Reclaiming Native American Identity and Rejecting Stereotypes

Abstract

This past school year, I knew I had to focus on writing. The previous school year, the students in my class had the hardest time taking the writing portion of English Language Assessment of AZMerit (Arizona Measurement of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching). I knew we were not ready. The fact was, the students in my class lacked abilities in writing good opinion pieces and writing informative and explanatory text. Most of them were reluctant writers. Not only that, the students in my English Language Development class did not have enough skills for writing beyond a five-word sentence. Most of them did not make any kind of attempt to write anything down. Every day was a constant struggle trying to get the students to write. When it was time to take the state assessment, most of the students did not make any attempt or did not follow the writing prompt. The saddest part was that the students were finally asking for help when it was too late. I desperately wanted to explain that I could not help during the exam it but was against the test protocol.

This past school year, my goal was to get students ready for the state assessment. I did not want a repeat of what happened the previous school year. Again, I inherited a new group of reluctant writers. I finally realized that they were never taught the skills necessary for writing. I had to go back to basics. Descriptive writing was not part of the fourth-grade standards, but it was the foundation the students needed to reteach writing. I developed a descriptive writing curriculum specifically to teach students how to use descriptive words, both adverbs and adjectives, in writing using visual aids. The visual aids I incorporated were contemporary art pieces prepared by Native American artists. Right away, the students were hooked because the art pieces I choose were about their interests, something they are familiar with, and something that I could use to promote culture and build confidence. The students became more comfortable with writing, but the problem this time was that they had a hard time transitioning from descriptive writing to opinion writing and other forms of writing. The problem was not the students, but me. This time, I was not ready to teach opinion writing. I kept searching for lessons that would benefit my students, but most of the lessons that I found were not enough to establish competent writers.