Urban First Nations 12

One of the consistent findings in education is that Aboriginal kids frequent alternate programs; in fact, across B.C. over half (52%) of the students in these programs have First Nations ancestry (Dec 2010). In Coquitlam district that figure is currently 21%. There is much hypothesizing as to the reasons why, but I’ll leave that to the experts. What I’d like to talk about is what we tried to do at our alternate secondary school to bring First Nations culture to the kids.

Most of the students at CABE need credits to complete their Dogwood, so early on we decided to make whatever we did something they could receive credit for.  Also, we wanted to provide a grade 12 course, as it is more difficult to offer senior electives in an alternate environment where the student population is in flux. This led us to locally-developed curriculum. Being situated within the tri-cities and close to Vancouver, our students are a diverse group. Many do not know their ancestry or their stories are lacking. As adolescents they are bombarded with urban culture and lack traditional role models. Given all of this, we decided to create a course for urban Aboriginal youth.

Myself and Kirk Gummow, another Aboriginal resource teacher, created the course with the help of our district staff development coordinator. Weaving traditional teachings with urban experiences, we based our learning outcomes on the Medicine Wheel and called it Urban First Nations 12: Expressing Your Truth. Our objective was for the student to explore/reflect and gain knowledge of self through intellectual engagement with text (mind), physical expression (body), spiritual understanding and expression (spirit), and emotional reflection and expression (emotion). We simplified the learning outcomes to these few:

Students will be able to…

·        Read, evaluate, and discuss a contemporary novel written by a First Nations author

·        Discuss the concept of identity and difference as it relates to the text and to self

·        Personally respond to the text; articulate ways in which they do or do not relate to characters, themes, or experiences in the story

·        Share personal thoughts and experiences through discussion and journaling that go beyond the text with respect to the conflict between identity and culture

·        Engage in traditional Aboriginal and/or urban contemporary forms of physical pursuits

·        Learn and practice relaxation and stress management through physical activity

·        Create or perform a work of art, inspired by an Aboriginal experience, that expresses the student’s own ideas, thoughts, or feelings through a personal contemporary urban lens

·        Explain how art reflects identity

·        Create and deliver an oral presentation that reveals knowledge of contemporary First Nations issues and modes of artistic expression such as music videos, film, text, or spoken word

·        Understand how understanding and practice of Medicine Wheel teachings can lead to a healthy lifestyle

We offered experiences such as mask-making, writing hip-hop, cedar paddle-making, carving, painting, and canoeing, kept the assignments to a minimum, and provided lots of choice and adaptations. Using the current model of project-based learning, the student became the object of their project.

These were the assignments:

·        Learning Log: mode of choice (reveals personal engagement with learning outcomes)

·        Visual Art (show and tell about the process)

·        Representation of Personal Journey Through Movement (show and tell about the process)

·        Oral Presentation (based on a film or music video of choice. Students must have engaged with this work during the course)

On reflection, we would, of course, change many things as teachers do. We had hoped to make the course self-paced, but realized that the students needed weekly meetings with us--connections are so important--as is the oral component. The one thing we would not change is to offer Sherman Alexie’s True Diary of a Part-Time Indian—everyone loves that book and can find something in it to relate to.  Then back it up with Smoke Signals and Reel Injun if you can.

We started with about 12 interested students and ended four months later by passing 3 of them. The great thing here was that two of those three students used our course to graduate. Here are their comments:

This course makes the week more bearable. I love the hands on activities and the art of the course. I love that we get to read and write in journals and when we’re all together I feel like (on a good day) we’re connected like a family.

This course taught me appreciation of my culture. It’s about taking pride in who I am—what we stand for. We get into new things you might have a talent for…like Curtis Clearsky. I learned a new way of writing—to write as fast as my thoughts can think. And, carving gave me something to be proud of at the end of the day.

Pride, self-esteem, honouring our self and where we come from … isn’t that what it’s really all about?