 Hooper
Bay Web-based Cultural Atlas
Framework and Lesson Plans
Cate Koskey enrolled
in CCS
693 - Cultural Atlases as a Pedagogical Strategy at the University of
Alaska Fairbanks Cross Cultural Studies. As of December 2006, this
proposal and framework was being implemented in Hooper Bay, Alaska, by teachers,
students,
and the
community.
Overview
A cultural atlas is a way to record, protect, and potentially
share the cultural information of the Hooper Bay community. By involving students
in the
process,
we hope to connect students more closely with their heritage, their community,
and their families, especially the elders we talk to throughout the process.
The classroom is an ideal place for students to engage in this process because
not only does the activity help students meet many LYSD, State
GLE, and Cultural
Guideline Standards, but it creates a link between students’ education
and their families and lives outside of school, hopefully creating more investment
from the student into the classroom.
The cultural atlas has several parts:
recording family tree information and family stories, community history,
and traditional names for places in and
surrounding
Hooper Bay. The process would entail helping students work with elders
to record the information in the above categories and then helping students
enter the information
into an internet web of their creation. The students and the Hooper Bay
community
can decide whether they would like to have the web pages available for
the world to see, or if they would like to have it displayed in a more protected
format.
Once the cultural atlas has been created and is online, it is possible
for
it to be updated and amended at any time, making it a living web document.
I
would like to propose that we start the process of building this cultural
atlas this year, with students in the junior high, in my classroom and
in Ben Nukusuk’s
Yup’ik classroom. Although this project is very flexible, below
I propose plans and a time frame for beginning this cultural atlas and
following
it through
to its completion – at least it first stage of completion.
Introducing
Students to the Unit
To introduce students to the concept of creating
a cultural atlas, they will view completed cultural atlases hosted on the
Alaska Native
Knowledge
Network
website. Several schools and villages along the Kuskokwim River and
in other parts of the state have been through this process, with
students, and they
have created amazing web worlds that provide excellent examples for
students
to follow.
Recording and Documenting Family & Community History
Part One:
Students will begin this unit by writing down everything they
know about their family already, from their own minds. They will write
both the
pertinent names
and dates on their family tree to the best of their knowledge,
and then they will write a narrative of any stories that they remember
their relatives
telling them, including stories about life long ago, stories about
things that happened
to family members, and legends and myths they were told as they
were growing up. When they have written what they know of their family’s
history, they can begin to write stories from their own lives, their favorite
memories and
significant events, and their perspective on community events (such
as the school fire). In this way they will follow the flow of information
from the past to
the present, as far back as they can remember through to their
present reality, hopefully strengthening the connection between their families’s
past and their present day.
Throughout this process it will become evident
that community and family history are necessarily linked and intertwined.
It is difficult,
especially
in the information-gathering
phase, to weed out what information belongs in what category.
Therefore, I propose that we gather them simultaneously without differentiation,
and later separate
stories into categories if it makes sense; family and community
history and stories may well make sense to keep together, categorized
in
other ways that
become evident
along the way. Community history may also be revealed later when
we work with a map of Hooper Bay and surrounding areas to learn
traditional place
names. In
any case, I think it is important that we record information
when
students
think of it or when an elder wants to talk about it, instead
of worrying about what
information fits into which category.
After students have written
down all the information that they can remember, then we will have a core
of information that can
tell us
what else we
need to know; what blanks we need to fill in. Also what will
become evident through this
first stage of work will be which students are part of which
larger family group, and we will begin to be able to group
students’ family
trees together and make larger family tree webs of family groups.
It will also help to group
students
by larger family group in the interview phase, so that they
will be able to form interview teams for their family members.
Next, students
will draw their own map of the town of Hooper
Bay, and then draw their own map of the larger Hooper Bay
area. This
map does
not have
to be to
scale; it will function as a memory map for the students,
so sentiment will matter more than accuracy. On their map, students
will notate
any combination
of present
structures and sites of events and memories for the students.
Finally, students will do investigation and research about the
actual workings of the present-day village: government,
education,
health,
economy, sewer
and water, energy, transportation, communications, housing.
They will collect what
information they can from what is on the internet at US
government sites and State of Alaska sites, and then we will arrange
either for village
leaders or
other people knowledgeable about the mechanisms of the
village to either visit the classroom or allow us to visit them in
their offices
during
the interview
portion of the project.
What the final products of Part
One will look like:
- Student Family trees completed at least to grandparent
level, with names in both English and Yup’ik,
and as many dates as possible.
- Completed student-narrative
of family & community
memories
- Two completed student maps of Hooper
Bay & surrounding
area
- Internet and book research about the workings
of Hooper Bay Village
Tentative Timeframe: With each group
meeting at least three times a week for forty-five minutes, I would
expect
around
four weeks
for most
of
the students
to complete this phase.
Standards addressed:
LYSD Standards: Writing W.4.1,2,3,5,11,14; W.5.1,2,3,4,5,6,10,13;
W.6.1,2,3,4,5,7,11,14.
Social Studies SS.3.2,5,7; SS.4.15; SS.5.3,4,12,15,18.
Yup’ik Y1.12; Y4.10, Y5.7,9; Y6.8,10
PSS P.3.10,15,17
Technology T.2.6,8,9; T.3.10,11,12
Alaska Standards for Culturally-Responsive
Schools, Students Section: A.1,2,7
Part Two:
When we have an idea of what information has been gathered,
we can begin to formulate needs and questions for
elders and other
community
members.
Introducing Students to Interviewing Skills
Before letting students
interview elders or community members, it would be very appropriate for them
to learn how to do
an interview, do’s and don’ts
of interviewing, and to practice interviewing
each other. Also, we will practice using recording
equipment,
from simple tape-recorders to digital recording
devices to video cameras. We will make sure that
we go over asking permission
from the
person for recording him or her, and asking permission
before doing anything with the interview beyond
what was discussed. I estimate using several
class periods on learning and practicing these
skills.
Categories of Questions
- First, most obviously, we will need
to ask elders and community members to help students
fill in
their family
trees as far
back as they can.
It will be
most appropriate if we can record Yup’ik
and English names of each person on the
family tree, but using just one or the
other if only
one is known. Also,
although birth and death dates may not
be known exactly, even approximations
would be helpful.
- Then it would be
wonderful if we were able to gather stories
about these family
members,
so our
next questioning
goal
would be to inquire
about
the ancestors
named, or to hope that the elders and
community members would tell us something
about each
ancestor.
- For interview questions
about what life was like long ago, or what were
important
events and people
in the
elder or community
member’s life,
it would be a good part of the process
for students to create the questions.
However,
I have
listed several below that at least
would be a good starting point, though
they
are phrased very formally and should
be revised
to sound more conversational
prior to using them in an interview:
I. Early
20th Century:
- What was village life
like? How did people live, their houses, their clothes, their
foods, their
traditions, what they did
day-to-day?
- Were there white
people in the village at the time, or white people who came
to visit
the village?
What
were they
like,
and what did
they do or say
to people
in the village?
- What were some traditional
uses of plants that you were taught as a young
person? Do
we still
use the
plant today?
In the same
way or
different way?
- What were
some uses of animals that you were taught as a young
person that
we no
longer use
today? Do you
think our lives
would
be better in
any way if
we started using the animal
in that traditional way once again?
- Do you remember sicknesses
coming through the village? What were the times
of sicknesses
like?
Did anything
change after
the sicknesses?
- Did you go to school?
What were the teachers like? Were the schools in the
village or
did you travel
away from
the village
to go to school,
or both?
Did
you like school? Do you feel you
learned a lot? Were there hard things about school?
- Do you remember
or remember any stories about battles between different
villages? What were
the causes of
the battles, and
what were the outcomes?
II. Mid 20th
Century:
- What was the village like when modern
conveniences started to come in,
like electricity, store-bought
food? What was
it like
when schools
started
to be built
in the village, and people started
to ride snowmobiles and play basketball,
and that
kind of thing?
- Were there other
things that changed from your childhood during this time?
III.
Recent History:
- What are some things that you like
about village life today, and what
are some things
you wish
were different,
or like they
used to
be?
- What are some key events
in the last few years that you feel had a
big impact
on life
in the
village, whether
they
be governmental
decisions, tribal or community
decisions, accidental things
that happened, other events?
- When we interview elders
and community leaders about the mechanisms of the present-day
village,
we will
try to piece
together a picture
(possibly literally,
as in a chart on the wall) of how a
resident of Hooper Bay receives services, such
as health care,
monetary
assistance, safety, etc.,
and we will ask
questions
of and collect literature from village
leaders to help us
piece that picture together. We will
also ask for a current map of
Hooper Bay
from village
leaders so that we can contrast it
with a more traditional one that we will create
in the next step.
- With a laminated
map of the area, we will ask elders about the traditional
place
names
(in Yup’ik) of areas in and
around Hooper Bay, such as parts
of town,
traditional fishing/hunting/berry-picking
areas,
paths for travel
to different towns and sites around
town, and places where significant
events happened.
We will write or ask them to write
these names on the laminated map,
and we
will record their narrative about
the name as well. It will be especially
important for us to record the elder
speaking the
actual name so that we can make a
talking
map later when we create the map
on the computer.
Transcription of interviews
If the interview is in English, or
was continually translated during
the recording, then it
will be important to transcribe
it – or at least selectively
transcribe it. Given that we
have computers in the classroom,
students can listen to
the
recording and type the transcription.
Transcription can be tedious,
pain-staking work, and
so it would be best to assign
a team of students to do the
transcription
of one given interview.
What
the final project part two
will look like:
- Completed
Student Family Trees
- Several recorded interviews
with community members & elders
- Several recorded interviews
and literature
collected
from village leaders
- Several laminated maps with traditional
places and
their
Yup’ik names
listed on them. Traditional
Yup’ik
names recorded by the
elder.
- Interviews
transcribed to pen & paper
and/or word documents
Tentative
Timeline: Interviewing
opportunities will be treated
like gold, so we consider
this stage of
the project
to be
ongoing, as
we don’t want
to turn away anyone who is
willing to be interviewed
even if we
have completed this
stage of the project. However,
we will try to do a large
push for gathering
interview information for
several weeks, and then we
will focus
on transcription.
I estimate
this stage of the project
going steadily for six weeks.
Standards
Addressed:
LYSD Standards:
Writing W.4.1,2,3,5,11,14;
W.5.1,2,3,4,5,6,10,13; W.6.1,2,3,4,5,7,11,14.
Social Studies SS.3.2,5,7;
SS.4.15; SS.5.3,4,12,15,18.
Yup’ik Y1.12; Y4.10, Y5.7,9;
Y6.8,10
PSS P.3.10,15,17
Technology T.2.6,8,9; T.3.10,11,12
Alaska Standards for Culturally-Responsive
Schools, Students Section:
A.3,7; D.1,3,4
Documenting
Cultural Knowledge into a
Computer Web and Print
Student
Autobiographies
Once
we have all the information we have collected in an organized,
mostly-transcribed
state,
we can begin to create
our password-protected
internet web pages.
Alaska Native Knowledge
Network has volunteered
to host
our cultural atlas on its “moodle”,
and the structure and beginning
pages are already in existence.
We just need to fill
it in and expand upon its
existing structure as we
see fit.
First, students
and parents will need to
fill out permission
forms for posting
their
information
on the internet.
I will have secured
these
forms from our
site technology coordinator.
Next, students will need to have some technology
tutorials to learn the
process
and format
for creating a webpage.
It will
be fairly
simple process
to teach
because it is similar to
writing
a word document, and most
students feel
comfortable
typing
word documents.
Then we
will divide up the tasks to be typed and
created,
and students
will
work on creating
this
web atlas.
We will deal
with logistical
problems as
they arise,
and student technology
training will be ongoing.
One aspect that will not be just like a word
document
will
be the talking
map, and we
will have guidance
from Sean
Topkok of
ANKN
as to how to
make that part
up and running.
As we
will generally not have enough technology
for each
student to be working
on a computer
at the same
time
(though occasionally,
especially
during the
teaching phase of the
project,
we will be able to
go to a computer lab),
students will
rotate working on the
computer with working
on a print
hard-copy of their
autobiographies.
They
will
use their
memoirs, family
trees, their
Hooper
Bay maps, as well as
selected parts of interviews
that resonated with
them or other tidbits of information
they picked
up along
the way.
They may
hand-write (especially
if it
is not
their turn to use the
computers) or type,
illustrate and add photos these
autobiographies.
A possible format/topic
list appears
below:
The autobiography
could be typed, with
each
heading on its own
page, and
the students
could illustrate
it by
drawing pictures throughout,
and bound
or stapled
with a decorative cover,
also student-illustrated.
Who I am -- my name, my
description, what I
like
When I was Born -- how I got my names -- both Yup’ik
and English, when and
where I was born, what I was like when
I was born
Where I come
from --
A short synopsis of
who my
family
is: family names,
what I know
about
my oldest
ancestors,
who
currently lives
in my house,
and topics
such as these.
Seasonal Memories --
My favorite memories
of
spring, summer, fall,
winter (instead of
creating a chronological
account of their young
lives’ events,
they could write an
anecdotal account of
their favorite/most
impressive memories,
categorized by season.
I feel
like using the seasons
will help them remember
experiences
from different times
in their lives and
doing different activities,
and I believe that
this format
would be
more relevant to their
lives.)
Challenges --
People I’ve lost,
experiences that have
been difficult (While
the sad things in their
lives are not easy
to talk about, they
are nonetheless
important landmarks
in students’ lives
and markedly change
the course of their
individual paths. This
section would be
optional.)
Hopes & Dreams -- what I
hope to accomplish, what I hope
to be and do
Advice -- advice from my
family members, cultural
traditions I adhere to, taboos
I respect
What the final
product of the cultural atlas will look
like:
- The Hooper
Bay Cultural Atlas will be posted
(and password
protected until
later
notice)
on the internet,
hosted by
the Alaska Native
Knowledge Network.
It will be organized
clearly, with
links to different
areas of history,
family
trees, community
history,
traditions, and
a talking map of
place names.
- Each student will have an illustrated
print-copy
of his or her
own autobiography.
Tentative
Timeframe: This project is extremely
large
in scope,
and it will
take a lot of
time. I believe
it will
take us
through the
end of
the semester.
Standards
Addressed:
LYSD Standards:
Writing W.4.1,2,3,5,11,14;
W.5.1,2,3,4,5,6,10,13;
W.6.1,2,3,4,5,7,11,14.
Social Studies SS.3.2,5,7;
SS.4.15; SS.5.3,4,12,15,18.
Yup’ik Y1.12; Y4.10, Y5.7,9;
Y6.8,10
PSS P.3.15,17
Technology T.2.6,8,9;
T.3.10,11,12,13,15;
T.4.6,7; T.5.3,4,9
Alaska Standards
for Culturally-Responsive
Schools, Students
Section:
A.1,2,3,7; B.4; E.5,8
Final Note
Although it would
appear on the
surface that
this is a
worthwhile and
positive project
for all people
involved
and for the
Hooper Bay Community
at large,
I would like
to present the final Cultural
Atlas at a
bilingual community
forum at the
end of the year
so that
the
community can
approve or disapprove of
the project,
or any aspect
of the
project. In
that context,
with the project
somewhat
finished, we
can discuss and
ask the question
of how widely
the cultural
atlas is shared:
if it
is posted
on the internet
at
large, if it
is posted in
only a password-protected
area, or if it
is not posted
(Although if
it were decided
to not
post it,
I would hope
to follow up on
why and
fix anything
that was
causing disapproval).
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