20020670 Working with Indigenous Students

ED 4132

Working with Indigenous

Students

Incorporating and Supporting

Indigenous Students in the

Classroom Essay

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Building and effective classroom learning environment is essential in keeping your class engaged and

creating a desire to learn. This can be particularly challenging with Aboriginal students as traditional

classroom settings are not conducive to their natural learning style of being outdoors and having a

hands-on approach to learning. To maximise the transference of knowledge whilst maintaining the

integrity of the learning environment, it is essential to that your lessons are engaging, the material is

accessible and that the teachers and lesson are culturally responsible. Using the example of teaching

the water cycle to a year 3 class, we can see how using engagement, accessibility and infusing

culture into the lesson can enrich the knowledge of the class and make the learning environment

more effective.

Involving your students in their own learning will build engagement. This will ensure that they are

learning the material on a deep level and be able to apply that knowledge in different situations.

Start the class with everyone sitting in their seats with their eyes closed and listening. Evoke their

imagination by asking them to let their minds wander and imagine where they are going. Have pre-

recorded sound of a thunderstorm and incorporate, rain sticks to imitate the rain and symbols to

imitate thunder whilst flashing the lights on and off to simulate a rainstorm. Now you have unlocked

their senses and engaged not just their cognitive minds but past experiences with rain storms so

they can draw on that knowledge when you engage them in a classroom brainstorm about the rain

and the water cycle. Now that we have established concreate knowledge about water and rain we

can move into the abstract knowledge and ask the questions to the students about; where does rain

come from? How do the clouds get the rain? And where does the rain go?

Now that the students are engaged in the lesson we can make the learning accessible to them by

conducting an experiment to answer the questions from the brainstorm. In groups provide the

students with a water bottle with holes in the bottom that will simulate the rain. They will need to

pour the rain over different surfaces outside and observe what happens to the water. The purpose

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of the experiment is to observe what happens to the rain once it has been poured in the garden

bed, under a tree, on a path or on the lawn and record if the water soak into the ground, form drops,

wet leaves, wash away the sand or form pools. Sherry Lewis author of Celebrating Children and Local

Aboriginal Culture says that Generally speaking, the majority of Aboriginal children are kinaesthetic

learners mainly due to the Kinaesthetic teaching styles that have been used for thousands of years

and through the connection to the land where the teachings originated. (2013) Incorporating

elements of kinaesthetic learners into your lesson plan you are making the lesson more relatable for

not only the indigenous students in your class but also the other students who learn in a similar

fashion. Conducting the experiment in the outdoors is also accommodating the traditional

Indigenous learning methods by teaching using practical information and observations made in

nature.

Now that we have established what happens to the rain once it falls to the ground, we can use that

as a basis to introduce the finer details of the water cycle. Using a combination of both visual

representations of the water cycle and simultaneously explaining the visuals to the students they

can draw on their previous experiences to relate the water cycle to what they observe in nature. This

can be reinforced by splitting the class into groups and acting out with sound effects for the different

parts of the water cycle. For example those students acting out evaporation can make sucking in

sounds and jumping up with their arms by their sides. The teacher can then remove the verbal

explanation of the series of events and have the students explain using only dance and sound

effects.

The final activity is to bring them back to the mat and introduce them to Tiddilik an Aboriginal

dreamtime story about a frog that drank all the water. Using the knowledge of the water cycle,

engage the students in a discussion about what impact Tiddilik will have on the environment and

what would happen if there was no water. This can be an opportunity to introduce the idea that we

should be careful with our water and not waste it. So the students can relate their knowledge to

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real-life situations. The story of Tiddilik concludes with an eel making Tiddilik laugh and he spits out

all the water. The lesson can be concluded by discussing what would happen to all the spilled water

reiterating the water cycle.

Aboriginal children, like all children, learn in a variety of different ways. Designing a lesson that

incorporates different learning styles and allows the students to explore their knowledge will give

them an ownership of their learning and have them invested in the lesson. How the teacher presents

the lesson will greatly impact on the level of engagement of the students. If the teacher adopts the

mindset that engages the students in relevant lessons that they can relate to their prior knowledge

than it opens up the mind to learn. Incorporating different cultures of the students in the class will

make the lesson relevant and accessible to the student. The goal of any good teacher should be to

develop a passion for learning in their students and create life-long learners.

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References:

Robinson, J (2013, August 6) 6 Practices for Creating a 21st Century Engaging Classroom, [Web log
post]. Retrieved October 21, 2015, from http://the21stcenturyprincipal.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/6-
practices-for-creating-21st-century.html

The Water Corporation, (2008) The Water Cycle, Retrieved from

http://www.watercorporation.com.au/home/teachers/activities-and-events/elearning-for-students

Lewis, Sherry (2013) Celebrating Aboriginal Children and Culture, Retrieved from
www.ourbeststart4brant.ca/.../Aboriginal-Pullout-Spring-Summer-2013

Doronte-Day, E. (2010, November 15) Tiddalick the Frog Aboriginal Dreamtime Story, Retrieved
from http://tradmed.atsiphj.com.au/index.php/jomsocial/videos/video/10-tiddalick-the-frog-
aboriginal-dreamtime-story?groupid=1