Summary
In this lesson, students will examine the boarding school experiences of American Indians from Oklahoma and other states and territories. They will identify the ways in which American Indians resisted assimilation and preserved their cultural and individual identities during and after the time they spent at boarding schools.
Essential Question(s)
How were American Indians assimilated in the past? What effect did assimilation have on their identity and culture?
Snapshot
Engage
Students compare and contrast two photos of a student at a boarding school and acquire an understanding of the term assimilate.
Explore
Students analyze quotes relating to American Indian boarding schools.
Explain
Students examine an infographic and use the Window Notes strategy to organize the information they find to be interesting and important.
Extend
Students choose two videos from a digital choice board to critically analyze how boarding school students responded to attempts of assimilation.
Evaluate
Students summarize their understanding of the experiences of American Indian students at boarding school by responding to a writing prompt.
Materials
Lesson Slides (attached)
Teacher’s Guide document (attached)
SIT Quotes handout (attached; one per student)
Window Notes handout (attached; one per student)
H-Chart handout (attached; one per student)
Student devices with internet access
Paper
Pens or pencils
Highlighters
Engage
15 Minute(s)
Use the attached Lesson Slides to guide the lesson, beginning with slide 3. Provide a few moments for students to examine the before and after photos on the slide. Then, have students discuss the questions on slide 4:
What do you notice about these two photos?
How are they similar? How do they differ?
Where do you think these two photos were taken?
When do you think they were taken?
Why do you think they were taken?
Who do you think took them?
After students discuss, display slide 5 and explain that the photos are of Tom Torlino, a citizen of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. The first photo was taken in 1882 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The second photo was taken three or four years later. Explain that the purpose of Carlisle and other boarding schools was to assimilate American Indians from around the country.
Display both definitions of assimilate on slide 6. Make sure that students know that to assimilate means to adopt the behaviors and traditions of a cultural group that is different from their own.
Display slide 7 and review the essential questions, then slide 8 to review the lesson objectives.
Explore
25 Minute(s)
Place students into groups of four and display slide 9. Introduce the S-I-T (Surprising, Interesting, Troubling) strategy to students and pass out the attached SIT Quotes handout and a highlighter to each student. Tell students to read and highlight something that is surprising, interesting, or troubling about each quote with their group.
After providing time for groups to analyze each quote, call on a volunteer from each group to talk about the thing that they found surprising, interesting, or troubling. Invite student groups to share their reasoning with the class.
Explain
20 Minute(s)
Display slide 10 and have students use their personal devices to access the Boarding Schools Infographic by using the provided link on the slide: https://k20.ou.edu/mf.
Pass out the attached Window Notes handout to each student. Have students use the handout to take notes as they read Boarding Schools Infographic. The infographic contains a timeline, statistics about the boarding schools, and a yearbook showing images that were taken at several boarding schools over the years.
After providing time for students to analyze the infographic, display slide 11. Have students discuss the questions on the slide:
Facts Quadrant: Which facts do you find interesting?
Feelings Quadrant: What are you feeling as you learn these facts? (Sad? Angry? Embarrassed? Disappointed?)
Questions Quadrant: What questions do you have now?
Connections Quadrant: Can you relate what you have just read to prior experiences or things you have learned before today?
Extend
20 Minute(s)
Display slide 12. Tell students that they will watch two videos about boarding schools. Pass out the attached H-Chart handout to each student and ensure that each group of four students has access to at least one computer. Have students access the link using the short url on the slide: https://k20.ou.edu/mh.
The videos in the left column are primarily informational and tell the stories of some of the people who attended the boarding schools. These videos examine efforts being made today to remember what happened at the schools. The videos in the right column are interviews with people who attended the schools.
Instruct students to follow the steps listed below:
After student groups have picked a video from the left column, give them 5–10 minutes to watch and answer the prompt on the left side of the H-Chart:
Summarize the video about American Indian boarding schools.
Next, have students pick one video from the right column and give them another 5–10 minutes to watch and answer the prompt on the right side of the H-Chart:
Describe what you learned from the person who attended a boarding school.
Finally, give student groups an additional 10 minutes to answer the question in the center of the H-Chart:
How did the boarding schools attempt to make American
Indian students assimilate and how did students keep their traditions despite those attempts?
Evaluate
10 Minute(s)
Display slide 13. Ask students to take out a piece of paper in order to complete a brief writing assignment as an Exit Ticket. Have students answer the question on the slide: If you were writing a book about the experiences of American Indian students at boarding schools, what is one thing you would want your readers to know? Why?
Collect the students' responses to review and check for student understanding of the lesson content.
Resources
Choate, J.N. (c. 1885). Tom Torlino - after [Photo]. Cumberland County Historical Society. https://carlisleindian.historicalsociety.com/images/tom-torlino-after/.
Choate, J.N. (c. 1882). Tom Torlino - before [Photo]. Cumberland County Historical Society. https://carlisleindian.historicalsociety.com/images/tom-torlino-before/.
K20 Center. (n.d.). Bell ringers and exit tickets. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/125.
K20 Center. (n.d.). Native American boarding schools infogram. https://infogram.com/1pmn5z655017vyb3ypnxnd2633szle1len0?live
K20 Center. (n.d.). Paired texts H-chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/132.
K20 Center. (n.d.). S-I-T (Surprising, interesting, troubling). Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/926.
K20 Center. (n.d.). Window notes. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/189
K20 Center. (n.d.). Word warriors. 5E Lessons. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/lesson/1759
Yurth, C. (2013, February 14). Manuelito’s legacy: Several famous Navajos called Coyote Canyon home. Navajo Times. https://www.navajotimes.com/news/chapters/021413coy.php
