Siena Blog

For Native American Heritage Month 2023, Siena is highlighting some artistic and cultural contributions to commemorate during this important month. See below for books, podcasts, and other resources of interest to guide you.

Native American and Indigenous Book Recommendations 

Here are some recent fiction and nonfiction books by Native American and Indigenous authors to explore: 

• Cherie Dimaline (Metis), Empire of Wild
• Tiara Doney (Gros Ventre and Cree), Poems of a Dyslexic Native American
• Louise Erdrich (Chippewa), The Sentence and The Night Watchman
• Ernestine Hayes (Kaagwaantaan), The Tao of Raven
• Tomson Highway (Cree), Permanent Astonishment
• Robin Wall Kimmerer (Citizen Potawatomi), Braiding Sweetgrass
• Tommy Orange (Cheyenne and Arapaho), There There
• Eden Robinson (Haisla), Son of a Trickster
• David Treuer (Ojibwe), The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
• Diane Wilson (Mdewakanton), The Seed Keeper

Get more Native American and Indigenous book recommendations from Book Riot, USA Today, Good Housekeeping, and Penguin Random House.

Native American and Indigenous Podcast Recommendations 

Here are some podcasts about various Native American and Indigenous topics to explore: 

• All My Relations
• Let's Talk Native with John Kane
• Matriarch Movement
• Missing & Murdered
• Telling Our Twisted Histories
• The Henceforward
• This Land
• Unreserved with Rosanna Deerchild

Get more Native American and Indigenous podcast recommendations here: 

• 8 Informative Indigenous Podcasts
• Listen to Indigenous Podcasts
• Indigenous Storytellers: Podcasts
• 5 Native-Led Podcasts for Media Literacy 

Resources for Native American Heritage Month

November is filled with events celebrating Native American history, culture, and heritage. Here are some resources to start with:

• The homepage of the National Museum of the American Indian has plenty of educational resources, exhibits, and more. See also their calendar for museum-sponsored events in Washington, DC, and New York, as well as online.
• The Smithsonian’s Native American Heritage Month page is full of events, links, and more. The National Archives has ample historical and archival information about Native American culture, including video resources and virtual exhibitions.
• The U.S. National Park Service shares information for educators and children, as well as a Rock Your Mocs photo gallery of Park Service staff wearing traditional Native American footwear in parks. 
• PBS is celebrating Native American Heritage month by offering a lot of video content, such as A People’s History of Native America, What Does Electric Pow Wow Sound Like?, and Awesome Alaskan Kids.
• Mountain Time Arts in Bozeman, MT, is a nonprofit arts organization that highlights the arts, history, culture, and natural environment of the Rocky Mountain West and its Sovereign Nations. Learn more about their mission.

Siena Resources

The Siena School blog has other heritage month spotlights related to innovative dyslexia education, including Chicano muralist Ignacio Gomez, Mexican writer and activist Victor Villaseñor, WNBA stars A’Ja Wilson and Jewell Loyd, NFL star Rashan Gary, poet Amanda Gorman, and others. Learn more about Siena’s commitments and ongoing initiatives for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.

Siena’s mission-focused innovative dyslexia education is designed for students in grades 3-12 with language-based learning differences on campuses in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Oakton, Virginia.

Looking for book recommendations to support dyslexic readers heading into winter break? Let Siena’s elementary and middle school teams help.

With winter break approaching, it’s important for students—especially ones with language-based learning differences—to read for at least 20 minutes a day to keep their literacy, decoding, and related skills honed. Regular daily reading will help keep students engaged through winter break with a variety of enjoyable, teacher-recommended books, series, graphic novels, short story collections and more.

Elementary School Book Recommendations

Here are some of our elementary classes’ top book recommendations this year so far, as suggested by elementary teachers:

• City Spies by James Ponti 
• Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith
• The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane by Julia Nobel
• The Greystone Secrets #1: The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• Flunked: Fairy Tale Reform School #1 by Jen Calonita

Elementary student Ania recommends Flunked: “I thought it was really interesting, and I liked that I never knew what was going to happen next.” Ania’s classmate Grayer really enjoyed Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab: “It was a good book. It was fun to read about the brother and sister making things with their uncle in his lab.”

Middle School Book Recommendations

Teachers from Siena’s middle school English and Reading teams recommend these books for readers in 6th to 8th grades: 

• Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds
• City of Ember: The Graphic Novel by Jeanne DuPrau (Adapted by Dallas Middaugh)
• Warcross by Marie Lu
• The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
• You Should See Me In a Crown by Leah Johnson
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Ungifted by Gordon Korman
• Scythe by Neil Shusterman
• Pumpkin Heads by Faith Erin Hicks

Resources for Book Recommendations

Young readers who prefer audiobooks can look for these and other books in the offerings from Learning Ally, Audible, and the Young Adult Library Services Association, among other resources.

Education consultant Ann Dolin wrote about engaging reluctant readers over summer break, including a handful of recommendations for different ages and suggestions for reading as a family. Although winter break is shorter than summer, parents could adapt some of Dolin’s ideas for their students—such as starting a book series to pique their interest in the next few weeks.

Whether it’s over winter or summer break, giving students some control over the process of selecting books when they’re not in school can motivate them to read for at least 20 minutes a day.

Here are some additional resources to help students with summer reading:

• Fairfax County Public Library Teen Events and Resources and Montgomery County Public Library For Teens offer recommendations, events, programs, and more. Check public libraries in your area for similar summer reading services for young people.
• The National Education Association offers ample resources, activity ideas, and links for families to find diverse books.
• The New York Public Library’s Staff Picks for Teen Readers goes back to Spring 2019 and lists English- and Spanish-language books. The NYPL blog also has expert-curated lists of books and other materials for school-aged readers.

See Siena’s blog for winter break podcast recommendations, summer reading recommendations, and posts about authentic assessments at Siena and about a handful of Siena alumni who’ve returned as staff members.  

The Siena School, a national leader in dyslexia education, serves bright, college-bound students with language-based learning differences on campuses in Silver Spring, MD (grades 3-12) and Oakton, VA (grades 3-11).