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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>wow...Beth,<BR>
I'm envious of your great learning programs.<BR>
what fortunate kids they are!<BR>
If ALL our tribal administrators realized how difficult it is to revitalize a language once <BR>
fluency is gone...this would be a priority, as important as health care and housing.<BR>
Sadly there is more priority given here at the tag office(getting licence plates) than <BR>
reviving our language..... <BR>
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Richard Zane Smith<BR>
Wyandotte, Oklahoma<BR>
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On 6/13/08 3:53 PM, "Beth Brown" <brow0857@UMN.EDU> wrote:<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>Thanks for posting this, Phil! Those children in the video clips are my little language students in the Wicoie Nandagikendan Urban Language Immersion Program here in Minneapolis. For those that haven't heard of us, here is some background information about our program:<BR>
The Wicoie Nandagikendan Early Childhood Urban Immersion Project provides a 3-hour-a-day early childhood language immersion experience that builds on the integral connections between culture, literacy, and educational attainment. The project partners with existing programs to provide fluent speakers and language curriculum.<BR>
Wicoie Nandagikendan began in January 2006 with a grant from ANA. Because the future of native languages is in the children, it is crucial to expose children to these languages at a young age. When the language (Dakota or Ojibwe) is not spoken in the home, due to generations of language loss, schools and day care facilities offer an alternative opportunity to expose children to their heritage languages in a supportive, non-threatening environment.<BR>
Wicoie currently facilitates two Ojibwe immersion classrooms, and one Dakota immersion classroom. The Ojibwe sites are located at Four Directions Family Center (ages 2-5) and at Anishinabe Academy (ages 4-5), a public Native American magnet school in Minneapolis. The Dakota classroom (ages 4-5) is also located at Anishinabe Academy. Each class meets for about 3 hours each day, Monday through Friday, and class sizes range from 10-25 students. In the fall, the program will be adding an after-school immersion option for children in grades K-2. <BR>
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The classes are held in separate rooms of each daycare facility or school from the regular classrooms. In each immersion classroom, teachers speak only Dakota or Ojibwe (depending on the class). Because there is not always an overlap between childcare professionals and fluent speakers, each classroom has a licensed childcare professional or teacher in the room at all times, though he or she may not speak the language. An auxiliary program exists to help these caregivers and parents further instruction in the language.<BR>
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For more information, contact me, Beth Brown, at brow0857@umn.edu <a href="mailto:brow0857@umn.edu"><mailto:brow0857@umn.edu></a> , 612-624-8217.<BR>
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Wopida!<BR>
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On Jun 11, 2008, at 9:04 PM, phil cash cash wrote:<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>Greetings everybody,<BR>
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Although very brief (less than a minute), several video clips were just posted<BR>
to YouTube on Dakota language immersion from Minneapolis, MN. The children are<BR>
seen and heard conversing in the Dakota language! Very inspiring!<BR>
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The clips are entitled: "Caga Sni" AND "Wiciyanna kais Hoksidan?"<BR>
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You can view them here at my YouTube clips page:<BR>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/weyiiletpu">http://www.youtube.com/weyiiletpu</a><BR>
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Phil Cash Cash<BR>
UofA ILAT<BR>
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