Indigenous Peoples Reader Project

The goal of this project was to take existing open source material being used by a developmental-level reading and writing course as part of Project Kaleidoscope, and update the material to meet the needs of learners on the Hoopa Indian Reservation. The first draft of the Reader itself has been completed. Vinnie Peloso, also from College of the Redwoods, is currently editing the last six stories. Finding suitable material was a challenge, but folk tale and myths from around the world were adapted to reading levels between 4th and 8th grade from the following nations/continents:

• Australia
• North America: Cheyenne, Inuit, Nez Perce, Oanagon, Zuni
• China
• Hawaiian Islands
• India
• Japan
• Korea
• Africa: Kenya/Swahili, South Africa
• Russia
• Tibet

The Reader is annotated to provide context for unfamiliar concepts and words, and includes video to illustrate that many of the indigenous peoples represented continue to have active and vibrant cultures and continue the traditions mentioned in the stories. For example, the myth from the Zuni tribe has the leading character playing a flute, and at the end of the story there is a short video of a master flautist playing a traditional Zuni song on the exact type of flute from the story.

Also in progress is the development of reading comprehension quizzes for each of the chapters in the Reader, as well as transferring lessons into the new course. A meeting has been scheduled next week where I will visit our college satellite campus on the Reservation and present the materials to the dean and faculty to hear their insights toward the project. I am looking forward to this conversation and their suggestions on how to make the Reader even more meaningful and relevant.

This project, along with other OER projects that I am currently working on, were mentioned in a guest blog I posted for SoftChalk. I submitted this as a proposal for the 2012 Online Teaching Conference, and will be recording a one-hour webinar event that will be streamed during that conference in June, and will then be archived. When this goes live I will post a link to that presentation on COT’s blog, so look for that mid-June.