ALASKA STATEHOOD: A TEACHING GUIDE INTEGRATING HISTORY, LANGUAGE ARTS & FINE ARTS TABLE OF CONTENTS

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1 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Welcome Introduction to Using the Arts to Teach Statehood History - How this Guide Addresses Alaska State Standards - Celebrating Statehood Tundra Style DVD Sample of Helpful Questions for Students INTRODUCING STUDENTS TO ALASKA STATEHOOD HISTORY A Collection of Alaska Statehood History Facts Lesson: What s A Territory? What s A State? What s Alaska? Handout: What s A Territory? Lesson: The Big Important History of Alaska Handout: The Big Important History of Alaska Lesson: The Story of Alaska s Flag Handout: The Story of Alaska s Flag PROCESS DRAMA: CREATING AN ALASKAN CONSTITUTION Lesson: Yup ik Constitution Process Drama Session 1 Handout: Yup ik Constitutional Delegate Autobiography Lesson: Yup ik Constitution Process Drama Session 2 Lesson: Yup ik Constitution Process Drama Session 3 Handout: The Constitution As It s Written Lesson: Yup ik Constitution Process Drama Session 4 Lesson: Yup ik Constitution Process Drama Session 5 Handout: Our Yup ik Constitutional Article CONDUCTING A COMMUNITY INTERVIEW WITH AN ELDER/LEADER Essential Interview Questions How to Conduct Your Community Interview CREATING AN ARTS EVENT BASED ON INTERVIEWS Lesson: Found Poem Performance Lesson: Gestures from the Past Lesson: Village Voices, A Talking Slideshow Lesson: A New Alaska Flag Song Handout: The Alaska Flag Song ADDITIONAL ARTS-BASED ALASKA STATEHOOD HISTORY LESSONS Visual Arts Lesson: America My Land, Your Land, Our Land Handout: Elements & Principles of Visual Art Yup ik Dance Lesson: Dancing With Yup ik Elders 50 YEARS LATER: Yup ik Elder Interviews from & Images from LKSD's CELEBRATING STATEHOOD TUNDRA STYLE Lena Atti, Kwigillingok Anna Beavers, Goodnews Bay Fritz Beebe, Sr., Eek Irvin Brink, Sr., Kasigluk Cingliaq Gregory, Bethel

2 Vernon Kinegak, Bethel Chris & Maria Larson, Napaskiak Susan Murphy, Bethel Alexie Nicholai, Napaskiak Andy Patrick, Newtok Nick Pavilla, Sr., Atmautluak Roland Phillip, Kwigillingok Elias Venes, Bethel ASSESSMENTS, RESOURCES, & GLOSSARY Assessment Form 1 Assessment Form 2 Basic Drama Activities Glossary Resources for Statehood History & Arts Education

3 Waqaa! Camai! Welcome! INTRODUCTION & HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE The strategies and lessons in this Alaska Statehood guide are founded on the concept of artsbased education and arts integration - using drama, music, dance, and visual arts to teach academic content in other disciplines. The Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) Literacy Through the Arts Program created this thematic curriculum in , in celebration of the 50 th anniversary year of Alaska s statehood. The project, which culminated in a grand theatrical performance in Bethel, televised on 360 North, was funded by the Alaska Humanities Forum and the Rasmuson Foundation. This guide was designed for easy use by K-12 teachers, in and outside of Alaska. The lesson plans in Section 3 provide simple ways to introduce the topic of Alaska statehood to students in various grades. After you have established an understanding of the basic vocabulary of statehood events, share the enclosed DVD with students. These student performances can spark valuable discussions about the social, political, cultural, and economic issues of the statehood movement. DVD study questions appear in this Guide to initiate those discussions. To go further, use this Guide to create a unique collaboration between your students and the world around them: try a community interview with a local Elder or leader, about the days of Alaska s statehood. Conduct the interview in Yup ik or in English, based on the comfort level of the Elder. By talking with a local figure about his or her experience of history, students discover personalized, place-based meaning and relevance in academic content which some may perceive as distant and unrelated to life in the local region. We recommend that, if possible, you invite a Teaching Artist or district Arts Specialist to help implement and enrich the lessons. A visiting artist can support you by teaching the basics of his/her art form and help you and your students create performance pieces based on the statehood experience. For yuraq (Yup ik dance), a local Arts Specialist who is knowledgeable about drum and dance can help your students create original songs and gestures based on Elder interviews. This Teaching Guide uses the following sequence to teach statehood history in a dynamic, exciting, memorable way: 1) Use the arts to teach students about Alaska s statehood. Arts-based approaches include: - Process Drama (for older, more advanced students) - Tableaux (for younger students) - Song and Dance (for all age levels) 2) Arrange for your class to interview one or more local Elders or community leaders who witnessed Alaska s shift from territorial status to statehood. In LKSD, we sought out Elders who might offer varied perspectives on the positive and negative impacts of statehood in their lives and communities. We were interested in their reflections on the relevance of statehood status to Alaska Native citizens in western Alaska in the 1950s.

4 3) Discuss with your class the upcoming Elder/leader interview(s). Assuming that your class has initiated learning about the statehood topic, develop a list of interesting questions that relates to statehood. (You ll find a sample list of questions in this Guide to get you started.) 4) Interview the Elder/community member along with your students, and with an interpreter if necessary for conducting the interview in Yup ik. Record the session as you go. Transcribe that recording into a text document. (Again, inside this Guide, you ll find helpful tips for interviewing and recording.) 5) Now, using the lessons in this Guide and the help of Arts Specialist(s), interpret the transcribed interview into a student performance or artistic creation drama, dance, music, and/or visual arts. 6) Allow students to share their works of art before an audience of their peers and/or parents and their community. Document this performance using whatever technology is available, and archive it in the school library for future use by students learning about statehood. The arts-focused lesson plan format used in this Guide follows the template adopted by the Alaska Arts Education Consortium over a seven-year period of summer institutes involving lesson planning. The AAEC shares a clearinghouse of arts-based lessons which can be found at As you use this Guide, you may want to refer to the glossary at the back for definitions and some fundamental classroom arts experiences that activate arts learning. You will also find a list of resources for further study. We hope you ll put these lessons and strategies to use in your classroom, and share your experience with colleagues and community members. The Literacy Through the Arts Program Lower Kuskokwim School District Bethel, Alaska 2009

5 Found Poem Performance Level: any grade level LESSON SUMMARY Students and teacher create a found poem based on a recorded interview with a community elder. Using the new poem, the student ensemble of actors uses gesture, sound, and movement to create a simple version of the story of the elder. ESTIMATED TIME One session 30+ minutes LESSON FOCUS Drama Students perform images from an elder interview at Joann Alexie Memorial School in Atmautluak, Alaska. ART CONCEPTS/ SKILLS Tableau Gesture Sound Operative words MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE(S) Spatial, Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal TRADITIONAL/ CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE Students will discover and reinterpret the traditional and cultural knowledge and experience of one elder from their community. MATERIALS/EQUIPMENT For whole class to share: -Written transcription of community member interview, edited (you may choose to simply use one particular section of the interview if you like) strong images, strong storytelling. Make that new edited interview into its own document. **For younger levels or for a faster lesson you might choose to also select five key images ahead of time, rather than asking students to do so. (See Art Activity section for details.) TEACHER PREPARATION BEFORE LESSON - Before this lesson, students have experienced the Tools of the Actor (body, voice, facial expression); Emotion Statues; Gesture; and Tableaux. - Guide the class in the process of conducting interviews with community members. - After students have collected their interview using the GarageBand program, they (and/or the teacher) will transcribe their interview into a Word document. - The teacher will edit the interview for this Monologue lesson. Choose a section, or sections, of the interview with INTRODUCTION - Read the elder s selected words to the class. Be sure to model high energy and vocal variation. - Now, actors, we are going to create our very own version of this story! We will honor the words of this elder using our actor tools: body, voice, facial expression, and imagination. ART ACTIVITY

6 - Please choose five key sentences or images moments that stuck out to you in the story when I read it. (**You may do more than or fewer than five images.) - Write those five images on the board - Now we re going to create a story out of just these moments our own story! Every story has a beginning, middle, and an end. Which image is going to be our beginning?! Our ending?... Now, we have 3 for the middle section what order should they be in? Set up a sequence: One through Five. - Select individual students to create Statues of the images; also, ask them to create a Gesture and a Sound (or words) for their Statues. **You may ask the students to play sculptor-clay show in pairs to create these. **You may also assign one image to several students at once so you have five small groups. Then, those groups will create Tableaux to show the images. - Now, ask the students to stand in a line and perform their Statues, Gestures, and Sounds in sequence. - Ask students to build a final tableau where all students come together downstage (close to the audience). Now, run through the poem again, but this time, as students speak they must move into the final Tableau position. - Teach the whole class each statue and gesture or certain key statues so that everyone participates in all statues and gestures. - When they perform in sequence, separate Sound and Movement. First, they make the statue with a Movement. Then, they make a Sound separately. When Actor #1 begins his or her Sound, Actor #2 moves into his/her statue. When Actor #1 finishes his/her sound, Actor #2 starts his/her sound, which cues Actor #3 to move!etc -Try having a narrator or yourself read the full text again. When the students hear their cue phrase or when you clap they do their Statues within the larger piece of narrative writing. - Play with different beginnings and endings, such as: -Everyone kneeling at start -Everyone kneeling in unison at end -Everyone kneeling as soon as they finish their own statue -Everyone making unison sounds. -!The sky is the limit! -You and your students may add all sorts of exciting elements to the monologue: music; dance; projected visual images! EXTENSIONS/ADAPTATIONS CREDITS Lesson by Ryan Conarro, Teaching Artist