Sample Lesson Plan
Week 6 Monday: The Birchbark House (1999) by Louise Erdrich Ch. 7 - Ch. 10 [P]
Learning Objectives:
Students will...
Identify and analyze moments of racial/cultural description in Little House on the Prairie and The Birchbark House
Use a comparative approach to consider different presentations of Native American culture
Discuss the impact of cultural depictions in children’s literature
Reading Little House on the Prairie (10 mins)
Pass out chapter 11 of Little House on the Prairie, “Indians in the House.” Students read individually (10 minutes)
Offer context for LHP and its characters.
Small Group Discussion Round 1: Little House on the Prairie (15 mins)
Sort students into 5 small groups of 4-5 people. As a group, they will do/discuss the following:
As a group, look back through the chapter, and underline or highlight text that is describing the Native American men.
Share with your group some of the descriptive language that stands out to you. Based on this language and the scene as a whole, how are Native Americans being represented in Little House on the Prairie?
If you were a child unfamiliar with Native American Culture, how would this chapter impact your perception of Native Americans?
Large group discussion (10 mins)
Small groups share out key discussion points with the class.
Small Group Discussion Round 2: The Birchbark House (15 mins)
Discussing the relationship between The Birchbark House and the Little House series, Louise Erdrich says, “I didn’t write this book as an answer (to the Little House books) but hope it will be perceived as an enlargement of the view encompassed in Laura’s world.” In your experience with The Birchbark House, how does it serve as an “enlargement” of the view presented in Little House on the Prairie?
With the descriptive words and phrases that you identified from Ch. 11 in Little House on the Prairie in mind, individually identify specific passages or quotes from The Birchbark House that you feel “respond” to the depictions of Native Americans in Little House. Once you’ve taken a couple of minutes to identify the passages, share them with your group and explain how you think your selected quote responds to Little House.
Large group discussion (25 mins)
Begin with the questions above, then add:
Little House on the Prairie is an often-taught book, especially in the Midwest, and it isn’t met with much objection. Why do you think this is the case?
How could a text like Little House on the Prairie be used in a classroom productively?
What do we gain by looking at these texts together?
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