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Defining US: The American Experience
FCPS Teaching American History Grant
LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE
Subject: Native Americans: Five Culture Groups
Grade: 6th grade, regular and ESOL
Prepared by: Robin Highberg, ESOL, Herndon Elementary
School: Herndon Elementary
Title or Topic: Learning about Native Americans through Artifact Analysis and Artwork
Instructional Time: Five class periods, each approximately one hour in length.
PART I.-CONTEXT
1. Essential Learning:
Students will learn how a Native American’s environment (including the geographic region where they
lived) influenced their food, clothing, shelter, and the overall culture of a tribe.
2. Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL):
USI.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis, including the ability to
a) identify and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding
of events and life in United States history to 1877;
b) make connections between the past and the present;
USI.3 The student will demonstrate knowledge of how early cultures developed in North America by
a) locating where the American Indians (First Americans) settled, with emphasis on Arctic
(Inuit), Northwest (Kwakiutl), Plains (Sioux), Southwest (Pueblo), and Eastern Woodland
(Iroquois);
b) describing how the American Indians (First Americans) used their environment to obtain
food, clothing, and shelter.
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3. Fairfax County Program of Studies (POS): (Identify by number and descriptor.)
Benchmark 6.2.1: Students conduct research and gather a variety of information for the purpose of
analyzing data and making inferences regarding major historical events.
Benchmark 6.6.2: Students identify the relationship between the location of various groups of humans
and exploration, migration, and settlement in North America and Africa, and factors that influenced
them.
Benchmark 6.7.1: Students examine the influence of major geographic features on the cultural
development and growth of the United States.
4. National History Standard (Historical Thinking Standard)
2. Historical comprehension
3. Historical analysis and interpretation
5.
Learning Strategy(s) Objectives:
2. Make Predictions
6. Summarize
7. Group/Classify
6. Connection to TAH grant:
Content: Teaching about five Native American tribes’ cultural differences through geography,
artifacts, and picture analysis.
Pedagogy: Students will learn through the use of primary sources, artifact and picture analysis. They
will also learn multicultural perspectives from the point of view of the Native American.
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PART II.
1. Assessment:
Formative assessments include:

An Environmental Impact Chart on Days One and Two,

A self-assessment on Native American Attributes on Day Three,
Summative assessments include:

A study guide on Native American Attributes on Day Four.

A Picture Analysis worksheet that is done on Day Five.
2. Instructional Strategies:
Day One – Day Two
Opener Refer back to the regions studied in the geography unit that was just completed. Students
should use this as background knowledge for this activity. Show students the picture of “Indian Fishing
Methods, Carolina” from the Influence of Geography on Native Americans Power Point (see attached)
on a projector or as an overhead. Discuss what they see in the picture. Look for basic ideas, i.e. people
fishing, water (river or lake?), how are they fishing (tools used), transportation, man made objects,
landforms, etc. Make a list of what they see on the board.
Teacher Presentation.
Once you have a list, put the Environmental Impact Chart (see attached) on the
overhead for students to see . Categorize their ideas from the board onto this chart. Show them how to
make the connection between the climate and landscape of the region and the way the Native people (in
the picture) live and work.
Student Activities. Separate the students into small, heterogeneous groups. Give each group a different
picture from the Influence of Geography on Native Americans Power Point. Use slides 3-13. Have each
group fill in an Environmental Impact Chart (see attached) for the picture they were given. Remind
students that these pictures show where the Native American tribes that they will be studying lived, and
they should use their prior knowledge to help them.
Once completed, have the groups share with the class what they learned from their pictures. (See the
attached Key to Geographic Regions for correct information on each picture.) Write their findings from
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the Environmental Impact Charts on eight sheets of poster board, labeled: Coastal Plain, Appalachian
Highlands, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, Canadian Shield, Basin and Range, Coastal Range, and
Rocky Mountains. When finished, reflect on the overall findings with the class—what does it tell you
about the Native American tribes that lived in that region? Help students make the connections.
Day Three
Opener. Tell students that they will do a self-assessment to see what they remember from both
yesterday’s activity and the prior study of the different Native Americans groups. Tell students that we
will build on what they already know about Native Americans. Hand out the Native American
Attributes: Self-Assessment chart and have students fill out. (See attached). Collect once they are
done.
Teacher Presentation. Give out maps that show the five Native American Culture groups. Compare this
map with another that shows the geographical regions. Use transparencies of each and put them on top
of one another on an Overhead projector to show which geographic regions are within the five Native
American cultural group areas.
Student Activities. Students should mark their Native American map (with the five culture groups) so it
shows the geographic regions within each culture group. Have them make a key and then color code the
regions, including: Coastal Plain, Appalachian Highlands, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, Basin and
Range, coastal Range, Rocky Mountains, and Canadian Shield. Draw the lines on the overhead and
color them in so they have a master to draw from. Once done, this map should go in their Interactive
Notebooks. They should draw a picture on the facing page in their Interactive notebook as a response to
today’s lesson, i.e. a picture of the Natives in each of the cultural regions showing their houses, clothing
style, environment, etc.
Day Four
Opener. Prior to today’s lesson, review the self-assessments that the students completed yesterday.
Make note of areas students know already and those that need to be spent more time on, and adapt
today’s lesson accordingly. Review what the students learned yesterday about the Native Americans
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and the geographic regions in which they lived. Tell students that today they will look at some of the
things that the Native Americans developed, i.e. crops, toys, food, clothing, etc.
Teacher Presentation. Read aloud from the book The Native Americans Told Us So. This book is a
good introduction to many of the gifts the Indians developed from the Earth. Point out the many
contributions the Native Americans made—and show that they are often things that came from their
environment. Help students make the connection that their contributions to society are often based on
the natural resources and climate of the area where they live, i.e. the geographical regions they just
studied.
Student Activities. Hand out the Native American Attributes Study Guide. Have a selection of books
for the children to read in guided reading groups, including the one just read. They should fill in this
chart as they read. The chart is the basis for their test at the end of this unit. They can also use the
posters that the class made from the Environmental Impact Charts as a resource.
Day Five
Opener. Review what the students have learned about the different Native American tribes. Students
can use their Study Guides. This can be a formative assessment tool, and can help inform future
instruction.
Teacher Presentation. Prior to this class, print up color slides of the attached Power Point Presentation,
Card Sort—Indian Artifacts. Print onto white card stock and laminate. Cut apart the pictures, and
leave the reference information off. Also make posters labeled with each of the five tribes/regions’
names, and put them on the wall. Show the students the Indian Artifact cards. Tell the students that
they will have to match up each of these artifacts with the right tribe. Have posters on the wall—one for
each tribe/region, including: Iroquois/Eastern Woodlands, Sioux/Great Plains, Pueblo/Southwest,
Kwakiutl/Northwest Coast, and Inuit/Arctic .
Choose one Indian Artifact card to use as an example, and show students how to use the Picture
Analysis form to help determine the tribe/region classification. Hand out copies of the form to each
student. They will be deconstructing the photo—taking apart the photo to see what is in the picture. Do
the first one as an example for the class. Give them about two minutes to look at a picture and write
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what they see before you have people share. Once done, review what people listed on their form. Be
sure to have students reconstruct what they saw to figure out what they learned about the tribal people
that live in that region, and then write this information at the bottom of the sheet.
Student Activities. Students will work in heterogeneous groups of three to five. They should be given
2-3 Indian Artifact cards and the same number of Picture Analysis forms (See attached). Make sure they
write everyone’s name on each Picture Analysis form. Students should fill out a Picture Analysis form
for each picture you give them.
First they fill out the form for each picture, and then they should attach the Artifact card to the poster
board with tape (in case it has to be switched later). When everyone is finished, review the posters with
the class and see if everyone agrees with the placement of the Indian Artifact cards. (See attached Key
to Artifacts for Card Sort for correct information.) Ask students what relationships they see between the
artifacts/people/etc. shown in the cards and the geographical information they know about each region.
Help make connections to help them learn.
If time allows, students can continue working on their Study Guide, by working with partners or
individually. They can use the guided reading books or their textbook as a resource to fill in any
missing information when necessary. When Study Guides are completed (today or at a later date), they
will be collected and graded.
3. Materials/Resources to be used:
Laptop with speakers, TV or Projector, Overhead projector, Social Studies textbook, and various guided
reading books (multiple copies of each) on the five Native American tribes/regions.
4. Differentiation:
This lesson utilizes a lot of group work, which enables the teacher to work with students individually or
in small groups as needed. Groupings should be heterogeneous in order to support the low-level
learners. The extensive use of visuals in this lesson aids the ESOL students, and perhaps some LD
students or other learners as well.
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To help with deconstructing the photographs for the Picture Analysis and filling out the Environmental
Impact Chart, have word cards printed out of items that students would see in the pictures. Instead of
coming up with the words and ideas on their own, the students can simply sort through these cards and
choose which ones are shown in the picture. The Native American Attributes Study Guide can be
adapted in a number of ways to accommodate the needs of certain students. Some students can have it
partially filled in, and they just have to fill in the rest when they do their research. Or, they could have
an answer key available that they cut apart and paste in the appropriate places, whichever works best.
5. Attachments: (Include copies of assessments, rubrics, handouts that support this lesson.)

Environmental Impact Chart

Native American Attributes: Self-Assessment

Native American Attributes: Study Guide

Picture Analysis

Card Sort--Indian Artifacts (Power Point presentation #1)

Influence of Geography on Native Americans (Power Point presentation #2)

Key to Artifacts for Card Sort

Key to Geographic Regions
6. Annotated Bibliography:
American Memory. This website is a resource of the Library of Congress. It is a search engine that is
used to find primary sources of many types. Click on Native American Resources to get specific
resources for this project. Searches can be done on all sorts of topics in many ways.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
Berger, Melvin. The Native Americans Told Us So. 1995. Newbridge Communications: New York.
This is a non-fiction book with many wonderful photographs. The book details the contributions of the
Native Americans. It has sections on corn, farming, wild plants, canoes, pottery, pueblos, and
astronomy.
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Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection. This website (which
is part of American Memory) has audio clips of Native American songs. Peruse through the list of titles
and select one for the students to listen to while they are working. Be sure the one you select says
“Audio” at the end of the title. Be aware that some of the titles have religious significance.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rghtml/raelTitles1.html#top
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