Week Four Reflections: Challenge to Survive-History of the Salish Tribes of the Flathead Reservation Units 1 and 2

I have found myself looking forward to reading the units contained in the Challenge to Survive: History of the Salish Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation series. Although they are informational texts, I come away from them with a feeling of reading for leisure. I believe the lay-out and narrative style of the Challenge to Survive units  lend themselves to connecting more with students reading informational texts than the usual "dry" history books.The illustrations and photos will be helpful to struggling  readers and also very helpful in the lower grades. My experience has been that visuals capture the students interest and help reinforce the information they are being exposed to. 

Unit 1 of the Challenge to Survive series is very informative, not only for myself but for my kindergartners. I will be using it as a resource to have them listen to informational text and work through the MCCS and address areas of the Essential Understandings. My kindergartners will like looking through this text as a primary source before I even read them portions of  it.  Without knowing they are doing it, they will be going through the SQRS process (which I will verbalize for them).

When studying the seasons and our planting units, Unit I Section A will be very rich in  informational text along with the illustrations and photos. Most of Unit 1 Section B is beyond my grade level; however, they can relate to the family relationships and the death traditions.Unit I Section C  will relate to them as they learn what children of their age were required to do as an educational experience and as a part of being a member of the community. However, Unit 1 Section D may give them a bit of a start. I am not sure how they will react to hearing stories about a child being left out on his own in search of a spiritual helper.

Unit 2 was more an informational source and added to my background knowledge. Very interesting and corrected some of the misconceptions I had concerning the Native tribes' relationships with traders and religion. I found the Salish's search for a supernatural power and spiritual  guidance to help the tribe through its crisis intriguing.  

I am finding these units a refreshing change of pace with informational texts. The lay-out of the units texts are student friendly and designed to be used by the students not just by teachers to  get information. It would be nice to have a series like this on more Native tribes.

Thanks to this course, I am seeing more and more ways to integrate Native traditions and customs into my curriculum. It is also becoming much easier to do as I am feeling more confident in my background knowledge of Native tribe cultures. If you have a chance to take the course I highly recommend it. It will take a lot of work and reflection but it is worth it!