Essay Outline

Summary

Part 1
State: Examining the impact of institutionalized literacy on Native Americans in the United States, focusing on devalued or ignored literacy practices within this community, highlighting strengths of minority community literacy practices, and exploring how these communities use literacy for empowerment.
Zoom in: To analyze how the infliction of formal literacy systems has affected Native American communities, pointing out marginalized literacy practices and exploring how minority communities navigate and utilize literacy to gain agency and power.
Introduce your topic: The importance lies in understanding how literacy has shaped and influenced Native American communities, revealing the disparities in educational systems and recognizing the resilience and strengths within these communities' literacy practices.
Describe your research methods: Utilizing articles, historical records, studies, and interviews to gather information about the impact of literacy on Native American communities.
Part 2
1.
Scholarship demonstrates how Native American oral traditions and storytelling were historically undervalued in formal schooling, disregarding their rich cultural heritage. Interpretation: This neglect leads to a loss of cultural identity and knowledge within formal educational settings, affecting the self-worth and connection to heritage for Native American students. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2039&context=cmc_theses
This statement shows how academic research has shown that traditional Native American ways of passing down knowledge through spoken stories and oral traditions were not considered important within formal schools. As a result, these valuable aspects of their culture were often ignored or seen as less valuable.
2.
While Native American income relative to white Americans has risen dramatically in recent decades, they still have a high unemployment rate. The total US unemployment rate for Native Americans was 8.9 per cent in 2016, almost double the 4.9 per cent average for the country overall.
https://minorityrights.org/minorities/native-americans/
This draws attention to a major gap between Native Americans and the mainstream population in terms of career prospects and job availability. Even if their income levels have increased, many Native Americans still struggle to find steady job, which raises the unemployment rate in their communities.
3.
Because of the impoverished economies of many reservations, many Native American children attend underfunded schools. This means their educational opportunities are insufficient—schools, programs, and teachers do not receive adequate funds. Even the federal government's Impact Aide program, in place to serve underprivileged children, is far from adequate.
https://blog.nativehope.org/the-issues-surrounding-native-american-education
The federal government's Impact Aid program, which tries to help impoverished kids, is one program that does not come close to meeting the significant needs of these schools and the kids they serve. Native American children's educational gaps are made worse by this lack of money from both local and federal sources, which restricts their access to high-quality education and manipulates their chances of academic achievement.
Part 3:
This essay aligns more with a counternarrative discourse as it challenges the mainstream narrative that privileges Western forms of literacy while resisting the erasure of Native American traditional literacy practices.
Part 4:

There are similarities between Native American cultures and the Latino student challenges covered in “The Potential and Promise of Latino Students” by Patricia Gandara. Due to curriculum representation gaps, cultural mismatches in learning resources, and a disdain for alternative learning approaches that are common in each community, both may face similar obstacles.
Part 5:
Understanding and acknowledging the impact of institutionalized literacy on Native American communities is crucial for fostering inclusive educational practices and respecting diverse forms of knowledge. It calls for reevaluating educational frameworks to incorporate and validate indigenous literacy practices, promoting cultural diversity and equity in education. Acknowledging these perspectives can aid in shaping more inclusive and respectful educational policies and practices for all minority communities.