"We once hunted for buffalo, we now hunt for knowledge."~Joe Chasing Horse. Students in reservation schools need to broaden their knowledge outside their community in areas of news and technology. Using kid-friendly magazines and online, engaging stories helps bring this knowledge to the classroom.
Fourth graders are at a wonderful age in which they are eager to absorb knowledge of all kinds, especially things that they have never seen nor experienced.
Living on a reservation in a mid-west state has it's advantages in that family is very important and that culture is tantamount to their lives. The school teaches the Lakota language and supports the Lakota arts of drumming and artwork. However, in today's world, more is needed in order to be a well-rounded citizen. The disadvantage of reservation life is that social life is very limited. Most students only travel within 100 miles of their home which leaves a gap in global awareness. School helps to be the equalizer. The school needs to teach material that helps our students step out further in their dual world that will help enable them to have many options for work in their adult life.
My Project
My students will be able to maintain an awareness of the world outside their immediate community through the reading and discussing of the current news presented to them in these magazines. They will be blending the needed skills from Common Core, to the practical skills of reading and processing within the classroom setting. Most do not have computer access, so being able to access the Internet to further discuss various topics (as accessed through the on-line section of these magazines) will help to acquire the knowledge in an enjoyable, memorable way. Especially important is the knowledge gained as the Smarter Balanced online assessment now requires students to be aware of the world in a much more broader sense. These magazines will allow my students to become as knowledgeable as their peers living in other, more cosmopolitan areas of the country.
Our textbooks in science and social studies are dated 2006.
We cannot afford new textbooks at this time. While some knowledge is timeless and never changes, new technologies are an annual, sometimes monthly occurrence. News happens on a moment's notice; No text book is able to keep up. Being able to incorporate these news and science magazines into the weekly curriculum will help modernize the material taught. It will also help them when taking the required Smarter Balanced testing.
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