Students in an English First Peoples class were provided with choices for narrative essays they were asked to write. All topics related to aspects of the students’ lives. This sample is from a student responding to the prompt of “Belonging”.
Students were using Art Costa’s ‘Habits of Mind’ to help them identify and use common language around expected behavior in their learning community. Of the 16 Habits of Mind, their classroom focused on Listening with Understanding and Empathy, Managing Impulsivity, and Persisting and Thinking Flexibly. This sample depicts a student describing what persistence means to him and how it has been a part of his life.
Students in an English First Peoples class were asked to identify 4 artifacts that represented four areas of their lives: family, peer group, cultural heritage, and themselves as an individual. They needed to include photos that they took of the objects. They then chose three of the artifacts to describe on a blog and shared one in a sharing circle with the whole class.
A link to the assignment is found at: http://eng12fp.weebly.com/3/post/2013/09/stories-of-who-i-am-4-artefacts.html
Students began this project by thinking and talking about the needs of their community and how these needs are met. They then learned about the needs people have in their lives of belonging, fun, power and freedom (Glasser’s internal needs). They talked about how they meet these needs in their lives in positive ways, and created PowerPoint presentations to share with the class.
The teacher shared the model of an “I Am From” poem with students. Students wrote their own “I Am From” poems in their English class, and then worked in their Art class to create a mixed media self-portrait that reflected the imagery and information in their poems.
General information about “I Am From…” poems are available at
Students worked on a project that allowed them to explore many aspects of their lives to determine what makes them unique. They were asked to share information about any combination of the following topics:
Students in an English First Peoples class were provided with choices for narrative essays that they were asked to write. All topics related to aspects of the students’ lives. This sample is an outline of an essay that responded to the prompt of “How we know who we are”.
Students in an English First Peoples class were asked to identify 4 artifacts that represented four areas of their lives: family, peer group, cultural heritage, and themselves as an individual. They needed to include photos that they took of the objects. They then chose three of the artifacts to describe on a blog and shared one in a sharing circle with the whole class.
A link to the assignment is found at: http://eng12fp.weebly.com/3/post/2013/09/stories-of-who-i-am-4-artefacts.html
Students created grad transition presentations. In their presentations, students talked about:
Charlene examined her past, present and future, then gathered materials and artifacts that helped her to define herself and make her presentation. She then articulated her values, goals, plans, strengths, etc. to a panel of three or four adults (teachers, district staff, parents, community members).
Students worked through a number of different class activities over a period of time designed to help them explore their cultural backgrounds, family and ancestors. They completed family trees, identity bags (real and virtual artifacts), crest designs for a paddle, timelines, and writing assignments focussing on special people and places in their lives. One of the culminating presentations was the “Identity Recipe” that each student created to represent who he or she is.