Introduction+and+Rationale

Introduction:

During this unit, I made sure to do a lesson on each indicator. I wanted to include some First Nation's content into the unit like the curriculum suggests. I included the study of the medicine wheel, an elder visit, and a Round Dance. I think that all of these incorporations were important and seemed to fit very well into the curriculum. I also made an attempt at incorportating the outcome and indicators into other subject areas such as Art, Math, Science, and Gym. I think this will make the learning more complete. Rationale: I had a clear idea thinking about this unit that I want to incorporate a lot of First Nation's material. I chose to invite a First Nation's elder into the classroom for several reasons. Recently, having listened to an elder speak, I realized that the First Nation's information that I have learned about in school has never been driven home quite like when I heard somebodies personal experiences. That was an eye opener for me. I wanted the students to learn about the First Nation's worldview of the medicine wheel through somebody who holds that worldview. Also, I thought the Round Dance was a relevant activity because it is meant to promote unit and diversity. Culturally, this dance can incorporates women, children, men, and other cultures. I really appreciated the effect that this dance has to give the students a new understanding of diversity. The family photo book, I thought was a great idea because I needed to get the students to understand the passage of time in relation to the family. What better way of understanding this concept, than by using pictures that have a significant meaning to each child.

Books: I chose to use three books in this unit: "Love You Forever" and "All the Colors of the Earth". I thought that "Love You Forever" was a great book to show that over time, people get older and their roles change. In the book, the mother used to rock her son to sleep and eventually at the end the son had to rock his mother to sleep. I love this book and thought it fit well with the indicator. The other book that I used, "All the Colors of the Earth", was a beautiful look at the differences in the world. I think that it was useful to incorporate this book into my unit because diversity can be a sensitive subject to talk about. Using this book not only shows differences in the people of the world but also the animals which I believe makes the teaching about diversity easier. The third book, "Guess What I'll Be," would be useful to use learning about the four stages of life in the medicine wheel teaching. This book focuses on animals that are getting older. I think that some students may understand time and stages of life in a different way.

Other subject areas: In Math, I thought that an activity on time (sequence of events) would be useful because it would help the students with the Social Studies activity. In Physical Education, the medicine wheel game I do not think will introduce anything new but maybe will re-inforce prior knowledge. The matching science activity is useful for understanding stages of life in a different way than just using humans. Finally, in Art I think that the tableau would be useful for students to mimic the diversity that they see in the book.