The Heart of a Chief

Today my students were introduced to the novel Heart of a Thief by Joseph Bruchac. We talked about dialect and how the novel may seem difficult to read because of the Native American dialect used in the novel. Since I've always taught seventh-grade English, this is going to be a new experience for me. I've never read this novel before, but I do remember seeing it on the sixth grade list and wondering about it. Funny though, none of the other sixth grade teachers have ever read it before. Maybe I'm interested because I love Native American studies. One of my favorites in seventh grade was Bearstone by Will Hobbs. It seems like some books go in and out of vogue. Perhaps this is one of them. Today was the introduction; I'm hoping that we're actually going to get to the silent reading in class tomorrow. The plan is to give the students thirty minutes of class time each day to read silently and then write a response or do a related activity. That is the wonderful thing about teaching in a two-hour block; there is more time to spend on silent reading and writing. Another thing that I like to do is bring in Native American poetry and folk tales in connection with these stories. There is just so much to do and read and think about with this unit. I'm really looking forward to it.