Here at Facing History, we see heritage and awareness months as opportunities to deepen our knowledge of and attention to the histories and contemporary experiences of historically marginalized communities. However, the focus on celebrating these communities over one particular month can further marginalize the very experiences we are hoping to elevate. With this in mind, what follows is an invitation to engage with important themes raised by Native American Heritage Month this November and throughout all of the months of the year.

Here at Facing History, we see heritage and awareness months as opportunities to deepen our attention to the histories and contemporary experiences of particular communities. However, we are cognizant of the significant limitations of educational approaches that limit engagement with these themes only to those times of the year. What follows is an invitation to engage with important themes raised by Native American Heritage Month this November and beyond.

Photo Caption: Cree students at their desks with their teacher in a classroom, All Saints Indian Residential School, Lac La Ronge, Saskatchewan, March 1945 (Credit: Bud Glunz / National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / PA-134110).

This November is Native American Heritage Month--a national observance that draws our attention to the histories, contemporary experiences, and insights of Indigenous peoples of the United States. As valuable as this heritage month can be for drawing increased attention to this area that demands greater attention in our classrooms and in the wider society, Native American Heritage Month also beckons to the importance of surfacing and centering these themes all year long. One common hurdle that undermines these efforts is the struggle to identify appropriate resources that are written by and about Native peoples with the adolescent in mind. There are a host of books and other materials that we can turn to as we construct lesson plans and recommend reading to our students, and what follows are five texts to consider.

The 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) is currently taking place in Glasgow, Scotland where an international group of academics, policymakers, artists, youth activists, and other grassroots visionaries are meeting to contend with the many dire challenges and collaborative opportunities posed by the ongoing climate crisis. News from the convening-in-progress reveals that more than forty countries have pledged to shift away from using coal and nearly 100 nations have pledged to cut methane emissions substantially in an effort to slow global heating. Alongside these significant top-down decisions that will reshape policy around the globe, the conference also features a host of presentations that speak to the place-based knowledge, local efforts, and fundamental mindset shifts that must accompany policy change. This year, many of these events are being led by Indigenous people and/or underscore Indigenous ways of conceiving of the natural world and its relationship to humanity.

During Native American Heritage Month this November, educators are reminded of the importance of engaging students in exploring the histories and contemporary realities of Native American peoples all year. Yet one of the barriers to doing this well and with confidence is not having had sufficient exposure to this material as part of one’s own classroom education. There are a host of books and other materials that we can turn to in the ongoing learning and unlearning process that this task demands, and this learning is something we are engaged in at Facing History, too. 

Have you ever wondered how Gay-Straight Alliances came to be? Though it may seem unremarkable that students can participate in Gay-Straight Alliances in a growing number of schools today, this was not the case until relatively recently. Led by gay educator and GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings, the movement to create networks of support within K-12 schools that affirm the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth is one that points to the importance of solidarity and collaboration between teachers and students. In addition to a powerful story of bravery and solidarity, the origins and current work of GLSEN also offer rich insights for educators and administrators interested in supporting their LGBTQ+ students more effectively.

In a fast-moving information landscape that is being transformed by image manipulation tools and deep fakes, the work of helping students cultivate media literacy is an increasingly complex task. U.S. Media Literacy Week during the last week of October is a time dedicated to underscoring the idea that media literacy must be a central aim of education and urging teachers to implement relevant lesson plans that help students learn how to sift fact from fiction. Conceptualizing media literacy as exclusively focused on the facts appears to be giving way to a broader definition, however, as the debate over the nature and impact of social media platforms such as Facebook intensifies. Beyond the important question of how students discern whether the information they access is factual, a host of other concerning questions are emerging about how the very tools we use to access information may be unraveling our ability to know, think, and simply relate to others in the world—particularly for adolescents. As lawmakers attempt to hold tech leaders accountable through an ongoing series of congressional hearings, a network of former tech leaders has come together to help all of us—and particularly our young people—forge more healthy relationships with these platforms through behavior change.

Have you ever wondered how history itself is made? Though we often talk about individuals and groups “making history” by making certain types of contributions to society, less frequently do we talk about the complex process through which historians construct their accounts of the past. During American Archives Month this October, we have a chance to explore the central role of archives in shaping our perceptions of the past, the various forces that determine the materials and voices included in a given archive, and how this insight can enrich the way we think about historical materials and even produce our own.

How do we help students make sense of the past? During American Archives Month this October and every month, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration suggests that archival materials—also known as primary sources—ought to be an important part of this equation. At Facing History, we agree; primary sources materials are a key component of our pedagogical approach and our classroom resources. In historical study, the term “primary sources” refers to historical evidence produced contemporaneous to the time captured or described in the source. These sources may take the form of images, letters, diaries, speeches, audio recordings, video recordings, and more. Selecting primary sources and making them accessible to students can be challenging, but there are numerous benefits to teaching with them. 

In addition to exposing students to secondary sources that offer their own analyses of these historical objects—sources like textbooks, for example—inviting students into the world of the historical subject through primary sources is an excellent way to build their capacities for critical thinking, expand their understanding of a given historical moment, and humanize the historical actors in question. This is not only important for promoting academic understanding of a historical time period but it also has the potential to help the student understand their own small actions as those that have the potential to play a role in history as it is narrated in the future.

We invite educators to check out these 5 time-tested teaching strategies designed to incorporate analysis of primary sources into educator lesson plans: