History Repeats Itself: Another Trail of Tears?

GRADE LEVEL: Middle School

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Most students who study American History in middle school learn about the Jacksonian era “Trail of Tears,” the expulsion of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw peoples from the Southeastern United States and their long, often fatal journey to Indian Territory, present day Oklahoma. Often, though, the plight of modern Native American tribal members in the U.S. does not make mainstream media. A recent story out of South Dakota brings to light just how much more there is to learn from the tenuous and often volatile relationship between this continents’ First Peoples and local, state, and national governments. Native familial structure is culturally different from the European model, and this has often been the source of conflict. This collection of articles focuses on a social justice issue—that of the plight of foster children, who are often placed in homes outside their culture. How important is this culture in a child’s upbringing, when weighed against his or her basic needs? This is a question that we continue to ask ourselves as we extend aid to nations all over the world—including those sovereign nations we often overlook within our own borders.

TIME REQUIRED

2–3 class periods (50 minutes)

OBJECTIVES

As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:

1.      Discerning author’s purpose (and bias) by considering each article and their relationship to one another

2.      Create a thesis statement based on their discernment

3.      Gain a deeper understanding of the social justice issues that arise when good meaning people try and effect change.

STANDARDS:

Common Core: Reading  Informational Text R.I. 8.9 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation.

MATERIALS

Primary sources: (Digital access to :)

"The Trail of Tears Continues." Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation. Dr. Desmond Tutu, 3 Nov. 2011. Web. 9 Oct. 2012. http://www.tutufoundationusa.org/2011/11/the-trail-of-tears-continues/

Woster, Kevin. "Governor's Office Calls NPR Foster Care Report Flawed; Congressmen Seek Review." Rapid City Journal. Rapid City Journal, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 9 Oct. 2012. <http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/governor-s-office-calls-npr-foster-care-report-flawed-congressmen/article_86743c68-0433-11e1-96d8-001cc4c002e0.html>.

Sullivan, Laura, and Amy Walters. "Incentives and Cultural Bias Fuel Foster System." NPR. NPR, 25 Oct. 2011. Web. 09 Oct. 2012. <http://www.npr.org/2011/10/25/141662357/incentives-and-cultural-bias-fuel-foster-system>.

SETTING THE STAGE

In Carpe Diem, the class for which this lesson is designed, we have a dialog about helping people in other cultures who are suffering social injustice. This usually comes in the investigation phase of websites for the causes that the students themselves are interested in. Some of the questions we ask when evaluating sites that claim to be helping others include:

o   Is the help provided sustainable?

o   Does the work involve the people being helped—are they involved in its development and implementation?

o   Is the presence of this third entity welcomed?

Students are often surprised to find that sometimes the answer to this last question is no, for myriad reasons. It is important to not deflate their enthusiasm for being pro-active and wanting to help, but to guide them into the idea that the most important first step is to intimately get to know what we see as the problem, and those who suffer from it, and to get their input.

Begin by asking students if they have ever received help with something that they really didn’t want, or was delivered in a manner that made them uncomfortable. This could be something like when an older sister or brother or parent “helps” with a school project and ends up doing it all, or when a classmate takes over a group endeavor with bossy behavior. Many times the help offered is seen as being in the student’s best interest.

STRATEGY

• o   Divide the class into three groups, and give copies of ONE article to each group.
• o   In their groups, ask the students to summarize the article, and identify the point of view of the person writing it if they can. Is there a bias in the article? Which “side” does the author seem to be on?
• o   Ask students to pull out a list of five or six words that they think represent the bias of the article. Have the students put these words on a central board for consideration by all.  (Alternatively, you could paste the articles into a WORDLE (wordle.net) to see which words become prominent… this sometimes helps them narrow it down.)
• o   Bring the group together and choose words from the master list randomly—be sure to choose a new group each time. Ask students from each group to react to those words based on the bias in their article. How do the definitions differ from one group to the next?
• o   Guide the discussion/debate back to the three questions initially posed:
• o   Is the help provided sustainable?
• o   Does the work involve the people being helped—are they involved in its development and implementation?
• o   Is the presence of this third entity welcomed?
•  
• o   Finally, ask them to evaluate this situation in terms of social justice. Does something more need to be done? Is justice served? And can we – or should we—interfere?

** For students with special needs: sorting the groups randomly can often be the most effective; make sure that you differentiate the groups as cooperatively as possible so that there are strong readers in each group. Students that struggle with reading comprehension or ESL will have an easier time working with the word cloud and possibly looking up the words in a dictionary than reading the source itself. The NPR sources usually include an audio link.

EXTENSION ACTIVITY

·         Collect the best examples of words from all sections of the class and for each document. If you can, use a bit of everyone’s examples.

·         Arrange the words and definitions on the board or in a digital graphic organizer with a blank space in the middle of the page.

·         Explain to students that creating a good thesis statement for an essay requires first gathering evidence. They have already done this in a way with their word lists.

·         Remind them that a thesis statement is a sentence that takes a position and can be proven with the evidence given.

·         Challenge students to create a thesis statement that answers the question: “What point does the author try to make? And what makes you believe this point?” (Students find a specific prompt helpful, such as “According to ________________ (author)…” Have students write that thesis at the center of the graphic organizer.

·         If you give them multiple examples, make them clear and easy to understand, but formal. Tell students to avoid language like “The Author says that...”

·         This could be done as a large group or small groups. **

** Many students struggle with the concept of a thesis statement; gauge your students’ abilities accordingly when deciding how to do this activity. If your students are struggling with the thesis concept, have them start with a summary of the document’s message based on the words. They often arrive at a thesis with this approach and a little coaching on wording. Most students, given an example and practice, can create their own thesis on the assessment from a completed graphic organizer.

EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT

Place one of the student-created graphic organizers on the exam for the unit and have the students create their own thesis statement. This is a great introduction to the idea of Document Based Question (DBQ) assessments that are increasingly popular on the high school level. Alternatively, if you have gifted students, you could have them create a graphic organizer from a similar document excerpt and write their own essay.