In the last blog post, I explained how I use interactive bulletin boards and bell ringers during Native American Heritage Month to introduce my students to influential historic and contemporary individuals. Today I will be sharing another of my favorite activities that I use to integrate Native American Heritage Month into my middle school ELA lessons, all while ensuring the mastery of essential ELA skills and standards.

Since Native American Heritage Month is in November, it always aligns with teaching research skills in the curriculum. It’s the perfect opportunity to introduce a mini-research project to students. The goal of the project is always for students to select one Native American individual that they will research and create an informative project to educate others. This student-centered project allows me to pre-assess students before we move into our bigger research project at the end of the semester.

It’s taken a few trial and error sessions in the classroom over the years, but I’ve discovered that successful activities for introducing research skills and assessing student knowledge share four essential elements:

✅ Centered around a high-interest topic

✅ Promotes student choice in their learning

✅ Breaks away from the traditional research essay format

✅ Offers step-by-step guides and models

Teaching research skills effectively while keeping students engaged and motivated is no small feat – it requires time and careful planning. You may feel like you don’t know where to begin or what to include in a research project for Native American Heritage Month, but don’t worry because I’ve got you covered. I have spent the time and done the heavy lifting to identify the essential components of a successful research project activity and create simple yet effective research projects for you.

What Skills Can You Teach With These Projects?

The Native American Heritage Month research project offers a versatile and enriching opportunity to seamlessly integrate a wide array of ELA standards and skills into your curriculum while celebrating and exploring the rich culture and history of Native American Heritage. You can effortlessly address standards related to research, critical thinking, writing, presentation, and more. Here are just a few of the standards and skills that you can teach with this project:

Setting The Stage for the Native American Heritage Month Research Project

Breaking Down the Assignment

The first step of this research project is to break down the assignment task. Typically I let my students work with their partner(s) to read and annotate the assignment task. After students have completed their breakdown, we will share our findings as a whole group. This is the essential first step because it allows you to identify any misconceptions that students may have about the research project and correct those misunderstandings before students begin their project.

After students have broken down and fully understand what the task is asking them to do it’s time for students to select the individual they will be researching. I offer a list of suggested individuals for students to pick from, but I also allow students to select an individual that is not on the list.

Empowering students to select their own Native American individual to research goes beyond just sparking their interest; it instills a profound sense of ownership in the entire project. When students have the freedom to choose a subject that resonates with them personally, they become more invested in the research process. The ownership motivates them to dig deeper, explore with genuine curiosity, and take pride in their work. This not only enhances their understanding of the subject matter but also fosters a sense of independence and responsibility for their own learning, qualities that extend far beyond the scope of the project itself.

Setting Clear Expectations

In my first year undertaking this project, students were assigned the task of creating informative banners to present their research findings. Clear expectations were established for the project before students began. We looked at strong and weak project samples to identify the characteristics of both projects. Students worked with their partner(s) to answer the following questions:

• What makes this banner a STRONG student sample?

• What is missing from the WEAK sample? How can it be improved?

After students completed this step with their partners, we created a class anchor chart that contained the success criteria for student banners. This anchor chart was displayed for all students to see throughout the duration of the activity.

Displaying the success criteria for the research project is critical for student success. It lets them see the finish line and what they have to do to cross the line victoriously. The visible criteria as well as the strong and weak student samples are also useful tools that your students can use to self-assess their own project as they move along. Being able to self-assess their own work is not only important to this project, but it can be the beginning of teaching your students to self-assess their understanding of other ELA skills and writing.

Introducing the Research Phase & Self-Generating Questions

Once students have selected their individual to research and clear expectations for their project for this project have been identified, it’s time to introduce the research phase of the project. THINK ALOUDS are one of the most effective modeling tools that you can use to demonstrate the thinking required for a task and the expectations to complete it. During the THINK ALOUD, it’s not only essential to model those thinking skills, but you need to ensure that students have a clear purpose during the THINK ALOUD.

Modeling Expectations and Thinking

Before I begin modeling, I tell my students to pay attention to the steps that I do to complete the task. It is their job to help me identify the steps that I did after I have completed my model. It’s a good idea to write these steps down on the board or have students write these steps down on their paper or sticky note so that they have a reference to check once they begin researching.

During my THINK ALOUD, I take students through the process of self-generating questions that they would use to guide them during their online research. I ask myself what information should I include to educate my classmates about Tommy Orange. These questions range from “Who is Tommy Orange?”, “What accomplishments has Tommy Orange achieved?”, etc. I typically require my students to self-generate between 4-6 questions that they will use to guide them during their research. Give students 5 minutes to self-generate their questions.

Research Time

Since I typically use this as a pre-assessment for students, I let students jump right into the research portion of this activity after they have self-generated their questions. During the research portion of the activity, I spend the majority of my time checking in on my lower-level students and other students who I know may struggle with independent research. I typically give students 20 minutes or so for their initial research-gathering phase. We will then come back as a whole class and I give students an opportunity to ask questions. This is a great way to identify common research issues that students may be having and address them.

If you’d like to use this as an opportunity to introduce or review Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing, I have the PERFECT mini-lesson that I include with each research project resource. In addition, there is also information about creating a works cited page and properly citing your sources if that is a skill you wish to teach with this project. You can grab this FREE resource here.

Taking Research and Turning It Into An Informative Project

Once the research phase is done that is when the real fun begins for students. They get to turn their new learning and information that they have gathered about their Native American individual into a creative and informative project. Student choice comes back into play at this phase as I give my students a variety of templates that they can use to create their projects. I also use the different templates to ensure that I am meeting the needs of my lower-level students who may need more structure and my advanced students who do not need as much guidance in creating the project.

Before students begin creating their projects, we always refer back to our anchor chart with the success criteria. This allows students to refocus on what their project needs to be a strong project. It’s also the final time that I can address any misconceptions with the whole class before students start their final project.

Student Grouping Structures

I typically give students the majority of a class period to design their project and create the final product. My students are given a quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing bookmark as a reference tool while they are creating their project. This can help them to transfer their research information onto the project without plagiarizing any of their sources. The back side of the bookmark contains information about the works cited page and how to properly cite their sources if this is something you would like students to do.

Even though all students will be working independently on this project, I typically group my students into separate sections in the classroom depending on their specific needs. Having students grouped by their levels makes it easier to monitor students’ progress and offer assistance during the class period.

I will create my majority group which consists of students who should not require much assistance during this part of the activity. Another group will be students who may have struggled at some point during the research project and may need assistance during this phase. I then create another group area that contains my lower-level students who will need more assistance than others. If you have an inclusion teacher or paraprofessional in your classroom, they are typically in charge of this group while I monitor and assist the other groups. If it is just you in the classroom, then I would focus on my lowest group of students and periodically check on the medium group of students.

Student Self Assessments

Before the end of the class or work period, I like to give my students 5 minutes to self-assess their banners using the success criteria and the strong and weak models. This gives them the chance to fix anything that they may have missed and also allows them another opportunity to strengthen their self-assessment and reflection skills. You could even get students to switch banners with their partner to get feedback from another perspective.

My favorite thing about this reserch project is that it allows my students to have fun and be creative while they are actively learning and creating a product to educate their classmates. To say that I am amazed by my students and their creativity when completing these projects is a complete understatement. Each year I am blown away by the finished biography banners that my students create and the pride that they have in their projects.

The Projects Are Done: Now What?

Once the projects are complete and turned in, what’s the next step?

First, you need to decide how you will have students share the projects with their classmates. You could have students do a traditional oral presentation where they use their projects to give a short 2-3 minute talk about what they have learned about their Native American individual. This is a great way to include speaking and listening ELA standards into your lesson. One way that I have held students accountable during the presentation is to create a simple feedback form. During each presentation, students will rate the presenter 1-4 and write at least one interesting fact or new piece of information that they learned during the presentation.

Another bonus for these projects is that they can become purposeful classroom decor. These displays brighten up my classroom and serve as educational tools for all students and visitors throughout the entire month of November. You can use the completed banners to create Native American Heritage Month bulletin board displays, hang them from the ceiling of your classroom, or create a hallway display so that students and staff outside of your classroom can learn from your students. The possibilities are endless.

More Than Just Biography Banners!

Over the years I have expanded the type of research project that I give my students to select. Students can create a biography banner, social media template, trading cards, or a commemorative stamp design. All of these projects follow the same step-by-step research phase that I have outlined above with the biography banners. The only difference is the final informative project that students create.

You can click any of the images below to learn more about each of these specific research projects. Want to give your students the option to select their own research project? I’ve created a bundle resource that includes all four research projects together. Click here to grab the Native American Heritage Month Projects Bundle.

The best part is the these projects require little to NO PREP on your end. Everything you need to implement the lessons, from assignment and research guides, rubrics, student samples, and customizable options are included!