Pieces of a puzzle

Native American Indian Tribes

Cooperative Learning

As a graduate student of education, I have learned about cooperative learning which is a teaching strategy where small groups of students with varying levels of ability use a wide variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Although I have learned about cooperative learning, it wasn’t until Dr. Smirnova assigned the class a jigsaw activity that I was able to really understand how beneficial cooperative leaning can be.

              Jigsaw is a type of cooperative learning activity that we used in class to enhance our knowledge and understanding of Native American Indian Tribes. I worked with four classmates; each of us had a different tribe that we were required to gather information on so we could teach our group members. By doing this, we were all able to get a thorough understanding of all the different tribes, not just the one that we researched. Often, when students are assigned cooperative learning activities, there are many complaints amongst the group members. This is because some group members slack off while others do all the work. However, the Jigsaw activity is uniquely designed so that every group member is responsible for teaching their topic and also for their own learning which is why it is a great activity to use in the classroom. Another part of this strategy that we used was numbered heads which is when students create questions that others have to answer. This is an excellent way to assess students learning.

Content  Knowledge

Prior to completing this activity, I did not know much about Native American Indian tribes, I had forgotten most of what I learned as a student in elementary school. This activity increased my interest and understanding of Native Americans. I now know many interesting details of the Iroquois, Muscogee, Tlingit, Lakota, and the Dine Indian tribes including similarities and differences. I learned that in each of the tribes, men typically wore simple clothing made of breech cloth for various occasions. A notable distinction was that in the Tlingit tribe, the men wore more elaborate and decorative outfits for special occasions. The jigsaw activity was especially beneficial for me because it increased my understanding of how geography influenced each of the Indian tribes. I learned that their culture was affected by the environment and resources that were available to them. For example, the Lokota tribe relied on hunting buffalo in which they used for food and shelter. To do this, they followed the seasonal migration of the buffalo and as a result, they were constantly on the move. They had to design their “houses” so they could be put up and taken down quickly. The Mucogee, Iroquois, and Dine tribes also hunted, but they relied predominantly on farming for food because of the fertile land that their villages surrounded.

There were various factors that allowed me to gain this new knowledge. Specifically, I believe much of the credit goes to my group as a whole .I believe we did a very good job of researching, designing handouts, and teaching each other. To help us communicate our findings each of us used Google docs and we would constantly update it, if we found new or relevant information. The collaboration in the group was excellent. Each of us thoroughly researched our assigned tribe and did a great job of clearly presenting the information. Additionally, the websites that Dr. Smirnova provided definitely added to my learning because of all the information they contained. I used each of the websites to gather information and I also saved them because they are good resources that I would give to students. Furthermore, being provided the opportunity to teach led to my understanding of the topic. Being able to teach, shows that you have a good understanding of a topic.

Pedagogical Knowledge

Jigsaw really helped to develop my general pedagogical knowledge because I was provided with an opportunity to practice teaching. When it was my turn to present the information that I found, I had to find a way to convey that information in a clear and understandable way. I had to take “control” over the group and be responsible for my classmates learning. I decided to use a handout that I created on Microsoft publisher to add to my presentation. I had never used publisher before, but I thought this was the perfect opportunity to learn and it was a way to keep my group members engaged and interested in what I had to say. Additionally, jigsaw increased my pedagogical content knowledge because I’m now familiar with a new activity that I can use with students to teach various topics. This was a worthwhile learning experience, not only did I learn a lot from it, but I also feel much more comfortable and confidant to teach this topic to students.

Modifications for different grade levels (Grade 2)

If I were to use this same activity with a second grade class, I would make modifications. Specifically, instead of having students responsible for five different tribes, I would have each of  the students (still in groups of about five) research and learn about one tribe. However, each student would contribute a different part, such as culture, food, clothing and etc… The reason for this specific adaptation is because the students are younger and it will be easier for them to understand and learn if they focus on one tribe at a time.

Generalization

A generalization is a broad statement that applies to many different ideas. For this activity, a generalization that students could have about Native Americans is that depending on where they settled, depended on their primary food source. If a tribe was dependent on farming and bad weather destroyed their crops, they would have to adapt to the environment so they could have an additional food source

Standards and Geography

The national discipline standards that would be addressed are history and geography. The New York state standard that would be addressed is history of the united stated and New York and also geography. These standards would be addressed because the topic is Native Americans which is addressed in history of the United States. Students would learn geography in a Native American lesson because they would learn that their culture was greatly affected by their environment. They will learn how some Indian tribes like the Iroquois were farming people because of the fertile land that they settled on and how other tribes like the Lakota Indians were frequently on the move because their  cultured revolved around the buffalo.