Lesson 9

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • “Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian,” Northwestern University
  • Excerpt from Sacred Legacy, N. Scott Momaday, Edwardcurtis.com, Contemporary Native Perspectives
  • Excerpt from The Women, Louise Erdrich, Edwardcurtis.com, Contemporary Native Perspectives
  • Forward to Sacred Legacy, Joseph D. Horse Capture, Edwardcurtis.com, Contemporary Native Perspectives

Optional

• • “Getting Started with Primary Sources,” Library of Congress
  • “The North American Indian,” Curtis Legacy Foundation
  • The North American Indian, Volume 1, Edward S. Curtis, Project Gutenberg, 1907/2006

Materials

Tools

• Photojournalism: Section 1 Diagnostic Checklist

• Photojournalism: Civil War and Edward S. Curtis Photographs Handout

• Evaluating Ideas Tool

• Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool

• Visual Analysis Tool

Reference Guides

• Academic Discussion Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Photojournalism: Section 1 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Photojournalism: Section 1 Diagnostic Checklist

• Evaluating Ideas Tool

• Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool

• Photojournalism: Section 1 Question Set

• Visual Analysis Tool

Activity 1: Discuss

We will meet in our expert reading teams to prepare for sharing our essay and photo analyses with a jigsaw discussion team.

Rejoin your expert reading team and review what you developed as a summary and analysis of the Native American personal essay and related Curtis photographs you examined closely. Recall, your analysis should include:

• A general summary of what your essayist says about Edward Curtis’s photographs and their importance for Native American peoples.

• A conclusion/claim about the perspective through which your essayist views Curtis’s work, based both on evidence from the essay and anything you have learned about the essayist.

• A short visual analysis of the specific photograph you studied, what you observed about it yourself, and what your essayist said or implied about it.

• One or more important sentences from your essay that you will present to and discuss with the jigsaw team you will join, with an observation about why the sentences are important and interesting as an example of your essayist’s perspective and writing style.

Individually organize your materials, including your Visual Analysis Tool of the Curtis photo you studied, your copy of the team’s Evaluating Ideas Tool, and any other notes you have taken.

Activity 2: Present – Discuss

In a jigsaw discussion, we will present what we learned about one of the personal essays and a related Curtis photograph.

Step 1

Join a home team made up of students who have read the other essays on contemporary native perspectives, as directed by your teacher.

In your home team, present and discuss the analyses and summaries of the personal essays you examined closely in your expert teams. Share what you have learned about:

• What your essayist says about Edward Curtis’s photographs and their importance for Native American peoples.

• The perspective through which your essayist views Curtis’s work.

• The specific Curtis photograph you examined, including your visual analysis, your essayist’s observations about it, and anything else you learned through additional research.

• Your essayists writing, including one or more significant or interesting example sentences from the essay.

Step 2

During the presentations, note connections among the essays and photos you examined, and ask clarifying questions, such as the following:

1. What is the essayist’s perspective of Curtis and his work?

2. How does the essayist describe the impact of Curtis’ work on his or her life?

3. What images does the essayist refer to and why?

Make notes about the relationships among the writing and thinking of the Native American essayists Momaday, Erdrich, and Horse Capture.

Activity 3: Discuss – Write

We will consider the question “How Do Contemporary Native Americans React To And Describe Edward Curtis’s Work And Its Impact On Their People?” and learn how to develop an evidence-based claim that communicates our conclusion.

Step 1

Still in your home teams, reconsider this guiding question:

1. How do contemporary Native Americans react to and describe Edward Curtis’s work and its impact on their people?

For each of the essays and essayists you examined and discussed, develop a set of observations, including specific references from the essays, that respond to the question.

Step 2

Follow along as your teacher introduces or reviews the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool, whichyou can use to help you develop a comparative claim in response to the question.

The Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool supports and guides a process for developing a claim from textual evidence; it can also help you explain how an existing claim is derived from, and supported by, evidence. Using the tool begins with a guiding question that calls for you to reach a conclusion and communicate a claim, which might be factual, analytical, comparative, or evaluative in nature. It helps you select the key details related to the question, explain how the details connect to your question and to other details, and through that analysis, move to a conclusion. The conclusion that you draw is the basis for your claim, which you should try to communicate as clearly and directly as you can.

Step 3

As a class, use the tool to note some related details among the essays you read and discussed, then make observations about the relationships among their perspectives and ideas.

Discuss how the connections among details you noted and the observations you made might lead you to a conclusion and evidence-based claim in response to the question.

Activity 4: Discuss – Write

In our home teams, we will analyze the connections among the essays and their perspectives, then develop an evidence-based claim in response to the lesson question using a Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool.

Step 1

Using the Forming Evidence-Based Claims Tool, first analyze the connections among the essayists’ perspectives on Curtis’s work, then use your analysis and key details from each of the essays to form an evidence-based claim that presents your team’s summary conclusion in response to the guiding question:

1. How do contemporary Native Americans react to and describe Edward Curtis’s work and its impact on their people?

Step 2

To review and revise your claim, read it and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is the claim clearly stated?

2. Does the claim communicate your opinion or conclusion about your photograph?

3. Is the claim based on evidence that you gathered from the text?

4. Is the claim supported by evidence?

Step 3

As a class, share, compare, and discuss the claims you generated in your jigsaw teams. Note and discuss similarities and differences among the claims. As you discuss them, cite specific evidence from each of the essays that led to and supports your claims.

Step 4

If you completed research in Lessons 6 and 7, discuss the following research question:

1. Would you consider the personal essays from contemporary Native Americans that you read and discussed to be primary or secondary sources? Use evidence from the essays to defend your answer.

Step 5

Review the photographs you studied in connection to the essays you read. Develop class conclusions about the characteristics of Edward Curtis’s photojournalism that make his work enduringly important to Native American peoples.

Activity 5: Discuss – View

We will begin to prepare for the Section Diagnostic, in which we will individually select a Curtis photograph that we find interesting and significant, research the tribe and context from which it came, and do a visual analysis of it.

Step 1

Locate the Section 1 Diagnostic Checklist and discuss the questions you will address for the Section Diagnostic, in which you will analyze a selected Edward Curtis photograph and explain your analysis to a review team:

In what ways does the photograph do the following:

1. Visually depict its subject and evoke truth or beauty?

2. Document aspects of Native American life, culture, people, or activities?

3. Represent Curtis’s work, commitment, and style as a photojournalist?

4. Have enduring significance as a representation of Native American history?

Step 2

Access and review the Civil War and Edward S. Curtis Photographs Handout, which lists the Curtis photographs you examined in this section of the unit. You will select one of these photographs to study more closely.

Alternatively, you might choose a new photograph that has not yet been examined in class. If you are interested in doing so, see the “Other Iconic Curtis Photographs” and “Keyword Searches” lists at the end of the handout.

As your class re-examines the photographs (using the northwestern.edu Edward Curtis Collection website), note several photos that you have found to be particularly interesting or powerful.

With a partner, explain why you are interested in the photos you selected.

Step 3

As a class, review the various research sites and primary sources you might use to learn more about your photographs of interest:

• “Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian” collection of digital images

• The North American Indian, Volume 1, Project Gutenberg digital book

• “The North American Indian,” Curtis Legacy Foundation website

• Keyword searches on the Internet

Step 4

Review the task description on the Section 1 Diagnostic Checklist, which you will prepare for in the next lesson.

For homework, do some preliminary visual analysis and research for several of the photographs you are interested in, and determine which one you will focus on for the Section Diagnostic.

Activity 6: Read

For homework, we will research several of the photographs that interest us and determine which one we will focus on for the Section Diagnostic.

For homework, do some preliminary visual analysis and research for several of the photographs you are interested in, and determine which one you will focus on for the Section Diagnostic.