Social Studies
Native Americans
3
Students will create a PowerPoint slide show to incorporate what they have learned about Native American culture, particularly about music, dance, and storytelling traditions. This activity encourages students to use material and concepts they have learned in an earlier activity -- a schoolwide assembly presented by a performer of Native American hoop dancing -- to create a multimedia presentation. They will collaboratively decide on concepts that sparked their interest and/or which seemed particularly relevant, add to their existing knowledge and experience through research, and combine and apply that information to the creation of the PowerPoint presentation to be shared with the entire class.
This is part of a large Social Studies unit dealing with Continuity and Change. It focuses all students on culture, customs, folklore, music, and dance traditions of a particular Native American nation. Students are encouraged to apply themes and concepts they have learned in an artistic way that is true to that culture in terms of symbols/graphics, images, and even sounds to create a multimedia presentation.
The PowerPoint activity is a follow-up to a schoolwide assembly conducted by Kevin Locke, a well-known performer of Native American hoop dancing. The activity involves research into the culture of the Lakota nation, hoop dancing, powwows, music, and the background of the performer himself. It is meant to increase understanding and respect for Native American art forms and to tie this understanding into the larger theme of art as an important component of culture. It also continues the study of Native American symbolism and storytelling begun with the newsletter activity.
1. A class discussion will follow an assembly presented by Kevin Locke, a member of the Lakota nation who demonstrates hoop dancing, plays Great Plains flute music, tells stories incorporating folklore tradition and Native American sign language, and teaches hoop dancing to students. Students will brainstorm about what they learned, including Native American symbolism explained by Locke: the hoop or circle, the eagle, the seasons, and the unity of humankind, for examples.
2. Students will break into groups of four. Groups will do a written web exercise in which they take the concept of Native American culture as the main topic and map out the aspects of culture they learned in the assembly (dance, the powwow, drums, flutes, symbolism, etc.).
3. They will then be instructed to do further research on Kevin Locke, hoop dancing, powwows, and music in order to create a PowerPoint slide show. The slide show is to represent what they learned in the assembly as well as what they want to learn more about. Resources for research will include Lakota Hoop Dancer and other books on Native American customs and culture available in the school library; the Google search engine; National Geographic CD-ROM search; and Microsoft Encarta.
4. Groups will write a rough script for their slide show, taking into consideration that they will be creating a slide show with a minimum of ten slides, each with at least one text box. Students will, with the assistance of the teacher, configure the script into ten brief sections which will eventually become text boxes in the slide show. They may revise later, but should focus on getting this together on paper.
5. In the first computer lab session, students will create a folder in "My Documents" in which to save images. They will then begin searching for images to save for their slide shows. They may search Google images and/or use images available as clip art.
6. Students will use searching techniques they have learned previously in computer lab. They will try a variety of searches in Google image search, narrowing and expanding the search to find appropriate images/graphics. Some examples: "Kevin Locke"; "Lakota hoop dancer"; "hoop dance"; powwow; "Lakota nation"; etc.
7. When students find an image they wish to save in Google, they will click "save as", then save the image in folder they will have previously created.
8. In the next computer lab session, students will open Microsoft PowerPoint and then click on "Blank Presentation". They will then click on "Insert" then "New Slide" until they have created ten blank slides.
9. Students may then choose a background for each of the ten slides. Click on "Format", "Background", then "color", and "fill effects" if desired. Students will name and save slide show.
10. In the next lab session, students will open slide show and begin inserting images onto slides in approximate order to accompany script.
11. To insert images, students will double-click the slide they wish to work on. They will then click on "Insert", "Picture", then "From Clipart" or "From File". Instructor will assist to resize images if necessary and demonstrate how to change position on screen.
12. To change the order of slides, students can click on "View", "Slide Sorter", then click on a slide and drag it to desired location (demonstrated by instructor). Students will save the slide show.
13. In subsequent lab sessions, students will begin to add text, following rough script. They will double-click on a slide to open it, then click "Insert", "Text Box". Instructor will demonstrate placement of text box with mouse. Students will type in text.
14. During this process, instructor will demonstrate changing font size and the option of adding color to text boxes by clicking on the "Fill Color" icon.
15. Once text and images are inserted, students may choose to animate text and/or images. Click on "Slide Show", "Custom Animation", and "Order and Timing" for which items to be animated and in which order. Then click on "Animate", "Effects" and decide what type of animation to include. Instructor will demonstrate a variety of animation effects on projector to assist students in planning.
16. Throughout the process of creating the slide show, students may click on "Slide Show", "View Show" to preview their work. Students will select "Slide Show", "Slide Transition", and "Mouse Click" in order to manually make transitions between slides.
17. The addition of sounds is optional and is to be done with the assistance of the instructor. Students may search Google for Native American music wav. files; these would be saved in folder and inserted as part of "Custom Animation". Students may also insert sounds available in "Effects" during custom animation. They would not do this on their own, but with the assistance of computer lab instructor.
18. Once all slide shows are completed, groups will present to class on projector with teacher's assistance. Three students will take turns reading text while one student operates the slide show.
19. After each slide show presentation, the teacher will ask the class for three compliments for the group..."Very well organized"; "Great pictures!", etc.
| Attachments: | |
| 1. | Native American Hoop Dancer |
Students will work collaboratively. Students will work in groups of 4.
10 class periods. 45 Min. per class.
This is an ambitious project considering the grade level of the students. It will involve extensive planning and coordination on the part of the classroom teacher and the computer lab instructor. It will also involve pre-planning in terms of skill development necessary for students to use PowerPoint technology. The interest of the students in exploring the subject matter is key. The dynamic assembly presentation provides the springboard for developing this follow-up activity which encourages appreciation of diversity and which ties into Grade 3 standards for social studies.
- Teacher will coordinate extensive computer lab time for completion of this project with computer lab instructor. Teacher will also make arrangements for use of projector on final day of lesson for viewing of slide show presentations.
- The number of computers required is 1 per 4 students.
- Technology resources:
Internet Explorer, PowerPoint, Projector, Microsoft Encarta, National Geographic CD-ROM. - Materials and resources:
Book: Lakota Hoop Dancer by
Jacqueline Left Hand Bull
and Suzanne Haldane
Other school library resources
Google Image Search - Students Familiarity with Software Tool:
Students will have basic knowledge of how to create a PowerPoint slide show: how to create new slides, add backgrounds, and insert graphics and text. Animation and insertion of sounds will be taught during lesson.
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CA- California K-12 Academic Content Standards
Benchmark or Example 1: Describe national identities, religious beliefs, customs, and various folklore traditions.Informal assessment will be done throughout this activity on an individual and group basis. The final slide show presentation will be assessed with the attached rubric.
Multimedia Lesson (PowerPoint)