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November 21, 2013

Grade 1: The Moccasins Lesson Plan

Grade/Subject: Grade 1 ELA

Date: Nov. 21, 2013

Lesson Duration: 85 min (10:30 11:55)

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES

General Learning Outcomes:
GLO 2: Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to comprehend and respond personally and critically to oral,
print and other media texts. (Create meaning from texts)
GLO 5: Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and represent to respect, support and collaborate with others. (Respect Others
and Strengthen Community)
Specific Learning Outcomes:
2.2 Experience Various Texts
-Students will relate aspects of stories and characters to personal feelings and experiences
2.2 Construct Meaning From Texts
-Students will tell what was liked or disliked about oral, print and other media texts
-Students will tell, represent or write about experiences similar or related to those in oral, print and other media texts
2.3 Understand Techniques and Elements
-Students will know that stories have beginnings, middles and endings
3.3 Organize information
-Students will identify or categorize information according to sequence, or similarities and differences
- Students will tell what characters do or what happens to them in a variety of oral, print and other media texts
5.1 Appreciate Diversity
-Students will share personal experiences and family traditions related to oral, print and other media texts
5.1 Relate Texts to Culture
-Students will talk about other times, places and people after exploring oral, print and other media texts from various communities
Students will:
- identify what they liked about the story
-make connections between their own experiences and the experiences of the main character in The Moccasins.
-make connections between the boys family his experiences in The Moccasins to personal familial experiences.
-compare and contrast their family to the family of the little boy in The Moccasins.
-infer how the boy was feeling at different parts of the story.
-describe the main sequence of events in the story )beginning, middle, end).
-describe similarities between their own familial experiences and traditions with those portrayed in The Moccasins.
-identify similar topics and ideas within the story The Moccasins and their own lives such as family, pride, ancestry, love etc.

Students should understand that:

-we are all different and come from different families and different backgrounds, but we share similar
feelings, wants, and needs.
-First Nations peoples are an important part of Albertas past and present.
-Children will think about how to be happy with themselves and what they are proud about in their family.
ASSESSMENTS

November 21, 2013

Key Questions:

How is your family alike/unlike the family in The Moccasins?

How can you relate to the boy in the story?
How was the boy feeling at the beginning of the story, in the middle and at the end?
What makes you feel warm and loved?
What makes you proud to be you?
Retell the story in your own words: describe the main characters, what happens in the story and how the main character
interacts with the other characters in the story.
What is a foster parent? How does having a foster mom affect the main characters ideas about himself? How do the
foster mother and boy help him to find pride in his native heritage?
What is the best gift you have ever received from a family member? Why did it mean so much to you?
How does your family shape who you are? How does your family make you proud to be you? In what ways does your
family celebrate your heritage / culture? Do these things make you feel proud?
What happened in the beginning, the middle and the end of the story?
LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED
Resource #1: Einarson, Earl. The Moccasins. Penticton, B.C.: Theytus Books, 2008. Print.
Resource #2: "English Language Arts." English Language Arts (K-9). Government of Alberta: Alberta Learning, Jan. 2000. Web.
13 Aug. 2013. <education.alberta.ca/media/450519/elak-9.pdf>.
Resource #3: "Illustrative Examples for English Language Arts Grade 1." Government of Alberta: Alberta Learning, Jan. 2000.
Web. 13 Sept. 2013. <education.alberta.ca/media/307134/grade1.pdf>.
Resource #4: Indian Education for All: Model Teaching Units Language Arts Elementary Level Volume 1. Montana Office of
Public Instruction: Office of Public Instruction, Indian Education for All. Revised 2013. Pages 78-91. Web. 23. Oct.
2013. <http://opi.mt.gov/PDF/IndianEd/Search/Language%20Arts/Elementary_All_Units.pdf>
Resource #5: "Making Moccasins." Alanna Crop Eared Wolf. June 4, 2013. Web. October 21, 2013.
<http://142.66.3.210/SuperContainer/RawData/FNMIDatabase/1815/file1/Ed%203700%20Unit%20Plan
%20Package.pdf?a=1>.
Resource #6:http://www.gfps.k12.mt.us/sites/default/files/1st%20grade%20The%20Moccasin%20final%20copy.pdf
Resource #7:http://education.alberta.ca/media/307199/words.pdf
Resource #8: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Red+Oh+Canada&sm=3 Red Bull Singers Oh Canada

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

-2 Worksheets!!!

- notebook lesson

PROCEDURE

Introduction (5 min.):
Hook/Attention Grabber: Students sitting in desks. Show students the cover of The Moccasins by Earl
Einarson have them make predictions about the book. (3 min)
After gathering some student responses, read the dedication. Take a few minutes to talk about the meaning
of the word dedication asking what does it mean when someone dedicates a book or a performance to
someone else? (Discuss the concept of honoring them.) Ask students what a Foster Mother is. Explain
that sometimes children cannot get all that they need to be happy and healthy living with their real parents,
so foster parents take care of them and give them the things that they need to grow up happy and healthy.
Sometimes children will be with a foster parent for only a little while, sometimes longer. Ask students to
predict what the book is about now.
Reveal the Title of the book. Review meaning of the word moccasinsshow examples. Moccasins are a
type of shoe/footwear worn traditionally by First nations people in the past and sometimes today.
Predict what the story will be about: share your prediction with your partner.
Assessment of Prior Knowledge: Group discussion on ideas raised in the book such as foster families,
moccasins, First Nations if needed (more explanation / development to come later).

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Expectations for Learning and Behavior: Listen carefully to story. Sitting Criss Cross Applesauce. Think
about how family is the same as the one in the story or different. Think about how the little boy feels in the
story.
Body

Learning Activity #1 (10 min): Read The Moccasins without stopping so students can enjoy.
Ask students what they thought of the book.
Ask:
Who is this book about?
Where does he live? (Be prepared to discuss the meaning of foster homes, loving second parents who
provide children love and a home during a time when their parents cant.)
What clues tell you that this story happened over many years and not all at once? (the boy grew into a man)
What is the special gift the boys foster mother gives to him?
How does that gift make him feel? (warm, loved, safe)
What happens to his special gift?
Do you think the baby will feel warm and loved when hes old enough to wear the moccasins? Why do you
think that?
Send Students Back to their desks to complete 3 part story chart.
Learning Activity #2 (5 min): First Nations Round Dance and The Medicine Circle
Have Students join you on the carpet. Stand in a circle holding hands. Tell them that we are going to listen
to a round dance which is a First Nations song that is sung by the Red Bull Singers (from Saskatchewan
Family of Canadian First Nations Singers). What is ROUND (circle). Tell children that we are going
to walk in a circle while we listen to the song. *Set expectations: not too fast, slowly and not bumping into
each other. Part way through we might switch direction, so be ready.
Have students sit down in a circle facing whiteboard. Remind them of the storyteller that they had a few
weeks ago. Talk about the Medicine Wheel and how it represents the circle of life yellow is spring, young
age, red is summer, middle life, black fall, is older life, White is winter, OLD age. Ask how this story is sort
of like a wheel (man starts out as a young child, grows up, becomes a man, and then has his own baby).

Learning Activity #3 (15 min): Story Chart

Ask a few students to retell the story in their own words. Students draw or write what happened in the
beginning, middle and end of the book. Students will record their responses to the text The Moccasins on
worksheet provided. Students can draw or write.
In the BEGINNING

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And THEN
At the END.
re-read the story and ask questions on each page.
Learning Activity #4 (15): Re-read Book and Dig for Details.
Explain that I will be asking questions on EACH page, so students need to pay attention. Start at front of
room, then circulate as I read and ask questions.
Page 1: review meaning of foster as in foster mother and foster brothers. (Differing family structures)
Interpret characters motivation: Why do you think the boy waits for his foster brothers to fall asleep before
falling asleep himself?
Page 2: Noting details: Tell some of the ways the author described the moccasins. (made of tanned hide,
beaded pattern on top, smelled good). These details help us picture the moccasins in our minds even without
pictures.
Recall: How does the character feel in them? (warm and loved, proud, safe) Share with a partner a time
when you felt warm and loved.
Page 3: Interpret characters motivation: Why does he wear his moccasins every day?
Make inferences: How old is the boy? (answers will vary: old enough to sleep in a bed and to play marbles,
but young enough to be carried to bed.)
Page 4: Noting details: How did the foster mother fix the moccasins? (needle and buckskin) Why did she
use buckskin? (that is what the moccasins were sewn with originally)
Connect: think of an item of clothing that you outgrew and had to put away. How did you feel about that?
Share with your partner.
Page 5: Make inferences: How much time has passed in the story? How do you know? (accept reasonable
answers; the boy is now a grown man and a father)
Page 6: Interpret characters motivation: Why did the man put the box on a shelf above the crib? (answers
varybecause the moccasins were special to him, he wanted to save them for his son, he wanted to be
reminded of how he felt in the moccasins, too big for baby right now)
Page 7: Note details: What will the man tell his son about the moccasins?
Make inferences: How old will the boy be before he can wear the moccasins? How do you know? (This
answer will be related to the answer to the question on page 3)
Learning Activity #3 (10 min.): Students will draw / design a pair of moccasins
Talk about designs from nature.
Talk about patterns.
Talk about pictures that mean something sun means you like summer or flowers means you like flowers.
Draw something about you, something that makes you happy about yourself or something that you are

November 21, 2013

proud of.
Ask students to draw rough draft in pencil before they colour and then put up their hand for you to check
before they colour.
Learning Activity #4 (20 min): Students will finish designing / colouring their moccasins
Learning Activity #4 (SPONGE) (X min): Students will draw a picture of their family on the back of their
sheet.
Closure (5 min.):
Consolidation/Assessment of Learning / Transition To Next Lesson: Students can share their moccasin
designs with the class. As a class, students will discuss what they learned about themselves and about others
from reading The Moccasins.
Closing Procedures: clean up, sit quietly at desks, dismissal.

Rationale:
I chose to use this ELA lesson in my portfolio as it shows my ability to integrate FNMI
content into other subjects. This was one of my favorite lessons and I believe that it was
very meaningful for some of my students who are FNMI. This was actually a very deep
lesson and it dealt with many complicated issues ranging from race and identity issues,
how families are different (foster mom) to the challenges of growing up. Teaching
about sensisitve topics like these displays my abilities to teach with finesse even when
faced with difficult, challenging, sensitive, vague, or ambiguous topics.