Rationale

Working mainly from the “Taking on Critical Literacy” (2002), “Planning for Successful Teaching”(1999) and “Teaching about Language, Power and Text” (2008) readings, //The Rez Sisters// disrupts the common place, explores multiple perspectives and focuses on socio-economic issues of community. Tomson Highway’s play invites students and teachers to enter the unfamiliar context of First Nations history, culture and geography and allows both to be learners (Planning 22).

Clearly by choosing //The Rez Sisters//, we wanted students to hear First Nations’ voices and concerns which fulfills Lewison et al.’s first two elements of critical literacy which are “disrupting the common place” and “interrogating multiple viewpoints” (79). Not only does this text disrupt the common place through its content but, as a dramatic work, it also forces students to inhabit many characters’ viewpoints through the reading and speaking of their words. The unit also disrupts popular culture and media through examination of ‘Indian’ stereotypes from the outset in lesson one, as part of a diagnostic assessment of students’ prior knowledge of First Nations people and culture. The first two weeks of our unit plan also tackles historically constructed ‘common knowledge’ as seen in lessons two, three, four and six’s discussion of the playwright’s/play’s context, oral traditions as opposed to written traditions and the multiculturalism within First Nations people .Also in lesson four, through our reading of Thomas King’s //Borders// short story, we also analyze language’s role in shaping “identity, cultural discourses and supports or disrupts the status quo” (Taking 80).

 We further interrogate “multiple viewpoints” within the texts by asking “[w]hose voices are heard and whose are missing” such as Gazelle Nataway’s and men’s like Big Joey, Eugene Starblanket or the old chief (80). To further give diversity of viewpoints and to offset the play’s brevity, we knew complementary materials would be key to construction of a “good unit” (Planning 23). So while //The Rez Sisters// is a required common text, internet sources, videos, music and other complementary print based materials “enlarge the range of authors, viewpoints, and ideas available” to our potential students (23). Furthermore Edward Behrman observes that in text-to-text “treatments of the same topic or event, students begin to recognize that the text is not “true” in any absolute sense” by introducing “students to the subjectivity of authorship” (493). Pointing to the constructiveness of different authors’ works, genres and mediums, complementary materials allows us to teach //through// the text but also allows us to teach //about// the texts’ limits, which is an essential demand of any critical multiliterate unit plan. We also allow students to author their own stories through assignment choices and “talking circles”. Clearly a good unit “involves students in making choices of topics” and “allows students to shape and fulfill the goals of the unit according to their own interests and needs” (Planning 23). While our multiliterate students were given choices to demonstrate their learning, we also did not want our unit to be ‘over-organized’ so as to allow space for “student projects, student suggestions, student materials, and spontaneous discussions” (23).This means giving students many opportunities to respond to and ask questions of the text and each other as seen in lesson nineteen, which is completely devoted to reflections on and critiques of the play. Privileged sharing/ talking circles also give students freedom to speak from their hearts, listen with respect and value all contributions equally (Education is Our Buffalo 54). Given that community is the driving thematic force of our //Rez Sisters// unit, we also want our classroom to reflect the strategies of an effective community. By creating time and space for students to reflect on the text-to-self connections, the talking circles represent the classroom community we want to create; one which is based on “social justice and democracy” (Teaching 498). But rather than merely seeing “internalized reconceptualizations of language, power and text”, social action, Lewison et al.’s fourth element to critical literacy, allows students to see “real-life concerns move beyond the classroom” and requires students to “become involved as members of a larger community” (495). Thereby building atop of text-to-text and text-to-self applications, students can engage in text-to-world, social action applications that involve experiential, ‘hands on’ progressive education. For example, through the inclusion of a London First Nations community member in lesson fifteen; we are attempting to make classroom concepts and theories relevant to students’ communities outside the classroom. Through the PSA assignment we also asking students to produce “countertexts” where they “validate the thoughts, observations, and feelings of students and other underrepresented groups” in order to cause social change (Teaching 494). In a sense, our last two weeks shift from building a critical classroom community to one that engages outside communities critically.

Given the complexity and gravity of the issues in the text and in our lessons, we felt Grade 11 University (ENG 3U) students would more easily grasp the mature themes and language in comparison to the Grade 10 audiences. While we acknowledge that Grade 11 College students are equally mature, we could not see how the text could fit into a curriculum that focuses so heavily on informational texts and so little on thematic issues. ENG 3U, however, asks students to consider themes more relevant to //The Rez Sisters// such as the “nature of good, natural and supernatural forces” and “mythology” (ENG 3U Course Profile 1). It also seems appropriate to situate //The Rez Sisters// between Unit 2’s emphasis on setting, symbolism, archetypical partners and essay writing and Unit 4’s focus on poetic language and postcolonial/post modern poetic forms. In particular Unit 3’s “Exploration of Literary Connections”, where Macbeth is typically taught, appears ideal given its stress on providing “historical background for the play and the period” and its discussion about “music, language”, “costumes and dance” (7). If we are able to find relevance in Shakespeare’s Elizabethan history, politics, music, language, costumes and dance for today’s students, would students not be able to grasp and benefit from the complexities within First Nations history, geography and culture as well?

Alberta Teacher’s Association. //Education is Our Buffalo: A Teachers’ Resource for First Nations, Metis and Inuit Education in Alberta//. Edmonton: Author. 2006. Web. 16 Feb 2012. < http://www.ldaa.ca/assets/pdfs/freeResources/EducationIsOurBuffalo.pdf> Behrman, Edward H. “Teaching about Language, Power and Text: A Review of Classroom Practices that Support Critical Literacy”. //Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy// 49(6), 2008:490-498. Print.. Lewison, Mitzi, Amy Seely Flint, Katie Van Sluys and Roxanne Henkin. “Taking on Critical Liteacy: The Journey of Newcomers and Novices.”//Language Arts//. 79(5):382-391. 2002.Print. Public District School Board Writing Team//, ENG 3U Corse Profile//. Toronto: Queen’s Printer, 2001.Print. Tchudi, Susan J. and Stephen N. Tchudi **. ** “Chapter 2: Planning for Successful Teaching.” //The English Language Arts Handbook: Classroom Strategies for Teachers.// 2nd Ed. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook.1999. 21- 37Print.
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