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Educator Resources

Educator Resources

K-12 Curriculum Units

The purpose of this curriculum series is to promote the history and experiences documented in the Chilocco History Project archival and oral history body of research. This curriculum engages students, through inquiry, with the evolving history and experiences at Chilocco. Through a historical lens, this curriculum balances its focus on assimilative practices of the federal government, including militarization of the boarding school space, with an evolving perspective of how Chilocco, in later years, became a space reclaimed by students and tribes to further their educational values and contribute to the growth of their tribes and the state. 

These units were prepared by curriculum design specialists, Dr. Samantha Benn-Duke (Cherokee/Muscogee Creek) and Dr. Lisa Lynn Brooks (Choctaw). 

K-5 Unit:

These lesson plans are targeted to elementary students from grades Kindergarten through second and from grades three through five. The standards align to the C3 Framework Standards. The lessons are designed as stand-alone inquiry lessons, allowing the educators to use one or both lessons. The lessons draw from primary and secondary resources, including oral histories from alumni of Chilocco Indian Boarding School in northern Oklahoma. - Prepared by Samantha Benn-Duke, PhD.

6-12 Unit:

This curriculum unit contains a series lessons targeted at 6th- 8th and 9th -12th grade students in Oklahoma and beyond. The curriculum units are devised to elicit critical thinking, like that promoted by the Stanford History Education Group, teach appropriate skills based on national standards, and promote an Indigenous perspective of history. This work also relies on essential questions as a framework to guide the student through the inquiry unit.  - Prepared by Lisa Lynn Brooks, PhD.

New in 2022! 6-12 grade targeted graphic novel, Chilocco Indian School: A Generational Story (Julie Pearson Little Thunder, PhD, Johnnie Diacon, Jerry Bennett), ready for classroom incorporation. See this Project Based Learning (Lisa Lynn Brooks, PhD) module for more ideas on utilizing this, and related resources, in the classroom.