http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/history-kids/native-americans-kids/
Title: History: Native Americans
Author: National Geographic
Grade: 4th
TEKS: (1) History. The student understands the origins, similarities, and differences of American Indian groups in Texas and North America before European exploration. The student is expected to:
(A) explain the possible origins of American Indian groups in Texas and North America;
(B) identify American Indian groups in Texas and North America before European exploration such as (D) compare the ways of life of American Indian groups in Texas and North America before European exploration.the Lipan Apache, Karankawa, Caddo, and Jumano;
Video:
Summary: This 3 minute video starts with the origins of Native Americans stating it is still a mystery but scientists believe that they were hunters from Asia about 30,000 years ago. The plains Indians hunted buffalo and the Northern coast Indians sailed the ocean and built canoes, houses, and totem poles from the red cedar trees. Around 1500 when the white settlers came to the states, they brought diseases that killed many native Indians and claimed Indian land for them. The American government forced these Indians to live on reservations but some Indians fought their rights through political activism. Today, there are 550 recognized tribes in the United States that are working to improve their conditions while maintaining the culture, language, and traditions.
Instructional Strategy: My instructional strategy is Questioning. Each student would be required to ask one question (students must write down question in notebook) related to Native Americans before the video begins. This question can be anything they want to know about Native Americans. Teacher will provide a question as an example. The video will be stopped halfway to see if any of the students’ questions are answered and then again at the end of the video. Students will discuss & write if their questions were answered or not. The comprehension skill is connection. Students are connecting their own personal questions about Native Americans to the video for answers.
I enjoyed the video because of the pictures and representations it provides to the audience. The video also includes valuable information about the possible origins of Native Americans. I also enjoyed reading your instructional strategy. Having students brainstorm about what they would like to know about Native Americans can help students brainstorm categorize what they possibly might already know and what they want to learn. Also, making sure to stop the video and ask students if their question has been answered is valuable because it allows students to reflect on the answer and other students will receive that information.
-MR
I agree with the above comment. The video has great visuals and very exciting and unique information to keep the students interested. I think the idea of questioning is good to facilitate discussion as long as the students know the kind of questions are appropriate and helpful to their learning as opposed to “Why is the Indian sitting down?” Perhaps just discuss that before! 🙂
-JS
This is a nice video that could be used as an introduction of a Native American unit. I liked the video because it was accessible to children but still carried a lot of information. It’s also only 3 minutes which is a good thing because it will be able to hold the students attention without them getting bored. The instructional strategy was a good idea, it’s kind of like a personal spin off of KWL. Great work, thanks for sharing
-CC
The digital text is a great way for students to receive information outside of a textbook. You have done well finding a text that adequately contains the information you are seeking to teach, but also providing students with an opportunity to experience text variety. Your strategies for comprehension are quality and have value in the assurance students will learn about Native Americans. I would push you to think about what kinds of questions your students are asking. Perhaps you could encourage them to ask comprehension questions of the video more so than just asking questions of Native Americans in general. I really appreciated that you also encourage students to use the ‘making connections’ strategy. This could be an effective post or pre-video activity to help students make connections between what they know and the video teaches them! I would encourage you to push students to dig deep to connect the ideas from the video to their previous learning. Great job with this thinking, it would work wonderfully in the classroom.