Unit 1, Lesson L:

How are Native Indians represented in

recent history?
Enduring
Understanding:
Content Aim:
NYS Standard:

Agenda:

Assessment:

Larry Cerretani
Social Studies Unit #1: Indigenous Inhabitants of NYS

When society and the media portray different cultures, the representations are not always accurate.
Students will be able to write a summary/reflection, citing specific evidence from our in-class
exploration or examples from their own lives, that explain how Native Indian tribes are not always
represented in positive or accurate ways and to reflect on this.
New York City Department of Education K-8 Social Studies Scope and Sequence:
Standard 4.2: Native American Groups and the Environment (4.2a, 4.2b and 4.2c)
1. Connection/T.P.: Over the past few weeks, we looked deeply into specific tribes and learned
about their unique cultures. Today, were going to take an even closer look at how society can
sometimes represent Native Indians in stereotypical ways. (1 minute)
2. Warm Up Activity: Have students draw a picture of a Native Indian. The purpose of this
activity is to make the directions very vague and to show students how they can still
sometimes essentialize/stereotype Native Indians. The truth behind this activity is that there
isnt one depiction of what a Native Indian looks like; it would really depend on the tribe, and
even that can vary slightly. This notion should relate back to the TP that shows how we can
still essentialize/stereotype Native Indians and we need to think about breaking down these
overarching associations or understandings that we might have. Students will then turn and
talk and share their drawings and any supplemental information to a peer. (8 minutes)
3. Inquiry-Based Activity: Teacher will project the depictions of Representations of Native
Indians document onto the Smart Board. Teacher will model a reflective and critical analysis
of the images on the first page. Students may engage in responsive conversation but the
purpose of this modeling experience would be to show students how society and the media can
misrepresent and/or essentialize/stereotype Native Indians. Each table will have copies of the
remaining images and amongst their group members, will discuss the images and provide a
reflective and critical analysis for the images. Teacher will circulate around the room and
support students when needed. (15 minutes)
4. Share: We will come together as a whole-class and teacher will call on students to share their
observations and reflective and critical analysis they identified for specific images. (4 minutes)
5. Individual Work: Students will write a personal reflection where they reflect on their
analyses and talk through their observations about how Native Indians can be misrepresented
and/or essentialized/stereotyped by society and the media. Students will be encouraged to
include the danger this can cause and should relate back to their drawings they completed in
the beginning of this lesson. Students will write their reflections in their NYSIN and should
glue their Native Indian drawing next to their reflection. Teacher will collect NYSIN at the
end of the lesson. (15 minutes)
Informal: Teacher will circulate around the room and listen in on student conversations during
turn and talks and will formatively assess student learning based off information that students
share during whole-class conversations.
Formal: Teacher will collect each students written summary and reflection and formatively
assess their understanding of how certain representations of Native Indians can be very inaccurate
and gauge their empathetic understanding of how problematic this can be.

Vocabulary
Representations

Society/Media

In/accurate

Materials

Representations of Native Indians document [to be projected onto the Smart Board]

Essentialize/Stereotype