The document outlines guidelines for implementing culturally responsive instruction for Native American students, emphasizing the importance of student choice, traditional teaching methods like storytelling, and community-based learning. It highlights the necessity of adapting instructional strategies to respect cultural norms and fostering relationships between teachers and students to enhance engagement. Teacher attitudes are crucial for student success, and the paper urges educators to reflect on their practices to better support Native American learners.

1. Please describe a future lesson in which students will be given some control over the pace
and content of their education, are all students held to the same high standards?
scenario:
Welcome back to the module on providing culturally responsive instruction for Native American
students recall that this module covers the what and why of culturally responsive instruction
understanding culture and Native American diversity foundations for a culturally responsive
practice where to start some initial guidelines for instruction going further more guidelines
pedagogical implications by subject area and action steps towards developing a culturally
responsive practice this video focuses on where to start some initial guidelines at the beginning
of implementing culturally responsive instruction for Native American students, we suggest a
number of guidelines that you may want to integrate into your teaching practices these are based
on foundations we've discussed in the prior section these guidelines are for instructional
strategies, instructional activities norms of social interactions, teacher attitudes instructional
materials curriculum and community and parent involvement this video covers instructional
strategies and activities norms of social interactions and teacher aattitudes.
Starting with General Instructional Strategies we first think about strategies that incorporate
traditional native ways of teaching and learning these include giving students choice and what
and how they learn by incorporating modeling and demonstration and using storytelling parable
allegory and examples, giving students choice and what and how they learn is based on a number
of issues that were discussed in the prior section for example, traditional native beliefs an
individual agency and autonomy and epistemologies to emphasize personal responsibility the
importance of student choice also stems from the values that many Native American tribes place
on allowing individuals to experience and control their own journeys without interference the
sixth sense even to one's children. Demonstration and modeling is another approach that may be
particularly valuable for Native American students especially given its roots in traditional Native
and teaching for example instead of providing students with the list of reading comprehension
strategies demonstrating using one way to think aloud that shows your thinking and engagement
with the text and give students an opportunity to practice the strategy so that students can better
understand what successful learning looks like it is important to provide opportunities for
students to observe more advance practice in the classroom this approach has greater success
with native students than relying heavily on lectures or alternately on trial and error. Also
marrying common traditional Native American educational practices consider how you can
incorporate storytelling parable allegory as an example in your instruction. These techniques
provide another way for students to build their understanding and position learning was in a
larger context the use of these techniques also allows listeners to see relationships and come to
their own conclusions supporting the beliefs that each person can have a different perspective it
is important to note that students from traditional Native communities may come to school with
strong oratory and storytelling skills and with strengths and systems thinking and knowledge of a
natural world these strengths help students both learn from and actively participate in
instructional strategies involving storytelling parable and allegory as well as examples next we'll
Instructional Activities look at the nature of instructional activities that might be important for
Native American students learning we recommend that you provide an authentic context for
classroom work and assignments and connect these academic activities to real purposes valued

2. by students epistemologies that focus on community and rootedness in place also suggests the
value of community based assignments and projects similarly the value placed on community
and responsibility to others suggests the importance of fostering active hands-on learning that
involves engagement with students teachers and the environment in engaging in such
instructional activities it's also important to be sensitive to local norms of social interaction
connecting academic activities to real purposes valued by students is critical for student
engagement and supporting students ongoing interest in staying in school by involving students
in real projects they can actively see the utility and value in their learning in a study by Radha
Yamato and Patrick of students in an urban school district they found that many Native students
did not connect finishing high school with employability that is they did not perceive that a high
school diploma would help them get a job this research demonstrates the importance of students
seeing school as personally relevant and beneficial in addition to helping students see the utility
of their learning place-based local projects and assignments appeals to a number of elements of
shared native-american epistemologies such as a focus on community locating learning was in
the big picture making connections and seeing interrelationships between learning in the natural
world service-oriented projects in the local community also strongly built on values connecting
to students a sense of responsibility to their community and one can imagine projects and
assignments that target issues related to the responsible use of power in such projects can also
provide a bridge between schools and Native American communities material should include
local places and community as an important context for study this supports students' engagement
and understanding place-based learning materials can be multidisciplinary and emphasize
experiential and intergenerational engagement place-based materials are an excellent way to link
content to values culture and community similarly involving students actively in authentic hands-
on activities actively engaged with peers teachers and their environments can also help combat a
significant reason that students drop out of school in studies by Dale and by brand Navajo
students gave boredom as a major reason for dropping out the primary pedagogical practice these
students encountered in school was reading textbooks and answering questions at the end of
chapters which Navajo students found especially ineffective instead explicitly connect learning
to students' everyday lives and the world outside of school this may involve loosening
disciplinary boundaries next we'll consider norms of
Social Interactions social interactions during instruction in your classroom, it is helpful to be
cautious about spotlighting students be aware of cultural norms around public displays of
affection understand other local norms of interaction, and consider using a demanding but warm
style we suggest to be cautious about spotlighting students because this goes against norms of
traditional native teaching and learning as such try not to single out students for public praise or
punishment additionally profuse or bubbly praise is not considered supportive of good character
by many Native peoples and public punishment or criticism can be considered demeaning yet
students may appreciate private words of praise or feedback and that's a Divis is an issue with the
questioning strategy of initiate response and evaluate or Ayari this is when a teacher initiates the
question with her class as a student publicly respond and then evaluates the response as right or
wrong in front of everyone all this approach is often considered problematic for all students for a
variety of reasons for Native American students, it has the added problem of publicly evaluating
them in front of their peers if they are correct they may be made uncomfortable because a peer
may not also know the correct answer and may be overshadowed if they are wrong and their
error is announced to their peers which may be considered a type of shaming it is important to be

3. aware of cultural norms around public displays of affection as these are culturally specific often
native cultures reserved displays of affection to more private settings in the classroom spend time
in the local community and take cues from community members to determine what's right for
your students there are also some common misunderstandings that non-native teachers may have
about Native students at home, children may be taught to pay attention and show respect by not
making eye contact and being quiet this behavior can be misinterpreted as a lack of interest and
engagement students also may not publicly display knowledge in a group setting in case a peer
doesn't have the same knowledge as this could lead to his or her embarrassment and while humor
is important non-native people may use types of humor such as sarcasm which could result in
native students feeling laughed at instead of laughed with overall teachers cultivating good
relationships with students and their families is a prerequisite for student engagement and
learning in this effort teachers can employ a demanding but warm style this demonstrates both
high expectations and caring which are essential for student learning we also underscore the
importance of teacher attitudes toward students teachers values attitudes and ideologies toward
students in Native communities and cultures has been shown to be vital for Native students
success in school in interviews of Native youth who dropped out of school beyond being bored
over half stated that their teachers did not care about them here are a few qualities that the
literature shows are important for teachers of Native students to have caring warm approachable
supportive flexible showing respect for students and expecting excellence now for some exit
questions describe an upcoming lesson where you can incorporate student choice and how or
what they learn with the choice are all students being held to the same high expectations, what is
one way that you can incorporate a place-based approach in your upcoming instruction think
about your attitudes towards and interactions with your native students how well do these
exemplifies the qualities discussed in this module where might you need to improve we are
grateful to the following individuals for their contributions to these modules.