📖STANDARD
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
7th-8th Diné History Standards – I will understand historical/factual events, people and symbols that influence my family. Concept 1.PO2. I will identify an event relating to important people in Diné history.
⏰LESSON TIME
90 minutes including time for research
📃SUMMARY
Vocabulary and historical events key to Navajo sheep farming are provided in a slide presentation. Students learn more about Navajo agriculture and history through a video, their own research, and a game combining math and history. Academic vocabulary is at the 7th grade level.
📚Lesson
Navajo-Churros: America’s First Domestic Sheep
Introduce sheep farming in Navajo and southwest history with this presentation, for an editable Google slides version, go here. The same presentation as a PowerPoint is found here. Students will learn vocabulary words related to general livestock farming and specifically to sheep.
VIDEO: Irene’s Churro Lambs
YouTube video: Irene’s Churro Lambs
Research and Writing Assignments
This assignment has two parts. In the first part, students research one of these events in history to learn more about it. They locate a primary source and a secondary source with citations, and then write an objective summary. In Part B, students select two research questions of interest, from a list provided, and conduct research to find the answers. A Google doc of the assignment can be found here.
Answer key for Part B can be found here.
Differentiated Instruction: Accommodations for learners with special needs
For the assignment above, for learners with special needs, you may wish to assign only one of the two parts. Generally, we would assign Part B, finding the answers to research questions. This is also a modification for students who are English language learners.
GAME: Making Camp Navajo LIFE Module
Students can play the three Making Camp Navajo modules for 20 minutes. The following instructions can be copied into Google classroom, pasted into a Zoom chat or given in class.
Go to Making Camp Navajo https://www.7generationgames.com/making_camp_navajo
Play through until you reach the LIFE tab and play all of the activities you find there.
These are the three activities you will play
- Lots of Lambs
- The Many Uses of Sheep
- Navajo Weaving
ASSESSMENT
This lesson includes three forms of assessment
- Objective Summary of Research (written assignment)
- Research to answer questions on an event with primary/secondary sources
- Making Camp Navajo Gameplay
Making Camp Navajo – Student Activities completed can be seen in the Making Camp Navajo teacher reports
- Assessment in lamb care/lambing season. (True or False)
- Assessment in the Many Uses of Sheep for Navajo history. (Matching game)
- Students can screenshot a picture of their rug design, like below.
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