See Think Wonder

After the students worked the "chalk talk" about how Native American Indians may feel the US discriminated against them, we had a great discussion about Native Americans and their mistreatment through time. Although there were a lot of questions and ah-ha's, they did seem to have some background knowledge on this subject and loved hearing the information I shared!


I gave them the book Chief Joseph before we began reading it in our group and asked them to fill out the See Think Wonder graphic organizer without knowing anything about the book other than looking at the illustrations.

SEE                                                               THINK
borders and states                                       Native Americans will have to leave
white mean men                                            A general will force the NA out of their land
teepees and Indians                                       NA will probably die
poor conditions                                              White people will build on NA land
mountain peopple and their families

WONDER
Why are were white people always so mean to people who did't look like them?
Why did white people treat natives so bad?
Why did NA have such curly long hair?

What I learned is that background knowledge is SO important!  These guys would have checked out within the 1st couple of pages had we not spent time the day before completing the chalk talk! I have always been very aware of diversity in the classroom and how it affects learning and this is a perfect example of why it's just good teaching to level the playing field for all when presenting new material!