Learning About the Taíno Peoples, and Christopher Columbus

*PLEASE BE AWARE that the Taino people did not wear clothing, and though they are usually shown clothed in books and videos, some artwork online or in documentaries may depict them in various stages of nudity.  I encourage parents and teachers to choose resources ahead of time and preview all documentaries or books, even those recommended here, to make sure you find them appropriate for your children.

In addition to studying the life and voyages of Christopher Columbus, we decided to devote equal time to learning about the indigenous peoples he first encountered.  I wanted Hunter to understand that while Columbus is a celebrated historical figure who certainly changed the world, these changes resulted in tragedy for the inhabitants of the lands he "discovered".

   

We read many books about Christopher Columbus in addition to our main history text, but these are the two we found the most helpful.  Click on either of the pictures to check them out!

Here's the Interactive 3D Map of Columbus' first voyage that Hunter colored and assembled.  Looks great, doesn't it?  He worked so hard.

Some of the pieces are glued down, but the ships move along the track between Spain and the Caribbean.

We got the map from this book, and look forward to making more!  Click on the picture to find out more about the book; it's a great addition to any homeschool.

He also completed this fabulous flip-flap book from Simply Skilled in Second.  (The finished product can include one of Columbus' ships!  Follow the link to see her examples.)

Each flap has maps, writing prompts, questions, or space to draw so the student can really show what they've learned.

We use these flip-flap books a lot, for history, science, and language arts.  She has a fantastic collection and it's growing all the time!

Hunter loves documentaries, and we were happy to find this one by National Geographic on YouTube.  The title is a little misleading; it's really about the impact of European settlement on the North and Central American civilizations.  It's a good jumping off point for discussion about the positive and negative aspects of the Columbian exchange, and whether any of the negatives could have been avoided. 

This story by Jane Yolen is told from the point of view of a young Taíno boy who is suspicious of the strangers that have suddenly appeared in his land.  He tries to warn the adults of his village that the newcomers seem more interested in gold than friendship, but no one listens.

This FREE activity from Guest Hollow requires students to cut out the items (including foods, animals, and other resources) and paste them on either the New World or Old World side of the map.  An answer key is included. 

 

Each of these wonderful picture books tells a version of a Taíno creation myth explaining the origin of the sea.  Click on either of them to view them on Amazon.com.  (We were able to get both from our local library.)  We created a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two stories.  (You can find a free Venn Diagram designed for comparing two books right here.)

We studied zemis, sculptural objects the Taíno believed to house spirits, often of ancestors.  Some zemis had full bodies, while others consisted of only a head or mask.  Hunter made this sculpture with Crayola Air Dry Clay.  It's based on an actual zemi at the Walters Art Museum. 

This short video about the decimation of the Taíno peoples was made by Puerto Rican high school students for a senior project.  They did a fantastic job!

Hunter was surprised to learn how many English words come from the Taino language, including:

Barbeque
Canoe
Potato
Manatee
Savannah
Papaya
Cannibal
Cuba
Jamaica
Guava
Hammock
Hurricane
and Iguana

If you want to learn more about the Taino before teaching, here are a couple great resources for adults:

What Became of the Taíno? is a great article on Smithsonian.com

This Wikipedia article is also very informative and links to more great resources.

Blogs and Shops featured in this post:

GuestHollow.com
Simply Skilled in Second (TpT)

Lisa Lilienthal (TpT)

On Commas, or, Why Do the Rules of Grammar Hate Us So?!

I have a confession to make.  I do not like teaching grammar and punctuation.  There are so many rules to teach a child who really isn't interested (at least in my case), and so much practice required to commit it all to memory.  To make matters worse, this difficult subject matter is incredibly important.  College professors, future employers, and even Facebook friends will one day judge my son's grammatical proficiency.  Fortunately for me, there are some wonderful resources out there to make it easier to understand and teach grammar.  

I'm pleased to introduce guest blogger Nikolas Baron, who has written a fabulous post on teaching correct comma usage.  I've been known to sprinkle commas pretty much anywhere, and Nick's clear explanations have been very helpful to me as a blogger, and as a teacher.  Enjoy!

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On Commas, or, Why Do the Rules of Grammar Hate Us So?!

Commas. Ugh. No one likes commas, especially English teachers. They're difficult to teach, and students rarely use them correctly. We can sit and teach students the rules of the comma, but they'll usually end up ignoring them and dropping commas wherever they think a comma should go. This rarely turns out well, usually resulting in a paper with either no commas or too many. How do you even begin to teach such a complex topic to students that honestly don't care?

The primary difficulty is in the complexity of comma rules. Some people argue that there are only four rules for comma usage, while others break those rules down into further rules, increasing the complexity. For example, the Modern Language Association lists a total of 11 comma rules, which is just silly: not even a professional writer can keep track of 11 separate comma rules; what hope do any of us have? What hope do our students have?

In my work with Grammarly, I study the tools writers use to become better writers, and while I wish there were a fool-proof way to teach commas, there just isn't. The best you can hope is to simplify the rules enough that they're easy to understand, and then use some activities to help them practice.

Let's start with rules. In my belief, there are only five comma rules that are crucial to teach:

1. A comma is used before a coordinating conjunction that separates two independent clauses.
• Example: “I sat on the couch, and I watched TV.”
2. A comma is used to offset additional information that describes a noun, called an “appositive.”
• Example: “The speaker, a world-reknowned author, took the stage.”
3. A comma is used to separate like items in a list.
• Example: “I've written for a blog, newspaper, and TV station.”
4. A comma offsets an introductory clause that comes before the subject of the sentence.
• Example: “In his right hand, he held his drink.”
5. A comma separates a quotation from the rest of the text.
• Example: “She pulled him aside and said, “This is important.”

As previously mentioned, there are certainly more comma rules, but I believe these are the most important. Once your students seem to have a good grasp on these rules, it's time to put them into practice. While you can certainly provide worksheets with sentences that need commas, I feel like worksheets do little to teach the practical use of the rules. To provide practice, I believe we should use activities that encourage our students to think critically about how commas should be used in real situations. Try the following exercises with your students to help them practice the five rules above:

1. Write three sentences for each comma rule on separate strips of paper. Have your students categorize each sentence by the comma rule it uses.
2. Have your students write a paragraph using five sentences. Make sure that each sentence uses at least one of the comma rules above.
3. If you have multiple students, have each one write a paragraph that uses the above rules but does not include the commas. Have your students trade paragraphs and add the commas in.

These three exercises are simple ways you can have your students practice the proper ways to use the five comma rules. Keep in mind, however, that no matter how good your students get, no writer is perfect. Comma errors will always fall through the cracks. That's where Grammarly comes in. Over at Grammarly, we offer a comprehensive grammar check that examines a text for over 200 grammatical errors. With good comma practice and a little extra help from Grammarly, you can not only make sure that your students learn about commas, but also ensure that they will always use commas correctly.

By Nikolas Baron

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Bio:

Nikolas discovered his love for the written word in Elementary School, where he started spending his afternoons sprawled across the living room floor devouring one Marc Brown children's novel after the other and writing short stories about daring pirate adventures. After acquiring some experience in various marketing, business development, and hiring roles at internet startups in a few different countries, he decided to re-unite his professional life with his childhood passions by joining Grammarly’s marketing team in San Francisco. He has the pleasure of being tasked with talking to writers, bloggers, teachers, and others about how they use Grammarly’s online proofreading application to improve their writing. His free time is spent biking, traveling, and reading.