Recommended Children's and Pedagogy Literature: Native Americans and Technology Immigration

I recommend the following books for use when teaching the history of Native Americans to students in intermediate-level grades. Note that many books are not recommended for use with students due to historical inaccuracies and prejudicial statements or implications. For a detailed perspective, visit Oyate.

Creative Uses for PowerPoint—Templates

For additional PowerPoint-based templates for educational use. I recommend:

Resources for Native American Children's Literature

There are two sources I highly recommend for reviewing and selecting children's literature relating to Native Americans.

Exemplary Calloway Book Reports

Enjoy reviewing the linked book report below.

Calloway Book Report by Kathleen DeBeer
Calloway Book Report by Steve Battreal

Lecture: Dr. Michael Green — The Spanish Empire (Video)

This video was recorded by Dr. Michael Green to teach about the Spanish Empire as it relates to Native Americans of the Colonial Era.

The Spanish Empire — Dr. Green (Audio Lecture)

The Spanish Empire — Dr. Green (Video Lecture in m4v or mov)

Virtual Museum Templates (PowerPoint Files)

Please visit the Educational Virtual Museums blog at http://educationalvirtualmuseums.blogspot.com/ for more information on virtual museums, examples of exemplary museums, templates to create museums, and videos on technical aspects of their development.

Using a Blog (Text)

In response to those who have had some problems maneuvering through this blog, I've prepared the following text-based tutorial...
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You've made it to the blog so you've already experienced some success - YAHOO!!!!
This text will hopefully get you started using the blog more effectively. Print out these instructions (or copy/paste them into a word processor), and follow along with the blog as I describe what to do.

Everything is green so this is very deceiving. Different green elements on the page mean different things. Let's take a look at the first post. You'll see the date (10/5) and a green link that says: "Lecture: DeAnna...." This link is to the post itself. If you clock on it, it will move this post to the top of the screen. That's not very helpful for our purposes. Now, look to the right and see the menu bar. You may need to scroll down a bit, but you'll see an entry that says "Social Bookmarking (Video)." If you click on it, that entry/post will move to the top of the screen. You will still be able to scroll up and down to find the other posts, this is just a quick way to find the one you're seeking (and a condensed method to see what's available).

Now, let's look at the Social Bookmarking post. Again, if you click on the post title [Social Bookmarking (Video)], nothing will happen, it will just move that post to the top of the screen. Since the post is already at the top of the screen, it won't move. Now, let's look within the post. All posts start with a title, then there is text (sometimes including embedded links) a line on the bottom, and then a "Posted by Christy Keeler..." statement. When you see that "Posted by..." statement, you're at the end of that post and the next Green line is a new post (sometimes preceded by a date).

Let's keep looking at the social bookmarking post. You see the title in green and then some grey-black text underneath. In this text, I either share content I need to share (as was the case in DeAnna's textual lecture), or I describe a linked resource, as is the case here. This post actually has two links. If you hover over the http://... link, you'll see that the Delicious link is active. You can click on it and go to our social bookmarking site on Delicious. Click the "Back" button to return to the blog. Under this link, you'll see "Social Bookmarking Video." This is the actual video. If you click on it, you will be able to view the video.

Now, scroll to the top and look at the menubar again. Find the one that says "Class Lecture: Michael Green..." The entire post will leap to the top. You'll again see the post title, text, and a link. If you click on the link, you will hear the audio of Michael's lecture delivered during class. There will not be any video because this is an MP3 (audio), not a MOV (video) file.

Ideally, the links and titles would be different colors. Usually they are, but this template, apparently, doesn't allow that. I would like to change the template, but if I do that may confuse people who know our blog to be the one that is green.
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Seneca Women - A Lecture by Dr. DeAnna Beachley

This lecture was written and performed by Dr. DeAnna Beachley.

Audio Version


"Women in Native American society
Case Study: Seneca Women

Women of the Seneca tribe, and for that of most of the tribes in the Eastern US, dominated agricultural production. The Seneca women provided
tribes with half of the subsistence, and had well-tended fields in
Western New York. As a result, women in this tribe had high status
and community power.

In fact, in the origin myth of the League of the Iroquois, of which the Seneca were associated, incorporates women in the story. The female deity falling from the sky gave birth to the first woman. Sky Woman brought to earth seeds, roots and domestic plants like potatoes, beans, squash and corn. Corn Maiden taught the women to plant the corn, how to prepare the corn, how to dance the corn dance and instructed them on which songs to sing. There were festivals to celebrate various phases of the agricultural cycle, like planting and harvesting that were key to the tribal activities throughout the year.

In some areas, tribal women had as many as 2000 acres under cultivation. Some managed to accumulate surplus that could be traded for other items.

Seneca family life centered on the long house, which was a joint tenement shared by families of kin. Older women regulated the domestic economy. They were responsible for the distribution of goods to families and guests. Groups of longhouses formed villages or towns. A village consisted of about 20-30 longhouses, a town had 100-150. The towns were usually only occupied for about 10 years before they had to be moved, villages were occupied longer, about 20 years.

Living in the villages and towns was communal. The women of the villages and towns provided stable care for all children of the village, including orphans. This was a matrilineal society. Children inherited from their mothers. Marriages were arranged and the young couples usually joined the one of the couple’s communal households. If a husband was too long away from home or did not provide adequately, the woman could take on another partner. Evidence suggests that most were monogamous. A divorce was also possible, but up to the wife to determine. All she had to do was to place all the husband’s belongings outside of the longhouse. Women had possessory rights to all cultivated land within the tribal area. Women’s clans distributed the land to households according to their size. Smaller longhouses had fewer acres to cultivate, larger ones had more acres for cultivation. Women’s clans also organized the farming communally. Each town and village elected a chief matron who directed the work on the land, determined what to plant and when to harvest. The chief matron also ensured that the sick and injured were cared for and created mutual aid societies to provide for their needs.
The women controlled the distribution of surplus food and demanded captives to replace murdered kinsfolk. They influenced warfare, and had the power to elect civilian rulers. They could depose those who were guilty of misconduct, incompetence or disregard of the public welfare.

After contact with Europeans lives of Seneca women were altered. In addition to diseases, they lost land and trade altered their lives. They now had iron and steel hoes, awls and other items. Missionaries and teachers also moved in to help Christianize. These things led to the end of women’s domination over agriculture, but not a total loss of power. Older women still adhered to the traditional ways, while the younger generations became more assimilated.

While this is not a complete history of the Seneca women or the experience of Native American women, it nonetheless provides us with a good view of role of Native women right at the time of contact with the Europeans. When you look at the two documents on the views of Native American women, you can see that European observers offered some interesting views of the ways of the women in Native culture."

Class Lecture: Christy Keeler - Tech-Integration and PBL (Audio)

Below, you will find a link to an audio recording of the lecture delivered during class on October 3, 2007.

Dr. Christy Keeler - Audio Lecture
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Class Lecture: DeAnna Beachley - Biological Exchange and Imagery (Audio)

Below, you will find a link to an audio recording of the lecture delivered during class on October 3, 2007.

Dr. DeAnna Beachley - Audio Lecture
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Class Lecture: Michael Green - Environmentalism (Audio)

Below, you will find a link to an audio recording of the lecture delivered during class on October 3, 2007.

Dr. Michael Green - Audio Lecture
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Lecture Slides: Technology-Infused Project-Based Learning in History (Dr. Keeler)

Access the lecture slides for Dr. Keeler's presentation on Technology-Infused Project-Based Learning in History here.

Education in a Flat World (Audio)

This link is to an audio of an article appearing in Phi Delta Kappa's Edge Magazine. In it, Yong Zhao discusses the ramifications of living in a "flat world" - a world where political barriers do not keep people apart. Enjoy listening to Education in a Flat World.
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The ABCs of Evaluation (PDF)

This link is to a brief article by Kathy Schrock called The ABCs of Website Evaluation. It identifies ways for teachers and students to gauge the quality of websites.
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Using iPods (Video)

The video linked below introduces use of a video iPod. For new users of the technology, you may find this very helpful.

iPod Video
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Introduction to iTunes (Video)

Our site is now available on iTunes. Click here for a text-based set of instructions on how to use iTunes, or click below for a video introduction.

To subscribe to our podcast by going to "Advanced" in the iTunes menubar and select "Subscribe to podcast. Copy and paste the following link into the URL pop-up window:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/NativeAmericans-TechnologyIntegration

iTunes Video
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Social Bookmarking (Video)

Our course bookmarking site is available at http://del.icio.us/Native_Americans. Alternatively, you may visit http://del.icio.us/Social_Studies.

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Native American Book Selection

When selecting the book resources to supply to teachers as part of the grant, the project coordinator and pedagogy expert worked collaboratively to consult several sources. The search began with a review of recommended books from the following sources:
Each book from the resulting list was reviewed in the library. At that point, the project coordinator and pedagogy scholar deleted those books that were inappropriate. Examples for deleting books included that the reading level was too high for the target audiences (3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students), the era of the text did not align with the era of the module, and there were multiple books addressing the same topics.

The list resulting from the library review was then matched against those books recommended by respected sources that review children's books about Native Americans. The primary resources for this review were the Oyate website, A Broken Flute, and Debbie Reese's blog. Some texts were maintained in the list even though there were concerns about aspects of the works (e.g., The Buffalo Hunt by Russell Freedman), but information about these failings was shared with students in the module. The final final list appears below.

Booklist (2010)

Assignment: Virtual Museum

Download the virtual museum assignment here.

For more information on developing virtual museums and their origins, please visit the Educational Virtual Museums Website.

Assignments: Book Review and Discussion Posts

Download the book review here and the discussion post here.

Assignment: Delicious Social Bookmarking

Download the social bookmarking assignment here.

Module Syllabus

Download the module syllabus here.

Welcome to the Podcast/Vidcast


The purpose of this blog is to post audio and video content for use during the Native American/Technology Integration module of the Clark County School District Teaching American History Grant. The posts appearing here will be delivered to participants in the module via the iTunes podcast: “Native Americans and Technology Integration: TAH.”
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This podcast was developed as part of an elementary-level Clark County School District Teaching American History Grant. The three-year grant will fund six modules per year with each module focusing on a different era of American history and a different pedagogical theme. This podcast focuses on Native Americans of the Colonial Era and Technology Integration in Elementary Schools. Participants in the grant are third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers in Clark County (the greater Las Vegas are), Nevada. Teaching scholars include Drs. Michael Green and Deanna Beachley of the College of Southern Nevada and Dr. Christy Keeler of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. As part of this five week module, teachers meet on campus on two occasions and the remainder of their work is completed online.

The culminating experience for the module is participant development of virtual museums. These are asynchronous PowerPoint slideshows that have the appearance of a virtual museum. Users can move throughout the "museum" learning about different aspects of Native Americans in each "room." Grant participants will base their virtual museums on one of ten assigned themes including Native American women, economics, housing, European encounters, impact of western religions, relations between African Americans and Native Americans, slavery, food, cultural exchange, and religions.
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