Book: I Am Not A Number

Author: Jenny Kay Dupuis

Published: September 6th, 2016
Grade Level: 3rd grade

Oppression, civil rights, overcoming prejudice, discrimination, bias; opposing social

injustice

Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to
demonstrate understanding of key details in a text
Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to
demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

The book “I Am Not a Number” by Jenny Kay Dupuis

Paper, Pencils
Construction Paper, Polaroid Camera, crayons, colored pencils, markers.

Part I (Audience)- The students will be able to read and understand stories and even
summarize with a series of questions to make sure they get the main point of a story
with a 90% accuracy rate.
The students will have a better understanding and will be able to point out more
precisely what makes them who they are by answering questions made during the
reading with a 95% accuracy.
1. Introduce: Present the book “I Am Not a Number” by Jenny Kay Dupuis. Then
ask “Think about your identity. Do you know what makes you, you? Is it where
you come from, your family, your name? It is a combination of different factors
that shape your identity. Now imagine being forced to stop being who you are.
You cannot talk in the only language you know, your hair is cut, you can’t even
go by your own name, instead you have to go by a number? This was a very real
scenario that happened to aboriginal children from 1884 to 1996, that’s over 100
years!”
2. Read: The teacher reads the first page then calls on willing participants to read
the rest of the book.
During the reading, I will stop to ask questions.
“What is the setting?” “What is happening in the story so far?” “What challenges
are the main character facing?”

3. Discuss: We will have an open class discussion; the teacher will ask the
questions then the students will raise their hands and answer.

Question 1: How do you think Irene and the rest of the aboriginal children were
affected by their negative experiences there?

Question 2: What message did the author want us the readers to understand?
What was the moral of the story?

Question 3: Do you think that their method of “killing the Indian, Saving the
White man” worked?

Question 4: What would you do if you were in the position of Irene?

Question 5: What would you do as an upstander, not a bystander?

4. Activity 1: Students will get in groups of 3 and work as a team. They will
create a worksheet with the questions who, what, when, where, how and why
about the story. They will write a short reflection on the story, what they learned
or were reminded of. Then we will share our answers with the class.

Activity 2: Ms. Lule’s Third Grade Class Book. I will take a polaroid picture
of each student then the student gets to decide how they want to decorate their
very own page in the class picture book. The page has to have the following
criteria Name, Favorite food, favorite holiday or cultural event. They will get to
add at least three things that make them the person they are today. After they
 will turn in their assignments and I will paste it all together to make the “Ms.
Lule’s Third Grade Class Book.”

The teacher will review the accuracy of the 1st activity. She will see if the students
covered all their bases in the summary and will provide feedback that same day.