The purpose of this lesson is to encourage students to examine various aspects of cultural identity. The students will view the film Turbans, which focuses on a Sikh family's immigration to Oregon in the early 1900s.

This multi-day mini-unit explores the event of Christopher Columbus landing in the Bahamas from the viewpoint of both the Europeans and the Taino Tribe.  On Day 1 the students will participate in an interactive read-aloud of Encounter, by Jane Yolen. The focus will be centered around questioning as the reading strategy and then finishing with a graphic organizer depicting the portrayal of Christopher Columbus and the Native Americans.  Day 2 involves students seeking out resources on Christopher Columbus and continuing the graphic organizer. On Day 3 students will show their understanding of the different perspectives on the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Bahamas by will creating two different storyboards, one from the European perspective and the other from the Native American perspective.  To finish the unit students will use the ShadowPuppet EDU app to create a project showcasing their storyboards.  The unit will be assessed through a rubric.

FreeReading is an open source instructional program that helps educators teach early literacy. Because it is open source, it represents the collective wisdom of a wide community of teachers and researchers. FreeReading contains Writing Activities, a page of activities to address important writing skills and strategies.