Laguna Pueblo: Fall Season: Harvesting Corn

DESCRIPTORS

Curriculum Areas: Science, Language and Literacy

Recommended Levels: K/1

Time Frame: 30 minutes per day for four weeks

Tribal Affiliation: Laguna Pueblo

Geographic Location: Southwestern New Mexico

Developed by: Veronica Purley

Email addresses of developers: vpurley@teachnet.edb.utexas.edu

Date lesson was developed: July 25, 2001

American Indian Standards:

· Science: Life Science; Standard C1

· Language and Literature; Standards S5,S6,S7 and S2

INSTRUCTION

Goal: To understand the history and importance of “corn” native to the Laguna Pueblo

Behavioral Objectives: Students will:

• Orally share their knowledge of harvesting corn with peers
• Produce some sketches of a corn patch
• Give an oral, written report and illustrate harvesting corn

Prior Knowledge Needed:

• The students will be able to identify a corn plant.
• The students will be able to sketch a corn plant and identify its parts.

Materials and Resources Needed:

• Field trip to a corn patch in the local area.
• Corn stalks
• Ears of corn

Culture Content and Strategies:

The students and teacher will invite an elder to come and inform the students on

the importance of harvesting corn and its uses and to provide storytelling on gardening in the early years of his/her childhood.

Lesson Summary and Performance Tasks:

• This lesson will provide the students with information of the importance of planting, harvesting and its uses at the Pueblo.
• The students have been learning about harvesting corn which are traditionally utilized by their tribe. The students will give an oral and written report to their classmates and their written reports will be displayed on a bulletin board.

Assessment:

• Each student will establish a portfolio to hold all information they acquired during this lesson. Portfolios will be assessed with a rubric.
• The students will retell stories they have heard and written on harvesting corn. A check chart will be used to note accomplishment of targeted skills (based on individual student language goals).
• The students will write three sentences on the uses of corn.

EXTENSION

Technology Integration: With the help of the teacher:

• The students will use a digital camera to take pictures of all their work and print them out to add to their portfolio.
• The students will use the computer to write their stories.
• The students will use the computer to look for information on corn using the Internet.

Enrichment/Remediation:

• The students will continue learning about corn and its uses by another tribe.
• With the help of their parents the students will write a paragraph on planting when their parents were young.

Teacher Reflections

To be added by the user