Old image with over a hundred native American children lined up in front of their boarding school with the title Resources

Boarding Schools and Forced Assimilation – Part 4 Resources

The Boarding Schools and Forced Assimilation digital resources include animated videos with maps and timelines showing the history of boarding schools using child-appropriate facts and enrichment resources. The goal of Amerind is to get students excited about learning and to help create lifelong learners. These resources provide high interest opportunities for students to safely explore and learn more about the impact of boarding schools and forced assimilation on Native Americans.

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Course Information

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State Standards: , , , ,

Course Instructor

Brenda Kilmurray Author

Brenda Kilmurray is a National Board Certified Teacher, currently certified in Arizona with 17 years’ experience in the classroom working with 3rd – 5th grade students.  Brenda was awarded Cochise County’s Arizona Rural Teacher of the Year (2017), The Air Force Association’s Cochise County STEM Teacher of the Year (2017), Sierra Vista Unified School District’s Elementary Teacher of the Year (2017), and The Arizona Educational Foundation’s Arizona Teacher of the Year Semi-Finalist (2018). Brenda brings her passion for the classroom and understanding of the Arizona Department of Education State Standards together to create engaging and developmentally appropriate lessons. These lessons incorporate differentiated reading, writing, and STEAM activities. The lessons featured here were reviewed and critiqued by content experts, including historians, archaeologists, other educators, many of whom are members of Indigenous communities. For a full list the advisors visit Our Contributor’s Page.

Special Thanks to Our Contributors

Amerind would like to thank Dr. Laura Tohe for reviewing this lesson. The comments, advice, and guidance of our contributors improved these educational materials significantly. We are truly grateful for their help. Any errors or oversights in these materials are solely the responsibility of Amerind.

Course Structure

This course is delivered in 4 parts.

  1. History – Includes all links and activities in the Orange column below.
  2. ELA Reading and Writing – Includes all links and activities in the Yellow and Green columns with the title ELA.
  3. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) – Includes all links and activities in the blue column with the title S.T.E.A.M.
  4. Resources – This is a simple page with links for extended learning and study. These are found in the purple column labeled Resources.

The table below gives a quick view of the lessons and links that are found in each of the lessons.

Boarding Schools and Forced Assimilation

History /Social Science Standard

Learning Objectives:

SP2.1 – We will explain why individuals and groups during the same historical period differed in their perspectives.
H2.1 – We will describe the cycles of conflict and compromise that occurred in the Americas during the convergence of Europeans and Native Americans.
RI.3 – We will explain the relationships between two or more individuals in a historical text.
RI.9 – We will integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
W.2 – We will write an explanatory text to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

History ActivitiesELA 
Crosswalk		ELA
Activities		S.T.E.A.M.Digital
Resources
1) Boarding School and Forced Assimilation Digital Notebook
2) Boarding School and Forced Assimilation Slideshow
3) Boarding School and Forced Assimilation CLOZE notes 		Reading Passages
1) Boarding Schools and Forced Assimilation
2) Boarding School Healing
3) Jim Thorpe’s Bright Path Read-aloud and Questions
4) Jim Thorpe’s Biography and Questionnaire

Writing
Boarding Schools and Forced Assimilation – An Informative Writing

** How to Write an Informative Essay		1) Compare and contrast the Carlisle Indian School; past, present, and future. 
2) Inference lesson: What story is this picture telling?
3) Dig Deeper Boarding School Alumni and History
4) Susan La Flesche Picotte Lesson
5) Analyzing before and after photographs Carlisle Boarding School (primary documents)		1) Navajo Code Talker
 2) Navajo Code Talkers: create your own code
3)  Indigenous STEAM Activities
4) Corn Field Math and Science
5)  Nature Walk Art Activity
6) STEM challenge Native Shelter		1) Truth and Healing Curriculum from The National Native American Boarding School (NABS) Healing Coalition
2) Photography in Native American Boarding Schools
3) Native American Boarding School Video
4) Boarding School Healing
5) When I Was Eight Read Aloud
6) Jim Thorpe’s Bright Path
7) Carlisle Indian School Digital School compare and contrast

Accessing the Course Content

This course is designed and presented with the goal that the material can be easily used by anyone. As a result, each lesson will present content in multiple ways to accommodate many different teaching styles and technology needs. For each lesson you will have the following options:

  • Website Content – The lessons/worksheets/videos will be available to view inside of the website. You can read and use the lesson from this site.
  • External Link – You will also have a link that directly links you to the resource (ie. Google Doc, Google Slide, YouTube Video)

* IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR GOOGLE DOCS AND SLIDES

If you go directly to a link to save a google document or slide, you must make a copy of the document and save it to your own account.