Resources for the practice of Native American songs and dances in the elementary classroom.

Abstract

Elementary music and classroom teachers should find this study helpful as a guide to those resources regarding the songs, dances and culture of the Native North Americans.

Three chapters give an annotated bibliography of resources. Chapter Two gives general information about the Native American culture as a whole. Chapter Three provides resources for teaching songs and dances. Chapter Four lists audio and video recordings to use in the classroom. Chapter Five gives two long lesson plans that are intended to be used by either music or classroom teachers as befit their own classes. The chapter also contains a specific lesson plan written for fourth grade classes.

The purpose of this study was to identify resources and contextual information for the practice of Native American songs and dances in the elementary classroom. These include resources about the general Native American culture and about specific songs and dances. Sources reviewed were books, magazines, doctoral dissertations, papers, video recordings, and audio recordings. They were divided into reference materials useful for teachers, and materials that are appropriate for elementary students to read and study. This study also presented selected information from each source so that the reader will gain a background knowledge about a number of regional cultures within the Native Northern American culture. This should give either a music specialist or classroom teacher a basis on which to begin presentation of the songs and dances, as well as the general culture, to elementary students.