Dine curriculum guide is a milestone for indigenous lanugages (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

>From Farmington Daily Times
http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/article_8243.shtml

Dine curriculum guide is a milestone for indigenous lanugages
By Carol Cohea/The Daily Times
Feb 2, 2004, 11:04 am


FARMINGTON — Once they walk into the bilingual portable at McKinley
Elementary after 3:30 in the afternoon, the pupils are immersed in
reading, writing, speaking and listening in Navajo.

One recent evening for parents, some pupils were reading and speaking
quickly and easily. Some were just beginning to understand the words
and wrap their tongues around the glottal stops, dipthongs and high and
low nasal tones. Others were struggling. Some were beginning to read
words together to make sentences.

“Your jaw muscles have to adjust to Navajo language, the glottal stops
and high tones,” explained Carole Yazzie. She and Mary Lou Yazzie are
in charge of the Afterschool Bilingual Program.

Parents were getting a look at what their youngsters do in the
afterschool program. This night children were reading from a worksheet
they’d done earlier in the week, introducing themselves by clan,
describing their clothing and colors and talking about food.

Elthea Charles said daughter Ashlynn Atcitty, 9, considered the class a
treat.

“She’s communicating with her grandparents. It’s opening new horizons
for her. I feel lucky she’s got the class. She’s picking up a lot of
things,” Charles said.

“Last year it was really just an arts and crafts program. This year I
see a lot more knowledge coming back,” she said.

Linda Jim said she speaks fluent Navajo, but raised her three children
speaking English.

Her own daughter, Shianne Jim, 9, wrote her a letter asking her
permission to come to Navajo class, so she could communicate with her
grandmother.

“She loves the class. It’s wonderful. I tell her I’m learning a lot from
her. She’s bringing home books and we’re learning to read the
language,” Jim said.

“It’s fun. It’s my first time doing this,” Shianne said.

Jarred Billy, 10, is enthusiastic about coming to class.

“I want to learn more Navajo words. It helps pull up my grades in
regular classes,” he said.

“I like it. I think my son is learning a lot. All we talk is English. He
likes coming here and he’s trying to teach me the language,” said mom
Lisa Jones.

Parent Alfreda Scott said a child’s knowledge of two languages gives the
child an ability to look at life more colorfully.

“They can see the world in colors compared to just one way or another.
It opens their eyes to other opportunities out there for Navajo
language speakers and in society itself. Language gives them a strong
background,” she said.

In November the Farmington School District became the first district in
New Mexico and the U.S. to have an indigenous language curriculum guide
which meets the state Department of Education Standards and Benchmarks.

The school board approved the kindergarten through grade 12 Dine
Bilingual Language Culture and History Curriculum Guide.

“A lot of school districts are asking for it. We are copyrighting it and
will offer it for sale at $30 a copy,” said Arlene Kirstine, director
of Farmington Schools Bilingual and Indian Education Program.

The guide was developed by Bernice Casaus, as curriculum consultant,
along with her team of co-developers, Sharon Becenti, Karen Begay,
Donna Irvin, Videna John, Jenny Kaye, Herbert Platero, Jennie Platero,
Barbara Sorensen, Nellie Storer, Jeanette Wauneka, Betty Williams and
Mary Gregori.

The guide includes language and culture components on Navajo history,
government, fundamental philosophy and parent involvement.

It complies with Farmington Schools Education Plan for Student Success,
state Department of Education Standards and Benchmarks and the Navajo
Nation Education Policy.

As lesson plans and materials are developed, they are taken directly to
the pupils, in this case the 15 pupils at McKinley Elementary and the
program teachers Carole Yazzie and Mary Lou Yazzie.

Casaus began her professional career as an English teacher, teaching
second language learners how to speak English. For the last 10 years
she has taught Navajo language to teachers.

Before that she volunteered her time at Swinburne Elementary.

“When my kids started at Swinburne I was a home room mother, making
cookies and Koolaid. In the afternoons I volunteered time to work with
kids. I’d hear that the language of Navajo kids was not up to par. I
decided I would see how I could help. I was going to teach them
English,” she said.

Over the years she realized that learning Navajo was the way to get the
children to learn correct English.

“When kids know both languages they realize the importance of the sound
and importance of correct English,” she said. “If they know two
languages, they have something to compare to. The two vocabularies can
be compared and they are able to draw from both.”

She pointed out that Navajo is written in English phonetics.

It takes some children who have had no experience with Navajo a while to
get their tongues moving and to begin to verbalize Navajo, she said.

Then she and Carole Yazzie and Mary Lou Yazzie begin to introduce them
to the high tones and low tones and to mix them up.

“In English, for example, mom is a nasal tone; bank and sky are falling
tones, high is a high tone. Once they hear that and get the idea of
high and low tones, the speaking and reading will come quickly for
them,” Casaus said.

Casaus wants to make the lessons meaningful to the children in the area
and uses animals and structures they see.

Some lessons involve teaching through the use of a plastic diorama of a
farm scene with animals and corral fences. It’s used for teaching post
positions, prepositions, such as over, under, beside, near, and by.
Through the diorama children also learn nouns, placement of objects,
handling verbs and names of domestic animals. Colors and numbers are
integrated for review.

At another time Casaus brings out her back of tricks — a white flour
sack, emptied of flour, now filled with an assortment of stuffed and
plastic animals and objects. She pulls these from it, asking the
children to name the object in Navajo and say it’s color. She asks
questions of them and waits for their responses.

“If you can do hands-on, it sticks. Abstract doesn’t work,” she said.

The hour-long after-school class is at the point now where it’s taught
almost totally in Navajo.

“The kids are smart. If you’re going to do English translations between
the Navajo, the kids are going to wait for the translations,” she said.

The work on the lesson plans will continue this summer for upper grades
and staff will be trained on how to use it.

“Each level will progress with more detail and more complex thinking,”
she said.



Carol Cohea: carolc at daily-times.com