I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Environment and Culture

Essential Question:

How would you describe the impact the environment had on the Texas Indian culture?

Bridge:

Tribal Identities

Content:

Study of Texas Indians

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: to challenge the student to think about the connection between the availability and type of resources in an environment and the way it would affect how a Native American culture would express itself

Activity: Divide the class into five cooperative groups with 4 or 5 students in each group. Assign a leader for each group and have the leaders draw from five slips of paper with these environments written on them: coastal, desert, forest, mountains, plains. On a poster board, using markers, colors, construction paper, wooden sticks, feathers, and whatever else you have available in your art supplies, each group is to show the shelter, clothing, food, and tools of an Indian group that might live in that environment.

Assessment: participation in the activity, thought processes used in deciding what to include in the product

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: the students will share, discuss, and justify what they included in their products

Activity: Each group presents their poster to the class, explaining what they have included and why they believe an Indian group in that environment would express itself in that manner. The other students can ask questions of the presenting group and the teacher moderates the discussion.

Assessment: quality of the thoughts in justifying or challenging what is included in the products

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: to provide the students with stimulating experiences that lead them into an understanding of the Indian tribes they will be studying

Personal Note: Study each tribe in a mini-wheel that follows this sequence: 2R - 2L - 3L - 3R. Then repeat the cycle with the next tribe. The following activities are the 2R pieces to these mini-wheels.

Activities
Prehistoric Indians: Simulate an archaelogical experience through the use of fantasy. Pretend you have packed your car and you are driving southwest of San Antonio, Texas to some cave shelters along the lower Pecos River. As you carefully dig for archeological evidence, pretend to find items such as: animal teeth, pottery shards, charred wood, flint points, etc...
Karankawa Indians: Tell the story of Cabeza de Vaca and his rescue by the Karankawa Indians. A good source of information for this is the book, Texas Sketchbook (see the bibliography).
Coahuiltecan Indians: Simulate a rabbit hunt on the playground using the cooperative "surround" technique. Choose three students to be "rabbits" and five students to be the "hunters." The rest of the class forms a horseshoe around the rabbits. The "hunters" are waiting to ambush the "rabbits" in the open end of the horseshoe. The "tribe" pretends to beat the bushes and begins to close in on the "rabbits." The "rabbits" run to the open end of the horseshoe and are "hunted" by being tagged. Make sure everyone knows their roles before you begin.
Jumanos Indians: Show pictures of Anasazi Indian ruins, pueblos, pottery, and sand painting. Read aloud the children's book, Arrow to the Sun.
Caddo Indians: Show the pictures on pages 6-14 in the book, Indians Who Lived In Texas .
Plains Indians: Show short, appropriate sections of the popular movie, Dances With Wolves. I like to show the scenes when the soldier is coming into the Indian village for the first time and when the tribe is moving to hunt the buffalo. Read aloud the children's book, Gift of the Sacred Dogs, by Paul Goble. I like to read aloud books by Paul Goble each day that we study the Plains Indians.

Assessment: student participation, student interest generated by the activities

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: the student will learn about the major Texas Indian tribes, where they lived, and how their environment shaped their culture.

Activity: The teacher uses lectures, readings, and notetaking to convey the information needed by the students. Students should note the geographical region of the tribe and understand how the resources of that area contributed to the expression of that culture. Food, shelter, clothing, way of life, and size of tribe should all be stressed.

Assessment: informal verbal feedback

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: the student will show mastery of material on written work

Activity: The students reread independently the text that was studied as a class and answer questions relating to the tribe. Verbal checks and short quizzes can also be used.

Assessment: objective evaluation of written work

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: to recreate Indian skills in craft activities related to each tribe

Activity: Follow the activity below immediately after learning about that individual tribe. Then return to the 2R piece and begin studying the next tribe.
Lower Pecos River Indians: Recreate cave pictographs with a crayon resist and tempera paint washes. Take an 18" X 24" piece of gray construction paper. Draw figures similar to the Pecos pictographs in heavy black, red, and white crayon. Lightly wash with diluted brown, orange, and yellow tempera paint. After it dries, crumple the paper to give it a rock-like effect.
Karankawas: Make an Indian necklace or bracelet. One way is to make a clay medallion and several clay beads to string on a leather strip with feathers, shells, or even pasta noodles. Another possibility is to braid three pieces of yarn into a "friendship" bracelet or necklace.
Coahuiltecans: Use soaked corn husks (tamale wrappings) to make a fiber weaving. Soak the husks for at least thirty minutes, tear into long strips, and line up about eight strips on a piece of masking tape, leaving a little space between. Then tightly weave other strips through the "warp" you have made. It isn't beautiful, but it is gives the feeling for the difficulty of working with a natural product.
Jumanos: I teach the children string tricks like Cat's Cradle and Jacob's Ladder. This was a common winter activity of many Indian children. I have experimented with making sand paintings, but have not perfected it yet.
Caddo: We make clay coil pots by making long "snakes" of clay and spiraling a base and then adding coils to make the sides. You should learn how to score and slip so the
product will stay together better.
Plains: You can make a fine-looking medicine shield to hang by using a crayon resist and
brown tempera paint wash on a paper plate. Let each child choose an Indian name and draw a picture representing that name on the paper plate in heavy crayon. Wash with brown tempera paint and hang three construction paper feathers from the bottom. In addition, a beautiful headband can be woven with yarn on a cardboard loom and you can crumple paper grocery bags and create a pictograph story on "bisonhide".

Assessment: evaluate the students on how well they relate these skills to the tribes studied

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: to help the student find a meaningful project on Indians to plan and implement, to evaluate the progress on that project

Activity: Introduce the assignment to the students and let them brainstorm ideas for projects. They could: build models of Indian shelters, do research and make a poster on a different Indian tribe, write to and get information about Indian reservations in Texas, prepare a review of the Texas Indian tribes to help the class prepare for the final examination on this unit, explore the dilemna facing Native Indian cultures in modern society by reading periodical articles on the subject. Keep up with the progress of the students on their projects through journal writings and conferences.

Assessment: the choice and originality of the project, the implementation of the project

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: The students present what they have learned to others

Activity: As projects are finished, the students make presentations to their own class and to other classes. They are to communicate what they have learned to their audience. The products can be displayed in the library or in the community.

Assessment: the quality of the project and the effectiveness of the presentation

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: