Before planning any lesson, I would go to the First Principals of Learning and decide how my lesson could include as many principals as possible. I would visit this site for inspiration and to get the ball rolling:
https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com
After I had decided which principals to focus on I would begin my lesson planning. I found this helped my keep the First Peoples Principals of Learning at the center of all my planning! For example in a Second Language Lesson, I utilized the First Peoples Principals of Learning in the following ways (this lesson plan can be found under the lesson plan section of this eportfolio).
Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place)
In this lesson, students will learn through an experiential activity at the beginning. This activity will build context and help students understand the differing perspectives of two different groups of people. This activity will also build empathy and help students understand how the Indigenous were treated by the settlers. This will encourage students to look at history through different lenses. This lesson will also be holistic and support academic and social/emotional growth in the students. The entire lesson will be reflexive as students will be required to reflect on their learning. The lesson will be connected to the student’s local place and land, as the Dakelh language is a regional and local dialect.
Learning recognizes the role of Indigenous knowledge
Authentic indigenous learning will occur in this lesson. Students will listen and learn about the Dakelh language through a proper source (first voices). Students will hear the Dakelh language spoken and begin to listen to find out what the word “sus” means. Students will also practice some Dakelh words and begin to build vocabulary in local indigenous language skills.
Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story
The learning in this lesson will come from history and story. The story for the bear “sus” will help students learn and is directly connected to the big idea of this lesson: “Stories help us to acquire language.”
Another example in a Science Lesson, I utilized the First Peoples Principals of Learning in the following ways (this lesson plan can be found under the lesson plan section of this eportfolio).
“Recognizing that all learners benefit from learning about Indigenous knowledge and perspectives” https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com
By utilizing the resources in the DLC kit “Aboriginal Astronomy” the teacher can bring traditional indigenous knowledge into the lesson. This lesson will begin with a reading of Hold up the sky / Jane Louise Curry. This will help bring an Indigenous perspective into our learning. This classroom has a few students who are Metis or have status but following the FPPL we can see that all students will benefit from this addition to the learning.
“Learning is reflexive. It builds upon itself, exponentially increasing as learners develop new knowledge and deeper understandings of how everything is ultimately connected.” https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com
This lesson comes in the natural sequence of this learning. Students will see as their understanding of the moon and earth is expanded upon. Theories and ideas addressed in previous lessons will be called upon this lesson, showing students that learning builds upon itself. Students will develop new understanding of how everything is connected as they see how the moon affects the tides which affects all life on earth. The exploration of “what if the moon disappeared” will demonstrate how intimately everything is connected in our world.
https://firstpeoplesprinciplesoflearning.wordpress.com
My coaching teacher and my Practice Evaluator both complimented me on my ability to naturally embed the First Peoples Principals of Learning into my lesson plans. This is something I took pride in with all of my lesson plans. Every lesson plans shows a Principal of Learning, and then a paragraph explaining how it would be implemented into that lesson. Inclusion and respect has always been at the fore front of my teaching journey.