These lesson plans and activities were developed by Janine Darragh, Gina Petrie, and Stan Pichinevskiy and were previously located on the Reaching for English app. Created for K-12 English teachers in Nicaragua, the materials may be used and adapted for any country's specific context and needs. 

In this lesson, students learn about what it means to belong and how to include others. Students will identify similarities and differences between themselves and a partner but understand how they are still part of the same community.

The Storm of the Century: The Blizzard of 49 is a WyomingPBS documentary. This documentary tells the story of the worst series of storms in Wyoming's history. But for all the tragedy and loss, suffering, and death, there was hope and heroism, unselfish sacrifice, and generosity. Students will learn about the Blizzard of 1949 and how the State of Wyoming and the Civil Air Patrol responded.

The resource videos are based on this documentary and include associated lesson plans. There are three video clips. Clip one starts at the beginning and ends at 2:50 minutes, Clip two begins at 3:50 minutes and ends at 5:50 minutes, clip three begins at 6:00 minutes and ends at 8:41 minutes.

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

Pairs of students respond to literature alternately in shared journals. Mini-lessons are presented on responding to prompts, creating dialogue, adding drawings, and asking and answering questions.

In this eight-week module, students explore animal defense mechanisms. They build proficiency in writing an informative piece, examining the defense mechanisms of one specific animal about which they build expertise. Students also build proficiency in writing a narrative piece about this animal. In Unit 1, students build background knowledge on general animal defenses through close readings of several informational texts. Students will read closely to practice drawing inferences as they begin their research and use a science journal to make observations and synthesize information. Students will continue to use the science journal, using the millipede as a whole class model. They begin to research an expert animal in preparation to write about this animal in Units 2 and 3, again using the science journal. In Unit 2, students will continue to build expertise about their animal and its defense mechanisms, writing the first part of the final performance task—an informative piece describing their animal, the threats to its survival, and how it is equipped to deal with them. With their new knowledge about animal defenses from Unit 1, students will read informational texts closely, using the same science journal to synthesize information about their animal. Unit 3 allows students to apply their research from Units 1 and 2 to write a narrative piece about their animal that incorporates their research. This narrative will take the format of a choose-your-own-adventure. For their performance task, students will plan, draft, and revise the introduction and one choice ending of the narrative with the support of both peer and teacher feedback. The second choice ending will be planned, written, and revised on-demand for the end of unit assessment.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

Tribal Government on the Wind River Reservation is in a state of flux. In the accompanying lessons plans (found in the Support Materials), learn how the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes govern their people, what is the relationship between Tribal, State, and Federal government?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the workings of tribal government on the Wind River Reservation by creating a written report.
Students will understand the differences and similarities between state, tribal and federal governments and their functions, structures, and powers.

'Lived History' documents the making of the Wind River Virtual Museum, a high definition archive of Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho ancestral artifacts. In the accompanying lesson plan (found in the Support Materials) students will learn from the time when Europeans first traveled in North America, they took collectors' interest in the arts, weaponry and attire of Native Americans. Sometimes they purchased artifacts, sometimes they stole them, and sometimes they killed for them. Over the years, pipes, war bonnets, cradle boards and parfleches accumulated in museums. The method of acquisition was often forgotten; exact historical documentation was often difficult. Many of the artifacts have perished or deteriorated over time. Many ancient artifacts remain in the vaults and display cases of museums far from their place of origin or the people who might best explain and appreciate them.

"Lived History" documents the creation of the 'Wind River Virtual Museum'—an archive of high definition images of ancestral artifacts created with guidance from Wind River tribal elders. Items like nineteenth century amulets, bags, drums, ceremonial headdresses and robes, everyday clothing, medicine related objects, hunting apparel, moccasins, and other meaningful objects were brought out of storage and displayed for the elders. Their commentary becomes part of the precarious and precious transmission of oral culture that the people of Wind River strive to honor and preserve, for future generations.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will learn about different artifacts of the Shoshone and the Arapaho people and their significance/use.
Students will gain a deeper appreciation for the resiliency of people and the importance of cultural preservation.
Students will explore their own cultural identity and understand that culture is a system of beliefs, values, and assumptions about life that guide behavior and are shared by a group of people.
Students will name three objects identified in the Lived History video and gain an understanding of their uses and cultural significance.
Students will dentify some of the resources used to make traditional items and locate areas in which these resources are found.

Students will learn about World War II and its impact on Wyoming as part of the Pearl Harbor Day observance.

Resource used is from Common Sense Education where there are free digital resources to access for digital citizenship.

Learn how the long life of Chief Washakie bridged a century of change in the American west—from the time of nomadic tribes following buffalo herds, to the period when tribes relinquished their claims to vast tracts of land in the West. That's when the Eastern Shoshone settled on the Wind River Indian Reservation. In the accompanying lesson plan (found in the Support Materials) students will understand the character traits of Chief Washakie.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will write and deliver a speech pretending to be Chief Washakie talking to the people of the 21st Century.
Students will learn character traits and qualities and describe every individual and determine life choices for all.
Students will practice identifying “cause and effect” with historical events based on character qualities.

Based on the Wyoming PBS program What’s in a Name, students will view episodes of the program to learn about how Wyoming towns got their names. In the introductory video Phil Roberts from the University of Wyoming introduces the PBS series entitled “Main Street Wyoming: What’s in a Name”. This introductory clip discusses how early explorers first named the rivers, streams, and mountain ranges and passes of Wyoming. Students will then work as a group to create a fictitious Wyoming town.

Students will learn about Wyoming's territorial history in celebration of Wyoming Day.