TPE 9: Instructional Planning

It is important to use the State Standards as a framework for what is taught in the class. Many times, educators must supplement the content and go beyond what the standard calls for in order to teach the content in the most meaningful way. The school site that I currently work at has the largest Native American population in the school district, therefore I had to take into account the students history and culture while considering how to teach U.S. Government. I wanted to use the framework of the CA Content Standards and supplement it with culturally relevant history in order to connect the knowledge with the students lives in a meaningful way, that was well planned-out, academically rigorous, critical, and social justica oriented. By tailoring the content to the students, the students were able to engage with the material in an authentic and meaningful way.

For this section, I have selected a lesson plan for the American Government, a 12th grade Social Studies course. This lesson plan demonstrates an alternative historical perspective of the establishment of the U.S. Constitution, which was directly influenced by the Great Law Peace of the Haudenosaunee, of the Northeastern tribes. This lesson plan strives to teach the students, through the use and analysis of primary source documents, that there are various historical perspectives and cultural cosmovisions that informed the creation of the United States. This lesson is conducive to the critical discourse surrounding the cultural and social issues that Native Americans face living inside the United States today.