South Carolina ETV

South Carolina ETV
1101 George Rogers Boulevard
Columbia, SC 29201-4761
Phone: 803-737-3545

They Called Him Sequoyah (Grades 6-8)

Master Teacher

Debbie Alexander

Time Allotment

Two 45-minute class periods

Overview

Sequoyah (a.k.a. George Gist) was noted as one of the most famous Cherokee Indians by most historians. Born in 1776 to Nathaniel Gist, a fur trader and Wureth, daughter of a Cherokee chief, Sequoyah was raised to believe in old tribal ways and customs. He became a hunter, fur trader, and skilled silver craftsman. He never really learned to speak, write, or read English. However, he was always fascinated with the way that white people communicated with each other by making marks on paper. Some Native people refer to this as "talking leaves." Being handicapped, Sequoyah devoted most of his time to devising his own system of written communication. After 12 years of working on the new language, Sequoyah and his daughter introduced the Cherokee alphabet to the Cherokee people. Thousands of Cherokee people became literate because of his efforts.

Through examining Web sites and completing various activities, students will understand the importance of written language and its effect on society.

Subject Matter

Social Studies

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

identify ways that people communicate—past and present

explain the advantages and disadvantages of written communication on society

provide valid reasons that the written language created by Sequoyah helped the Cherokee people

predict how the written language could have helped the Cherokee people avoid the tragedy known as the "Trail of Tears" compare three other written languages to the written language we use today

South Carolina Standards

These Standards can be found online at Office of Curriculum Standards.

Standard 7.2.6: Explain the essential characteristics of limited and unlimited governments.

Standard 7.2.7: Explain how the purposes and uses of a constitution form a relationship between a people and their government.

Standard 7.3.13: Discuss how humans and their use of technology have changed the physical environment and describe the consequences of these changes in each world region.

Media Components

Web Sites

This Central Intelligience Agency Site for Kids will allow students to decode a mystery message.

The Little Horus will allow students to write their name using hieroglyphics.

The Omniglot will allow students to look at the written language created by Sequoyah. Students will also be able to look at other written languages used in the world.

Materials

Per student:

paper and pencil
graphic organizer
colored pencils
white construction paper or typing paper

Prep for Teachers

Prior to the teaching lesson,

Bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer.

Make copies of the graphic organizer for each student.

Gather materials for culminating activity—white paper, colored pencils

When using media, provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia components.

Introductory Activity

Step 1: Distribute the graphic organizers. Ask your students to list 3 ways that people communicate past and present. Tell them to write their responses on the graphic organizer. Allow 3-5 minutes to complete.

Step 2: After students have completed the graphic organizer, call on volunteers to give responses. (Answers will vary, but some responses for past may be drawings, sign language, etc. Some responses for present may be computers, telephones, etc.)

Step 3: Discuss the information in the overview of this lesson with the students so that they will know information about Sequoyah.

Step 4: Ask your students to log on to the Web site that shows the Cherokee alphabet created by Sequoyah at Omniglot . Provide your students with a Focus For Media Interaction, asking them to provide valid reasons that the written language created by Sequoyah helped the Cherokee people. (Most of the Cherokee people became literate because of this system. They were also able to communicate using written language. They learned to write their names.)

Step 5: Explain to the students that many of the Cherokee were unable to write their names before this time. They signed their names by using x's on many written documents that were vital to the well being of the Cherokee people. Most of the time they were lied to about the information in these documents and were unable to read them themselves.

Step 6: Ask your students to predict how the written language created by Sequoyah could have helped the Cherokee people avoid the tragedy known as the "Trail of Tears." (Some responses may be that they would have been able to read the documents and understand exactly what they were signing. They may also say that they would have known that they were being lied to about the reasons for their removal.)

Learning Activity

Step 1: Ask your students to explain the advantages and disadvantages of written language. (Some responses may be: advantages—under-stand the meaning of written documents, com-munication, etc. disadvantages—lack of understanding when looking at written documents, people may lie about information in written documents, etc.)

Step 2: Explain to your students that there are many different ways that people all over the world use to communicate using written language.

Step 3: Ask your students to log on to the Web site that shows a variety of other written languages at Step 2: After students have completed the graphic organizer, call on volunteers to give responses. (Answers will vary, but some responses for past may be drawings, sign language, etc. Some responses for present may be computers, telephones, etc.)

Step 3: Discuss the information in the overview of this lesson with the students so that they will know information about Sequoyah.

Step 4: Ask your students to log on to the Web site that shows the Cherokee alphabet created by Sequoyah at Omniglot . Provide your students with a Focus For Media Interaction, asking them to provide valid reasons that the written language created by Sequoyah helped the Cherokee people. (Most of the Cherokee people became literate because of this system. They were also able to communicate using written language. They learned to write their names.)

Provide students with a Focus For Media Interaction, asking them to scroll down to the bottom of the page and choose three written languages from other parts of the world. After students have chosen the three languages, they must compare ways that they are alike and different from our language system. Allow five minutes to complete and then call on volunteers to give their responses. (Some responses may be that the letters are similar, but written a little differently, other systems use symbols to represent letters, etc.)

Step 4: Explain to the students that many written languages use symbols to represent letters. The Egyptians used hieroglyphics.

Step 5: Ask the students to log on to the Web site where they can write their name using hieroglyphics at Little Horus. Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to write their name using hiero-glyphics. Ask for volunteers to write their names on the board for the class to see.

Step 6: Explain to the students that sometimes we have to learn other symbols to be able to decode information. Most students learned to read by decoding words using phonics when they were in elementary school.

Step 7: Ask the students to log on to the Web site where they can decode a message at Central Intelligience Agency Site for Kids. Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to decode the message. Once students get to this page, they will need to click on BREAK THE CODE. Then, click on DECODE THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE. This will give them a message to decode. Have students write the message on paper. Allow 15 minutes to decode the message. Ask volunteers to read the message. (Answer: The Central Intelligence Agency was created in 1947 when President Truman signed the National Security Act.)

Culminating Activity

Step 1: Explain to your students that Sequoyah helped the Cherokee people by giving them a way to communicate using written language. Most of the people learned to read and write because of this system. This system is different from our written language, but written languages are used to help people everywhere communicate.

Step 2: Distribute the white paper and colored pencils to the students.

Step 3: Explain to the students that they will create their own written language using symbols to represent each letter of the alphabet. Have students write the letters of the alphabet and make up their own symbol to represent them.

Step 4: Once the students have completed this activity, tell them to write a message using their written language. Allow other students to decode their messages.

Step 5: An assessment for this lesson will be the written language that they have created and the message using their system. Students may use examples from the Web sites used in this lesson to help them get started.

Cross-Curricular Extensions

Language Arts: Students can write a letter using their new written language.

Technology: Students can research other written languages on the computer.

Community Connections

Invite a psycholinguist to talk to the students about the origins of various languages.

Invite someone from another culture to explain and give examples of their written language.

Invite a Cherokee Indian to talk to the students about the "Trail of Tears" and how the written language may have helped them during that time.

Activity Sheets:

Activity Sheet 1: Graphic Organizer