Native Americans
During class we spent a few days doing a jigsaw project with the different Native American tribes. The class was broken into 4 base groups. Every group member had a number 1-6, this number determined what tribe you would be researching. For example all the ones would get together and research one tribe. Once all number groups finished researching their tribes and creating a PowerPoint we went back to our original base groups where we shared all we had learned.
I researched the Seneca tribe. Prior to this project I really had little background knowledge on the different Native American tribes. This was not something I remember learning a lot about during my time in school. This lesson was for me like a crash course on Native American tribes. In a short amount of time I was able to learn a lot about the different tribes. I learned that many of the tribes had things in common, such as the way they dressed. Native American men generally wore breech cloths with leggings whereas women generally wore wraparound skirts with shorter leggings. Men and women also both wore moccasins on their feet. Another similarity between the tribes was that most of them lived in long house, which held up to 60 people. I now can say I have a better understanding of the Native American tribes. Since each group was given a tribe and then we all shared our information, I was able to learn about 6 tribes, but only had to spend time researching 1. Having each group make a PowerPoint really did help when presenting the information and I think it was a great tool to use.
From this project I learned how easy it could be to teach the topic of Native Americans. Using the jigsaw method everybody becomes an expert and have the chance to learn about different things. This lesson was done in college class, but it could easily be done with students at the elementary level. To adapt it I might only assign students to one group and they will become experts on the tribe and then present to the whole class, instead of having both expert groups and base groups. Also in our college classroom we had the luxury of having many computers available to us, this may not be the case in elementary classrooms. To adapt this project further, I would allow students some computer time to research, but I would also have many different books for them to look at and find more information. Then instead of having them do a PowerPoint they could make posters to present their work.
This really is a great lesson and the jigsaw idea could be used in various ways not just with Native American tribes. This is definitely a lesson that will be used in my future classroom!
For more information about the Seneca tribe recommend looking at the following two websites. They were very helpful!
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