The Spirits Still Among Us: Native American Poets and the Voices of History in the Present Tense

In this curriculum unit, students are led through a series of activities around Native American poetry of the 20th century, including listening to music, reading text, drawing objects, watching video, performing close readings, and in a culminating exercise, creative writing. Throughout the five 90 minute lesson plans, students are given the experience of ceremony around poetry, and the teacher is exposed to a variety of perspectives on the land, stereotypes, identity, tradition, activism and voice as well as the tools to share these elements of Native American poetry with others.