Indigenized Slam Poetry

Kelly and I sat down to talk about the way in which we would assess the final project, or slam poem.  While discussing, we had a great discussion about what it was we wanted students to get out of participating in our project. We realized quickly we would need three separate rubrics; one for the poem itself, one for the presentation , and one for the video component. When discussing the poem itself, we discussed that we wanted students to be assessed on how well they convey their Call to Action in their poem.  We created a hand out that will hopefully help scaffold the students through the process of writing a slam poem.  We included words we wanted the students to use, poetic devices, their personal connection to the call to action as well as how the call aids in reconciliation.  Students will be asked to add a personal connection to the call to action they focus on. The presentation rubric will involve tone, clarity, volume, eye contact, etc.  We decided t...

Over the past two weeks we have had two knowledge keepers into our classes to teach about the importance of the drum and drumming in indigenous culture.  Last week we welcomed Brother Rick Peter of Cowichan Nation to our school to teach about the importance of the drum.  Brother Rick is also part of our Elder in Residence program at two schools in our school district. Much of what he taught was about the respect for the drum. His teachings included the knowledge that at one point, everything the drum is made of, was living.  He teaches this to help students understand the respect needed for the drum. With Brother Rick, the students participated in singing the Hych'ka song as well as Happy Birthday. Next, we welcomed Alana Johnson, Haida Nation, to come participate in drumming in our classes.  We thought it was best to give students two different styles and different learning opportunities for drumming as they will be using drumming in their final project. Alana wor...