Learner Inquiry Project

How might we learn from the Indigenous peoples in our community?

Project Description

For my learner inquiry project, I have collaborated with a 4th grade teacher (my wife!) in her social studies unit about the Indigenous peoples of Maine. Learning about native people groups is an important aspect of the fourth grade curriculum, and a requirement of the state social studies standards. In the past, this has been a traditional written research report with a presentation component. Typically, the teacher combined the social studies requirements together with several writing standards related to researching, note-taking, citing sources, writing, and presenting research reports. Together, the classroom teacher and I have made changes to the project, while still enabling students to meet all of the standards previously required in the project.

We have framed the assignment as though the children are investigative journalists. After their investigation into the group of their choice, students will be reporting on their learning in a final newspaper article, onsite correspondent video, magazine photojournalist article, or any other mode of presentation that fits the investigative journalist requirement. Each child will choose one tribal group to research, take notes, and develop into an informative final product that can be shared with the class. They will be encouraged to hone in on one aspect of tribal culture as the main focus of their report, but there will be an expectation that they give a general overview as an introduction. For example, a student choosing to focus on important cultural celebrations will still need to share other more general facts about homeland, history, and traditional dwellings.

While these students have participated in research projects in the past, this will be their first time conducting research on the internet and using technology to create a final product to share with their peers. We are very excited to get started on this project!

Resources

Educator Resources

Research for kids - This YouTube video is an excellent video for the teacher to share with the class about getting started on a research project. It discusses choosing a topic, inquiry questions, using sources, and taking notes. It provides a great jumping off point for teachers to get students’ minds buzzing with ideas.
Note Taking Strategies - This article from We Are Teachers provides a lot of different note-taking ideas for teachers to introduce to their students. Diverse learners will need diverse ways to collect and organize information. When the teacher is equipped with a collection of note-taking strategies, he or she will be able to support students more effectively.
The T.U.R.N Test - This infographic from askaschoollibrarian.com is a great resource for teachers to put on display in their classrooms to help foster a discussion about finding and using safe sources.
Lessons Learned in Teaching Native American History - Teaching Native American history can be a difficult topic. This article is a helpful resource for teachers as they help students navigate the complex history of Indigenous peoples and how to respond to our own learning gaps and listen to Native communities.

Reference tools for students

Epic - Epic is an online library for children that has curated thousands of books. It is a great resource for children to access books that may not be available locally, and offers read-aloud tools, definitions, and highlighting tools that will assist students in finding useful, accurate information. It also recommends similar books that can help children expand their research beyond their own search terms.
SweetSearch - Children will undoubtedly need to use internet searches to cover some aspects of their reporting. They will need access to current events as well as names of tribal representatives. They will need photographs, maps, and access to videos of interviews with Indigenous people. They will need to find detailed articles about their topic of choice. SweetSearch offers a safe way to access these important resources.
Britannica Kids - This online encyclopedia has detailed articles on all the Indigenous peoples from Maine and can be a great resource to guide students to accurate, but more generalized, information about the tribe they are studying.

Tech Tools

QuickTime Player - Students who are recording video reports will use this app to record their videos using the cameras on their school-issued devices. This simple tool will enable students to record, save, and organize multiple scenes or takes for their final news report.
Canva - Students choosing to create a newspaper or magazine report will find a wide variety of resources, templates, and tools to help them on Canva. They will be able to create their final report and print it or (to save paper) project it to present to the class. Students who are recording video reports will be able to make logos, headlines, and other graphics to include in their final product. Canva fits in the SAMR framework by offering students ways to completely redesign or modify the way they share information - instead of having a big poster board or keynote presentation, students are creating, from scratch, a whole new way to convey information.
iMovie - Students who are playing the part of a news reporter will be able to put together their recorded videos into a final news report, add logos, headlines, and other items, and put their report together into a seamless video to play for the class. iMovie also fits within the SAMR framework by completely redefining how information is presented and allowing students to organize, convey, and frame their knowledge in a way that was previously impossible.

Discussion

Inquiry Questions

What are the cultural traditions and contributions of Maine Native Americans? What traditions have been lost over time? How were they lost? What cultural traditions are still celebrated by Maine Native Americans today?

Promoting Open Inquiry

Throughout this project students are offered choices at every step. They can choose a tribe to research, they can choose an aspect of tribal life to focus on, they can choose a note-taking style, they can choose how they prefer to play the part of an investigative journalist in the final presentation of their learning (print, video, etc.). At the end of the project, students will be presenting a wide variety of information in different formats.

Standards and Variables

Required components:

Social Studies Standard: Maine Learning Results - Students understand historical aspects of unity and diversity in the community, the state, Maine Native American communities, and the United States by describing various cultural traditions and contributions of Maine Native Americans and various historical and recent immigrant groups in the community and the state. CCSS: W.4.7 - Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic. W.4.8 - Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.

Areas of Flexibility:

Choosing a People Group; finding an area of cultural tribal life as a focus; using different note-taking strategies; final presentation style (newspaper front page story, photographic journalism article, on-camera news report etc.).

Framework for Assessment

Reflection

I think that this project opens up students to learning about different people in a new way. It gives them opportunities to share their learning with one another in engaging, dynamic formats. Overall, the project is designed to focus on learner-centered experiences and to give students the chance to share something they care about in a format that they are excited about using.

Some barriers that we may encounter include a lack of accurate kid-friendly information, access to primary sources, and the typical technological problems that arise from day-to-day. But, I’m hoping that a lot of the diverse-learner problems that are typically present in the traditional research report format will be addressed in the flexible nature and variety of tech tools available through this report, making it accessible to all learners in the 4th grade classroom.

I am most excited to see the final results of this project and all the different ways that children will choose to bring their research to life in newspapers, magazines, and news reports. I’m excited to offer them the opportunity to pursue their own interests and goals with this project.