Curriculum Department
The curriculum department strives to develop materials that highlight the gifts of the First Nations community teachings and histories. This will enhance students’ self determination and awareness of their cultural identity. Our curriculum provides opportunity for a First Nations voice to be represented authentically within the Ontario Curriculum Guidelines. IEC’s curriculum includes teacher resources and lesson plans that introduce cultural awareness and sensitivity. The materials provide students with access for critical thinking in both First Nations and public school systems. The benefits of culturally-based curriculum will be support in the building of positive relations between First Nations and the Canadian Community.

NEW
Ipperwash Treaty Curriculum Project titled Building
Understanding and Relations on First Nation Treaty Education

The Ipperwash Inquiry was established by the Government of Ontario in 2003. The Inquiry made recommendations such as to avoid violence in similar circumstances in the future. This project addresses a specific recommendation for the need to have treaty history education. IEC and Lambton Kent District School Board work together to develop curriculum resources for the Ipperwash Treaty. The purpose of this project is to provide non-bias information that will:

• Enhance awareness
• Promote critical thinking skills
• Meet the Ontario Curriculum Expectations
• Shape curriculum that will be taught to all grade 7 & 8 classes in Native and non-Native schools
• Create a cross curricular approach geography, history and language arts
  
  There will be four chapters. Each chapter will include 3 lesson plans each.
• Chapter 1: Aboriginal History in Canada; definitions and terminology
• Chapter 2: Kettle Point and Stony Point
• Chapter 3: Camp Ipperwash
• Chapter 4: Case Study of Caledonia & media critique

NEW
Cultural and Community-Based Levelled Readers Project

Levelled readers are books designed to develop essential skills at the individual students’ own pace. The teachers use various assessment tools to determine how well the student reads, and then matches the student to books that provide the appropriate level of challenge in order to make progress. For our project, cultural concepts are incorporated to give the effect of learning from an elder. These projects will be presented on the Smartboard technology.

PART I: This project focuses on grades 1-3. There are 36 levelled readers’. Half represent female stories and the other half represent male stories. This project focuses on all Anishinabe stories.

Part II: The second part of the project will focus on grades 4-6. There will be 24 levelled readers developed, all addressing and focussing on cultural themes from the member nations. The working team consists of representation from a range of cultures: Anishinaabe, Lenape and Haudenosaunee backgrounds.

CIRCLE OF LIFE SERIES

A Day At Indian Residential School
Features a DVD, Curriculum and Teacher Resource
Designed for Grade 7 -Language, History, Geography, Math
Grade 8 -Geography, History, Language Arts
Grade 9- English, Dramatic Arts
Grade10- Social Science and the Humanities, Canadian and World Studies

An Indigenous Science Perspective
Features a DVD “Water: Life Blood of Mother Earth” Power Point
Designed for Grades 1-8- Two lesson plans for each grade.
Grade 1: Daily and Seasonal Cycles
Grade 2: Air and Water in the Environment
Grade 3: Soils in the Environment
Grade 4: Rocks, Minerals and Erosion
Grade 5: Weather
Grade 6: Space
Grade 7: The Earth’s Crust
Grade 8: Water Systems

Indigenous Perspectives of Social Studies and History
This curriculum is designed to assist teachers in supporting student learning through the consideration of Indigenous perspectives to social studies and history. This document complements the Ontario Curriculum and equips learners with critical thinking skills needed to better understand and appreciated Aboriginal society and culture in Canada.

Pow-wow Resource
The students will learn about the different areas that compose a pow wow.

Circle of Life Resource Centre
IEC will implement a cataloguing system to label, sort, retrieve and track all the resources that will be available for teachers. IEC has compiled many teachers’ resources including: teaching kits, books, posters, videos, DVD’s and CD’s. The entire IEC Circle of Life curriculum series is available for showcasing. Ask about our lending services.

Another exciting area “Coming Soon” is IECs’ own workroom for teacher use. IEC will design, develop and print educational materials tailored specifically to nation, grade and subject. Watch for details in the near future.

For further information please contact Curriculum Development Coordinator, Bonnie Hill, at the Muncey Site or by email iecbhill@xplornet.com

There is a need to produce native language curriculum and cultural materials that reflect the Anishinaabay way of life and teachings in an organized fashion for all to share and use. I have contacted other Anishinaabay education organizations to find out who is doing what in the field of curriculum development for culture and language programs. There is a movement in the northern communities towards immersion programs in the primary grades. It is easier for them to develop the materials as they have the fluent speakers in the community and schools help in language and cultural teachings. The southern communities have problems obtaining certified native language teachers who are fluent in the language. There will be consultations through networking sessions to create curriculum guidelines and resources with First Nation teachers with IEC. There will be professional development for First Nation language teachers due to the need for more structured curriculum and cultural material resources.

We are in partnership with the following organizations:
• Lambton Kent DSB
• LKDSB Native Advisory Committee
• Anishinaabek Mushkegowuk Ogwehoweh [AMO] Language Commission

We are developing a project for the First Nations Language Curriculum which will produce :
1. Curriculum Guidelines Grade 1 [Anishinaabay Language]
2. Curriculum Guidelines Grade 2 [Anishinaabay Language]
3. Curriculum Guidelines Grade 3[Anishinaabay Language]
4. Student Assessment Strategies

We will have a joint advisory committee consisting of:
1. LKDSB-Program Consultants [2]
2. IEC-Language Consultants [2]
3. AMO-Commissioners[2]

This project is intended to develop a working group of LKDSB and IEC First Nation language teachers to consult on developing guidelines specifically for Grade 1 to 3 Anishinaabay language curriculum. These guidelines are intended to outline expectations of curriculum content for each grade. This working group will be supported by a qualified curriculum writer [fluent in Anishinaabaymowin]. It will be the intention to pilot these guidelines through the teachers involved in this working group. We feel this work would also serve as not only professional development but an avenue to establish a First Nations language community for our teachers.

This working group will consist of:
• LKDSB First Nation Teachers
• IEC Language Teachers
• IEC Curriculum Writer
• IEC Curriculum Coordinator
• IEC Program Coordinator

This is the First Nations Language Curriculum Development Project by IEC and working partners that will be worked on by all of us.
Maacheetaa. Let us start.
Anokeetaa. Let us work
Meegwaych.
Eli Baxter

 Andrew Bomberry is the editor at the Indigenous Education Coalition. As editor, he reviews written materials for clarity, accuracy, and grace. As the editor, he is currently involved in several projects at the IEC.

The Levelled Readers project was begun to create culturally relevant reading resources for Aboriginal students from grades 1 to 8. The readers are levelled based on the Developmental Reading Assessment.

The Circle of Life project is a series of curriculum texts in the categories of Social Sciences, Sciences, Residential Schools, and Treaty History. The texts vary from grades 1 to 8 for intended usage. All texts are either directly about Aboriginal issues, or use Aboriginal philosophies and cultural knowledge as the basis for understanding grade curriculum content.

The Ipperwash project is another nearing completion that addresses the social, political, and cultural factors and history in and around the lead up to the infamous events at Ipperwash park in 1995. In relation, this text also explores the events leading up to and around the 2006 Caledonia/Six Nations land rights occupation.

A teacher resource library is also in the works to be created at the Muncey office of the Indigenous Education Coalition. In addition to this, a quarterly newsletter based on educational developments in Aboriginal communities is being supervised to completion.