Juniors teach 5th graders about Native American history

During a fun, cross-division lesson, students from HS History Teacher Ayesha Nawaz’s class came together to tell the story of Native American displacement to Social Studies Teacher Connie Fink’s fifth graders.
By Ian Dinkins, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications

In a thought-provoking classroom exercise, 11th graders at University School of Nashville taught fifth graders from MS Social Studies Teacher Connie Fink’s class about the displacement of Native American tribes and the historical trauma caused by European settlement. 

For Nawaz’s class, this lesson was a continuation of their unit on Indigenous history and gave them a chance to educate younger students about the painful realities of colonization.

The hands-on experience from a November trip to the Tennessee Pow Wow helped prepare the 11th graders for a deeper study of topics such as the Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and the devastating impact of European diseases on Native populations. 

The first-of-its-kind exercise was adapted from an existing educational resource from Canada, but one had yet to be implemented in American schools.

“This lesson existed in Canada, but there wasn’t an applicable version for the United States, so students created everything themselves,” said Nawaz.

At the heart of the lesson was a symbolic representation of what was once known as "Turtle Island" — the Indigenous name for North America. The fifth graders sat on blankets representing the land, while the 11th graders narrated the historical process of European settlement and its impact on Indigenous peoples.

Through storytelling and a carefully crafted script, the 11th graders explained how entire nations of Indigenous people were forcibly removed from their lands, displaced, and erased from history.

The exercise became an interactive and powerful demonstration of the displacement that many Native American tribes experienced. 

Each blanket on the floor symbolized a piece of land, representing the land that had been taken from Indigenous nations over centuries. As the 11th graders began to explain the settlement of Turtle Island, the fifth graders learned about the devastating consequences of colonization.

The story unfolded with the arrival of European settlers, the introduction of diseases like smallpox, and the systematic removal of Native peoples from their ancestral lands. As the lesson progressed, students were asked to step off the blanket, a visual metaphor for the erasure of entire nations. What began as a blanket full of fifth graders representing Native Americans slowly dwindled as more and more students stepped off to represent the loss of territory, the destruction of communities, and the death toll from diseases that ravaged Indigenous populations.

The gradual emptiness of the blanket reflected the scale of the displacement and loss. By the end of the lesson, the once-crowded blanket, full of fifth graders representing Native nations, had become eerily empty.

Max Dickson '26 reflected on the lesson, saying, “The main idea we wanted to teach was that as Europeans came to America, their growth came with many pitfalls, including disease for natives.” 
"The fact that they were trying to keep the population down without mothers knowing was troubling," said Max Hasson '32.

As the 11th graders wrote and refined their scripts, Nawaz expressed a desire to create a model for teaching the history of Indigenous displacement in a way that is accessible and engaging for young students.

“You can tell the Juniors have had great teachers at USN based on how well they taught the lesson,” said Fink. “Fifth graders view those older kids as mentors, and I’m excited that they did such a good job explaining the lesson and making it fun for my students.”

This unique classroom exercise illustrates how educational experiences can bridge generational gaps and create a deeper understanding of historical events. More than just dates or facts, the lesson also helped humanize the history that students have been learning. 

By creating this lesson, these 11th graders have developed a framework for teaching the next generation about the history of North America and exemplified the USN’s Guiding Principle of Experimental Solutions.
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.