Christine Sherk is a grade 4 teacher at J.A. Laird Elementary in Invermere, BC. She discusses how she uses engaging novels and short stories themed on Indigenous people and experiences in English Language Arts and Social Studies.

1. Indigenous Education Through Stories
By Christine Sherk
I am currently a grade 4 teacher at J.A. Laird Elementary in Invermere, BC. Over the
last few years I have been looking for ways to co-present English Language Arts and
Social Studies. I have discovered a number of well-written novels and short stories
that present information about Indigenous peoples in the form of an engaging
story. These texts have allowed me to cover the following Grade 4 Social Studies
outcomes:
• Apply critical thinking skills
• Gather information from a variety of sources (stories)
• Distinguish characteristics of various Aboriginal cultures in BC
• Identify effects of early contact between Aboriginal societies and European
settlers
• Identify the impact of Canadian governance on Aboriginal peoples’ rights
• Describe technologies used by Aboriginal people in BC
• Describe Aboriginal peoples’ relationships with the land and natural
resources.

2. Every year I use a different selection of stories. I
have used the following texts:
• Secret of the Dance by Andrea Spalding and
Alfred Scow
• Donna Meets Coyote by Don Sawyer
• Nokum is My Teacher by David Bouchard
• The Elders Are Watching by David Bouchard
and Roy Henry Vickers
• Pathki Nana by Kenneth Thomasma
• A True Story: Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-
Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

3. Secret of the Dance
by Andrea Spalding and Alfred
Scow I used this book as an
introduction to the Pacific
Coastal First Nations. I did
not tell them the name of
the Indigenous group in
the beginning. Initially I
involved the students in a
number of tasks that
demonstrated aspects of
this culture and
eventually some of the
students were able to
name the First nations
group using their
background knowledge of
the different cultures in
BC.

4. Secret of the Dance
Here are some examples of tasks the students were involved
in:
• We studied the illustrations on the front and back cover.
(What do we notice about the people? Who do you think
they are? What are you wondering about this cultural
group?) The students then wrote questions they had
about this cultural group.
• I gave them a list of words that corresponded to different
aspects of the Pacific Coastal First Nations culture and
aspects of some of the other cultures we had studied.
They predicted which ones they felt went with this
culture. We then watch a video clip that showed
different aspects of the Pacific Coastal First Nations
culture and checked our predictions. The students then
wrote a prediction about the culture and the story (they
needed to justify their prediction using the information
we had collected).

5. Student Tasks
• I distributed key phrases from the story to the students, and their job was to walk around the
room sharing their phrase with others and discussing how the phrases connected to the story
and culture. Once they returned to their desk they needed to write powerful questions
about the culture and story. From there, the students shared their questions and wrote
another prediction about the culture.

6. • I read the story The First Beaver by Caroll Simpson and we looked at the pictures and the text
to pullout different aspects of the Haida culture.

7. • After we had read the story, our school’s Aboriginal Education Worker came into our
class and each student made their own button blanket.
• Each student also completed a written task in which they wrote in role as the main
character, expressing what they had discovered about their culture and traditions, and
how they felt about their family defying the government.

8. A True Story: Fatty Legs
by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-
Fenton
I used this book as a novel study.
The story is about a young Inuit girl
who wants to go to school to learn
how to read. The story takes place
in the mid-1940s when many of
the First Nation children were
taken to residential schools. The
young girl convinces her parents to
allow her to go to the residential
school. The story examines how
the students were treated and is a
story of survival. I liked this book
for it is a good representation of
the treatment these children
endured and is written at a grade
4-5 reading/understanding level.

9. Fatty Legs
My students had some background knowledge
on residential schools, so I began by using a
predicting strategy. They were given 3 clues and
after each clue they created an image, with
some writing and then after all 3 they were to
write a prediction, with justification.
The clues were:
1. Inuit girl and nuns
2. School
3. The title and front cover of the book.
Here are three examples: