Digital Promise Signature Workspace

English: Understanding Contemporary First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Voices

This workspace, created by Lynn Thomas, features her thinking through the most important factors to support her students when planning for a new course.

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This course explores the themes, forms, and stylistic elements of a variety of literary, informational, graphic, oral, cultural, and media text forms emerging from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures in Canada, and also examines the perspectives and influence of texts that relate to those cultures. In order to fully understand contemporary text forms and their themes of identity, relationship, and self-determination, sovereignty, or self-governance, students will analyze the changing use of text forms by Indigenous authors/ creators from various periods and cultures in expressing ideas related to these themes.

Over the duration of the course, students will create various oral, written, and media texts to further explore their own ideas and to solidify their understanding with a focus on the development of literacy, communication, and critical and creative thinking skills necessary for success in academic and daily life. Check out this wakelet for more resources!

Lynn Thomas is a secondary school English teacher at Dunnville Secondary School in Dunnville, Ontario. Lynn writes a blog at www.wordsgrow.com covering her many interests and experiences in education including making learning relevant and supportive by teaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals, incorporating mental health and wellness, collaborating globally, and using educational technology to increase accessibility and inclusivity.

Lynn is also a members of Digital Promise's HP Teaching Fellows Program through its Reinvent the Classroom Initiative. Learn more about the HP Fellows here.

My factors 

Literacy 7-12

Students build knowledge from their experiences both in and out of school.

Literacy 7-12

Composition is the expression of ideas through writing.

Literacy 7-12

Critical Literacy is the ability to identify purposes, motives, and potential biases of a particular text to enhance overall comprehension and critical thinking.

Literacy 7-12

Motivation is the desire and energy that guides behavior.

Literacy 7-12

The trauma that comes from experiencing adversity in childhood releases stress hormones that can lead to changes in the body and brain.

strategies

Products/tasks

reflection/metacognition

Reflect on Learning
Literacy 7-12

Student reflection on learning, particularly when done collaboratively, is critical for moving knowledge of content and strategies into Long-term Memory.