This video, adapted from material provided by the ECHO partners, illustrates how Native people preserve history and tradition through art, music, and dance.

Yvonne Divans Hutchinson is a National Board certified teacher who has focused for many years on developing strategies to engage all her students in substantive discussions of literary texts and the issues those texts raise for their own lives. In this approach, she builds on the oral traditions of her students African-American and Latino cultures and seeks to support the development of their literacy skills through high standards, explicit expectations, and rigorous literature experiences. Her online 'class anatomy' (a documentation and analysis of one instructional period) juxtaposes video clips with commentary and samples of classroom documents. In the video clips, Hutchinson reflects on her expectations for the class, a student orally presents the 'class scribe' notes from the previous day, the students engage in small group and large group discussion about a racially charged literary selection that had been assigned the night before, and after the class, four students reflect on their experiences in Hutchinson's classroom, and how her rigorous approach and emphasis on dialogue and diversity prepares them for other academic work.

See how a place-based high school curriculum project promotes STEM learning through local ethnography and conservation projects. This video segment showcases one of 11 CREST projects taking place in rural, coastal Maine communities.

SPARK visits with contemporary quilt artist Anna Von Mertens, who shows how she makes her work from first concepts to the last stitch. This Educator Guide traces the history of quilting from the early 18th century through the present day, including group quilts, slave quilts, and contemporary quilts.

This lesson focuses on the music and poetry of Afghanistan, but teachers may conduct an analysis on global music in any given period of history, depending on what is pertinent to the grade level. Students will take into consideration important political events or conflicts, the ruling party of the area, the belief systems in place, and specific cultural features. Students will also learn to identify traditional musical instruments, consider the value of oral traditions, study the ghazal as a form of poetry and song, while creating their own musical works and poetry.

Writer Karen Romano Young takes an icebreaker to Barrow, Alaska, to join in the festival of Naluqatak and learn about the intimate relationship between the Inupiat Eskimos and the bowhead whale. Listen as she tells Ari Daniel Shapiro how the whole community turns out for whale hunt, how the bowhead nourishes the Inupiat, both physically and spiritually and how the hunt is proving to be an unexpected gift to scientists.

In the second of five lessons in this Family, History and Memory module, students analyze memoir as a genre. They then organize the information researched in the first lesson and put together their own family memoir. The lessons can be delivered as a module or as individual units.

The six-week activities presented in this unit include strategies for learning about the cultural diversity of the students. The student interviews with parents and family members are teacher guided writing exercises designed to develop the studentŐs communication skills. The goals of this project are to promote parent involvement in learning, eliminate conflict and culturally insensitive behavior, and facilitate positive social interactions among culturally diverse students. Thus, the ultimate goals of the project is for students to create a family history portrait, explore a variety of cultures, and heighten their awareness of family, and group dynamics for improving social interaction both in and outside the classroom.

A plain language guide to copyright in the 21st century
By Julien Hofman

Computers and the Internet have transformed the way we produce and distribute information and entertainment. And copyright is struggling to keep pace with these changes.

The authors of all kinds of works, from the humble email to blockbuster films, rely on copyright to protect what they produce. But authors and those who use their work are often unclear about what copyright allows and what it prohibits.

This book was written for those who want to learn about copyright in the 21st century. It explains copyright protection and what it means for copyright holders and copyright users. It also introduces readers to contemporary topics: digital rights management, open licences, software patents and copyright protection for works of traditional knowledge. A final chapter tries to predict how technology will change the publishing and entertainment industries that depend on copyright.

The book assumes no special knowledge and avoids technical language as much as possible.

Students will be introduced to Chinese Circus Arts and San Francisco’s Circus Center. They will learn about the origins of Chinese acrobatics and circus arts, and be inspired to study China’s history, and explore how circuses differ across cultures. Students will engage in group oral discussion, hands-on individual and group projects, as well as critical reflection on personal expressions.

This booklet is a collection of opinions of nearly 50 important poets from 25 countries in 5 continents on the best ways to present poetry to secondary school pupils. It is mainly intended for use in teacher training programmes, to bring to methods of teaching poetry two important dimensions: the creative perspective of poets themselves, as well as the perspective of different cultures regarding the reading and writing of poetry.

Eva Jessye: Black American Folk Music. Program consists of a collection of excerpts from works made by independent video artists utilizing the 1/2 inch videotape format. Selections focus on social interaction, the oral tradition, performance, and special effects, and include Neighborhoods First (about historic preservation advocates in Chicago), Street Games in Cultural Communities (about children's play and its reflection on their culture), Brother Blue (a lesson on mathematics by the Boston-based storyteller Dr. Hugh Morgan Hill); Eva Jessye: Black American Folk Music (about folk musician Eva Jessye), and No Crystal Stair (a compilation of archival performance footage). Films introduced via the narration of WNAC TV arts critic Tanya Hart. Produced by Barbara Barrow. Directed by Conrad White.

This unit supports the reading and study of the novel "Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko.

Video recreations that teach world legends and folktales will be enjoyed by all audiences.

Afghanistan - Eight Strands for Afghanistan; Albania - The Land of the Eagles; Algeria - The Legend of Tin Hinan; Angola - Kianda Takes a Bride; Azerbaijan - The Dove and Peace; Bolivia - The Legend of Chijchipa; Brazil - The Amazon River; Burma - Moguk - The Legend of the Rubies; Cambodia - The Tale of Thunder and Lightning; China - Journey to Dadu Marco Poso, The Silver Fish and The Great Wall.

Colombia - The Legend of Furatena; Djibouti - The Legend of Hadal Mahiss; DRC - The Kingdom of Kongo; Egypt - Cleopatra; Eritrea - Queen of Sheba; Ethiopia - The Lion's Whisker; Georgia - The Pheasant of Tbilisi; India - Taj Mahal; Indonesia - The Legend of Merong Mahawangsa; Iran - The 1001 Nights; Iraq - Abul Abbas the Elephant; Israel - Solomon the Wise King; Ivory Coast
The Legend of Queen Pokou.

Japan - The Naming of Mount Fuji; Kazakhstan - The Legend of the Dombra; Kenya - The Spirit Wife; Kurdistan - Legend of Zembilfiroz; Kuwait - Mariam and Salim: Defenders of Kuwait; Lebanon - Cadmus The First Teacher; Liberia - The Chief's Wise Wife; Libya - The Legend of Cyrene; Mali - The Lost Manuscripts of Timbuktu; Mexico - The Lengend of Popocateptl & Iztaccihuatle; Mongolia- The Camel and the Rat; Morocco - The Legend of the Almond Tree; Nepal -Boudhanath; Nigeria - Bayajidda; North Korean - The Legend of Tangun; Oman - The Frozen Dates.

Philippines - The Legend of Apo Lakay-Lakay, The Chocolates Hills of Bohol Island, Legend of Alitaptap and the Fireflies; Poland - The Mermaid of Warsaw; Portugal - The Rooster from Barcelos; Saudi Arabia - Poetry in Pre-Islamic Arabia Qays and Layla, Poetry in Pre-Islamic Arabia Antara and 'Abla; Serbia - Marko - Hero and King; Somalia - The Camel in the Sky; Syria - How the West Was Won by the Arabs; Thailand - Ta-in and Ta-na; Tunisia - Queen Ellissar, The Punic Wars; Turkey - Troy; Turkmenistan - Sultan Sanjar and the Fairy; UAE - The Milk Container; Uzbekistan - How Samarkand Got Its Name; Venezuela - The Five White Eagles; Vietman - The Legend of Betel: Cao Tan and Cao Lang; Yemen - The Discovery of Coffee.

This lesson will introduce students to the epic poem form and to its roots in oral tradition. Students will learn about the epic hero cycle and will learn how to recognize this pattern of events and elements- even in surprisingly contemporary places. Students will also be introduced to the patterns embedded in these stories that have helped generations of storytellers remember these immense poems.

Some of the most well known, and most important, works of literature in the world are examples of epic poetry. This lesson will introduce students to the epic poem form and to its roots in oral tradition.

In this video adapted from Storyknife Productions, Alaska Native pilots share how they use traditional knowledge to read the landscape and predict the weather.

In this bilingual (English/Spanish) activity, learners create family trees by tracing the hands of their family members. Learners list inherited traits like eye color, freckles, and chin shape on the fingers of the left hands and list learned traits like favorite foods, games, and pets on the fingers of the right hands. Learners assemble the hands to form trees. Use this family activity to help learners distinguish between inherited and learned traits.

In this video segment adapted from the National Film Board of Canada, learn how the Inuit people have used their traditional knowledge to understand and adapt to changes in their Arctic environment, particularly when hunting and navigating the landscape.

In this lesson students will be exposed to the cultural and artistic importance of wampum belts to the Native American tribes that George Catlin encountered on his travels, and the importance of the belts in American history as markers of relations between tribes and the U.S. Government between 1776 and 1878. Students will gain insight into the differing ways in which these cultures expressed ideas, values, and policy through objects, written documents, and oral traditions.