Week 4 Lesson 3: Reconciliation - March 31/21

Teacher Ana Ferzacca Grade Level 5/6

Subject Language Arts Unit Reconciliation

Time 12:40-1:55 Overarching What is the significance of the

Question Powwow?

Description and Rationale

In this lesson students will be introduced to powwows and sundance. I was originally just
going to talk about powwows, but they were interested in the sundance so I will talk about that
too. This lesson will go over the parts of a powwow and then they will have an opportunity to
do some of their own research on specific powwow dances.

GLOs General Outcome 3: Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to
manage ideas and information.

SLOs 3.2 Select and Process:

Locate information to answer research questions, using a variety of sources, such
as printed texts, bulletin boards, biographies, art, music, community resource
people, CDROMs and the Internet.

Learning 1. Students will be able to describe the events that take place during a
Objectiv powwow
es 2. Students will be able to explain the significance of a powwow

Learning Driving Questions

Objectives

1. What happens at a powwow?

How does it start?
What other events take place during the powwow?

2. What is the purpose of powwow?

How is the powwow significant to FN people?

Pre-Lesson Preparation

Material/Equipment/Resources Teacher Tasks

Slides with information on the sundance Find information on Sundance to

Sundance video: share with them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK4fCv5ekzI Put together resources for them to
Videos of powwow look at.
The Song Within my Heart - David Bouchard Find videos of different powwow
Powwow presentations template dances.
List of resources for students:
https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/do-you-know-w Post resources in google classroom
hat-a-powwow-is
Print worksheets
https://kids.kiddle.co/Pow_wow

Body Time(mins)

Activity 1 Discussion: what is a tradition? 5

Traditions- beliefs or behaviours passed down in a group or

society.

Have students talk with a partner about what traditions they have

Ask some students to share.

Activity 2 Talk about Sundance 15

Remind students that Sundance is a sacred ceremony
Watch the video about sundance
● 10:05-16:30, 18:30-21:20

Activity 3 Show slide about Powwows 20

Read The SONG Within my HEART
● What did you learn from the book
● Did it remind you of the First Nations worldview? Nothing is
owned - we share things
Go through powwow slides and watch videos of dances.

Activity 4 Have students fill out parts of a powwow worksheet using these 30
articles:
https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/do-you-know-what-a-powwo
w-is

https://kids.kiddle.co/Pow_wow

Closure Tell students they will be researching one of the powwow dances 5
next class and to think about which powwow dance they want to
look at.

Assessment

Formative: Discussions about tradition

Summative: I will mark their research projects
Reflection

What Worked Starting the class by having students think about and talk about their own
traditions was very engaging for them. They were all interested in sharing
their traditions with me and with their classmates.
Showing videos about powwows was also engaging for them. One
student was very interested in traditional Blackfoot and Cree music and
was excited to share his knowledge about it.
Giving them the chance to research specific dances will be interesting for
them, they knew a bit about most of the dances already.

What Didn’t The book was not as interesting or important as I thought it would be. I
Work wouldn’t say that it was a waste of time, but I think students would have
benefitted just as much from having that time to work on their research.

What I Would I would skip the book or find a more informational book. I would also get
Change some books about powwows for them to use in their research instead of
just providing websites. This would be easier without following covid
protocols.