Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

• RI.6.1 – Opening A: Students complete an entrance ticket in which they use textual evidence from an excerpt of the Meriam Report to answer questions about the report.
• RI.6.1 – Work Time B: Students participate in a Jigsaw protocol in which they read excerpts of the Meriam Report and use textual evidence to support their analysis of what they read.
• RI.6.2 – Work Time B: During the Jigsaw protocol, students discuss key ideas in their text excerpts.
• RI.6.6 – Work Time B: During the Jigsaw protocol, students examine the point of view of the author of the Meriam Report.
• RI.6.4 – Work Time B: During the Jigsaw protocol, students interpret the meaning of words as they are used in their text excerpts.
• RI.6.5 – Work Time B: During the Jigsaw protocol, students collaborate to consider the ways in which individual short excerpts from the Meriam Report contribute to the overall development of key ideas in the text.
• SL.6.1d – Work Time B: During the Jigsaw protocol, students collaborate to review and reflect on the key ideas expressed in their text excerpts.
• RI.6.1 – Work Time C: Students use evidence from their excerpts to answer questions on the Analyze Point of View: Meriam Report note-catchers.
• RI.6.6 – Work Time C: Students analyze the author’s point of view in the Meriam Report and add to their Analyze Point of View: Meriam Report note-catchers.
• SL.6.1d – Work Time C: During the Jigsaw share, students collaborate to review and reflect on the key ideas expressed in their text excerpts.
• RI.6.6 – Closing and Assessment A: Students compare the point of view of the author of the Meriam Report to the authors of other texts read earlier in the unit.
• In this lesson, students first read excerpts from The Problem of Indian Administration; they will revisit these and other excerpts of this extensive document throughout this module. Note that this document will be referred to by its more well-known, colloquial moniker the “Meriam Report,” named after Lewis Meriam, who was commissioned to write the report in 1928.

Opportunities to Extend Learning

• An optional Mini Language Dive, intended for use after Work Time B, is available in the Teacher’s Guide for English Language Learners. ▲
• The Meriam Report is a vast document outlining the results of an extensive survey conducted in the early 20th century to track the economic, health, and living conditions of Native Americans. If time is available to do so, consider expanding the Background task of Work Time A to include the entire abstract, as well as the “Letter of Transmittal” that precedes the report itself. The Letter of Transmittal further details the methods for conducting the survey and directly explains the objectives of the report. A deeper exploration of this letter may support students’ understanding of the purpose of the Meriam Report, which in turn would inform their understanding of the author’s point of view.

How It Builds on Previous Work

• In the two previous lessons, students analyzed the point of view of Captain Pratt in an excerpt from one of his speeches and of Zitkala-Sa in her first-person narrative, “The Land of Red Apples.” With reduced scaffolding in this lesson, students continue to develop their abilities to examine the author’s point of view in the Meriam Report. During Closing and Assessment A of this lesson, students compare the point of view of the author of the Meriam Report to the points of view of Pratt and Zitkala-Sa.

Support All Students

• Students read excerpts from the Meriam Report, a document which detailed many of the abuses that were taking place at American Indian boarding schools. It may be upsetting for these students to read about the ways in which students were treated at these institutions. Point out that this was a commissioned report that brought many of these abuses to light. Invite them to speculate about ways in which things may have improved as a result of this report.

Assessment Guidance

• As students fill in their task cards during Work Time B, note that some responses may vary and others only have one correct answer. Ensure that unless there is one expected correct answer, such as a vocabulary word definition, students come to the correct conclusions about their assigned excerpts, even if they use different wording than the sample student response.
• Remind students to situate point of view in the context of a topic. Their responses to point of view on their note-catchers should explain the author’s point of view towards a specific topic or issue.

Down the Road

• In the next lesson, students examine photos that depict some of the problems described in the Meriam Report excerpts that students read during this lesson. Then, in preparation for the Mid-Unit 1 Assessment of Lesson 7, they practice integrating the information from the excerpts with information from the photos to develop a more cohesive understanding of the topic as a whole. In Unit 2, students return to the Meriam Report, participating in a close read of another critical section from the extensive document.