Ballad of Sitting Bull: For Teachers

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SittingBull

Dear Teachers,

Thank you for inviting us into your classroom. Working closely with you, we hope to create a truly extraordinary and memorable SPIRIT SERIES experience for your students. Our most successful residencies are those where the partner teacher is fully engaged with the unit curriculum and actively involved in its implementation. So, your help with daily planning and classroom management will be essential.

Beyond that, opportunities for you to participate are built into each hour of the Lesson Plan, from pre-launch to unit assessment. We hope you will actively partner with us by implementing the supplementary curriculum available once you log-in below, and thereby help to achieve the best possible outcome for your classes.

Here are some simple ways to begin:

Explore this website. Background on the SERIES aims, offerings, methods, and outcomes is at your fingertips, including videos, unit-specific photo galleries, and chat rooms.

Become an expert. Once you log-in, vital reference materials are yours to study and use: the play, Lesson Plan, application of Common Core Standards analysis, program curriculum, and samples of supplementary curriculum that you may choose to implement. By familiarizing yourself with these, you can empower our collaboration and align to the SERIES’ multisensory, multidisciplinary, and interactive method for satisfying multiple content standards in History, Language, and Performing Arts.

Give your feedback. While we have worked hard to develop the SERIES curriculum, we know that you have established specific expectations for your classroom and have developed a special rapport with your students. We need your expert eye to spot the opportunity or problem we may have missed, your advice if difficulties arise or a particular student requires a different approach. Most of all, we need your input and your honest assessments so that, together, we can work magic!

Thank you, once again, for your trust, partnership, and support.

— SPIRIT SERIES STAFF

Footnote

This original one-act SPIRIT SERIES play is the product of rigorous research, profound respect for the cultural tradition being portrayed, and careful fidelity to actual events as best understood by current scholarship. Still, BALLAD OF SITTING BULL is a work of historical fiction. While the vast majority of the characters portrayed are actual figures from history, composite characters have been created on occasion, when the narrative demands and/or length constrains of the play require them. Dialogue has been written whenever verifiable exchanges between the characters was not available, and all poetry in the text has been created for this play. We invite you to go to “SOURCES” and view the research materials used in the creation of this title from the SERIES.

SOURCES

“As educators, we are fueled by those small but powerful moments when a student steps out of their comfort zone and stretches their thinking. Thank you Spirit Series!”
— Michele KenistonPrincipal, Berwick ME
It was an honor doing Spirit Series — I will remember it for the rest of my life!
Maria Aguilar8th Grade
It's time we tend to the spirit of our children!
Sonia MillerPrincipal, Samuel Gompers Middle School
“It changed my life — Spirit Series!”
Dominika Peikos7th Grade
This program should be in every school across America!
William Donovan6th Grade Parent
In nearly 30 years of teaching, I have never experienced any program with such long-reaching effects as Spirit Series.
Robin Winston4th Grade Teacher