Ubd Unit Indian Boarding Schools.pdf - Richmond Community Schools

Instructional Activities/Sequence:
Ask students to respond in their journals to the following :
Do all students feel accepted and respected by one another despite differences in tradition, language,
and culture that may be present? Pair and Share their responses
Explain that you are going to read them a book about a Native American boy named Young Bull who
is forced to go to a school where his differences are not accepted or respected. Write the word
assimilate on the board and explain the meaning of forced assimilation.
Show students the cover of Cheyenne Again by Eve Bunting and ask them what they think they title
means.
Read the book aloud to students, stopping to share your thinking aloud and ask for students thinking.
Some questions may include, but are not limited to:
‣ Why did Young Bull’s father agree to send him to the school?
‣ How does the sleeping room compare to how he sleeps at home?
‣ What does it mean when on page 13, “You have lost nothing of value”?
‣ Why does the sign say “Speak English”? Is it like that at our school?
‣ What does it mean on page 27, “Don’t let us take your memories”?
‣ What do you think about the ending? What is happening?
‣ Discuss with students to what extent Young Bull’s identity was taken from him. In what
ways? Do students who move to America now have to lose part of their cultural identity like
Young Bull did?
Explain to students that some in the Native American culture do not like the ending of this book
because it has an imaginary ending to a serious topic. What would have been a better ending?
Ask students Why they think the boarding school
Ask students to rewrite a more realistic ending to Young Bull’s story. It does not have to be a happy
ending, though it can be. It just has to be more realistic than the one given by Eve Bunting.
Day 2
Explain to students that open minded portrait allows us to think more deeply about a character and
they let us reflect on story events from the character’s viewpoint.
Tell students that open minded portraits have two parts, the face of the character is drawn on the first
page, and the mind of the character is explored throughout several pages that are placed behind the
first page.
After the class has brainstormed different ideas, explain the different steps involved when doing an
open minded portrait.
But first, ask students to write their ideas on paper and look them over to make sure that they are on
the right track.
Make a portrait of the character. Students draw and color a large portrait of the head and neck of a
character in a book they are reading.
Assemble the open-minded portrait. Students cut out the character’s portrait and trace around the
characters head on several more sheets of paper. Students include several “mind” pages to show
what the character is thinking at important points in the story. Next, they cut out the “mind” pages
and place them in order. The portrait goes on top, and the “mind” pages go behind it. They then
attach the portrait and the “mind” pages with a staple to a sheet of heavy construction paper; it is
important to place the staple at the top of the portrait so that there will be space to write and draw on
the “mind” pages.
Students will have a portrait page and on the backside a “mind” page
To differentiate, students could add additional “mind” pages or create on Powerpoint a digital openminded
portrait with the first slide as the portrait and the additional slides as the “mind” slides.
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