Jessica Raymer ~ INFO 237 ~ Shelly Buchanan ~ Cultural Exploration Text Set
Audience (Grade Level): 8th or 9th grade (8th-12th would be appropriate for public school)
Anchor Text: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Purpose for Set: The purpose of this text set is to explore the many facets of identity, particularly as it relates to Native Americans, and to tease out common myths related to culture and the popular perception of native peoples.
Explanation: As mentioned above, the purpose of this set is to examine the elements of identity, specifically Native American identity. The aim is also to seek what it means to belong, or to be a part of a particular group or tribe. The goal is to extricate common myths related to popular perception of native people, and analyze how they have been expressed over time throughout literature, poetry, film, and through other forms of popular culture. This greater purpose might lead to the following Essential Questions:
#1. What does it mean to belong, to be a part of a tribe? Can you be a part of more than one group or tribe?
#2. How do various myths or misconceptions related to native peoples work to help or hurt their individual, tribal, or collective identities?
#3. How is identity constructed? In what ways are the particulars of identity internal or personal, and in what ways are they external and/or influenced by greater society?
#4. Where do we see misconceptions or misrepresentations of native culture today? (Think: sports teams, the rewriting of American history, TV & film etc.)
#5. What can be done to fight these misconceptions? What action can be taken to promote layered and diverse forms of identity?
As for text accessibility, the anchor text is only about 240 pages long. Its Lexile Measure is 600L. It’s roughly at the 4th or 5th grade reading level. The novel is easily accessible to readers, but should be limited to upper grades due to the intensity and complexity of the content. The two articles and poem are reasonably accessible as well, but can be read aloud by teachers to ensure the content is absorbed. Teachers can check for understanding, ask essential or guiding questions, or clarify more opaque concepts. The poem, in particular, is abstract and is best taught with teacher guidance. Students can be provided transcripts or printouts of each text to annotate, and the initial time with the text before it is discussed or put to use can serve to provide students with the time they need to think deeply, abstractly, or critically on what is being read. Hearing the ideas of their peers can help to further their own thinking. Similarly, the non-fiction book, only 224 pages, is of a higher reading level. However, it is suggested that students only be asked to discern and contemplate the information contained in one chapter, not the whole book. They could potentially discuss, analyze, and evaluate the chapter in groups to encourage collaborative sharing and ensure mutual understanding before they present key information to the rest of the class. Teacher input can work to clarify what is shared, as well as provide additional information of interest to serve as support to student findings.
Anchor Text: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Purpose for Set: The purpose of this text set is to explore the many facets of identity, particularly as it relates to Native Americans, and to tease out common myths related to culture and the popular perception of native peoples.
Explanation: As mentioned above, the purpose of this set is to examine the elements of identity, specifically Native American identity. The aim is also to seek what it means to belong, or to be a part of a particular group or tribe. The goal is to extricate common myths related to popular perception of native people, and analyze how they have been expressed over time throughout literature, poetry, film, and through other forms of popular culture. This greater purpose might lead to the following Essential Questions:
#1. What does it mean to belong, to be a part of a tribe? Can you be a part of more than one group or tribe?
#2. How do various myths or misconceptions related to native peoples work to help or hurt their individual, tribal, or collective identities?
#3. How is identity constructed? In what ways are the particulars of identity internal or personal, and in what ways are they external and/or influenced by greater society?
#4. Where do we see misconceptions or misrepresentations of native culture today? (Think: sports teams, the rewriting of American history, TV & film etc.)
#5. What can be done to fight these misconceptions? What action can be taken to promote layered and diverse forms of identity?
As for text accessibility, the anchor text is only about 240 pages long. Its Lexile Measure is 600L. It’s roughly at the 4th or 5th grade reading level. The novel is easily accessible to readers, but should be limited to upper grades due to the intensity and complexity of the content. The two articles and poem are reasonably accessible as well, but can be read aloud by teachers to ensure the content is absorbed. Teachers can check for understanding, ask essential or guiding questions, or clarify more opaque concepts. The poem, in particular, is abstract and is best taught with teacher guidance. Students can be provided transcripts or printouts of each text to annotate, and the initial time with the text before it is discussed or put to use can serve to provide students with the time they need to think deeply, abstractly, or critically on what is being read. Hearing the ideas of their peers can help to further their own thinking. Similarly, the non-fiction book, only 224 pages, is of a higher reading level. However, it is suggested that students only be asked to discern and contemplate the information contained in one chapter, not the whole book. They could potentially discuss, analyze, and evaluate the chapter in groups to encourage collaborative sharing and ensure mutual understanding before they present key information to the rest of the class. Teacher input can work to clarify what is shared, as well as provide additional information of interest to serve as support to student findings.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, is a young adult novel that was published in 2007 about a young Spokane Indian that has ambitions of becoming a cartoonist and escaping the confines of his reservation life. One day, he decides to take fate into his own hands by transferring from the local school on the reservation to the all-white high school in town. Based on the author’s own experiences, this book (accompanied by a delightful selection of drawings) chronicles the coming-of-age adolescence of Arnold Spirit, otherwise known as Junior. Rife with humor as well as trauma, this book is the quintessential cultural YA narrative. It is a story where one boy endeavors to question and resist the life he has always felt fated to and trapped within. And ultimately, he examines the definitive question of what it means to belong and be a part of a tribe.
Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Bloods is an article written in 2011 by Sherman Alexie. In this article, he describes his experience as a commencement speaker at a Seattle alternative high school where many students have survived and overcome depression, attempted suicide, gang violence, sexual and physical abuse, neglectful parents, poverty, racism, and learning disabilities in order to graduate. These students had also read Alexie’s novel: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which touches on many of the same subjects and themes in the book. Alexie discusses the fact that he experienced some of the same struggles that many of these students suffered. He describes the ceremony as being both beautiful and painful, and yet not unique, as he has visited many such high schools during his career. Ultimately, Sherman Alexie addresses some of the controversy surrounding the public perception of his book, the views regarding its appropriateness for young readers, and the accusation that writings such as his are somehow depraved, hideously distorted, or somehow traumatic for young readers. |
This is an article where Sherman Alexie discusses how his award-winning career as a writer almost didn’t happen. It wasn’t until he had a chance encounter with a poem by Adrian C. Louis that he felt drawn to put pen to paper. Without this poem, Alexie surmises that we would have been a high school English teacher that coached basketball, which would perpetuate a completely different path from the one he chose. He goes on to discuss that the poem helped him to comprehend the truly communicative power of language, which set the course for the rest of his life. |
Elegy for the Forgotten Oldsmobile is a poem by Adrian C. Louis that inspired Sherman Alexie to become a writer. Specifically, he speaks of the line, “Oh Uncle Adrian, I’m in the reservation of my mind.” There is so much to be interpreted here. On the one hand, the concept of the ‘reservation of the mind’ implies that there are boarders that we choose not to cross, that are perhaps inflicted upon us. The reservation he speaks of may represent the mental obstacles holding one back, the complicated sense of being bound to a place like a prison, the borders erected by history, or the sensation of being confined to a place without hope. This poem is rich with similar imagery that would be influential in any K-12 classroom or university lecture hall. |
“All The Real Indians Died Off” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker, is a non-fiction text that pulls apart the various myths surrounding Native Americans. For example, the first myth is that ‘all the real Indians died off.’ It goes on to various others, such as the myth that ‘Columbus discovered America,’ or that ‘Indians were savage and warlike.’ The text covers twenty-one myths, one per chapter. Each section examining these delusions in detail, taking a closer look at common assumptions that have left people misinformed for generations. The book takes a long look at how these myths evolved, how they were drawn from history, how they endured as long-held ‘truths’ for so long. Readers are shown how the myths themselves were rooted in the fears and prejudice of European settlers and in larger political agendas of a settler-state. And ultimately, the text challenges readers to examine what they have already been taught about Native American history and contemplate its authenticity. |
Smoke Signals is a movie directed by Chris Eyre, with a screenplay written by Sherman Alexie. It was a distinguished winner at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s the story of Victor and Thomas, who lived their entire young lives in a small town and seem to have nothing in common. However, when Victor is unexpectedly called away, it is Thomas that supplies the money for the journey. The only catch is that Victor must agree to take Thomas along with him. It’s a story based on a couple of short stories from Sherman Alexie’s collection, The Long Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. It’s the first feature film made by a Native American crew and creative team, and concerns two young Native American men and their rather divergent memories of the past. |
Reel Injun is a documentary by Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, and Jeremiah Hayes. It’s an insightful and stimulating look at Hollywood’s depiction of Native Americans. Cree filmmaker, Neil Diamond travels through the US heartland, to the Black Hills and Monument Valley. He unpacks the myth of the movie “injun” and how this film trope has worked to influence the misunderstanding of natives and their cultures. It contains clips from hundreds of classic and contemporary films and has proved to be quite remarkably researched. And the film does wonders in helping the viewer to understand the racial politics running rampant in Hollywood, while endeavoring to properly demonstrate the creative vitality of native people yesterday, today, and tomorrow. |