Aboriginal Web Design Grade 10 Subject Topic Social Studies Learning about early Aboriginal culture and expressing it through web design Description Students will design a web page navigational tool and organize their web content based on the teachings of an Aboriginal Medicine Wheel. A local Aboriginal community member or Elder will be invited into the classroom to deliver the teachings of the Medicine Wheel and its important cultural significance. This teaching will be the foundation for students to explore and educate themselves about historical and contemporary Aboriginal issues. Prior to this unit Prior to this unit, the teacher and artist will locate the local Native Friendship Centre to inquire about a program for visiting schools. An invitation will be extended to a local Aboriginal community member or Elder to visit the classroom to give a teaching about the Medicine Wheel. Lesson One The local Aboriginal community member or Elder will deliver to the class their teachings around the Medicine Wheel and its significance. Teachings about the Medicine Wheel are regional and may vary across Canada. Where possible, create a circular formation for the desks in the classroom. This encourages discussion, as well as reflecting the concepts of the lesson and the cultural traditions of the Aboriginal people of Canada. Introduce the local Elder to the classroom. Encourage students to listen to the Elder and ask any questions they may have regarding the Medicine Wheel. The Elder will discuss the Medicine Wheel with the class and share some First Nations world views, culture and traditions. Thank the Elder or community member for coming into the classroom. Thank the students for listening and asking questions. Lesson Two Materials Needed: Medicine Wheel example, either a handout or an example drawn on the chalkboard. Computer application: PhotoShop
Lead a discussion with the class reviewing the Medicine Wheel. The class will discuss how some Aboriginal cultural information is organized based on the Medicine Wheel. Lead a brief discussion on how the Medicine Wheel differs from many forms of western organizational structures: eg: the Medicine Wheel is circular, non- linear, with multiple life long learnings (or teachings) attached to its symbolism. This contrasts the Western, left to right, top to bottom, hierarchical structure and organization. Explain the local cultural relation to the Medicine Wheel and the navigational tools of a website. Both the Medicine Wheel and the navigational tools of a web site represent a link to many more elements. Discuss the vital importance of good organization for website information including the creation of folder, sub-folders and directories. Give students topics for each quarter of the Medicine Wheel: Treaties, Aboriginal Veterans, Youth and Residential Schools. Demonstrate the making of a Medicine Wheel in Photoshop with the class. The technical steps in Photoshop will involve: File creation, the application of a grid, creation of four coloured squares (white, yellow, red and black), the creation of a circular selection to make a circle of the four colours and the addition of text to identify each quarter. The students will work in partners and create a Medicine Wheel and insert titles appropriate for their group s work. Lead the class in a review of the steps necessary to create the Medicine Wheel. Lead the class in a discussion about their responses to the creation of the Medicine Wheel. What were the successful aspects of working in partners? What were the challenges of trying to accomplish this technical task? Lesson Three Lead a discussion with the class about web-based resources published on- line by the Canadian government relating to Aboriginal history, culture and identity. Locate and become familiar with the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) site, and locate the document titled the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). Discuss the inappropriateness of the word Indian, it s origins and it s relation to this lesson. The teacher will lead the class in a review of the research techniques that will be helpful for the topic. The students will be divided up into 4 groups. Each group has a specific topic: Treaties, Aboriginal Veterans, Youth and Residential Schools. Each topic has a key word and questions associated with the topic. Residential Schools: Identity: Residential Schools: http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sgm10_e.html Questions to be answered about Residential Schools: 1) Write a paragraph giving an overview of what Residential school system was. 2) Using the link listed above, under the Constitution Act, 1897, what policy was adopted? Give brief outline stating what this policy was designed to do. 3) What was the name of the most senior official in the department of Indian affairs in the first three decades?
Aboriginal Veterans Relationships: Aboriginal Veterans: http://www.waramps.ca/news/abvet/back.html Questions to be answered about Aboriginal Veterans: 1) Approximately how many Aboriginal people volunteered for the First World War? 2) What happened to Canadian Aboriginal Reserve lands? Refer to Order-in-Council (PC 393 of 16 February 1918) and Order-in-Council (PC 393 of 16 February 1918). 3) Give a brief outline of how Aboriginal Veterans were treated with the Veteran Land Act (1) and (2). 4) Section 39 (1) and (2) of the Veterans Land Act, titled INDIAN VETERANS 5) After serving in the Second World War, were Aboriginal veterans treated with equality? 6) What sort of contributions to the war effort did Aboriginal Women make? Aboriginal Treaty Justice Sovereignty: Aboriginal Treaty Rights Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP Report) Sovereignty: Treaty rights http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sh3_e.html#1.%20a%20need%20for%20public%20education Questions to be answered about Aboriginal Treaties: 1) Using the link listed above, refer to the map titled Figure 2.1 Historical Indian Treaties. How many treaties occupy the province of Ontario? 2) In the paragraphs located directly above and directly below the map titled, Figure 2.1 Historical Indian Treaties, there is a brief overview on why treaties were entered into. What do treaties try to accomplish? 3) Were the treaties that were entered into between the Canadian government and the Aboriginal communities based on a relationship of equal partnership? 4) Write a paragraph outlining why it is important that Canadians today have an understanding about Aboriginal treaty rights. Aboriginal Youth Challenges: Aboriginal Youth Visit the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People link http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/ sj14_e.html#2.%20the%20reality%20for%20aboriginal%20youth:%20an%20overview%20of%20c urrent%20conditions Questions to be answered about Aboriginal Youth: 1) What is the vision of Aboriginal youth? 2) When presented with a problem, what do Aboriginal youth do? 3) Who plays a role in healing Aboriginal communities? 4) From the link below, give a brief explanation of what the term whole health means. http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/ sj14_e.html#2.%20the%20reality%20for%20aboriginal%20youth:%20an%20overview%20of%2 0Current%20Conditions
The students will research their specific topics and answer related questions. The content that they gather will serve as content for their site. Proper source citation will need to be applied. The students will work individually and as a group to answer the questions. Students will have to save their digital content in a location where it will not be removed prior to the completion of the lessons. The saved digital content will be inserted into their future web pages. Lead a discussion with the students reflecting on the content they have created and the information they have gathered. Lesson Four Show the students some websites and discuss with them the basic structure of a site. Review how web-based information is organized and the need for planning for the site so that the content will link together. Show a site map for a particular website and then the website itself. Demonstrate the basic structure of a website constructed in Dreamweaver. Demonstrate how to make a basic page in Dreamweaver. Demonstrate how to insert a graphic image into the page. Demonstrate how to duplicate the page to create the pages for the website. The class will work with their partners to create a page in Dreamweaver including the Medicine Wheel that they have made in PhotoShop. The groups will create the appropriate number of duplicate pages for the information that they will be including. Lead a discussion with the class about the process of creating the web pages including the challenges and successes. Lesson Five Lead the students in a discussion to consider the affects of using information and images from the Internet without permission. On a sheet of paper, have the students write down their favourite place to be, their best friend, their most precious possession and the person that they feel most close to in your family. Now have the student consider that someone is going to take all of these away from them and use them however they choose. This person will not ask permission. The teacher will lead a discussion with the class about this experience. How does this make you feel? What does it make you think of in terms of downloading off the Internet? Lead a discussion with the class about the research that they are doing and the desire to have visuals accompanying the website. Ask questions about the use of downloading from the Internet and how prevalent it is. The class will discuss the unauthorized use of material from the Internet. Show the students examples of what proper source citation looks like. Students will implement proper source citation for their page information and pictures. The groups will do further research on their issue and gather appropriate resource material. Each group will be required to make a brief presentation on their particular topic in lesson seven using the RCAP document as the resource.
Their presentations will be the source for discussion then. The teacher will lead a discussion with the class about the process of researching and gathering information while being conscious of not using material inappropriately and without consent. Lesson Six Show some examples of websites that demonstrate a strong use of images. Lead a discussion with the class about the use of images on the web and how important they are in terms of a strong layout and design of a web site? Demonstrate the steps for inserting images into the web page. The importance of Alternate Text tags (Alt tags) should be discussed. Alt tags are included with an image so people who use screen readers can understand what the image is. Demonstrate how to insert an Alt tag to accompany an image. Students will put their photos and text onto the web pages that they have set up. Lead the class in a discussion reviewing the technical steps from the lesson. What was the most successful aspect of your work today? What was the most challenging aspect of your work today? Lesson Seven Lead the class in a Role-playing Activity relative to Aboriginal issues and contemporary Canadian history. The students will be divided into four groups and each member of the group will be given a card with a family role, e.g. Grandfather, Grandmother, Mother, Father, Son and Daughter. Call upon each student and assign him or her to a new government implemented role. Each of the new groups formed will be based upon the four main themes of the unit that demonstrate how colonization has affected Aboriginal people and their family and societal structures, i.e. the residential school system, treaties, treatment of Aboriginal Veterans and the effects of Bill C-31. As each of these groups is formed, a student acting as the Royal Commander, along with the teacher acting as the Canadian political entity carrying out royal decrees, dictates the movement of each of the students. For example the Royal Commander will call up five young sons for conscription and send them off to war. Only one of them will return home and go back to his family who has been relocated. This demonstration of the impacts of colonialism on Aboriginal society will affect everyone in the class by the end of the role-playing activity. Lead the class in a discussion of what colonization is. The students will reflect upon their experiences in the role-playing activity. Encourage the students to reflect upon their own cultural histories. In many countries through out the world, colonization and oppression have played a major role in their cultural history. Using the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report as a reference, students can discuss and expand upon their topics. Each student group will present their brief presentation, giving a summary of their topic and their investigation to this point. A brief discussion will follow after each presentation.
Lead the class in a discussion reflecting on the presentations and how colonization has played a role in each one of the topics presented. Helpful web based resources for this lesson are: http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/rpt/lk_e.html To gain a better understanding of colonization you can read the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Looking Forward, Looking Back at the above web link. Lesson Eight Show the class some websites and discuss the linking that makes them functional. Demonstrate to the class how they can link their web pages together with their partner. The individual partners will link their pages together. The class will share their web pages with each other in small groups. The groups will respond to each other s web pages with comments on the technical, visual and information elements Lesson Nine Lead a discussion reviewing the Medicine Wheel and some of the concepts behind it. Discuss the ways in which information and ideas can be shared in our modern and diverse society today. The use of the web has already been demonstrated throughout this project. The other element common today is the use of rap music and spoken word verse to discuss issues that are of interest or affect the youth of today. Describe the method for presenting information researched in this project; during class a brief spoken word verse will be written and presented by each group. Each group will brainstorm and create a minimum of six lines of rap/spoken word verse on their specific topic. Each of the groups will present their verse for the rest of the class. A discussion will follow each presentation. Lead a discussion reflecting and evaluating their creation of the website and the First Nations concepts inherent within it.