Designed to help teachers in early years classrooms use The Seven Teachings Stories series, by Katherena Vermette, this guide provides the framework and key ideas educators need to become participants in a culturally responsive classroom community and to deepen their understanding of the Seven Teachings. With these stories, educators can create a space to discuss diverse perspectives, experiences, and traditions with young readers, and to foster a deeper understanding of ourselves as human beings and of our relationships with others.

This guide is presented in three sections and includes:

• Key information about the Seven Teachings, Anishinaabe vocabulary, and the characters in each story.
• Ideas to guide student learning.
• Approaches and suggestions that teachers can apply to any of the seven stories.
• Strategies and activities to deepen readers’ understanding of the abstract concepts addressed in the stories.
• An appendix of reproducible classroom materials.

Katya Adamov Ferguson (she/her/hers) is a mother, artist, researcher, and teacher. Katya currently works as an early years support teacher in several schools in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is passionate about teacher professional learning in the area of Indigenous education. She sees potential in the arts to create ethical spaces to mobilize complex topics with both young children and adults. Katya is also a PhD student engaging in curriculum redesign and place-based inquiries, and is branching her arts-based research into public spaces. She has authored several teacher guides with Portage & Main Press and is co-editor of Resurgence: Engaging With Indigenous Narratives and Cultural Expressions In and Beyond the Classroom.

Katya Adamov Ferguson's profile page