Recommended Literature
#Not Your Princess
#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American WomenEdited by Lisa Charleyboy and Marybeth Leatherdale Published in 2017 by Annick PressIn her Foreword to #NotYour ...
7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga
7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga Written by David Alexander Robertson and Illustrated by Scott B. Henderson Published in 2012 by Highwater Press (Links to an e ...
A Day with Yayah
Written by Nicola I. Campbell and Illustrated by Julie FlettPublished November 2017 by Tradewind Books (Links to an external site.) In A Day with Yayah, Nicola ...
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
A Mind Spread Out on the GroundWritten by Alicia ElliottPublished in 2019 by Penguin Random House Canada The title of Alicia Elliott’s collection of essays, A M ...
All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward
All Our Relations: Finding the Path ForwardWritten by Tanya TalagaPublished in 2018 by House of Anansi Press Tanya Talaga, is the author of Seven Fallen Feather ...
Bearskin Diary
Bearskin DiaryWritten by Carol Rose Goldeneagle (Daniels)Published in 2015 by Nightwood Editions Sandy Pelly was adopted into a Ukrainian family when she was ta ...
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of PlantsWritten by Robin Wall KimmererPublished in 2013 by Milkweed Editions Th ...
Strategies for Teaching
Book Clubs
Two defining principles of book clubs are choice and ownership. Book clubs are “a space where a specific group of individuals meet physically and/or virtually f ...
Creation Stories
Creation Stories- Oposenta (Walter Paul) from Sitansisk (St. Mary’s First Nation). A storyteller shares a creation story to help explain to ...
Graphic Novels and Comics
Graphic novels are a subgenre of comics. They combine elements of prose, picture books, and film by telling a story through text, dialogue, and illustrations th ...
Independent Reading
“Students need to spend a concentrated amount of time actually reading, at school and at home. They need to read books that they can read, and they need time de ...
Picture Books in Grades 6-12
Picture books are no longer considered exclusively for use with young, early readers. They are growing in popularity as a strategy for engaging a wider, and ol ...
Storytelling
Storytelling- Oposenta (Walter Paul), from Sitansisk (St. Mary’s First Nation)Whenever storytelling happens, the storyteller feels a personal connection an ...
Teacher-Led Interactive Read-Alouds
“Effective read-alouds are complex instructional interactions that require thoughtful preparation and deep understanding of a text. Not all read-alouds are crea ...
Activities for the Classroom
Activating Background Knowledge
Create an Anticipation Guide to encourage students to rate their understanding of and beliefs about key themes and concepts from the book. Because Anticipation ...
Chalk Talk
Use the Chalk Talk (Links to an external site.) strategy to engage small groups of students in silent conversations. Students can be invited to respond to quest ...
Chat Stations
Create discussion stations, or chat stations, for students to rotate through and discuss various topics related to the text. Students can be asked to respond to ...
Creating a Graffiti Wall
Create a designated space in the classroom (white board, chalk board, bulletin board, blank wall, etc.) for students to record quotations from the book that res ...
Creating Connections Across Texts: Developing Text Sets
After reading and discussing the chosen text, select additional texts to share with students and invite them to identify connections that can be made between te ...
Creating Visual Responses to Reading
Students can create a One-Pager, a combination of images and words, to reveal their thoughts, reactions, and responses about the book. These can be as open or a ...
Elder Presentation
Each class can read and discuss the text separately and then collaborate virtually to generate questions they would like to ask the Elder.One participating teac ...
Examining Illustrations
Invite students in a large group discussion or partner talk to take a closer look at the illustrations in the picture book. This can be done in a variety of way ...
Exploring Author’s Craft
Invite students to work in groups to review the text and answer the question, “What do you notice about the author’s craft?” Come together as a large group to c ...