MOTIVATIONS

This series of modules focuses on characteristics that make our Michigan Tech home unique, the Lake Superior Basin and geology, and Indigenous histories and contemporaries that are foundational to the landscape. This includes what it means to live within the 1842 Treaty territory that we are a part of. Residing within the Michigan Tech landscape is frequently associated with the mining industry and is presented as a time when history began in the “Copper Country”. The unique geology that contributes to the wealth of copper in the region simultaneously influenced many millennia of cultural and political sociology of place, well before Europeans, as copper mined by the Ojibwa was already distributed across continents globally. Centering on local literacy is a lens that can be used to see and know global and cultural issues more broadly, recognizing the interconnectedness of time, people, and place.

These modules were initially created as an experiential way to orient students and faculty to the Michigan Tech campus and surrounding landscape. On account of their value as a teaching resource for K-12 educators and informal audiences they have been made freely available for anyone to use and have been designed to accommodate virtual learning experiences. These modules may be modified to meet your learning and teaching needs, we kindly ask that you reference these resources with the following citation:

Gagnon, S. V., Green, S., Halverson, K., Scarlett, S., Schelly, C., and Vye, E.C. (2020). Local Literacy Experiences. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/view/localliteracyexperiences/home, Google Sites. This is Contribution No. 79 of the Great Lakes Research Center at Michigan Technological University.

For those who have access to Canvas Commons, these modules are also available for download and import into your existing courses, simply search "Local Literacy."