Indigenous Content | The Outside Circle | Activities Bundle

Save with this bundle of activities which includes 5 lessons designed to deepen student understanding of the historical, political, and social context around Pete’s story.  The following lessons are designed to take place after five pivotal moments in the story and include: 

Pete’s Bloody TW Tattoo

After watching a short video outlining some of the major government decisions impacting Indigenous Peoples in Canada, groups research the political and historical acts bleeding from Pete’s tattoo. Then, they divide and regroup to share their learning with their classmates before coming back together as a class to discuss the lasting impacts of Canada’s historical and political actions. 

The In Search of Your Warrior Program

Students get to watch and answer questions on a video that follows the journey of Indigenous men who have gone through the real In Search of Your Warrior program.  Then, they perform a close reading of an adapted student friendly version of the government’s formal report on the program before inferring whether or not Pete will be successful in the program. 

The Evolution of Warrior Culture

Students pair up and get to pick through a variety of different resources on traditional views of warriorhood and how warriorhood is viewed by Indigenous gang members.  They then synthesize their findings to determine what commonalities exist and work to infer why the concept of warriorhood has been adopted by many Indigenous based gangs. 

Bears in Indigenous Cultures

This lesson turns learning into a scavenger hunt as students partner up and search through the school for six beautiful posters featuring artwork by an Indigenous person and a write up of a specific Indigenous group’s understanding of bears.  They then return back to class to synthesize their findings and discuss what attributes Pete shares with the different views. This is one of my students favourite lessons of the entire semester. 

The Three Arrows of Healing

Students work to define the three terms found on the arrows at the end of the story and they then think about how the term applies to Pete.  Finally, they think of their own fourth term to add to the arrows of healing and share their findings with the class.  

If you’re not ready to commit to all five lessons, you can also purchase them separately. 

⭐Companion Resources

Also look at purchasing the companion reading questions resource which follows the same five sections as the activities and includes 25 deep thinking questions and two rubrics to allow for either written or verbal assessment.

Story Overview:

The Outside Circle is an inspiring graphic novel by Patti Laboucane-Benson. 

 Although a work of fiction, it accurately depicts the realities of life for many of Canada's urban Indigenous youth as it follow's Pete's journey from gang member, to prison inmate, to healing centre elder.

The story is available to purchase on Amazon in both Canada and the US:

Canada - The Outside Circle,USA - The Outside Circle