Meeting Pattern

Description

A book study of current fictional Young Adult Literature (YAL) and middle-grade (MG) literature to help you increase your knowledge of Native American literature, Indigenous culture, and how it can be incorporated into your classroom. Upon completing this course, you will have reached a deeper emotional intelligence surrounding issues of the diversity within Native American communities that will lead you to foster more inclusive and culturally aware classrooms and will lead you to a selection of diverse and impactful literature to foreground belonging for all of your students. 

Though this course is asynchronous, participants are encouraged to engage in discussion with others through discussion boards as well as sharing final projects.

Syllabus, Objectives, and Outcomes

Objectives:

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize the need for diverse Native American literature
• Identify quality, high-interest Native American literature
• Apply knowledge from this course to their own teaching practices
• Combine information from this course with their own teaching philosophy
• Design their own list of resources to continue their learning after the course
• Recognize the harm colonization has done to Native American youth
• Analyze and evaluate texts for authenticity, accurate representation, and bias
• Synthesize knowledge into an organized project
• Familiarize themselves with Native American culture, heritage, and language

Required Text(s):

Borrowing books from friends or libraries, listening to audiobooks, reading the e-book are all fine if you don’t want to/aren’t able to purchase the books. Choose 5 of the 6 that interest you the most:

• Healer of the Water Monster by Brian Young: Nathan visits his grandma on the Navajo reservation and expects a pretty uneventful summer. Nathan finds a Water Monster in need of help and must summon his courage to save his new friend.
• The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson: Lou isn’t really looking forward to her summer working at her family’s ice cream shack. Her ex-boyfriend and a former best friend are working with her. When her father makes an unexpected appearance back in her life, Lou needs to use everything she can to keep herself and her family safe.
• Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley (sequel to Firekeeper’s Daughter): Perry spends her summer working in a summer program at a museum. There she learns that many indigenous artifacts are stolen and hard to return to their original tribes.
• Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline (sequel to The Marrow Thieves): French needs to escape. While his chosen family searches for him, French has difficult choices to make regarding betrayal or loyalty.
• The Sea in Winter by Christine Day tells the story of Maisie’s recovery from a torn ACL. She struggles with her mental health after the accident and wonders if she’ll ever be able to dance again.
• Rez Ball by Byron Graves features a boy living on the Red Lake Reservation in Minnesota trying to step out of his big brother’s footsteps after his sudden passing. He has big dreams of bringing his high school basketball team to the state tournament and then a state championship, making his father proud and helping his family through their grief.