The following is the first one I’ve completed, done for my Reconciliation course ECUR 265 taught be Kristine Dreaver-Charles. Although the topic was challenging I think it was a good experience as it shows that even difficult and important topics have curriculum connections and you can still use the same teaching techniques to approach them, just with extra considerations.

Teacher Candidate Name: Aida Baumann

Lesson Plan Title: The Realities of Indigenous Youth Suicide

Resources used: See Bibliography

Date: December 4th, 2019

Subject: ELA                                                                        

Grade:  9

Topic:  Teen suicide and Romeo and Juliet                                                                      

Materials:
Double-sided print out “Suicide Warning Signs” and “What Should I Do?”
Device and Speakers to play Creating environments for Indigenous youth to live & succeed: Tunchai Redvers YouTube presentation.  
Card listing local and national suicide prevention resources for each student made by the teacher.

Stage 1- Desired Results Broad Areas of Learning: -Sense of Self, Community and Place -Engaged Citizens   Cross-Curricular Competencies: – Identity and Interdependence – Social Responsibility   Outcomes: – CR9.5a: Listen purposefully to understand, analyze, and evaluate oral information and ideas from a range of texts including conversations, discussions, interviews, and speeches. – CC9.6a and CC9.6b:  Use oral language to interact purposefully, confidently, and appropriately in a variety of situations including participating in one-to-one, small group, and large group discussions.

Stage 2- Learning Plan  Motivational/Anticipatory Set: Ask students to discuss in groups what they remember of the suicide scenes in Romeo and Juliet, including their motivation and how the other characters reacted to their suicides. Ask if there’s been discussion of suicide in other media such as television or social media posts that they’ve seen. Finally, ask if they’ve heard anything in school or through the news about suicide, and specifically the Indigenous youth suicide epidemic. Main Procedures/Strategies: Introduce the reality of suicide beyond a dramatic device, and the reality of it in our communities. Distribute the Suicide information hand outs and cards to each student. Present both sides of the handout to the class as whole. Ask them to internally reflect on the information presented for a few minutes before reconvening. Open the classroom to discussion, emphasizing the importance and sensitivity of this topic and that students should take care of themselves during this lesson. Introduce and watch the TEDx talk “Creating environments for Indigenous youth to live & succeed” by Tunchai Redvers. Discuss as a class their opinions on her talk. Ask who is she, why was she motivated to create this presentation? Is this topic relevant to them as young people? Discuss the impact of historic and current situations on Indigenous communities and their suicide rates. Closing of lesson: Have students in groups of two or three discuss: – one way our community is not supporting our youth and who’s responsible, – a resource they currently have accessible to them, and what they can do to help support each other (including Indigenous youth) starting right now. Have these students than come to the whiteboard or discussion board to write the resource they identified as well as a sentence describing the action they feel that they can personally do right now. Encourage students to think on this lesson at home and to come to you or another support if they have any concerns with the lesson or themselves personally regarding this topic. Emphasize their importance as individuals and the concern felt for their lives and happiness.