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Lessons Taught, Lessons Learned Vol. II
Glacier Bay History: A Unit in
Cultural Education
by David Jaynes
Kodiak Island Borough School District
Most students in Kodiak, Alaska, as in many of
the larger communities throughout the state, are originally from
somewhere else. The student population draws from a large transient
population, including Caucasian families from the Coast Guard,
Filipino families who are attracted by the fishing industry, and
Alaskan Natives from the villages around Kodiak Island. In addition,
Kodiak is home to Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Mexican
families. The cultural eclecticism referred to in "Culture,
Community, and the Curriculum" (LT/LL)
is a natural part of community life and the school
system.
As a junior high language arts teacher, I have
attempted to utilize this diversity in my curriculum, particularly in
the study of literature. Using the "Whole Language" approach to
reinforce the internalization and retention of knowledge gained, we
have studied legends, folktales, and fables of many cultures. The
resources kits developed by the Department of Education (for the
study of the Republic of China, Japan, the Phillipines, and
Australia) contain examples of national legends and stories, in
addition to various cultural artifacts which can provide the
hands-on, active learning so necessary to long term retention. I
request the use of these kits during each school year.
The focus of this paper, however, will be on
Alaskan literature, in order to encourage that "sense of place" referred to in
Ron and Susie Scollon's article on "The
Axe Handle Academy" (LT/LL). In fact,
in developing this unit, I will integrate all three components of the
Scollons' program: Bioregional Studies, Cultural Studies, and
Communication Studies. I designed the lesson using the steps of the
Clinical Teaching Model and my background in the Alaska State Writing
Consortium.
The Unit
The text of this unit is a Tlingit legend, "Glacier Bay History," told by
Susie James, transcribed and translated by Nora Dauenhauer and available from
the Sealaska
Heritage Foundation in Juneau. A summary, written by Richard
Dauenhauer, follows:
In this story the granddaughter,
Kaasteen, violates a tabu of her people by calling to the Glacier
which results in the destruction of the village and the local
ecosystem. Someone then has to pay the price of violating respect
for these natural and spiritual forces. In this version the
grandmother, Shaawat Seek', stays behind in place of the young
granddaughter, Kaasteen. The woman in the ice is the older woman
and the emphasis is placed on the sacrifice of the grandmother, on
the Tlingit tradition of "standing in," and accepting the
responsibility not only for one 'sown actions, but the actions of
others.
There are a number of reasons to use this text.
It provides students with an insight into traditions different from
traditional Western culture. It serves as a comparison to other myths
and legends we study from the ancient Greeks and Romans, African, and
Filipino cultures (a study of legends, mythology and folklore is
specified at the seventh grade level in the Kodiak Island Borough
School District Language Arts Curriculum Guide). It heightens
students' awareness of how they relate to their environment, glaciers
and all. And it serves as a transition into the collecting of local
myths and legends, a follow-up unit which I describe briefly at the
end of this unit lesson plan.
Anticipatory Set
We begin with a discussion of glaciers in
general. Most Kodiak students already have some familiarity with
glaciers, having ridden the ferry from Kodiak to the Mainland or
flown over the Harding Ice Field on the way to Anchorage. I also have
a videotape which I purchased at Portage Glacier. I can further
introduce the story with the National Geographic article (January,
1987) about the rapidly moving Hubbard Glacier near Yakutat. We would
find all of these places on a state map. We would reflect on myths
from other cultures which we have already studied to see that
mythology explains how and why nature works. This variety of
introductory activities serves to get students' attention. It also
will be necessary to give some background on Tlingits and their
language, and to relate this to the traditions of storytelling and
oral language which we've already studied.
Input/Modeling
Next I pass out copies of the story. We would
discuss the poetic format and the poetic devices, such as repetition,
used in the story. Then I will read the story aloud, straight
through, to give students an overall impression (what Pat Wolfe calls "chunking").
Check for Understanding
Before any discussion, I give them topics for a
learning log entry:
What are you wondering about?
What confuses you?
What do you want to know?
Students write for approximately five minutes
on one or more of these questions. Now students have been provided
with oral, visual, and kinesthetic opportunities to process the
story.
Then I collect the papers and read them aloud,
discussing them as we go. At this point in the lesson,
discussion will be highly speculative and divergent, though we will
frequently return to the text for answers and evidence.
On the next day, I will reread the story, or
ask for student volunteers to read, this time stopping frequently for
discussion. This will provide another way to access this information
in their long term memories and reinforce retention.
As a follow-up means of checking for
understanding, we will brainstorm possible purposes for the story. I
imagine that some purposes will relate to this specific story ("to
explain the movement of glaciers"), but I would also direct the
discussion to include wider purposes ("to learn about
ancestors").
We could also brainstorm lessons to be learned
from the story (follow customs). We would then incorporate this into
our general understanding of myths and legends (how are they alike?
how are they different?).
Guided and Independent
Practice
Next we brainstorm other natural phenomena that
could be explained by legends. I focus the class on Alaskan and
Kodiak topics because of the next activities, and to increase the
awareness of our local environment. Topics might include tides,
salmon cycles, eagle migration, etc.
Then students select one of these topics and
write their own legends. Depending on the level of interest at this
point, the legends could be fast writes (rough drafts) and read
aloud, or they could be revised as final drafts to be posted or
published as a class book.
Extended Activities
Students will naturally be interested in how
others have explained these same natural phenomena. This will give us
an opportunity to extend our learning outside the classroom (the "school without walls" concept
discussed by Barnhardt). We might do a library search for Alaskan or Aleut myths
and legends. We might make
a trip to the local museum. Or we could develop this into an oral
history unit where we could interview community elders to find out
what stories they know. The Alaska Oral History Resource Kit,
available through the Alaska Council of Teachers of English, provides
samples and a how-to videotape.
Conclusion
This unit provides for all of the components
discussed in the "Axe Handle Academy." It integrates reading,
writing, speaking, and listening in a Whole Language approach. It
addresses culture and community through the curriculum, It
interrelates literature with many of the social studies and could
even be extended into science. It provides students with an
understanding of the Tlingit culture in the same way we become
familiar with the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, Japan and
China. It contains the elements of the Clinical Teaching Model. It
incorporates basic thinking skills and higher level thinking. And
finally, I think it is an enjoyable unit to teach and learn.
Foreword
Ray Barnhardt
Part I *
Rural School Ideals
"My
Goodness, People Come and Go So Quickly Around
Here"
Lance C. Blackwood
Parental Involvement
in a Cross-Cultural Environment
Monte Boston
Teachers and
Administrators for Rural Alaska
Claudia Caffee
The Mentor Teacher
Program
Judy Charles
Building
Networks
Helen Eckelman
Ideal Curriculum and
Teaching Approaches for a School in Rural
Alaska
Teresa McConnell
Some Observations
Concerning Excellent Rural Alaskan Schools
Bob Moore
The Ideal Rural
Alaska Village School
Samuel Moses
From Then To Now:
The Value of Experiential Learning
Clara Carol Potterville
The Ideal
School
Jane Seaton
Toward an Integrated,
Nonlinear, Community-Oriented Curriculum
Unit
Mary Short
A Letter from
Idealogak, Alaska
Timothy Stathis
Preparing
Rural Students for the Future
Michael Stockburger
The Ideal
Rural School
Dawn Weyiouanna
Alternative
Approaches to the High School Curriculum
Mark J. Zintek
Part II *
Rural Curriculum Ideas
"Masking" the
Curriculum
Irene Bowie
On Punks and
Culture
Louise J. Britton
Literature to Meet
the Needs of Rural Students
Debra Buchanan
Reaching the Gifted
Student Via the Regular Classroom
Patricia S. Caldwell
Early Childhood Special
Education in Rural Alaska
Colleen Chinn
Technically
Speaking
Wayne Day
Process Learning
Through the School Newspaper
Marilyn Harmon
Glacier Bay
History: A Unit in Cultural Education
David Jaynes
Principals of
Technology
Brian Marsh
Here's Looking
at You and Whole Language
Susan Nugent
Inside, Outside and
all-Around: Learning to Read and Write
Mary L. Olsen
Science Across
the Curriculum
Alice Porter
Here's Looking at
You 2000 Workshop
Cheryl Severns
School-Based
Enterprises
Gerald Sheehan
King Island
Christmas: A Language Arts Unit
Christine Pearsall Villano
Using Student-Produced
Dialogues
Michael A. Wilson
We-Search and
Curriculum Integration in the Community
Sally Young
Artist's
Credits
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