Course Portfolio
A208: Expressive Culture: Imagining Indians:
Native American Representation in Music, Film
and Literature
Kimberly J. Marshall
Spring 2011
Teagle Collegium for Inquiry in Action
Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................5
Literature Review
Critical Thinking..........................................................................................8
Critical Thinking in Anthropology …………………………………………………………….9
Coaching as Pedagogy…………………………………………………………………………….10
The Project
In-Class Rehearsals: Discussion.................................................................13
Out-of-class Rehearsals: Student Journals................................................16
Assessment
Journal analysis……………………………………………………………………………………….19
Student Evaluations………………………………………………………………………………..24
Implications
Next Steps..................................................................................................26
What I’ve Learned from the Teagle Collegium...........................................28
References.........................................................................................................29
Appendix A – Course Syllabus............................................................................30
Appendix B—Journal Assignment…………………………………………………………………….36
Appendix C—Student Evaluation…………………………………………………………………..…37
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
Abstract
In the Spring of 2011, I was given the opportunity to teach, for the first time, a course of
my own design, which I called Imagining Indians: Representing Native Americans in Music,
Film, and Literature. This 200 level course was designed to uncover several of the core “tropes”
(stereotypical images) used in early artistic representations of Native Americans and to trace how
those tropes continued to form the basis for Native images, even to the present and even when
the images are created by Native artists. The course proved quite popular, enrolling a stable
group of 27 students.
Operating under the assumption that the development of critical thinking is an important
part of collegiate-level anthropological instruction, I decided to foreground the development of
these skills in my course design through the implementation of a rehearsal-process model of
teaching. Under this model, students are “coached” through repeated attempt-feedback cycles to
“match or exceed model performance” (Wiggins 1998: 13). Through in-class activities and
discussions, and particularly through the use of student journaling, I aimed to “coach” students in
critical thinking.
Using two different assessment models, I was able to determine that students did, in fact,
improve in their ability to think critically about the texts over the course of the semester.
Specifically, student journal entries improved as the semester progressed. At the beginning of
the semester, there were many entries I would rate as “thin readings” and only a few I would rate
as “excellent readings.” By the end of the semester, this ratio had switched, with many
“excellent readings” and only a few “thin readings.” Additionally, an end-of-semester survey
demonstrated that students themselves felt that their critical thinking had improved, and that the
course had helped them to think differently about images of Native Americans.
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The material contained in this course portfolio demonstrates the utility of the “coaching”
model in teaching students complex skills such as critical thinking. It also demonstrates the
effectiveness of the student journal both as a method of “practicing” critical thinking skills and
as a way for assessing, coaching, and therefore improving these skills. A major drawback of this
method, of course, is the incredibly time-consuming nature of a student journal for both the
student and the instructor. Therefore, this course portfolio suggests that the student journal
method of coaching pedagogy is most useful for small classroom settings, and that further work
needs to be done in exploring activities with similar “rehearsal” benefits suitable for larger
classroom settings.
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
Introduction
In contrast to some fields, my mission as an anthropology instructor is not to teach
vocational skills to a new generation of anthropologists. In fact, I operate under the assumption
that most of my students will not become anthropologists or even major in anthropology.
Rather, my goal is to teach my students (whatever their major or future career) to think
anthropologically. While “thinking anthropologically” certainly incorporates a broader crosscultural awareness, it also incorporates the development of a strong critical lens. The
development of critical thinking (central to all collegiate-level social sciences and humanities) is
particularly important for anthropology students, since confronting new and unfamiliar cultures
often presents a crucial opening for challenging the unconscious and “common sense”
assumptions of students.
Given that many anthropology courses focus on the development of critical thinking,
rather than the recall of information, traditional models of classroom instruction can prove
problematic. Lecture-only transmission of ideas from an informed expert to an audience of
novices does not, by its very design, encourage students to question received ideas. Discussiononly instruction runs the risk of simply perpetuating what students come into the classroom
thinking, without challenging them to question and move beyond what they already know.
Instead, I designed this class to implement ideas gained from the Teagle Collegium about a
“rehearsal” model of instruction with the aim of “coaching” my students in the process of
“critical thinking.”
The idea of a “coaching” approach to instruction builds upon the ideas of Grant Wiggins
from Educative Assessment (1998). This approach to instruction assumes a model that
“achievement depends on the learner attempting, through successive approximations (based on
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many performance-feedback-guidance cycles), to match or even exceed model performance”
(Wiggins 1998: 13). I have spent my entire life involved in musical ensembles, and realize that
part of the enjoyment I derived from these activities stems from the assessment structure of the
musical ensemble. The rehearsal process involves a constant repetition of “takes.” Students are
challenged to meet a goal which often begins beyond their reach. But through successive tries,
followed by timely instructor feedback and working out of kinks, students gradually progress to
acceptable levels. The final concert is nice, but almost an after-thought, because it is the
rehearsal process that is, in fact, the most rewarding. If this model works for the sonorous
production of music, perhaps it could work for producing a good critical lens as well.
It was with the aim of combining a “coaching” approach to teaching with a focus on the
development of critical thinking in students that I approached my newly-designed course
Imagining Indians: Representing Native Americans in Music, Film and Literature. With this
course, I aimed to combine my specializations in Native North America and expressive culture
(ethnomusicology and literature, specifically) to create a course focused on the images of Native
Americans present in these genres, as well as film. My primary aim for the course was to educate
students about the underlying stereotypes behind images of Indians and the way that these
stereotypes had formed into a few recognizable artistic “tropes” that persist up to the present.
Throughout this course, we analyzed these artistic works with an eye towards the tropes of the
“noble savage” the “war-mongering people” the “victims of progress” and Native Americans as
the “embodiment” of nature. Finally, we explored the ways that portrayals of Native Americans
changed through the Red Power Movement and rise of Native American Literature in the 1960s,
seeking to understand how pre-existing representational tropes are used, embodied and
deconstructed by contemporary Native composers, filmmakers and authors.
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During the Spring of 2011, I offered this course as a stand-alone, special topics course
that the anthropology department at Indiana University allows advanced graduate students to
teach under the umbrella of “Expressive Culture.” It was a smaller class, with only 27 students.
The course was a 200-level course designed with sophomores in mind, but the majority of the
students were actually juniors (13 students). I also had some freshmen (4 students), some
sophomores (6 students), and some seniors (4 students). So the age and experience range was
actually quite wide. Some of my students (6 students) mentioned that they signed up for the
class to satisfy a university requirement (Arts & Humanities, Topics Course or Culture Studies
course). Many (12 students) took it just for out of interest. Only 6 were anthropology majors,
with 1 anthropology minor. This means that 74% of my students were not affiliated with the
anthropology department in any way.
In both the development and implementation of this course, I focused on activities and
assessments that contributed to a “coaching” approach to critical thinking. In class, this focused
on group discussions of primary texts with immediate instructor feedback. Outside of class, the
primary critical thinking activity was the creation of a student journal with multiple opportunities
for instructor feedback. Through both of these activities I attempted to encourage my students to
develop their critical thinking abilities through multiple “rehearsals.”
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Literature Review
Critical Thinking
As I developed my syllabus for this course, I knew I wanted to focus on the development
of critical thinking among my students, but realized I first had to better define what I meant by
“critical thinking.” In order to narrow this definition, I turned to the work of Alec Fisher in
Critical Thinking, An Introduction (2001). Here, Fisher defines many of the theoretical
formulations which, over time, have come to inform our current understanding of critical
thinking. He discusses, for example, the work of John Dewey (1909), who defined critical
thinking as:
Active, persistent, and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge in
the light of the grounds which support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.
(Fisher 2001: 9)
By this definition, Dewey laid the groundwork of our conception of critical thinking by
emphasizing critical thinking as a process of active learning and careful consideration, with
special attention to examining the reasons behind and implications of what we know. Later,
Richard Paul (1993) added to ideas about what makes thinking “critical” by adding a
“metacognative” aspect to it. He says:
Critical thinking is that mode of thinking – about any subject, content or problem – in
which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge
of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.
(Fisher 2001: 4)
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This definition emphasizes that critical thinking is built upon the self-awareness of thinking
about one‟s own thinking.
Finally, the work of Michael Scriven (1997) adds an element to our current understanding
of critical thinking by defining critical thinking as “skilled and active interpretation and
evaluation of observations and communications, information and argumentation” (Fisher 2001:
21). By adding the element of “skill” to critical thinking, Scriven emphasizes that thinking
critically is not something innate in some people and missing in others, but rather something that
can be developed and, therefore, taught.
Using all of this literature, I approached the concept of “critical thinking” using the
following elements:
1) Examining what we know
2) Examining the reasons behind ideas
3) Examining the implications of ideas
4) Revising what we know based on relevant information
5) Articulating what we know
Developing these specific skills became the central goal of the class.
Critical Thinking in Anthropology
Critical thinking is not a foreign concept in the discipline of anthropology and has been
regarded by others to be central to the anthropological teaching mission as well. For example, in
the article "Theorizing Pedagogic Practices in the Contexts of Marketization and of September
11, 2001, and Its Aftermath,” Joyce Canaan describes the ways in which she reformatted her
social theory class in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 th attacks to emphasize critical
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thinking. Specifically, she aimed to engage students in applying social theory to their encounters
with current events.
In developing skills among her students that I align with critical thinking (as defined
above), Canaan focuses on what she calls the development of “emancipator pedagogy,” by which
she means that she is, "committed to transforming knowledge so that students can utilize it to
understand and critique the world and to help build a world based on the 'principles of social
justice, democracy, equality and abundance for all of humanity'" (Canaan 1997, 2002). This
pedagogy is based on the belief that most instruction simply perpetuates the existing hegemonic
order, and that only through an emancipatory pedagogical approach can we integrate the
disempowered in such a way that they can understand, critique, and eventually transform the
existing social order. One of the main ways in which this process is encouraged among students
is through a development of their self reflection in student journals. This practice of developing
an emancipatory pedagogy through self reflection speaks directly to one of the main facets of
critical thinking I also identified and attempted to develop throughout this course.
Coaching as Pedagogy
In designing this course, I decided that the best way for me to encourage the development
of critical thinking was to apply a “coaching” model to the development of this skill. In applying
this approach, I am drawing on the work of Grant Wiggins (1998) and his challenge to traditional
models of educative assessment.
According to Wiggins, traditional assessment models depend largely on summative
assessment (a test at the end of a unit/class) that depend on “secure” (surprise) challenges to
students, assess only small bits of knowledge (rather than wholes), and take place in a largely
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competitive (norm-referenced) environment. He demonstrates the problems inherent in this
model by applying these assessment principles to determine success in a high school band. He
states:
Imagine that high school bands have no rehearsals or recitals. Instead they have lots of
book learning, with paper-and-pencil tests on the strategies of playing, the history of
music, and the rules of composition. Then imagine that the final exam consists of a oneshot performance, a single-event, external test at the semester‟s end, in which bands in
competition with each other play not whole pieces of music but only tightly structured
drills and exercises designed to test bits of discrete teaching. The exam is „secure‟--that
is, the band members do not know what musical segments they have to play until they see
them on the test. And the players cannot hear themselves play (the instruments are digital
and the sound is turned off). The musicians have to wait a week or more to find out how
they did on this test; they get back a personal, norm-referenced score. (Will this system
produce high-quality musicianship or passion to play?). [Wiggins 1998:9]
And yet, argues Wiggins, this is precisely the model of assessment that is used in the standard
academic classroom.
Instead, Wiggins challenges us to adopt a different model for educative assessment, one
that uses “rehearsing” or “coaching” as a model for improving student performance. Wiggins
argues that students cannot take ownership of their own learning unless they are allowed to make
(and then learn from) their own errors. The instructive nature of errors, however, also largely
depends on the teaching relationship. As Wiggins argues, “Errors are instructive only if we learn
to understand them as errors: long before we master a task we must learn whether we are on the
road to mastering it” (Wiggins 1998:14). According to Wiggins, the most beneficial teaching
model is one in which the instructor can harness the power of student error as an opportunity for
learner improvement.
Coaching is this teaching model. The coaching approach to instruction assumes that
“achievement depends on the learner attempting, through successive approximations (based on
many performance-feedback-guidance cycles), to match or even exceed model performance”
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(Wiggins 1998: 13). It depends not on a framework of standards or benchmarks shrouded in
secrecy, but on standards of exemplary performance (known by the instructor) and encouraged
through successive student attempts. Most of all, this model depends on a very short and
repetitive feedback loop between student and instructor so that students know “how they are
doing as they do it” (Wiggins 1998:14) and can, therefore, actively self improve.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in designing this course I aimed to implement a structure that encouraged
critical thinking (specifically: examining what we know, examining the reasons behind and
implications of ideas, and revising what we know based on relevant information) through the
pedagogical framework of coaching. As I will discuss in the following section, this “coaching in
critical thinking” model was enacted primarily through in-class discussions and a semester long
student journal. It was my hope that through this model I could enact some of the “emancipatory
pedagogy” that Canaan (2002) envisioned.
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The Project
In-Class Rehearsals: Discussion
The first way in which I implemented a “coaching” or “rehearsing” approach to critical
thinking was in regular in-class discussions. Throughout the semester, students were shown
representational prompts and then asked to discuss those prompts. I gave them a stable set of
aspects to discuss, focusing on the “images” of Indians being presented, the reasons behind those
representations, and the implications of those representations. Their discussions first took place
in small groups of 4-5 individuals, while I circulated among the groups, taking time to interact
with each group. In these small-group interactions I listened in on the conversation and either redirected, posed a few thought-provoking questions, or commented on their ideas, as appropriate.
After small-group discussion we rejoined as a single classroom and each group shared their ideas
and discussion with the rest of the class, often incorporating additional input from other students.
During full-class discussions I, again, made comments or posed questions as I felt helpful and
appropriate.
For example, on one occasion I had my students watch two stand-up comedy routines
about Native Americans. The first came from African American comedian Dave Chapelle‟s
stand-up sketch about Native Americans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo9DwIqSjeI).
During this sketch, Chapelle expresses his surprise that Native Americans are still alive (“We
need to celebrate, N***er, I thought you were dead!”) and alludes to them as marijuana-dealing
alcoholics. He also comments about Indians having funny names with the following lines:
I said, „Well, what‟s your name, dog?
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He said, “Please, Dog is my cousin. That was a good guess. My name is Running
Coyote.”
Overall, Chapelle‟s sketch is based on exposing common mis-conceptions and stereotypes about
Native Americans. For example, toward the end of his sketch, he commented that his new
Indian friends let him sleep in a teepee which, he says, “sounds nice… I personally felt like it
was a little f***ed up, you know, because they all have houses, man. I was like, „Why can‟t I
sleep with you all in the house and watch TV?‟”
As a contrast, I also had the students consider stand-up comedy by Native artists, using a
video of clips from Goin' Native; The American Indian Comedy Slam: “No Reservations
Needed” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bp5BAJfk4Q). Several Native comics were
featured, and their jokes covered a range of topics. Some were antagonistic, like Charlie Hill‟s
singing of “One little, two little, three little whiteys…. Does that piss you off too?” Some were
playing up stereotypes, such as Howie Miller‟s comment “Nice sunny day out today… you‟re
welcome. I danced all night for that sh**.” Or when Vaughan Eaglebear delivered the line
“Three Indians walked out of a bar sober….
...it could happen…. ….a salad bar.”
The difference in naming practice was mentioned by the Native comics as well,
particularly in Vaughan Eaglebear‟s joke:
I met this elderly lady at the bingo hall.
She was like “What‟s your name, fool?”
I was like „Vaughan. …Eaglebear.‟
She was like, „You don‟t hear a name like that every day, now do you?‟
….. I was like „Yea I do.‟
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Several of the comedic sketches also commented on mis-conceptions about and racism toward
Native Americans. For instance, Howie Miller presented the belief that Native People get things
for free to set up the line, “I don‟t know if you white people know this, but here in LA I get free
cab rides. …Yea, well they‟re cop cars, but they get you home.” And Vaughan Eaglebear joked,
“When I was in college I took a Native American studies class and I was the only Native
American in the class…. …and I got a C. …I should have cheated off that little Asian girl.”
After showing both of the videos to the class, I divided them into groups and asked them
to discuss some of the images of natives present in each of these texts (the Dave Chapelle sketch
and the Native comics) and then compare and contrast the differences between the two. Students
found that many of the images of natives presented were the same across texts: nature loving,
alcoholic, using funny names, and generally stereotyped and mis-understood. But students
concluded that the tone of each of the sketches was different, with the Native artists oscillating
between confrontational and self-depreciating in tone and the Chapelle sketch generally aimed at
making fun, not of Indians, but of the stereotypical ideas of (white) Americans. Throughout the
discussion I guided student comments, moderating the discussion and asking compelling
questions, such as: “Would you call either of these representations racist? Why or why not?” or
“How is the representation of alcoholism different between the Native and the non-Native
comic?” I pushed students to think carefully about why certain things were funny and the reasons
behind and implications of representations like this. That is to say, through this model of
instructor feedback in group discussion, I encouraged students to put a critical lens to these
representations.
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Out-of-class Rehearsals: Student Journals
The second way in which students were coached in critical thinking was through the
student journal assignment. Wiggins himself points to the portfolio of student work as a way of
implementing progressive assessment, particularly because the student portfolio allows the
student successive tries at a particular task (such as critical thinking). With instructor feedback
and over time, the quality of the work in the student portfolio should improve.
In this class, I aimed to implement these goals with the student journal. Students were
asked to maintain a journal throughout the class, and create an entry for each primary text we
encountered as the course progressed (see Journal Assignment Sheet, Appendix B, for more
details). Journal entries were about 1 page in length, and students were asked to address three
main points:
1) summarize the main point/elements of the text
2) present their opinion of the text
3) analyze how they felt Native Americans were portrayed in the text
Students were asked to create journal entries for weekly movies and readings and for 3 listening
lists. By the end of the semester, student journals should have contained 43 different entries, and
student journals were worth 25% of the students‟ grade: an equal weight with the midterm group
research project and the final individual research project.
Journals were incorporated into the “coaching” model of pedagogy through multiple
sessions of instructor feedback. Students had the opportunity to receive instructor feedback on
the quality of journal entries through two journal checks; one at week four and one at week eight.
In assessing student performance at journal checks, my focus was not so much on “grading” the
journal (in fact, I simply used a check, check plus, or check minus system for grading at journal
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checks). Rather, the emphasis on assessment at journal checks was in giving the students
feedback to help them improve their journal entries for successive journal checks. I wrote on
nearly every page of each students‟ journal at the checks, as well as giving summative comments
at the end of the entries. Often my comments were structural, such as “good length” or “less
summary, more analysis.” But I also frequently made comments and posed questions designed
to get students to think more deeply about a text, such as “Why do you think he frames it this
way?” or “what bias do you think this author brings to the situation?” or “What does it mean
that Natives are portrayed in this way?”
Overall, the pedagogical emphasis of the journals was to encourage students to think
more critically about the representation of Natives in the texts. Journals provided a safe place for
students to “practice” and “hone” their critical thinking skills, and multiple journal checks with
heavy instructor guidance helped “coach” or “point” them toward paths of self-improvement.
Conclusion
Each of the activities outlined above (in addition to others) was designed to help “coach”
my students in thinking critically about the representation of Native North Americans. As an
instructor, I felt that their critical thinking skills did improve over the semester. That is to say, I
felt they had more insight into the reasons behind and implications of the representation of
Native Americans. Furthermore, I felt they were more aware of their own thinking about Native
Americans and that, for many, they used what they had learned in the course to revise their own
knowledge about Native Americans.
However, in order to be more precise about exactly what and how much my students had
learned about critical approaches to representations of Native Americans, I implemented a few
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assessment techniques. In the following section, I discuss the results of my assessment and the
degree to which I feel my “coaching” approach to teaching critical thinking was, in fact,
successful.
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Assessment
Journal Analysis
In order to assess whether students did, in fact, improve their critical thinking skills
throughout the class, I employed a few different assessments. One method of assessment readily
apparent to me was the very journals in which they were “practicing” critical thinking to begin
with. If student skills in critical thinking were improving throughout the course, I reasoned, then
I should be able to observe overall class improvement in the journal entries from journal check
one to journal check two, and from journal check two to journal check three (at the end of the
course).
At the end of the class I received twenty-one full (or nearly full) journals. Given that
each of these journals had the potential of forty-three entries, I knew that some sampling would
be needed for overall class assessment. First, I chose two entries from each third of the class that
I felt were particularly challenging for the students. Then I sampled these six entries across all
journals, assigning each entry a check plus (for an excellent reading), a check (for an average
reading) and a check minus (for a “thin” reading). (See below for more detail on “readings”). I
then totaled up the number of each rating for each entry, and concluded that students did, in fact,
improve their critical thinking skills throughout the semester.
Differences in “Readings”
Rating the journals by the insightfulness of the student “readings” of the text is, I realize,
a rather fuzzy type of rating system. First and foremost, developing the skill of critical thinking
was never intended to be a discretely measurable or quantifiable item of knowledge. What may
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appear an insightful comment in some contexts may appear daft in others, and vice versa.
However, my status as an “expert” on the topic of Native American representations (supported
by extensive graduate training in critical inquiry and extensive study of research by critical
scholars of Native North America) gave me a “model” (what Wiggins (1998:14) calls the
“exemplary adult performance”) against which to compare the comments of my students.
Furthermore, as stated in the introduction, I was looking for journal entries which
exemplified good critical thinking. Specifically, I was looking to see if the student journal
entries demonstrated that students were reflecting on what they knew, the reasons behind their
own understandings, and whether they could revise what they knew based on relevant
information. An “excellent” reading was one which achieved these goals. A “thin” reading was
one which did not.
I believe when framed this way, degrees of success in critical thinking are objectively
observable. To support this contention (as well as my analysis of the success of my journaling
activity), I have included a few student comments from each of the “levels” of critical thinking
success throughout the semester.
One issue on which students demonstrated capacity with critical thinking was the degree
to which they questioned the authority of the author. For example, in the highly romanticized
portrayal of Natives in Longfellow‟s Hiawatha, a thin reading comment was “As Nokimus gives
answers to Hiawatha about his surroundings, an idea is given to the reader what Native
Americans thought of their surroundings” (RL). A more insightful comment stated “I‟m not sure
where Longfellow got his facts on Native Americans but it seems fairly trite” but this commenter
still fell short of understanding the implications of this romanticized non-Native portrayal with
the comment “I do not think any human has the ability to talk to animals” (HL). An excellent
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reading of this text, on the other hand, takes into consideration both the source and the reasons
for the portrayal. For instance, this comment by AN “It is a little stereotypical in the fact that
Hiawatha befriends only animals because Native Americans are shown talking to nature in
movies all the time.”
A second line along which I could gauge a student‟s developing capacity for critical
thinking had to do with Native American self representation. Although the issues involved may
be too large to enumerate here, the basic pitfall students faced was assuming that Native selfrepresentation lacked engagement with tropes. For instance, at the beginning of the course,
many students made comments like “I would think that since this story is written by a Native
American, then it should be pretty unbiased” (TB). As we moved through the semester,
however, students were able to view Native self-representation in more sophisticated ways,
making comments like “I would think this is one of the most accurate portrayals of a group of
Native Americans. It might not represent all of them, but it seemed particular to this tribe” (AN).
Finally, insightful comments about Native self-representation recognized that Natives are often
engaged with these tropes, either perpetuating or inverting them. For example, the Nativeproduced film Smoke Signals directly engages stereotypical images of Indians by presenting two
conflicting main characters: the “warrior” and the “mystic.” With good insight my students
commented “The differing perspectives of Victor and Thomas helped me to realize the
difference of what being Native American can mean to different Native Americans”(NL) and
“The characters used humor to invert tropes, such as Victor attempting to „make‟ Thomas Indian
by telling him to be stoic and wear his hair long” (RL). I rated these last comments as excellent
because they recognize not only what stereotypes have done to Natives, but what Natives have
done with stereotypes.
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Thirdly, my students demonstrated various degrees of ability with critical thinking in
their engagement with the implications of representations for Native people. For instance, with
the cartoon Pocahontas, some students failed to see the serious implications of this fanciful
portrayal. A thin reading of this movie is evidenced by the comment “It‟s not completely terrible
because after all, it‟s meant to entertain kids” (JB). A more nuanced reading recognized the
problems, but still made light of them. For example, “I do not think this was an accurate
representation of Native culture…. I also don‟t think it was meant to be, because it was made for
children” (RL). Finally, an excellent understanding not only of the tropes present but also the
problems raised by those tropes in this film is evidenced by the comments, “Obviously, this film
reaches new levels of offensiveness with the whole „noble savage‟ thing” (MS) and “Pocahontas
was one of my favorite movies as a child. Watching it as an adult and through the lens of this
class, I have to say I was horrified” (HL).
Finally, I was able to see the critical awareness of their own knowledge develop in my
students throughout the semester. At the beginning of the semester I received the following thin
reading comment (my favorite), “I think this is a fair portrayal because this is always how I have
imagined Native Americans” (JJ). As the semester proceeded, the self-awareness of my students
developed, as evidenced by the following average reading comment, “I must admit that even still
today I am in love with this movie [Pocahontas]. However, because it is Disney, it is not hard to
see how stereotypical it is. To me, this is a big deal because these images and ideas are what is
ingrained in very young children‟s minds” (CW). And at the most advanced level, students
began to really question what they knew and become actively engaged in seeking to improve
their own understandings. For instance, of Smoke Signals, one student made the excellent
comment “I enjoy how the film made me think about who is the more „real‟ Indian” (AW).
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
Journal Assessment
As the previous section suggests, then, I was able to pile-sort journal entries into three
basic categories: thin reading, average reading, and excellent reading. In order to determine the
overall development of critical thinking skills in my students throughout the semester, I chose six
sample texts: two texts from each third of the class that I felt were particularly challenging for
the students. I totaled up the numbers of each type of reading for each text, and discovered that,
overall, students did improve in their ability to engage critically with the texts throughout the
class (see chart below).
Journal Evidence of Critical Thinking
2
2
14
9
8
6
10
9
0
1
8
10
13
8
5
11
6
Thin
Average
1
Excellent
As the above chart demonstrates, in the first third of the class there were many thin
readings (8 for Hiawatha and 14 for At Last I Kill a Buffalo) and few excellent readings (5 for
Hiawatha and only 1 for At Last I Kill a Buffalo). By the end of the course, however, that
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
number had essentially reversed, with many excellent readings (6 for Broken Arrow and 11 for
Smoke Signals) and only 1 thin reading of Broken Arrow with no thin readings of Smoke Signals.
I think this chart demonstrates that, according to my assessment of student journal work,
students did respond to my method of coaching in critical thinking and approved their abilities to
take a critical lens to texts throughout the semester.
Student Evaluations
The second way in which I evaluated whether my students improved their critical thinking skills
throughout the class was to administer a specially tailored student evaluation survey during the last day of
class (see Appendix C for a copy of the evaluation survey). Although some of the questions on the
survey were designed to evaluate the successful transmission of core course concepts, many of the
questions were designed to target felt improvement in critical thinking skills.
For example, the first question asked students to rate the statement “In this course, I feel I learned
to think more critically about the way Native Americans are and have been represented” on a Likert scale,
where 1 equaled “strongly agree” and 5 equaled “strongly disagree.” In response 15 students strongly
agreed, and 6 students agreed, while only 1 student strongly disagreed (see below for graphic
representation of results). These results indicate that the vast majority of students felt the course helped
them to think more critically about Native American representations.
However, because of the non-specific nature of the term “critical thinking,” I also probed further
to determine whether students felt they had developed in the specific aspects of critical thinking I
attempted to emphasize. Therefore, I asked students to rate (on the same scale as above) their agreement
with the following two statements:
A) In this course, I feel I gained a better understanding of the reasons behind representations of
Native Americans.
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
B) In this course, I feel I gained a better understanding of the implications of representations of
Native Americans.
Students also tended to agree with these statements (although not as strongly as their agreement that they
had learned to think more critically). Only one student strongly disagreed with one of the statements (the
implications of representations) and two students were unsure about the other statement (the reasons
behind the representations). (Again, see below for graphic representation of results).
Elements of Critical Thinking
16
14
12
Think More Critically
10
8
Improved Understanding:
Reasons Behind Rep.
6
4
Improved Understanding:
Implications Of Rep.
2
0
Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly
agree
Disagree
Overall, these results suggest that students really did improve their critical thinking skills throughout the
course, even if they may not have phrased some of those skills “critical thinking.”
Additionally, another question on the end-of-semester student survey asked students to rate (using
the same scale as above) their agreement with the statement:
C) This course changed the way I think about Native American images
Student agreement with this statement was overwhelmingly positive, with 52% of the class strongly
agreeing, 29% of the class agreeing, and only 19% of the class feeling unsure. Not a single respondent to
the survey disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement (see graphic representation below).
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
Rate this statement: This course changed the
way I think about Native American images.
Not Sure
19%
Strongly agree
52%
Agree
29%
These results suggest to me very positive success in student internalization of course critical
thinking goals. Since one of the primary areas of critical thinking I initially identified as my
coaching focus was to make students more aware of their own understanding of Native American
representation and then to revise what they knew based on relevant information, I feel these
results show a resoundingly positive indication that the coaching model was an effective way of
reaching that particular critical thinking goal.
Conclusions
Overall, I feel that the combination of the two assessment techniques (sampling success
in student journal entries over time and an end-of-term survey) indicate that the “coaching”
model of teaching critical thinking was successful and that I was able to achieve my pedagogical
goals for the semester with most of my students.
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
Implications
Next Steps
The assessment of journal entries does generally show improvement in student critical
thinking. However, it also shows a marked difference in the ability of students to think critically
about texts produced by Natives, rather than non-Natives. My general impression is that students
developed the ability and confidence to question the representations of non-Native authors, but
largely struggled much more with identifying the bias in Native-produced works. For example,
one of the early works we read by a Native author was Luther Standing Bear‟s autobiographical
account “At Last I Kill A Buffalo.” While I do not question the authenticity of Standing Bear‟s
turn-of-the-century story of one of the last pre-reservation bison hunts, the account firmly springs
from Standing Bear‟s preservationist agenda. This agenda stems from imbedded assumptions
about Native Americans as “Necessary Victims of Progress” and incorrect assumptions about the
impending extinction of a culture, which are author biases my students completely failed to
recognize. They assumed that if a Native wrote it, it must be taken at face value. In future work, I
would like to apply a careful reading to just the journal entries about Native-created texts and
examine whether (and how) coaching in critical thinking was effective in improving student
critical thinking skills about Native authored texts as well.
Furthermore, if I were to repeat this pedagogical innovation, I would like to try and better
monitor the relationship between grade level and success in critical thinking. While I feel that
students at every grade level improved over the course of the semester, I also know that the
seniors in my class consistently performed at the highest level. The correlation was not
complete, however, because I also had students at other grade levels (including two freshmen)
who consistently performed at the highest level, as well. These results are anecdotal, however,
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
and in future work I would like to formally investigate the relationship between grade level and
success in critical thinking.
Finally, my extensive use of student journaling this semester has convinced me that this
is a very effective way to promote student “rehearsal” of core techniques and to provide good
instructor guidance. However, I also concluded that student journaling is an incredibly time
consuming pedagogical activity for both student and instructor. And the more guidance given by
the instructor (i.e., number of journal checks) the more time consuming it is for the instructor.
As such, this is a teaching technique I would only attempt again in a small-classroom
environment. Other methods of “coaching” need to be employed in large-classroom settings.
What I’ve Learned From the Teagle Collegium
The most useful thing I took from the Teagle Collegium was in constant engagement with
macro-level thinking about my teaching. Given that I was designing and implementing two
completely new syllabi of my own design this past year it would have been very easy to get
bogged down in the micro-level details of planning lectures and class mechanics. Having a
structured meeting to discuss the philosophy behind teaching practices helped me to be more
“intentional” about the choices I was making in the classroom.
Furthermore, the Collegium challenged me to implement a critical thinking component
into my spring course. While this additional level of instruction was often stressful to design, it
is an autonomous level of teaching that will be portable to any other class I teach. It is a crucial
element of my overall teaching mission and philosophy, and I appreciated the chance to try it
out.
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References
Canaan, Joyce E. 2002. "Theorizing Pedagogic Practices in the Contexts of Marketization and
of September 11, 2001, and Its Aftermath." Anthropology & Education Quarterly 33(3):
368-382.
Chapelle, Dave. 2004. For What It‟s Worth – Live! At the Fillmore.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo9DwIqSjeI). Accessed 5/12/2011.
Fisher, Alec. 2001. Critical Thinking, An Introduction. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Goin' Native; The American Indian Comedy Slam: “No Reservations Needed.” 2009.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bp5BAJfk4Q). Accessed 5/12/2011.
Wiggins, Grant. 1998. Educative Assessment: Designing Assessments to Inform and Improve
Student Performance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishing.
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
Appendix A: Course Syllabus
SPRING 2011: A208
Anthropology of Art and Expressive Culture:
Native American Representation in Music, Film and Literature
Instructor: Kimberly J. Marshall
Department of Anthropology, Indiana University
T/TH 4:00P-5:15P, Room SB 138
W 7:15P-9:15P, Room SB 150
In this course, we will examine, in depth, artistic portrayals of Native Americans
through the genres of music, film, and literature. By encountering these materials in their
original form, students will be asked to think critically about the ways that artistic portrayals,
some of them from before the 20th century, have helped to cement several major stereotypes
about Native Americans that persist today. In this class we will explore music, film and
literature spanning from the early 19th century up to the present day. We will analyze these
artistic works with an eye towards popular tropes about Native Americans, such as the portrait of
the “noble savage” the “war-mongering people” the “doomed noble race” and Native Americans
as the “embodiment” of nature. Finally, we will explore the ways portrayals of Native
Americans changed through the Red Power Movement and rise of Native American Literature in
the 1960s. As the course progresses, we will concurrently examine music, film and literature by
Native Americans and seek to understand how pre-existing representational tropes are used,
embodied and deconstructed by contemporary Native composers, filmmakers and authors.
Course Goals: This course aims to problematize the ways that Native Americans have
been artistically portrayed in the genres of music, film and literature, and to help students to
discover the ways that these portrayals have influenced the ways Native Americans are perceived
even today. This course also aims to provide context for understanding the creative ways in
which Native artists today interact with these pre-existing non-Native representational tropes.
Format: The course consists of a twice-weekly meeting which will combine instructor
lectures with discussions about readings. In addition, we will meet one evening a week for a film
screening. You must keep up with the reading schedule and come prepared to each class. Course
attendance is mandatory.
Required Textbooks:
1) Rollins, Peter and John O‟Connor, eds. 2003. Hollywood’s Indian: The Portrayal of the
Native American in Film. The University Press of Kentucky.
2) Trout, Lawana. 1998. Native American Literature: An Anthology. McGraw-Hill Humanities.
3) Substantial additional readings provided through On-Course/Resources/Readings
READING IS MANDATORY!
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
Optional Novels:
You will be asked to buy and read one of the following novels, depending on your group:
Student Assignments:
Students will be required to actively engage with the artistic materials that constitute this
class. This means actively listening to musical examples, actively watching class films, and
actively reading literature and essays for the class. Student work load will include around 4
music examples, one novel (or collection of poetry), 2 films and six critical essays (or book
chapters) every three to four weeks. Assignments will be as follows:
1) Student Journal. This journal will be kept by each student documenting his or her reactions
to the course material. For musical examples, this will include documentation of both
aural features and personal impressions. For film, this will include notes on major plot
points and filmic features as well as student reactions. For literature, students will note
important plot points and literary devices and document their reactions. Entries will be
around 1 page in length and may be hand written. Student journals will be turned in for
progress checks at several points during the semester, with completed journals to be
turned in at the end of class.
2) Mid Term Group Presentation and Paper. This group project will cover one of the major
novels of the course. In the group presentation, students will be asked to “teach” the
novel to the other members of the class, connecting their novel to course themes and
other texts from the class. A summary of the information from the presentation will be
written up in a 5-10 page group report.
3) Final Research Project. This research project will encourage student investigation into a
critical reading of Native American self-representation. Students will be expected to
research Native American artistic expression that interests them (music, film or literature)
and discuss the ways the themes presented in this course are used, embodied, or
deconstructed by their chosen piece. This project will be presented to the class, as well as
written up in a 5-7 page paper.
Grading:
1. Class Participation: 250 points (25%)
2. Mid-Term Group Project: 250 points (25%)
3. Student Journal: 250 points (25%)
4. Final Project: 250 points (25%)
Total Possible Grade Points: 1000 points
Grading scale:
A+ (98-100) A (93-97)
(74-76)
C (68-73)
C- (64-67)
A- (89-92)
B+ (86-88) B (81-85)
D+ (61-63) D (56-60)
B- (77-80)
C+
D- (52-55) F (<51)
Classroom Policies
Attendance: Attendance is required and expected.
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Excused absences for school-related or
Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
medical reasons should be arranged with the teacher as far in advance as possible. Attendance
policy is simple. Students are allowed up to 3 unexcused absences. The fourth unexcused
absence will drop a student‟s grade by one letter. At the fifth unexcused absence, the student
will be assigned an F for the course.
No laptops or netbooks:, or other electronic communication devices are allowed in class, unless
you have a specific disability which makes it impossible to use a pen and paper to take notes.
Cell phones must be off. That means no instant messaging or sending texts. If your phone rings
once you get a warning – if it rings again you will be asked to leave the lecture or discussion.
You must ask permission to tape record a lecture, and if you do, you cannot share that recording,
or notes taken from it without express written permission from the instructor. You cannot sell or
publish written notes without written permission from the instructor.
Make-ups and Incompletes: will only be given with a medical excuse or in cases of
documented family emergencies. You must speak with the instructor in advance of the final
about getting an incomplete.
Maturity: First, be honest with yourself. No one forced you to take this course, so take this
opportunity to learn and advance towards your intellectual and professional goals. Show up to
class on time and prepared, and I will do the same. Respect yourself and your colleagues; speak
up when needed and relevant; do the assigned readings long enough before class to give yourself
time to think about them, interact with your instructor and classmates and participate in class
discussion.
Ground rules for creating constructive dialogue in the classroom: Sensitive issues inevitably
rise in the classroom. I‟d like for us to adopt an attitude of respect for one another; therefore,
I‟ve included some guidelines to help us achieve that end.
 In order to create a climate for open and honest dialogue, it is important for class participants
to treat each other with respect. Name-calling, accusations, verbal attacks, sarcasm, and
other negative exchanges are counterproductive to successful teaching and learning about
many topics.
 The purpose of class discussions is to generate greater understanding about different topics.
Thus, questions and comments should be asked or stated in such a way that will promote
learning.
 Learning is both sharing different views AND actively listening to those with different views.
 Remember that it is OK to disagree with each other.
Cheating and plagiarism: Plagiarism is using another author‟s words or ideas as your own and
not citing the original source. Plagiarism is illegal, irresponsible, unethical, and academically
dishonest. There is widespread concern among faculty about the misuse of the Internet for class
assignments. Do not copy and paste work from someone else. Cheating and plagiarism are
serious academic (and social) offences -- besides an unintelligent self-trap. It is much easier to
perceive this sort of dishonesty than you may think. Attention: All cases of cheating and
dishonesty will be handled according to the rules stated in the University bulletin. Violation of
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
the rules can earn you an “F” in the course and, in some cases, get you thrown out of the
University.
Academic Accommodation Statement: Students who believe they may need academic
accommodations due to physical, psychiatric or learning disabilities are encouraged to inform me
as soon as possible at kjm1@indiana.edu or contact the IU Disability Services for Students at
(812) 855-7578 or iubdss@indiana.edu .
Contact information and Office Hours:
Kimberly J. Marshall (kjm1@indiana.edu) 812-855-1041 (anthro office)
Instructor Phone: 812-322-9351 (*for emergencies only*)
If you need to contact me, use my email. I check it often, and it is the best way to reach
me.
Course Schedule
Week
1
Theme
Intro
2
Noble Savage
3
4
5
Surrender to
Progress
Schedule of Assignments (to be completed by date listed)
Tuesday 1/11: No Reading
Wednesday 1/12: Imagining Indians; The Exiles
Thursday 1/13:
-Berkhofer: Persisting Images and Themes p25-31 (oncourse)
-Longfellow: Excertps from Hiawatha (oncourse)
Tuesday 1/18:
-Berkhofer: European Primitivism p72-80 (oncourse)
-NAL: Standing Bear, At Last I Kill p423-429
-NAL: Lame Deer, Alone p134-139
Wednesday 1/19: Fort Apache
Thursday 1/20: No Class
Tuesday 1/25:
-Listening Homework: TBA
-Deloria: Music p183-204 (oncourse)
Wednesday 1/26: Cheyenne Autumn
Thursday 1/27:
-Rollins: The White Man‟s Indian p27-38
Tuesday 2/1:
-Berkhofer: The Idea of Progress p44-49 (oncourse)
-NAL: Glancy, Pushing the Bear p201-213
-NAL: Welch, Man from Washington p189-191
Wednesday 2/2: The Vanishing American
Thursday 2/3:
-Rollins: Trapped in the History p58-72
Tuesday 2/8:
-NAL: Standing Bear, First Days at Carslile p598-609
-NAL: Erdrich, The Runaways p624-625
-NAL: Yellow Wolf, His Own Story p242-251
Wednesday 2/9: Last of the Mohicans
Thursday 2/10:
-Rollins: Deconstructing an American Myth p170-186
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
6
7
8
9
War
Mongering
Tuesday 2/15:
-Berkhofer: The Western p96-104 (Oncourse)
-NAL: Erdrich, Dear John Wayne p42-44
-NAL: Momaday, December 29, 1890 p 264-266
-NAL: Glancy, Black Kettle Grasslands p232-235
Wednesday 2/16: Drums Along the Mohawk
Thursday 2/17:
-Rollins: The Representation of Conquest p73-90
Tuesday 2/22:
-Listening Homework: TBA
-Deloria: Music p204-224 (Oncourse)
Wednesday 2/23: Dances with Wolves
Thursday 2/24:
-Rollins: “Going Indian” p153-169
Embody Nature Tuesday 3/1:
-Berkhofer: Environmentalism p38-44 (oncourse)
-NAL: Silko, I Still Trust The Land p291-296
-NAL: Silko, Survival p304-307
-NAL: Blue Cloud, Hawk Nailed to a Barn Door p308-310
-NAL: Gunn Allen, We Are the Land p314-317
-NAL: Hobson, Buffalo Poem #1 p311
Wednesday 3/2: Pocahontas; White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men
Thursday 3/3:
-Rollins: Playing Indian in the 1990s p187-206
Group
Tuesday 3/8:
Presentations
-Group Presentations
Wednesday 3/9: The Outsider
Thursday 3/10:
-Group Presentations
10
11
Spring Break
Raw Material
12
American
Genius
13
Social Angst
14
Self-Rep.
Tuesday 3/22:
-Journal Check #2
Wednesday 3/23: Nanook of the North
Thursday 3/24:
-NAL: Deloria, Indian Humor (654-662)
- Cronyn: American Indian Poetry excerpts (oncourse)
Tuesday 3/29:
- Austin: The American Rhythm excerpts (oncourse)
Wednesday 3/30: Broken Arrow; In Whose Honor
Thursday 3/31:
-Rollins: Cultural Confusion 91-106
Tuesday 4/5:
-Indian Protest Literature (oncourse)
Wednesday 4/6: Tell Them Willie Boy is Here
Thursday 4/7:
-Rollins: The Hollywood Indian Vs. 107-120
Tuesday 4/12:
-Alexie: This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona (oncourse)
-Listening Homework TBA
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
15
16
Presentations
17
Final
Wednesday 4/13: Smoke Signals
Thursday 4/14:
-Rollins: This is What it Means 206-228
Tuesday 4/19:
-Momaday: House Made of Dawn
Wednesday 4/20: Powwow Highway
Thursday 4/21:
-Rollins: Driving the Red Road 137-152
Tuesday 4/26:
-Final Presentations
Wednesday 4/27: Avatar
Thursday 4/28:
-Final Presentations
-Final Paper Due
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Kimberly Marshall – Course Portfolio: Imagining Indians – Spring 2011
Appendix B: Journal Assignment
Instructions for Student Journal Entries
For this class, you are asked to maintain a student journal for every primary text (poem, short
story, film, and piece of music) that we encounter, both inside and outside of class. The purpose
of this journal is to help clarify your critical thinking skills by exercising your metacognition:
your “thinking about your thinking.” Journal entries can be handwritten (legibly) and should be
about a page in length (3 short paragraphs). Bring your journals to class, as we will occasionally
be doing in-class work with them.
A journal entry is expected for every primary text we encounter. This does not include
“secondary” texts like scholarly articles or critical book chapters. In order to be very clear about
when a journal entry is expected, the instructor will keep a running tally of “texts” available on
oncourse: resources-journal information-text list. The instructor will collect and review your
journals at several points in the semester and provide feedback. Completed student journals are
due during the last week of classes. Journals are worth 250 points (25% of your final grade).
For film texts, you need verification that you have watched the film for this class. For each film,
get the instructor‟s initials during the weekly film screening or attach the check-out receipt from
the Wells Library Media Services. (Films are on reserve and can be checked out for a 4 hour
period).
Journal Entry Content
In your journal entries, be sure to address each of these three elements of critical thinking
(around 1 short paragraph each).
1) Summarize: What is this text about? What are the elements that compose it? What are the
important themes/motifs? What are the setting and/or characters like?
2) Opine: What did you think about it? What is your emotional reaction to the text? What is
your opinion of it? Did you love it or hate it? Why?
3) Analyze: How does this text portray Native Americans? Does the creator use the course
tropes? (Noble Savage, War Mongering, One with Nature, or Necessary Victim of
Progress). Does the author/composer use symbols or metaphor? If not Native, where
did they get their “data” about Natives? Do you think this is a fair/accurate portrayal
of Native American life?
Although the instructor is not grading for “right” or “wrong” answers, it should be apparent that
your abilities to address each of these elements thoughtfully, clearly and concisely develops
throughout the semester.
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Appendix C: Student Evaluation
Course Evaluation
1) In this course, I feel I learned to think more critically about the way Native Americans are and have been
represented.
Strongly Agree
Strongly Disagree
1
2
3
4
5
2) In this course, I feel I gained a better understanding of the reasons behind representations of Native Americans.
Strongly Agree
Strongly Disagree
1
2
3
4
5
3) In this course, I feel I gained a better understanding of the implications of representations of Native Americans.
Strongly Agree
Strongly Disagree
1
2
3
4
5
4) Rate your knowledge of Native American culture before this course:
Very Knowledgeable
Knew almost nothing
1
2
3
4
5
5) Rate your knowledge of Native American culture after this course:
Very Knowledgeable
Know almost nothing
1
2
3
4
5
6) Rate this statement: This course changed the way I think about Native American images.
Strongly Agree
Strongly Disagree
1
2
3
4
5
7) What are the four major representational tropes examined in this class?
__________________________________
_______________________________________
__________________________________
_______________________________________
8) Rate this statement: When Native artists (writers, musicians, etc) create something, they don’t use tropes
(reflect or refract them). They simply express authentic cultural knowledge.
Strongly Agree
Strongly Disagree
1
2
3
4
5
9) “Victim of Progress” images assume that:
a) the death of Indian culture is a false idea
10) “Noble Savage” images assume that:
a) they all belong to some kind of Indian royalty
b) the death of Indian culture is inevitable, nobody’s fault
b) Indians are natural/wild and therefore brutal
c) the death of Indian culture is the fault of whites
c) Indians are natural/wild and therefore good
d) individual Indians can’t assimilate into white culture
d) man is improved by civilization’s institutions
37