The purpose of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Multi-Media Materials is to help students toward these cognitive and affective understandings:

• The historic background and significance of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
• The specific terms of the settlement which affect their own lives.
• The contributions of many people, both Native and non-Native, toward achieving a fair and equitable settlement.
• The challenge of the future, and the opportunities for affecting the course of one's own life as an individual and as a part of a group.    

The mini-texts are designed to present an overview of major Alaska Native groups and of the Native Claims Settlement Act. The texts themselves are books of facts presented in what it is hoped will be usable portions. However, it is also hoped that much use will be made of appropriate teaching ideas in the manual and the rest of the kit. Taking into account that most people assimilate little knowledge where reading is the only vehicle of conveyance, the manual provides ideas for involvement activities, games, and simulations. Where drill seems to be essential, as with the vocabulary, a variety of possible ways are offered for making the drill exercises lively.

PEOPLE GENERALLY REMEMBER

 10% of what they read

20% of what they hear

30% of what they see

50% of what they hearand see

 70% of what they say or write

90% of what they do

Attempts have also been made to utilize a variety of skills rather than merely reading and discussion. Some of these skills are:

• Data-Gathering Skills:
   
  • observing
  • quantifying
  • interviewing
  • experimenting
    
• Data-Organizing Skills:
   
  • classifying
  • comparing
  • mapping
  • modeling
  • graphing and charting
  • statistics
    
• Data-Using Skills:
  
  • inferring
  • deducing
  • generalizing
  • explaining
  • predicting
  • hypothesizing

There are more teaching ideas in the manual and the kit than a teacher will likely use with any one class. It is hoped that teachers will survey what is available at the beginning of each unit and select those activities and materials which are best suited to the needs of their particular students at the time. The manual is not a recipe book to be followed item by item as given. It is rather a compilation of ideas, and ideally will spark the imagination of teachers and students to experiment, to modify, to combine, and to create learning situations far beyond the covers of a book.

-Lucille Frey