used the first verse and chorus of the song Savages)
• images of her from different sources
• news articles
• a Brainpop video

Each group received a worksheet to track what they were thinking/finding from their resources. Students had multiple time warnings, including a heads up of when to begin to organize what they want to share with the larger group. Finally, each group shared their conclusions.

Here are some of our students’ reflections from this investigation:

• You need to look at multiple resources that take on multiple perspectives in order to fully understand a story

• The Pocahontas story we learned from Disney is not historically accurate. (See the image above: our students were astounded that Pocahontas was talking to a willow tree when willow trees were not yet in North America!)

• The stereotype of Native Americans/ American Indians/ Indigenous people being 'savages' and 'uncivilized' is in so much of our media. We know from our study of some awful American history along with our modern day work that this is a troubling stereotype we need to continue to counter.

• Images and language around Pocahontas and other Indigenous American people continue to be demeaning*, showing them as not counting as 'human' which we think might connect to the way they were treated.. thinking about extermination, boarding schools, reservations and even land allocation and broken treaties today.

• Harmful stereotypes about anyone hurt all of us.  As one student put it, "almost of the things through history that are bad all have to do with stereotypes like women being weak."

*Our class has had multiple dynamic (and far from unanimous!) conversations about mascots as one present day way students shared that they see 'Native American people'. It was awesome to see and hear them come back around to that!

 Let us know if you do anything similar or give this type of format a try! Also, please feel free to ask clarifying questions below. We aren't always sure exactly how many details to share and would be happy to explain more if need be!

Stay tuned for more updates from our classroom!