New Indigenous Education Lesson Plan Discussed At School Board

Indigenous education for Grades 5 and 6 students at La Verendrye School in Portage la Prairie experienced a more in-depth lesson plan this year.

Aboriginal Academic Achievement Facilitator for the Portage la Prairie School Division Jill Fast and La Verendrye School teachers Ashley Williams, Grade 6, and Alison Duchnycz, Grade 5, gave a presentation about their adapted lesson plan at yesterday's school board meeting.

"I've been teaching Native Studies at the High School for a number of years, and this is my first year full time as the AAA so I wanted to help the Grade 5 and 6 social studies curriculum because I know it's a really relevant topic," says Fast when asked about putting together the new lesson plan. She says the student interviews all went great at the end of the three-week lesson plan, and it's because both Williams and Duchnycz deepened their knowledge of aboriginal history.

"I think it's just a new appreciation for Canada's history, and my own history and the part all the different roles played in the development of Canada and where it's taken us through the years," says Duchnycz. "I would say at the beginning of the year the students were extremely interested. It was a why do we study history kind of thing, but now that we've kind of dove right into it, they're really engaged because they get it. There are all these pieces to it, and it's part of all of them."

"As we gained more of an appreciation for the history as teacher's we were able to deliver a better quality of instruction," says Williams. "... because if we appreciate where it's coming from I feel we can teach it in a way that gets them more involved and more engaged, and interested in the topics. Being able to share it with them so they understand it's a part of all Canadians history, I think they start to see how they're all connected whether it affected their direct ancestors, or just them as Canadians. I definitely saw a greater appreciation this year from my students that I was able to get in previous years when I didn't necessarily know as much as I do now."

Fast is now looking at implementing the lesson plan into all Grade 5 and 6 classrooms in the division.

"I think now that Ashley and Allison have piloted the lesson plans it will be very easy to share with Grade 5 and 6 teachers. I don't want to force people to teach something I want to make it so appealing that they can't say no."