This Place, 150 Years Retold, is a graphic novel anthology that was organised by Alicia Elliot, but written and illustrated by many authors. This anthology retells ten different stories of Indigenous creators and their journey through this world. The goal is to highlight heroes in the Indigenous community, whether they are well-known or not. This anthology captures many stories that pinpoint key historical events while retelling some lesser-known stories as well. You will visit 1850, where Annie Bannatyne defended her people in Red River, and 1973, when Fort Good Hope defended their land against the intruding pipeline. You will also experience an introduction to shamanism as a system in the Aangakkuit culture. The illustrations do a great job of connecting the reader to the feelings portrayed in these stories, making the reading more impactful. You will find an array of illustration styles that are colourful and unique. There are depictions of the land, historical heroes, and spirits, such as wendigos. Overall, this graphic novel anthology is a fantastic way to communicate part of the Indigenous people’s story to a wide range of audiences.
The greatest thing about this graphic novel is that it can easily be adapted into numerous lessons. As they are stories, they are short and can be a nice addition to lessons about world religions, social justice, history, and I would even say geography. For instance, the story “Tilted Ground” written by Sonny Assu (2019) retells the story of the potlatch bans and the significance of William “Billy” Assu during this time (p.28-53). Another story, “Warrior Nation” by James Sinclair (2019) retells the story of the Oka Crisis, a “78-day standoff over [the] land between the Haudenosaunee people of Kanehsata:ke and the Canadian state near Oka, Quebec” (p.220). One thing that these stories do well is giving the reader a sense of how it was during the time of the story. Although, because of this, the stories do not give too much background information of the event taking place. Before each story, each author has included a short introduction, which is crucial for providing context to the story. Therefore, I think that this book would be best if used to supplement a lesson that focuses on the event taking place in the story. As a teacher in training, I have recently learned about Universal Design Learning (UDL) and have been analysing resources through this scope. UDL is “an educational framework and set of principles that maximizes learning opportunities for all learners” (Universal design for learning, 2021). I think that incorporating this book as a resource into a classroom would be a great way to welcome UDL as it is a colourful and interesting way for visual learners to interact with the history of Indigenous peoples. I have two criticisms for this book. Firstly, the timelines included in the introduction at the beginning of each story can be redundant to readers who struggle with placing an event with a specific date. They are an important addition to the introduction as they summarize the time frame and the main historical events during the time of the story. However, I caught myself after a few stories, skipping over the timelines and jumping straight into the stories. I had to deliberately make sure that I was reading them. I would have found it helpful if there were symbols next to the dates to help me with organizing the order of events in my head. I think that it would be beneficial for students who struggle with organizing dates to use the symbols to organize the chain of events instead. Secondly, I fear that readers who are not reading this anthology under the context of Indigenous studies will not take these stories seriously. For example, if someone who is not of Indigenous decent and has be raised in the Western culture is presented with a story, the first reaction is that it is non-fiction. Stories are not factual and are open to interpretation. I think this is because, as someone who has been raised under the influence of Western culture, we think of Walt Disney to present our stories and Disney has been proven to have altered the retelling of stories. Therefore, I think that it is important for the reader to understand that taletelling is an important aspect in Indigenous culture to pass on the retelling of true events and that the purpose of this anthology is to rewrite the written history, as outlined in the foreword by the author Alicia Elliot. (Word Count: 750)
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Throughout my program thus far, I have been working on developing my global approach to a classroom setting. In my practicum, I am working with many different classes, one of which is an English Language Learning class. In this setting, I have been exposed to a more diverse demographic than I have ever had to work with. This being the case, the classroom environment is much like a space to share knowledge. I am working on making sure that I am listening to my students and to listen about the things they already know about the topics. Taking this approach allows for me to learn about my students and the culture that they come from. For example, I have learned about Ramadan and Eid through working with my students to write holiday letters to a local retirement home. Having had this experience, I was able to follow Timperley’s “adaptive expert” frameworks to further my development in teaching world music.
When I teach music, I want to be able to incorporate elements of music from other cultures into my lessons. I learned through working with my students, that not everyone has had the same experience with music. It is obvious that music differs between cultures, but what I learned was that their approach to music is also different. Some students had a background of using dance to learn about music and some were more focused on music theory. Through working with different teachers in my school, I was able to do multiple diagnostic lessons where I was able to learn how much they knew about Western Music and then provide an opportunity for the students to relate it to the music from their culture. For example, I contacted the school’s music teacher to learn about music games I can play with my students that might be more familiar to them. Another example is a lesson one of the teachers did with her class. She was able to find a Kahoot that covered Western musical instruments. Playing this Kahoot with the class made me realize that I also do not know the instruments from their culture. I knew that I could not teach my students about what I consider to be the basics in music from my culture without having experienced the basics from their culture. Therefore, during this past semester, I had the opportunity to set up a World Music Workshop. I was lucky to have been able to attend an online conference with the Ontario Music Educators Association where I made the connection with Folk Lore Music. Folk Lore Music is owned by Jim Arnold who visits schools around Ontario to do presentations on World Music. In the workshop that I organized for the class 3114, we were able to see, hear, and experience musical instruments from China, India, Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, Russia, Europe, South America, the Caribbean Islands and beyond. I also learned about how China and India use the pentatonic scale to move around their music. With this new knowledge I can now teach my students about music using instruments and sounds that they are familiar with. Having a better understanding of what they use in their home allows me to view Western Music through the lens of their instruments and theory. However, this was just one workshop and I will continue to take the collaborative approach with my students, as I am not an expert. I hope that by doing so, I am taking the approach of the teacher as a learner and that this translates to my students. Students have names. Their name or how you address each student is the easiest way to reinforce a student’s identity, or at least I thought. What attracts me most to the junior and intermediate division is the amount of identity development that occurs during this time in a student’s life. When a classroom environment is filled with constant microaggressions, it can be harmful to the development of our student’s identity. Microaggressions are everyday reactions to accidental or intentional negative interactions. They are—quite literally—small aggressions. Even though they are small, the reoccurrence or repetition is what is harmful, especially to a student who is just discovering who they are. There are many different forms of microaggressions, whether they are intentional or unintentional. They can be verbal, non-verbal, and environmental. Verbal microaggressions are comments said out loud that may be understood as demeaning or insulting to the other person. Verbal microaggression also includes the tone used when talking to other individuals, as different tones can be interpreted as patronizing, belittling, or passive aggressive. Non-verbal microaggressions can include rolling your eyes, turning your back, or checking your phone when talking with someone. To understand environmental microaggressions, you will need to consider factors such as who is being represented, what is being taught, and what resources are available. You can find a more in-depth explanation on microaggressions in the following video, made by edtivists, which breaks down the different types of microaggressions.
One thing that I particularly liked about this article was that the author included solutions or methods that teachers can use to interrupt microaggressions. For example, an anonymous teacher proposes that students who are English language learners should take academic tests in their first language. This reduces that environmental microaggression by removing that language barrier and reduces mis-assessment. Mis-assessments can lead teachers or principals to putting new students into lower graded classes due to their performance on the test when the student struggled with the language barrier instead of the content. However, it may not always be possible to translate tests into their native language. Therefore, accommodations may need to be made to help the student. Another possibility could be to make the test with the student in English. Not only will the student understand what is being asked, but it can help them further develop their English. Additionally, parents can experience microaggressions when the school sends out a newsletter only in English. I propose that at schools with a large community of non-English families that there should be a club for students that translate the newsletters into their native language. Sending an English newsletter to non-English families creates a cultural hierarchy and makes it difficult for those families to understand what is happening at the school. Not only can this help promote parent involvement, but it also communicates to the family that they are welcomed in the school community and that they are not the only ones making the effort to communicate. One solution that I related with is the response given by Sharla Falodi, a learning coach from one session during the Toronto conference. Throughout my high school experience, my name was commonly mispronounced. When asked how to pronounce their name, students tend to not “even care to say ‘Say it this way,’ because they’re so washed out because teachers have forever called them this wrong name”. In my experience, not only was I washed out, but I was confused. I did not correct my teachers because I was unsure as to how to pronounce my own name and I remember a time when I was convinced the wrong pronunciation was the correct one! Falodi’s response was one that I resonate with. They state that the awareness of you asking the students how to pronounce their name interrupts the process of microaggression and it shows your awareness of how the students feel. However, to a shy student, that extra minute of checking how to pronounce you name feels like a lifetime, especially if it is only their name the teacher cannot say. In my experience, what would work best in this situation is to approach the student after attendance if the teacher needed to hear their name a few more times. Exchanging their name in front of the class can isolate the student from the rest of the class and can even encourage snickering from other students.
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AuthorAlycia Baxter is a first year teacher candidate at the University of Ottawa. Born in Ottawa, she is working and reflecting on bringing global and inclusive practices into her classroom. Categories |