Teaching Native American Learners

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Teaching Native American Learners

• Presented by
• Maxine Roanhorse-Dineyazhe, Ed.D.

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• Education is your most powerful weapon. With
  education you are the White mans equal without
  education you are his victims, and so shall
  remain all your lives. Study learn help one
  another always. Remember there is only poverty
  and misery in idleness and dreams, but in work
  there is self respect and independence.
• Quote by Chief Plenty Coups, Crow Chief

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• What do you know about teaching Native American
  students?
• What do you know about Indian education?
• What do you know about Native American learners?
• What do you want to learn about Native American
  learners?
• What do you expect to learn today?

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Brief History

• Demographics
• Schooling Experiences
• Federal Trust Responsibility
• Types of Schools
• Parent Community Involvement
• Culture Language Issues
• Vision for the Future

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Possible Factors

• Differences between Native culture school
  culture
• Ignorance of Native culture among school staff
• Differences between students teachers values
• Differences in Native students learning styles

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Possible Factors

• Poor motivation of Indian students
• Language differences of students teachers
• Students home community problems
• Inappropriate use of tests with Indian students

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Cultural Contexts

• World Views
• Cultural Differences
• High- Low- Contexts
• Field Dependent/Field Independent

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Cultural Differences

• Longstreet (1978) Five Aspects of Ethnicity to
  Understanding Cultural Differences
• Verbal Communication
• Non-Verbal Communication
• Orientation Modes
• Social Value Patterns
• Intellectual Modes

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Multiples Ways of Knowing

• Multiple Intelligences
• Multi-Sensory Learning
• Cognitive Learning
• Curriculum
• Materials
• Resources

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Assessment Issues

• Alternative Assessment
• Authentic Assessment
• Performance Assessment
• Types of Assessments
• Reasons for Use

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Strategies

• Promote functional communication
• Thematic Instruction
• Collaboration Cooperative learning
• Informal Atmosphere
• Concrete experiences
• Multiple example of new content

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Why is it all Important?

• What did you learn?
• What will you do with the information?

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• The most effective school pedagogies have been
  revealed by the study of Native American
  classrooms that use their traditional cultural
  patterns of activity and interaction The
  communities of Native Americans, uniquely, can be
  the seedbed for infusing fundamental human
  processes of teaching/learning into public
  education. -Tharp, R.G., 2006

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Closing

• Questions?
• Thoughts?
• Comments?
• Thank you