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Here are informational resources if you've ever wanted classroom teaching activities about American Indians beyond the Thanksgiving holiday. Also included are resources that will get you started if you need to research the history of American Indian Education or best teaching practices addressing American Indian learners. Resources include books, magazines, articles, bibliographies, maps, etc. Although often times there is overlap, these resources are organized in four categories:

Teaching About American Indians
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy for American Indian Learners
Researching American Indian Education
Other Resources for Classroom Teachers

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Teaching About American Indians:

Native Peoples Magazine - The magazine provides information on Native people as they live their culture today. The magazine is dedicated to the sensitive portrayal of the arts and life ways of the Native peoples of the Americas. Curriculum guides are also available to provide cultural education, role models, and positive direction and self-esteem for American Indian students and students learning about American Indians. The lesson plans, designed for middle and secondary school students, are based on the Constructivist model of education, which supports active, social, and creative learning. The lessons engage students in culturally relevant and community-based activities, such as Service Learning. Authentic assessment procedures, such as the use of rubrics, also support this type of learning mode.

Native Peoples Magazine
Media Concepts Group, Inc.
5333 North Seventh Street, Suite C-224
Phoenix, AZ 85014
http://www.nativepeoples.com/

National Museum of the American Indian - Dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts with museum information and exhibits. NMAI is physically located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between the Air & Space Museum and the U.S. Capitol.

The NMAI website offers a variety of teaching materials, for example the Pre-Visit Guide for Teachers has classroom lessons, developed for grades K-3, 4-6, and 7-10 according to the National Standards for Social Studies, and is designed to prepare students for their tours. All teaching materials can be downloaded from the website in an Adobe Acrobat file.

http://www.AmericanIndian.si.edu

Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World - A text written by Emory Dean Keoke and Kay Marie Porterfield provides A to Z entries of the many donated gifts made by American Indian peoples from the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America to the world's common fund of knowledge in the areas of agriculture, science and technology, medicine, transportation, architecture, psychology, military strategies, government, and language.

ISBN 0-816660-4052-4

Order from: Facts on File, Inc., 132 west 31st Street, New York, NY 10001

Website at: http://www.factsonfile.com

Native Peoples of North America - The Cambridge Library provides an overview of on-line sources of information for kids
http://www.ci.cambridge.ma.us/~CPL/kids/nativepeoples.html


Culturally Responsive Pedagogy for American Indian Learners:
ERIC Document System -The majority of information with a research base can be found in the ERIC documents system maintained by the U.S. Department of Education. There are a variety of ways to access these documents. You can go to www.eric.ed.gov and then search by document title, author or number.

The quickest way to access the following four documents is to click on or copy the following URL:

http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true & ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=Demmert& ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0= au& _pageLabel=ERICSearchResult& newSearch=true& rnd=1143554353620& searchtype=basic

The Influences of Culture on Learning and Assessment among Native American Students The purpose of this article is to raise issues concerning the influences of culture on assessments of Native American students. The nature and extent of the problem is portrayed by citing information from national data sources on the achievement of Native American students. Cultural aspects of assessment and principles of assessment are discussed, using personal experiences to encourage others to reflect on cultural aspects of assessment.

American Indian and Alaska Native Early Childhood Health, Development, and Education Assessment Research. ERIC Digest
This digest reports on the very limited research that has focused specifically on early childhood issues in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) health, development, and education. Extant research focuses primarily on infant mortality, birth weight and growth, obesity, and hearing and speech. Beginning in 1985, a longitudinal study called the Flower of Two Soils investigated intellectual development, mental health, and academic achievement among young Native children.

Blueprints for Indian Education: Languages and Cultures. ERIC Digest
Reports from the Indian Nations At Risk Task Force and the White House Conference on Indian Education identify as a national priority the need to retain American Indian and Alaska Native languages both as central elements in Native cultures and as national resources. A personal narrative of an Alaska Native man who grew up in the 1930s shows the importance of his native language to his cultural upbringing, and the gradual decline of native language use across the generations of his family. A contributing factor to generational language loss was the efforts of American schools to assimilate Native children, which included punishing children for speaking their traditional language. Recent findings show that learning languages in addition to English can enhance academic performance and that developing a strong language and cultural base is strongly and positively related to high academic achievement.

A Review of the Research Literature on the Influences of Culturally Based Education on the Academic Performance of native Students. Final Paper
There is a widespread, firm belief among Native American communities (American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians) and among professional Native educators that meaningful educational experiences require an appropriate language and cultural context. From their perspective, such context supports the traditions, knowledge, and language(s) of the community as a starting place for learning new knowledge. This review collects, reports on, and critically analyzes the research literature to determine whether a culturally based education (CBE) curriculum improves the school performance of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students.

The following three papers can be found either by copying and pasting the address below:
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true& ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=tippeconnic& ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=au& _pageLabel=ERICSearchResult&n ewSearch=true& rnd=1143555304824& searchtype=basic

Research To Support Improved Practice in Indian Education
In recent years, various task forces and studies, including the White House Conference on Indian Education, have established that research on Indian education, history, and culture must consider the Native perspective and involve Native researchers. Improving Indian education depends upon good research. Aspects of Indigenous education and community life that need study include: the teaching-learning relationship between Native students and teachers and how a good Native teacher can enhance that relationship; how to attract and retain effective principals or leadership teams in order to maintain stability for planning and implementing improvements; school collaborations with nearby colleges, including distance learning and culturally appropriate programs; how agency workers serving youth and families can collaborate more fully in creating conditions for educational success; developing systems to help students with the transition from one phase of schooling to the next; expunging stereotypes about Native peoples from curricula and teacher education programs; broadening Native education research beyond the reservation context; how Native Americans can educate America and the rest of the world about the unique Native political status; building coalitions between Native Americans and Indigenous people from other countries; educational effects of recent tribal economic development programs such as gambling operations; how to make more connections between schooling and daily life, consistent with the holistic nature of Native worldviews; and building coalitions for research and development among tribal governments, federal agencies, colleges, and the private sector.

Next Steps: Research and Practice to Advance Indian Education
Written entirely by Native authors, this book addresses some critical issues in the education of American Indian and Alaska Native students. Intended for college classrooms, it aims to fill a void in the literature and textbooks used in multicultural and teacher education programs. The book has four sections: the past and present foundations of Indian education; curriculum issues, thoughts, and practice; the college and university experience; and next steps (research to support improved practice).

Issues in the Education of American Indian and Alaska Native Students with Disabilities. ERIC Digest
Over 10 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students in public schools and more than 18 percent of AI/AN students in Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal schools are eligible for or placed in special education programs. This digest addresses four selected issues in the education of AI/AN students with disabilities.

The Journal of American Indian Education is a peer reviewed scholarly journal, which publishes papers specifically related to the education of American Indians and Alaska Natives. The JAIE is located at the Arizona State University's Center for Indian Education in Tempe, AZ.

Journal of American Indian Education
Center for Indian Education
Arizona State University
Box 871311
Tempe, AZ 85287-1311
http://jaie.asu.edu/

Native American in Basal Reading Texts: Are There Enough?
http://jaie.asu.edu/v26/V26S1nat.htm

Classroom Learning Environments
http://jaie.asu.edu/v26/V26S1cla.htm

Native American Education
http://jupiter.lang.osaka-u.ac.jp/~krkvls/edu.html

Cradleboard Teaching's Partnering Program
Cradleboard Teaching Project's signature Partnering Program includes a partnership between an indigenous class and a non-indigenous class of the same age. Together, the children learn about themselves and their partner class, while also studying Nihewan core curriculum in Science, History, Music, Geography and Social Studies, as seen through an indigenous perspective. This site also provides a great link to tribal websites for tribes, tribal colleges and other resources.
http://www.cradleboard.org/

American Indian Content Standards
The American Indian content standards were developed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs through their Goals 2000 effort to help schools in the development of local standards with an emphasis on American Indian/Alaska Native learners. The Indian standards can also be used to help non-Indian learners and schools understand the contributions of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the Americas.
http://www.ldoe.org/cetia/aics.htm

Center for Educational Technology in Indian America
The Center for Educational Technology in Indian America builds on the foundation of the Four Directions project. The Center represents a consortium of schools, agencies, universities, professional associations, museums and private sector organizations committed to improving learning opportunities for American Indian students through the use of technology.
http://www.ldoe.org/cetia/resource.htm


Researching American Indian Education:
Journal of American Indian Education
Special issues from the Journal of American Indian Education dedicated to "the wisdom and perspectives of recognized Native and non-Native elder leaders and scholars in the field of American Indian Education". Excellent resource for university students writing papers on American Indian Education.
http://jaie.asu.edu/abstracts/abs1999.htm

IndianEduResearch.Net - Tools for Educational Research and Development
The ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools (ERIC/CRESS) has created this site as a special project to assist individuals and organizations engaged in research and development to better understand and improve education for American Indian and Alaska Native children and adults. ERIC/CRESS is hosted by AEL, Inc. (Charleston, WV).
http://www.indianeduresearch.net/index.htm


Other Resources:
Planet Youth - The Native American Youth Connection
http://www.hud.gov/offices/pih/ih/codetalk/planet/index.html

Planet Youth connects American Indian, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian youth to people, cultural resources and fun using the internet. Parents, researchers, and teachers will find the site an important and useful resource for providing opportunities for Native and non-Native youth and their families with access to a base of knowledge about American Indian history, facts and culture. HUD's Office of Native American Programs works with tribes and Native organizations to make sure affordable housing is available to Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiian families. The Office of Native American Programs sponsors Planet Youth.

The Teacher's Corner also includes information on NASA programs and opportunities, such as, Special Exhibit Satellites and Data
http://www.imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/teachers_corner.html

NASA Quest offers a wide range of FREE online tools and resources for teachers, students, parents and others including Web and print lesson plans, educator guides at www.quest.arc.nasa.gov/index.html

A NASA project dedicated to encouraging people to become involved in science and engineering, particularly building robots. Visit this website to learn about robotics competitions and how to get ...

http://www.robotics.nasa.gov










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