“[Lessons from Turtle Island] is the sort of book that we have long needed, not just in the Native American community, but in American education as a whole. Drawing on personal experience, careful scholarship, and knowledge of the classroom, the two authors have given us a marvelous tool that should be in every American school. I cannot recommend it highly enough."
- Joseph Bruchac, Abenaki writer and storyteller, author of Keepers of the Earth and Keepers of the Animals
Lessons from Turtle Island:
Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms
Guy W. Jones & Sally Moomaw
How do you help young children learn more about Native peoples than the cultural stereotypes found in children’s books and in the media?
Lessons from Turtle Island is the first complete guide to exploring Native American issues with children. The authors—one Native, one white, both educators—offer unique perspectives on including authentic learning experiences about Native Americans in your overall curriculum.
Includes five cross-cultural themes—Children, Home, Families, Community, and the Environment. Related activities based on recommended children’s books develop skills in reading and writing, science, math, make-believe, art, and more.
Provides helpful guidelines and resource lists for selecting appropriate toys, children’s books, music, and art. Also includes a Family Heritage Project. Ages 3–8. Illus., Index, Softbound, 8 x 10 1/2, 208 pgs. Available in September 2002.
Guy W. Jones
Guy W. Jones, Hunkpapa Lakota, is a full-blood member of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation. He is one of the founders of the Miami Valley Council for Native Americans in Dayton, Ohio, and has served as an advisor to the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History, the Minority Arts Task Force of the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Dayton Christian Race Relations Task Force, and the Bias Review Council of the Ohio Department of Education.
Sally Moomaw is the professional development coordinator and an adjunct instructor at the Arlitt Child and Family Research and Education Center at the University of Cincinnati. She designs workshops for in-service teachers, videotapes distance learning courses, consults with other early childhood centers, and works directly with children in the center.
Sally Moomaw is the author of More Than Singing and the co-author of More Than Counting, More Than Letters, More Than Magnets, More Than Painting and Much More Than Counting.
The book features illustrations by area artist James Oberle.
The book is the first of it's kind in offering Native curriculum to elementary teachers. Published by RED LEAF PRESS, St. Paul, Minnesota Click the link to order online: http://www.redleafpress.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=169
We welcome you into the Myers Outstanding Book Awards Winners’ Circle 2003.
Striking images of dignity and human rights by internationally acclaimed graphic artist Chaz Maviyane-Davies will provide the backdrop for the announcement of the 19th annual Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards on December 11, 2003 at Simmons College in Boston at 5pm.
The theme of this annual observance of the United Nations Human Rights Declaration speaks of creative resistance to all that oppresses. A Zimbabwean national, Maviyane Davies is a Visiting Professor at Mass College of Art and recipient of numerous international commissions and design awards.
The Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights is the sponsor of the exhibit and awards. A dozen books and authors will be welcomed into the prestigious Myers Outstanding Book Awards Winners’ Circle this year that speak to creative resistance and to possibilities for social change. Dr. Loretta J. Williams, director of the Myers Center, joined by Simmons College President Dan Cheever, will announce the following Awards to:
· Guy Jones, Hunkpapa Lakota Nation, Ohio; and Sally Moomaw, professional development coordinator at the University of Cincinnati, for Lessons From Turtle Island: Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms, Redleaf Press 2002 The authors offer multicultural and cross-cultural suggestions for early childhood educators, including parents, around five related themes: children, home, families, community and environment. The book speaks to how children learn, and how many well-meaning mainstream teachers use Native culture (if at all) in insensitive, culturally offensive and ahistorical ways that have negative consequences.
The authors encourage teachers and parents to learn more about cultural traditions and artifacts before incorporating them into project activities. Jones and Moomaw, drawing upon personal experience, careful scholarship, and substantive knowledge of the classroom, advocate appropriately integrating Native and multicultural issues into all classroom activities: math, reading, writing, science, dramatic play, and art.
Lessons From Turtle Island, written in nonjudgmental and accessible prose, includes activities, guidelines and resource lists for helping young children move away from stereotypical portrayals of indigenous people in mainstream culture.