Takaki - Chapter 4

This chapter focuses a lot of the Indian reaction to western and southern expansion in the United States and Takaki's goal in this chapter is for the reader to better understand the expansion from the Indian standpoint. In teaching a lesson on this chapter it will be essential for students to be able to place themselves in the shoes of the Indians. As an assignment coinciding with the reading of this chapter, I would ask that students write a one page reaction to how they would feel if they were an Indian in the early 1800s. They would have the option to speak as though they were a Choctaw Indian, a Cherokee Indian, or a Plains Indian, as each tribe underwent different government tensions and had different experiences as a result of the different treaties, or lack thereof. Although I'm still uncertain as to whether or not I'm going to offer my students opportunities for extra credit, if I wind up doing so I would allow students to write three different one page reactions, one for each of the tribes. However, each of the papers would have to demonstrate that they had read the chapter and understood the different circumstances that each of the tribes was reacting to.

This assignment not only allows for creative thinking, but it will also allow students to work on their writing skills. I would talk to the English teacher(s) that my students have and figure out what writing skills they were currently working on and emphasize those skills when discussing the assignment.