Plains Indians

Brooks, Susie. Plains Indians. New York: Power Kids, 2010. Print.

Plains Indians is a summary of the North American Plains Native Americans.  It approaches the broad cultural subject simply, effectively and informatively with each page detailing a part about the Plains Indians.  I viewed the titles of each page as common questions elementary students might ask.  Examples such as "What food did they eat", "Did the boys and girls go to school?" and "What are the Plains Indians doing today?" are all what an elementary school student may ask.  As a whole, the information is simple, without opinion, factual, historical and honest about the Plains Indians.  There are no stereotypes or negative impressions presented about the Native Americans. 

When looking at the readability lexile, I found the language to be at an middle elementary level because of longer sentences, higher amount of text (because reading stamina is increasing) the use lower frequency words, and some largely unique Native American words (parfletches, moccasins and reservations).  Cognitively, I would place the text in an upper elementary level because it is tying many different concepts, tribes, artifacts, history and cultures to the Native Americans.  The students would have to use reasoning to understand how everything fits together under a large umbrella of Native culture. Socially, I would place the text in middle elementary level because at these grades students can understand other points of view, with the forming of social groups they can relate to tribes and Native Americans and also see similarities in their social life and Indian tribes.

When examining the characteristics of high quality learning, the characters (the Native Americans) face problems that are realistic to readers, such as being oppressed culture being taken away and finding an identity within their native and new American culture.  This may be more relatable to students from a different culture, however these issues exist in the world.  These problems may be interesting to readers because it is historical and the Plains Indians still exist today.   

Sadly, the Native Americans did not overcome their problems.  The closest they came to overcoming them was to retain part of their identity as their world crumbled.  Despite this preservation, it is on a much smaller scale than ever before.  Along with retaining your personal and cultural identity the current state of Native American and how they arrived there is a lesson the teacher would have to explain carefully. 

There are no individual characters in the text, but tribes and cultures, which are many-sided.  Their lifestyle and traditions are shown throughout the book in illustrations and some pictures.  They experience emotions students relate to such as pride in their culture and identity and faithfulness to members in their inner social circle. 
 
The book shows a historical setting and how changes in lifestyle with an earth-based way of life which no one lives anymore (at least on the same level as plains Native Americans).  Historically, the fact that land was literally being fought over instead of resolved in the courts show how society has changed.  In addition, many people died to gain control of land, which is unheard of in America today.

There is one main higher though process used, which is to understand bolded words using context clues.  In the back of the book there is a glossary that has the proper definitions of the bolded words. 

Despite the fact Native American culture has declined in its prominence, I think the book motivates and inspires students to learn more about the Plains Indians.  All the major points of their life and history are briefly touched on.  This primer may inspire students to acknowledge other cultures by learning about them and where they come from.

The literary elements I most saw were characterization, setting as a historical background and style.  In characterization, the Indians are explained extremely well but at the level a middle elementary student can digest.  Although this is a non-fictional book, we get to know such important parts of their life such as: who they are, what is important to them, how they lived, see how they lived and their history up to today.  With setting as historical background, the book shows a time without modern conveniences.  We get to see how a life without electricity, the Internet, cars, cell phones and supermarkets was operated.  We can clearly see this is from a distant time.  Finally, the book’s style and layout is very welcoming to the elementary reader.  Each page has picture, captions, explanations and answers to the main question posed at the top of the page.  Often photographs and artifacts are used to show realism instead of illustrations.  This style is interesting to look at, simple to read and straightforward in its thematic layout. 

The illustrations are drawn with a thick black pen, contain colors that are shaded between a dark and light variation of a color.  There are lines drawn in the picture to indicate shadows and depth.  I found this pleasing and artful because you could tell it was a simple drawing, but it was accurate in its depiction of the Native Americans and their culture. 

My idea for a minilesson would work on a more local level than the book.  As a class we would find where in MN Native Americans still exist. We could take a virtual tour online to see if you can find information and pictures from a reservation (make sure it is one that is portrayed positively).  Show pictures of the people, and symbols of their cultural past and present. 

Looking back at Plains Indians, I would place the target audience at middle to upper elementary school level because at this age students may be interested in different cultures, American history and the earth's natural resources.