During World War II, the United States government realized they needed a different means to send coded messages to their commanders concerning strategic maneuvers and battle plans. The government made the decision to use Navajo Marines. 

     The Navajo language is a very difficult language to learn if you are not a native speaker. The U.S. government enlisted Navajos to create a code using their language. It has been said that the U.S. would not have won the war against Japan if it had not been for the Navajo code talkers. 

     Code Talker, by Joseph Bruchac, is the story of Ned Begay, a Navajo code talker during World War II. Begay joined the Marines at the age of 16 (he lied about his age). While at boot camp, Begay is chosen to be a part of the Code Talker program. Begay describes his experiences at boot camp, during code talker training, and while in the battlefield. He tells his story in a humorous, poignant way that draws the reader into it. Throughout the story, Begay demonstrates how he keeps his Navajo ways close while trying to fit into the world outside his reservation. Bruchac does an excellent job of detailing their experience through the eyes of Ned. We read about Ned’s struggles from his early childhood through his experiences as a Code Talker. 
During the book study, we will discuss the prejudices experienced by the Navajo code talkers, their struggle to assimilate into the American lifestyle, and how their Navajo traditions affected their time spent in the military. 
     
      The purpose of this course is to increase reading comprehension and higher-critical thinking skills. Students will be expected to complete the following activities: comprehension questions, background knowledge activities, pre-reading activities, theme, mood vs. tone, cause and effect relationships, identifying character traits and motivation, influence of setting on plot development, internal and external conflicts, text-to-text, text-to self, text-to-world connections, textual comparisons, inference, understanding imagery through the use of figurative language.
     This course is a flexible schedule class. There will be no live meetings for this class. Students will be expected to read the assigned chapters or pages every week. There will also be additional reading activities due every week. These activities should be completed and shared with the teacher. Students will also be expected to participate in the online discussions in the Outschool classroom. I will be using Padlet, Edpuzzle, Kahoot, Google Slides and Google Jamboard for interactive discussions, and Quizlet to facilitate an engaging and fun class to Code Talker.