This unit plan will focus on a Language Arts based approach to First Nations learning, connection
to land, family, culture and an introduction to residential schools. It has been created with the
information and recommendations set forth in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Interim Report.
I have included the first three lessons of the unit. These are based on the books Shi-shi-etko by Nicola
Campbell and When I Was Eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margret Pokiak-Fenton. The first three
lessons will also include a video titled Shi-shi-etko and another titled Teaching about Residential Schools
to children! The remaining LA lessons will focus on the residential school experiences of an Inuit girl
named Olemaun and her subsequent reuniting with and rejection by her mother in the book Not My
Girl. I will also include a Social Studies lesson where the students will look at images and blueprints of
actual residential schools, the daily schedules of students in residential schools and compare these to
their own lives. The second cross curricular lesson that I will plan will be an Art lesson which will result in
the culminating project of the students creating a Memory Bag like the one the Shi-Shi-Etko made
before she went away to residential school. The Memory Bag will allow the students to put all the work
that they will have done during this unit in to one personalized place for me to assess and finally for
them to take home.
Learning Outcomes
It is my hope that by the end of this unit the students will have a better understanding of the following
concepts as related to First Nations learning and culture:
Learning is focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place.
Learning involves generational roles and responsibilities.
Learning recognizes the role of indigenous knowledge.
Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.
Learning requires exploration of ones identity.
In the first lesson we will start with the pre-reading activities of a sort and predict and a T-chart
What We Know-What We Wonder discussion. As a class we will discuss what we know about First
Nations People, their culture, and their connection to the land. We will that proceed to a sort and
predict based on vocabulary from the book. Before we read the book, students will work in pairs to cut-
out and sort the words into categories that they think are relevant and predict what the story is about.
Students will be given sticky notes so that as I read the story they can write down questions to place on
EDPB 505 Language Arts Unit Plan Daniel Richardson
the board. These questions will be placed in our What We Wonder side of the T-Chart for later
discussion.
In the second lesson we will return to our What We Wonder questions and discuss them. We will then
watch a short video recreating the story of Shi-shi-etko. A large part of her story is her walk of
remembrance through the forest. We shall then brainstorm a list of words about a forest journey. What
you would see, hear, touch, taste, and smell as you walked through the forest. With this list of words the
students will then be asked to perform a writing prompt based on the title A Walk in the Forest. At the
end of the lesson we will reflect on where Shi-shi-etko was going. The story never says residential
school it on says she is going off to school. With this new found knowleged students will be asked to
make meaning of what the forest walk and the memory bag meant for Shi-shi-etko.
The third lesson will start with a discussion of what a residential school is and what it is not. We
will begin with another T-Chart What We Know-What We Wonder discussion. Students will again
place sticky notes on the board of what they think goes on in a residential school. At this point we will
read the story When I Was Eight and what the short video about what a residential school is. Students
will then work in groups to come up with a definition in their own words of what a residential school is
and present this to the class. We will finish up with a look back at and a discussion about our starting
questions.
The final two Language Arts lessons will follow along similar lines as these three lessons.
Students will write out a schedule of what their average day is like. These will be compared to actual
daily schedules as written down by residential school survivors. The final lesson will look at the rejection
of a residential school student by her mother when she returns home. The girl has been culturally
assimilated and her mother says she is no longer her girl. At this point we will circle back to the story of
Shi-shi-etko and how her connection to the land, her family and her culture were so important to her
and in both cases this was taken from them.
Assessment Methods
Assessment methods will be both formative and summative. Some of the formative methods that I will
use will be written reflections, checks for understanding and class deliverables. These will include things
like our KWL sticky activities and discussions, questioning of students about previous lessons and our
group collaboration and presentation.
The summative assessments that will be used will be though the submission of the portfolio of work or
Memory Bag as we will call it. This will include all of the things that we created (writing prompt, sort and
predict, daily schedule, drawings, etc.)
Assessment Criteria
The student listened to and responded to the stories.
The student asked and answered questions about their background knowledge.
The student listened to and responded to narrative and non-fiction text.
The student summarized understanding of key vocabulary through writing and presentation.
The students work that is handed in was neat and complete
EDPB 505 Language Arts Unit Plan Daniel Richardson
The students work demonstrates a deeper knowledge of what learning from a First Nations perspective
is about (holistic, connected, generational, spatial, and reciprocal)
The students work demonstrates a deeper knowledge of what the land, culture, and family meant to
the First Nations learner.
1015-1030 Recess
1030-1145
1145-1215 Recess
1215-1240 Eat/Read Aloud
1245-130 Art
130-220
1015-1030 Recess
1030-1145
1145-1215 Recess
1215-1240 Eat/Read Aloud
1245-130 Art
130-220