Activity 3: Creating Native American Resource Lists

This activity gives students an opportunity to utilize the many Internet resources for and about Native American history, culture, and issues. Student will conduct Internet research to create bibliographies on Native American topics. The activity includes identification of research topics, evaluation of Internet resources and Web pages, compilation and organization of resources and information, and publication of a product for use in further classroom activities.

This activity calls for students (individually or in small groups) to:

  1. select a topic of interest from the list of suggested topics below;
  2. use various search engines to find Internet resources and Web pages related to their subject;
  3. evaluate Internet resource and Web pages for their inclusion in their topic bibliography;
  4. organize resources into a list or bibliography complete with URLs or links to Web pages and short descriptions of the information found within each resource;
  5. work with other students or groups to combine their lists/bibliographies in a systematic, logical way;
  6. publish their compiled resource lists in printed form, on a class Web page, or on a bulletin board.

Topics:

(Although students might address Native American topics in general, the project will be more beneficial, manageable, and accurate if they choose a specific Native American tribe for their research.)

  1. Culture
  2. Religion or spirituality
  3. Language
  4. History
  5. Tribal government
  6. Legends
  7. Traditional food
  8. Rituals
  9. Art
  10. Children's books
  11. Leaders
  12. Contemporary issues

Resources on evaluating Web sites:

The following Internet resources are provided for your use in helping student evaluate Web pages:

http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/eval.html

  • "Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators: Critical Evaluation Surveys." Yarmouth, MA: Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District, 1995-99.

http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/evalwebteach.html

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~ecubbins/webcrit.html

Techniques for Evaluating American Indian Web Sites

http://www.iss.stthomas.edu/webtruth/evaluate.htm

Evaluating website content.

http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webcrit.html

Five criteria for evaluating Web pages

http://www.yahooligans.com/tg/evaluatingwebsites.html

  • This site judges sites "by the "Four A's" which means we look to see that they are Accessible, Accurate, Appropriate, and Appealing. Evaluate any site on these four criteria and you'll have a pretty good idea if you've got a good site on your hands."

Standards:
(Source: McREL K-12 Standards at www.mcrel.org)

Language Arts - Writing: Standard 4: Gathers and uses information for research purposes.

Level 3

  • 6. Determines the appropriateness of and information source for a research topic.

Level 4

 
  • 8. Determines the validity and reliability of primary and secondary source information and uses information accordingly in reporting on a research topic.