Appendix A: Learning Spiral and Assessment Materials

Honoring Tribal Legacies Place-based Multiliteracies Spiral




A place-based multiliteracies framework approaches learning holistically in a manner that is centered on the elements of a particular place. Using the framework, teachers and students work together to design a learning environment that values multiple ways of knowing and diverse forms of literacy. Understanding and respecting multiple viewpoints serves as a foundation for generating creative responses to challenges faced in real world contexts. In the following, the underlying concept of place and of multiliteracies is described along with the associated place-based, multiliteracies process.


A holistic and dynamic entity that involves interactions and relationships among many elements (Vine Deloria, Jr., 2001), including the natural environment, peoples, and the built environment, as viewed through time. The scope of terrritory involved may be limited to a specific location, such as a school yard, natural site, or local community, or may be expansive, such as an entire national historic trail.

Natural Environment

All living and non-living things inclusive of physical features and forces that interact to form natural ecological systems; examples of natural elements include plants, animals, water, air, soil, geologic formations, climate, micro-organisms, landscapes, and energy.


Groups of peoples who have historically inhabited, currently inhabit, or have passed through a particular place.

Built Environment

Spaces used by humans that have been constructed or altered by human labor; exampls include parks, roads, buildings, trails, mining sites, and cities.


Involves concepts of past, present, and future; may be viewed in different ways, such as occuring along a line (timeline) or as a circle with interconnections among past, present, and future.

Scope of Territory

Dimensions of a geographic region examined varying from a specific location, such as a school yard, natural site or local community, to a more expansive region, such as an entire national historic trail.



Situated Practice

  • Begins with knowledge and skills that students bring to learning.
  • Prior knowledge is used as a foundation for new knowledge.
  • Defining Place: Students and teachers are positioned as part of a place and each identifies his or her perceptions of and experiences of a particular place.

Overt Instruction

  • Design modes and factors associated with their use are explicitly taught.
  • Defining Place: Various design modes that might be used to learn about a place are explored and reasons for selecting each are identified.

Critical Framing

  • The learning process and design modes are examined from various stakeholder perspectives.
  • Assumptions underlying various perspectives are explicitly analyzed.
  • Defining Place: Various stakeholder groups associated with a place are identified and their perspectives are explored

Transformed Practice

  • Selected design modes are used to address real life concerns for a real purpose and for a real audience.
  • Learning is connected to individual lives, communities, and society.
  • Defining Place: Multiple ways of understanding a place and associated concerns are recognized, valued, and acted upon.



Systems for perceiving and making meaning of (interpreting) our world through one or a combination of the following design modes (modalities).


Sense or act Framework of hearing; for example, awareness of voice, environmental, and animal sounds, loudness, rhythm, and music.


A set of symbols or language(s) commonly understood and used by a group of people; for example, awareness of oral and written stories, poetry, speeches, books and names of places.


Sense and act of body movement as a whole or as parts (such as arms, hands, head, eyes); includes expression of personal feelings and affect.


Sensory awareness through the nose and mouth; for example, awareness of odors associated with plants, soil, water, animals and industrial sites and tastes and odors associated with particular foods.


Sense of space; awareness of the relationship among elements (such as location, distance, and time), including body position in space.


Process of self-discovery, of searching for meaning and purpose in life, and of learning who you are and who you want to become; a sense of the interconnectedness and interdependence among all elements of life.


Sense or act of touching; for example, awareness of textures and pressure, such as light or firm touch.


Sense or act of seeing; for example, awareness of color, shape, size, angles, and composition (foreground and background).