American Indian Cultures
I.
Purpose
 The purpose of today’s lesson is to build students’ knowledge
on the American Indian tribes. The focus of today’s lesson is
to review and build on students’ prior knowledge of the
three American Indian tribes through a smart board activity
and a picture walk activity.
 SOL 2.2 The student will compare the lives and contributions of
three American Indian cultures of the past and present, with
emphasis on the Powhatan of the Eastern Woodlands, the Lakota
of the Plains, and the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest.
II.
III.
Objectives:
 Given questions about the American Indian tribes, the
students will answer the questions with 90% accuracy.
 Given the Smart board application, Native Americans, the
students will be able to answer questions verbally about the
tribes’ homes, regions, food, and clothing with 90% accuracy.
 Given five pictures of the American Indian Tribes and a
graphic organizer, the students will be able to name and
describe the different pictures of the tribes using the
appropriate vocabulary related to the American Indians in a
complete sentence.(Vocabulary includes: desert, pottery,
buffalo, Pueblo, Lakota, Powhatan, fish, horse, head dress,
clay, cotton clothes, warrior, feathers, Southwest Region,
Eastern Woodlands, the Plains, adobe, longhouses, teepees)
Procedure:
a. Introduction
 The teacher will ask the students to come to the carpet.
 The teacher will introduce the lesson in whole group by
asking the students to name one of the three tribes
(Pueblo, Lakota, or Powhatan). The teacher will write that
tribe on the board. Then, the teacher will ask the
students questions like:
o Where was this tribe located? (Eastern
Woodlands, The Plains, or Southwest Region)
o What types of houses did this tribe live in? (adobe,
teepee, or longhouses)
o What types of animals did this tribe hunt? (deer,
buffalo)
o What types of clothing did this tribe wear?
(cotton clothes, head dresses, feather)
o The teacher will write the students’ answers on
the board.
 The teacher will ask the students to return to their
desks.
b. Development
 The teacher will pass out the graphic organizers to the
students.
 The teacher will show the students the pictures placed
around the room and announce that the students will be
participating in a “picture walk”.
 The teacher will model for the students what to do when
they walk up to a picture. The students will write down
what tribe they think the picture is on the graphic
organizer under photo 1 and then describe why they know
it is that tribe using the appropriate vocabulary and in a
complete sentence.
 The teacher will call the students to walk around to take
a look at the pictures in groups.
 The students will look at each picture for four minutes
(timer set by the teacher) and then move to the next
four pictures for four minutes apiece.
 The teacher will ask the students to return to their
desks.
 The teacher will introduce the Smart board Activity by
modeling how to complete one question on the smart
board.
 The teacher will call several students (5) to come up to
the smart board and drag the correct answer to the
question in the box. The teacher will discuss each
question and answer with the students.
 For strugglers: For the students who struggle, I will walk
around the room with them and remind them of some of
the vocabulary words we went over before the picture
walk.
IV.
V.
 For advanced students: For the advanced students, I will
allow them to write more than a sentence describing the
Indian Tribe. I will allow them to draw a picture of that
tribe if time allows.
c. Summary
 To summarize the activity, the teacher will ask the
following questions:
o What tribe lived in the Eastern Woodlands?
(Powhatan) What kinds of houses did they live in?
(Longhouses) What kind of food did they eat?
(fish, deer) What else can you tell me about the
Powhatan Indians? (They lived near the water,
hunted deer)
o What tribe lived in the Southwest Region? (Pueblo)
What kinds of houses did they live in? (adobe)
What else can you tell me about the Pueblo
Indians? (made pottery, lived in the desert, wore
cotton clothing)
o What tribe lived in the Plains? (Lakota) What kinds
of houses did they live in? (Teepees) What else can
you tell me about the Lakota Indians? (They rode
on horses, warriors, wore head dresses)
Materials
 White board
 Dry erase markers
 5 pictures of the American Indian tribes
 Graphic organizers
 Pencils
 Smart board activity (Native Americans)
 Smart board
Evaluation A
 To assess students’ knowledge of the skills taught, I will
ask questions during the whole group activity on the
carpet regarding the tribes’ location, clothing, houses,
etc.
 To assess students’ knowledge of the skills taught, I will
integrate an American Indian Smart board activity for
the students to answer questions. The students will come
VI.
to the board one by one to answer questions regarding
the tribes.
 To assess students’ knowledge of the skills taught, I will
have the students take a picture walk around the room,
identifying which tribe is shown in the picture and
explaining why or how they know it is that tribe.
Evaluation B
 Did the students meet your objectives? How do you
know?
o The students did meet my objectives for this lesson.
Since this was a review lesson, I asked questions
about the American Indians for the introduction part
of the lesson. For my objective, I said that the
students needed to answer these questions with 90%
accuracy. The students were able to successfully
answer all of the questions with about 95% accuracy.
o The students met my second objective with the Smart
board activity. In my objective, I said that the
students needed to answer the smart board questions
with 90% accuracy. The students who were able to
come up to the smart board and pick their answers
completed the activity with about 95% accuracy.
o The students met my objective regarding the picture
walk and graphic organizer activity. There were a
select few students who did not meet my objective.
Some of these students did not write in a complete
sentence and some did not use the appropriate
vocabulary. However, the majority of the class did
meet my expectations and objectives.
 Did your lesson accommodate/address the needs of all
your learners?
o I feel as though my lesson did accommodate the needs
of all my learners. For the students who struggled, I
walked with them around the picture walk. If these
students had trouble remembering some of the
characteristics of that tribe, I would help them by
pointing at the picture and asking them what they saw
in the background, what clothing they saw, etc.
o For the advanced students, I allowed them to draw a
picture that corresponded with that tribe, if the time
allowed. I also allowed them to write more than one
sentence on that tribe.
 What were the strengths of the lesson
o I believe there were several strengths to my lesson. I
thought the students were extremely engaged in the
picture walk, and excited to complete the activity! I
feel as though this reading activity helped with
behavior because the students were walking around
the classroom, looking at the pictures, and using
critical thinking to determine which tribe was
represented in each picture. I thought the technology
integration was a strength of the lesson. The students
LOVE the smart board. Because of their eagerness to
use the smart board, all students were attentive to
the lesson and participating in the activity!
 What were the weaknesses?
o The biggest weakness to my lesson was the
introduction, I believe. It was a review lesson, so I did
not really know how to “hook” the students into the
lesson. However, the students did participate and
were very excited to review the American Indians.
o A second weakness of the lesson was the Smart board
activity. Because only one student could answer a
question at a time, not all students were able to
participate (meaning going to the smart board and
picking an answer)
 How would you change the lesson if you could teach it
again?
o If I could teach the lesson again, I would definitely
alter the introduction. A colleague of mine taught her
lesson on the same SOL and introduced a fun song to
the students about the American Indians. If I were
to teach it again, I would integrate something like this
into the lesson to really capture the students’
attention on the topic!