Heritage Comes Alive

The Native American Tribe that my group and I did research on was the Mohawk Tribe. My mother's side of the family is actually from the Mohawk Tribe. My great great grandmother was 100 percent Native American so I had a pretty solid background on the Mohawk Tribe. I chose this group because I wanted to learn more about my own heritage. Before the project I knew that the Mohawk Tribe was the first Native American's founded in New York State. I also knew that they created the Mohawk hair style and look. From this project I learned that the women of the tribe elected the Chief of the tribe. The women were also the gardeners and harvested all of the food. This included the "Three Sisters" while the men went hunting for the meat. The women were basically in charge of the entire tribe.

This jigsaw project taught me how important it is to use PIGS Face-to-Face interaction because it allows all of the students to have equal opportunities while working on the project. The students also developed their personal accountability. They will also understand the concept that if they fail or do not contribute to the group project then their classmates will fail too. This gives all of the students motivation to work harder because they are not just responsible for their grades but also their team members. The jigsaw also helps the student develop their meta-cognition because they are going beyond the knowledge and comprehension levels. They advance to the evaluation level because they are solving and evaluating the jigsaw outcomes. 

If I were to teach this to the 4th grade students, I would have easier questions for the students to answer. I would defiantly have the computers already available with the information on it. Meaning that they would not have to google and research everything on their own. Instead the website and information will be there for the students. I would also have a specific worksheet made as a guideline for the students to use. Once the students are done working with their expert groups I would briefly look at their worksheets to see if they all have the same information. This way when the students get into their base groups then I know that all of the same information is being taught. During these presentations within the base groups, I would also have another worksheet for the students to fill out while they are following along. Finally, I would have a self-evaluation and peer-evaluation rubric for them to fill out. This way they are evaluating their work and their group members work. All of these adaptions are important because it breaks the work into smaller and easier pieces for every student to understand.

National Content Standard

NCSS Standards

II. Time, Continuity, and Change

Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ways human beings view themselves in and over time, so that the learner can:

a.   Demonstrate an understanding that different people may describe the same event or

     situation in diverse ways, citing reasons for the differences in views.

b.   Demonstrate an ability to use correctly vocabulary associated with time, such as

     past, present, future, and long ago; read and construct simple timelines; identify      

     examples of change; and recognize examples of cause and effect relationships.

c.   Compare and contrast different stories or accounts about past events, people,

                places, or situations, identifying how they contribute to our understanding of the

     past.

e.   Demonstrate an understanding that people in different times and places view the

     world differently.

VI. Power, Authority, and Governance

Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance, so that the learner can:

         c.   Give examples of how government does or does not provide for the needs and

     wants of people, establish order and security, and manage conflict.

d.   Recognize how groups and organizations encourage unity and deal with diversity to      

     maintain order and security.

h.   Recognize and give examples of the tensions between the wants and needs of

     individuals and groups, and concepts such as fairness, equity, and justice.

VII. Production, Distribution, and Consumption

Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people organize for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, so that the learner can:

         h.   Describe the relationship of price to supply and demand.

New York State Learning Standard(s):

SS1: History of the United States and New York: use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

Key Idea: SS1.4:  The skills of historical analysis include the ability to: explain the significance of historical evidence; weigh the importance, reliability, and validity of evidence; understand the concept of multiple causation; understand the importance of changing and competing interpretations of different historical developments.

Performance Indicators:

SS1.E.4A: Students consider different interpretations of key events and/or issues in history and understand the differences in these accounts.

SS1.E.4C: Students view historic events through the eyes of those who were there, as shown in their art, writings, music, and artifacts.

Here are the links of my group's work:

Mohawk Tribe presentation
Mohawk Tribe Jigsaw