Miss Bryant Teaches

Indigenous kinship lesson plan

Goal

Learners will be able to understand an Indigenous kinship system and what it means to rebuild Indigenous kinship specifically with human relations

Learning Objectives

By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to:

1. Identify differences in family systems ie: nuclear family is different from Indigenous kinship
2. Critically examine and reflect on why the colonial implementation of the nuclear family system was and is harmful to Indigenous families and families in general.
3. explain a different type of family system beyond the nuclear family

Prior Knowledge & Learner Profile

The learners are in the Indigenous Education PDPP 

1. Learners will need to know a basic history of colonization in Canada

Delivery

1. Ask learners to think about their family- “Put your hand up if you thought about your parents, keep your hand up if you thought about your siblings, keep your hand up if you thought about your grandparents…etc”
2. Hook- Explain my family system and story about the process of restoring my Ts’msyen kinship.
   1. Show pictures of my family
3. Show family tree with labels – pronunciations of terms
4. Explain colonization disrupting that = harmful

Activity/Evaluation

• Learners evaluation: See Think Wonder based on my family tree

After my presentation students will do a see think wonder activity based on Kwiiaans’ Kinship tree. The worksheet will look like this.

Students will write what they see in the kinship tree, they will write what they think about the kinship tree, they will write what they wonder. After time for filling out the page we will have a class discussion where we can talk more in depth about the wonders.

Evaluation

I will be able to check that learning outcomes have been met based on this activity and formative assessment during a group discussion after.

Indigenous kinship lesson plan

Goal

Learners will be able to understand an Indigenous kinship system and what it means to rebuild Indigenous kinship specifically with human relations

Learning Objectives

By the end of the lesson, learners will be able to:

1. Identify differences in family systems ie: nuclear family is different from Indigenous kinship
2. Critically examine and reflect on why the colonial implementation of the nuclear family system was and is harmful to Indigenous families and families in general.
3. Understand and appreciate a different type of family system beyond the nuclear family

Prior Knowledge & Learner Profile

The learners are in the Indigenous Education PDPP 

1. Learners will need to know a basic history of colonization in Canada

Delivery

1. Hook- Explain my family system and story about the process of restoring my Ts’msyen kinship.
   1. Show pictures
2. Show family tree with labels – pronunciations of terms
3. Explain colonization disrupting that = harmful

Activity/Evaluation

• Learners evaluation: See Think Wonder based on my family tree

Describe how 3D Design & Printing could be used for language revitalization

3D printing could be an incredibly valuable tool for language revitalization. The first thing that I think of is creating games that can be powerful tools to help learn languages. I remember being a high school student and wishing I could make a scrabble type game with the Sm’algyax alphabet so that I could practice in a way my brain liked. People tend to learn more quickly and efficiently through play so if language revitalization groups had more access to 3D printers they would potentially be able to create more games to be distributed to language learners. This idea has me daydreaming about having a game cupboard like I had growing up in my house but filled with a mix of language games so my family could practice our language in every day life like family game night. It would make learning a language much more accessible. One con of 3D printing is the limited accessibility. Most language revitalization groups from my nations, and many First Nations in BC exist on reserves in small remote areas that don’t have access to a 3D printing machine. I wonder if grant money could solve that problem of accessibility for some, but even if you have the money for it you still have to build capacity in terms of having people who are able to run it and create designs to print.

If 3D design was built into curriculum and taught in schools, students would be able to learn an important skill and there would be ample opportunity for cross-curricular learning. In one of my elementary classes, one of our projects was to create a game. I remember feeling limited because we had to use pieces we could find for our game board, but if we had access to a 3D printer it would have opened up so much more creativity.

Here’s the keychain design I did from the workshop.

Photo by Eric Muhr on Unsplash

Reflection: reflect on why teaching with stories can catch the attention of learners and make it easier for them to recall information embedded in story.

I would like to preface my reflection on this topic with some background information on me, which will help to situate myself and my thinking. I am Ts’msyen and Haida, my people are story telling people. I come from an ancestral line where our histories, our lessons, our laws are all passed down orally through oral tradition. This requires a lot of story work, a lot of story telling and a lot of active listening. Storytelling is woven into my DNA, its ancestral and it’s powerful. I can tell stories that my ancestors 10+ generations back told. Stories will always hold a special place in my heart, as I’m sure they do many other people. Stories are something that every culture has, it’s likely that every person can retell a story they’ve heard and love and can access it quickly in their minds.

When I think of story work within the scope of being a teacher, I know that stories are a wonderful way to transfer knowledge in an accessible and entertaining way. Stories are a powerful teaching tool. As I reflect back on my recent practicum experience, my fondest memories are when I was telling stories in my lessons. The times that my students were paying the most attention without distracting behaviours was when I was telling stories. The biggest breakthroughs with students who were resistant to connecting with me were through stories. One day I did oral story telling with my students and I told them the story of Raven Steals the Light. In Ts’msyen culture we call Raven Txamsm so that is the name I used in the story I told. One of my ELL students who most days couldn’t remember my name, was able to retell me the whole story including using Raven’s name, Txamsm. It was such a beautiful moment of connection and an opportunity for this student to be successful in the classroom learning.

I think one reason teaching with stories captures attention is because stories are interesting, our brains really like hearing them. Most children have positive associations with stories, whether it be reading bed time stories with parents, or getting lost in a book or sharing stories with friends, most children can recall a happy memory that involves a story. This positive association allows children’s brains to relax and take in the information being presented and remember it better. Stories can help remember things because it gives us a sequence to follow and makes the material meaningful. Remember the beginning, middle and end of a story is usually easier than remembering 10 random facts that don’t have a prescribed meaning.

Here is a youtube video that I think goes nicely with my reflection on stories. It’s a retelling of a version of Raven Steals the Light.

Critically reflect on the pros and cons of using Inquiries or See, Think, Wonder activities your classroom.

I think inquiry based learning is so beneficial for all ages. Allowing students to find things they are passionate about and encouraging them to pursue more learning around those topics is powerful. Prior to this program, I don’t remember having any inquiry based learning experiences in my schooling. I find it really hard as an adult to work on projects I don’t care about or find interesting. For kids it’s even harder to get them to engage when they’re just not interested in something. Giving them the space to explore topics they enjoy and guiding them through a process of inquiry would likely lead to more engaged learning rather than box ticking.

I believe the See, Think, Wonder is a really good tool to use for inquiry in the classroom. I think it’s a great way to lead student thinking in a way that is accessible and leads to deeper thinking that if they just look at something and move on. The See, Think, Wonder method is especially helpful for younger students to help them expand their thinking but I still find it helpful as an adult as well so it can be easily adapted for all age groups.

One con I can think of for younger grades is if you’re giving a worksheet every time you want them to do a See, Think, Wonder it can be a lot of paper. Another con of using them in the public education system is that open ended ones can make it difficult, especially with younger grades, for a teacher to help every student in a timely manner and attend to all of the needs of each individual project. I suppose that’s where doing an inquiry as a whole class is beneficial

more on inquiry here and a youtube video of a podcast featuring Trevor MacKenzie.

What are the pros and cons of using video creation as a teaching tool for language revitalization in one of your practicum classrooms?

Video creation can be a very beneficial tool for language revitalization work. I’m Ts’msyen and Haida and have been trying to learn my Ts’msyen language, Sm’algyax, while living away from my home territory while I’m attending post secondary school. Usually I would have to attend in person classes or spend one on one time with an elder to learn my ancestral language. This just isn’t a possibility for me right now. Having videos of language speakers would be incredibly beneficial for me to hear my language more regularly to ensure I’m getting pronunciations correct. There are currently some online resources but not many easily accessible videos. So a big pro would be that it increases accessibility while I live in an urban setting.

A con would be that videos take a lot of bandwidth and you have to have good internet to be able to upload and watch videos. A lot of rural communities (especially reserves) don’t have access to high speed internet and are working with very low bandwidths and speeds so this would not be an accessible option for that scenario.