Working with Chyanne on
her project for NHD was a most satisfying experience. She is
organized and eager to learn, to a remarkable degree. I had wanted
to do a NHD project for quite a while and this year decided to take
the plunge. I sent information around to the teachers and had a
display set up for Parents’ Night in November. It occurred to me
that a young man (CLVL graduate) who was subbing here while he was
job-hunting (he was a Social Studies major) might like to be
involved. He was quite skeptical about this kind of project, but
said he’d help if I got the kids together. As it happened, he may
been right….although I hate to admit it. I visited Social Studies
classrooms before Winter Break to introduce this activity and as a
part of my presentation, showed five minutes of the NHD DVD. We
discussed the DVD, specifically, different students’ backgrounds and
their choices of topics. After we did a brief brain-storming
activity around this year’s theme of “Conflict and Compromise,” I
suggested some examples of topics. I had already spoken with a
senior student about a project she had begun last year on Mary
Jemison and told her I thought this would fit nicely with the
theme. I spelled out requirements and deadlines in letters I sent
home with the small group I eventually gathered up with in January.
The group was comprised of several 6th grade girls and
the senior girl. The younger students seemed to employ quite a bit
of “magical thinking” as in “How much money will we win? Where are
we going?” without wanting to address what it would take to get us
there.
The girls had enjoyed
Voyage of the Mimi I and II; an interdisciplinary video series
they had viewed Social Studies 6. One aspect of the program that
grabbed everyone’s interest was the issue of looting and the black
market sale of archeological artifacts. Does that happen around
here? I told them about museums and legal repatriation of Native
American artifacts. This led to a discussion about the cooperation
shown in the program between the scientists from the U.S. and
Mexico. The students had trouble settling in and in the end all
but one of the 6th grade girls told me their parents
didn’t think they had time for this, so I decided to focus my
energies on the one remaining student, Chyanne. Once we got
underway, we met at least once a day to discuss her project. The
topic itself sprang from her study in 6th grade Social
Studies of the Maya and Mexican/Aztecs. This is a subject area in
which I am fairly well-versed having taught a Senior English Seminar
for six years titled “Introduction to Mesoamerican Literature” and
studied with Professor Dennis Tedlock at SUNY Buffalo, a well-known
Mayanist. Chyanne and I talked quite a bit about what happened to
the native peoples of Mesoamerica when Spanish conquistadors
arrived.
I suggested researching
Dona Marina, Cortes’s, translator and adviser, as someone who dealt
with a great deal of conflict and compromise. Together, Chyanne and
I worked hard at getting to know each other and planning the board.
I doubt this will always the case, but we seemed to be on the same
wavelength most of the time. She and her sister are quite
interested in Sacagawea, so we talked about the role of native women
who risk a great deal to become guides, and more, for male
outsiders. Pocahontas could fall into this category. From there,
the discussion spun out to the iconic figure of the “Indian
Princess.”
The senior girl has
always had trouble with deadlines, and once again, she couldn’t
manage getting paperwork in to me on time, no matter how often I
reminded her. I feel badly but hope she learns her lesson soon,
Chyanne and I worked hard
on the annotated bibliography and process paper and made a kind of
reward game out of finishing up a writing task (not her first
choice), before working on the exhibit board; this was obviously
what she enjoyed the most.
Our research took us to
Internet, as well as to my own books. We discovered that this
negative image of Dona Maria/La Malinche grew out of a period of
strong Mexican nationalism, when all associations with Spain were
eschewed. In the end, we both felt sympathy for this woman, whose
death at a young age may very well been a result of a European
contagion.
Sadly, after making many
arrangements for transportation, driving was impossible on the day
of the competition. It’s hard to say who was more disappointed:
Chyanne or I.
But! We are resilient!
By now, we’ve had a
chance to recover and we plan to show her project to the NHD
coordinator to gain some suggestions.
What worked? A shared
sense of enthusiasm and my accessibility…because I am not tied to a
classroom schedule and don’t have duties after school, I can shape
my schedule to theirs. Also, as a librarian, I regard myself as a
decent researcher. I think for beginners the exhibit board is a
good category because it provides an opportunity to synthesize their
research.
What would I do
differently? I would definitely start earlier and hold kids more
accountable. I would also try to build on my relationship with our
Social Studies teachers. I have heard that most NHD projects
involve a Social Studies teacher. I plan to request field trip
funding for 2009 in the event more students become involved.
Finally, I think I would probably encourage students to pick a topic
with a strong tie to U.S. History, since this is the history that
most concerns the TAH grant. That said, I don’t think a broader
perspective is always a bad thing.
Candace
Broughton Write-up in Word
