An American Indian charter school plans to teach Navajo language (fwd)

Tue Apr 25 20:11:25 UTC 2006

An American Indian charter school plans to teach Navajo language

  By Susie Gran[1]
_Tribune Reporter_
APRIL 25, 2006

http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_education/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19857_4649142,00.html

  Navajo Shannon Johnson builds her students' vocabulary with words of the
Navajo Code Talkers. NAVAJO LANGUAGE TEACHER SHANNON JOHNSON PHOTOGRAPHS HER
STUDENTS PERFORMING AS THE LA MESA FANCY SHAWL DANCERS IN A RECENT PERFORMANCE
AT WILSON MIDDLE SCHOOL. JOHNSON, WHO IS NAVAJO, SATISFIES A GROWING DEMAND FOR
NATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING ACROSS THE CITY AND STATE, EDUCATORS SAY. (STEVEN ST.
JOHN/TRIBUNE) 

	NAVAJO TEACHERS IN CITY SCHOOLS 

  Navajo children in these schools are learning their native language: 

  LA MESA ELEMENTARY 

  LOWELL ELEMENTARY 

  PAINTED SKY ELEMENTARY 

  MANZANO HIGH 

  RIO GRANDE HIGH 

  WEST MESA HIGH 

  CIBOLA HIGH 

  In August, the new Native American Academy, to be located at Wilson Middle
School, will also offer Navajo language instruction. 

  _Source: Albuquerque Public Schools_

  _Gah, Dzeh, Wol-la-chee_ and _Be_ translate to "rabbit," "elk," "ant" and
"deer." 

  Her students, all Navajo children who live in Albuquerque, came to school
knowing only English. 

  In her La Mesa Elementary School language class, Johnson insists they learn
the way their ancestors did. In Navajo. 

  The demand for native languages is growing across the city and state,
educators say. 

  But teachers like Johnson are hard to find. The University of New Mexico and
the tribes are responding to the demand by training and certifying more
American Indians as language teachers. 

  Johnson's goal for her Navajo kindergarteners at La Mesa is that they speak
Navajo fluently by the time they leave fifth grade. 

  She has 30 minutes a day with them to get the job done. 

  Once they leave her, they are on their own. 

  Few, if any, of their parents know their native language. And Albuquerque
Public Schools does not offer any Navajo language classes for middle schoolers.

  "There's a big gap," Johnson said. "There's nothing in the middle for these
students." 

  The new Native American Academy, a charter school to be housed at Wilson
Middle School, plans to fill that gap. Academy officials said they will hire a
Navajo teacher. 

  The academy is scheduled to open in August with 100 sixth- and
seventh-graders. 

  Academy organizers plan to tap the American Indian teaching talent being
developed at UNM. 

  "They are asking us for our best and brightest," said Joseph Suina, director
of a 2-year-old program designed for American Indians who want to teach in
their tribes or pueblos. "We have identified people we'll recommend highly." 

  Johnson intends to apply for UNM's American Indian Education Scholarship to
pay for expenses while she pursues a master's degree. 

  The scholarship program receives $900,000 annually from the Public Education
Department for scholarships to encourage American Indians to pursue teaching
careers. Those enrolled must spend at least three years teaching in their
pueblos or tribes. 

  Suina said scholarships and workshops have drawn 40 prospective teachers to
the program. An additional 20 UNM students are studying American Indian
languages. 

  In all, 47 undergraduates and 18 graduate students are enrolled in Suina's
Institute of American Indian Education. 

  Also, tribes and pueblos are starting to license their own language teachers
under an agreement with the Public Education Department. Johnson was certified
by the Navajo Nation to teach Navajo. She also has her elementary-school
certification. 

  After two years at of exclusively teaching Navajo at La Mesa, Johnson next
year moves into a third-grade classroom at the Northeast Heights school, which
counts about 10 percent of its 670 enrollment as American Indian. 

  Johnson's replacement in the La Mesa language program may be recruited from
UNM's American Indian scholarship group. She's asking Suina to help her recruit
her successor. 

  Unlike her Navajo students, Johnson, 32, spoke her native language before she
went to preschool. 

  At Head Start in Arizona, she learned English and by first grade was
communicating in English with her teachers. 

  "Prior to this, it was a hit-and-miss program," Suina said of training
American Indian teachers, especially those wanting to teach their native
languages. 

  Federal funding for such training dried up in 1982. 

  "Native languages were not viewed on the same level as foreign languages," he
said. "They were treated as second class." BRETT MORGAN (TOP LEFT), 11, BREATHES
IN INCENSE DURING A CEREMONY BEFORE HE PARTICIPATES WITH THE LA MESA SHARKS DRUM
GROUP. THE SHARKS AND THE LA MESA FANCY SHAWL DANCERS PERFORMED AT WILSON MIDDLE
SCHOOL EARLIER THIS MONTH. (STEVEN ST. JOHN/TRIBUNE) 

  The Indian Education Act adopted in New Mexico in 1998 fueled the effort to
serve American Indians, Suina said. 

  At UNM, students can study Keres, the language of six pueblos, including
Suina's Cochiti Pueblo; Tewa, the language of six northern pueblos; Tiwa, the
language of four pueblos, including those closest to Albuquerque, Sandia and
Isleta; and Zunian, the language of the Zuni Pueblo. 

  Also, they can study the Athebascan family of languages spoken by Navajos and
the Jicarilla and Mescalero Apaches. 

  At Sandia Pueblo, two teachers are bringing the Tiwa language to about 80
children in preschool and after-school programs at the pueblo. 

  The pueblo intends to hire a third teacher and is working with the Bernalillo
Public Schools to offer the Tiwa language, said Gov. Lawrence Gutierrez. 

  Thirty-five percent to 50 percent of tribal members speak their native
language. The pueblo wants to make sure the language stays alive, Gutierrez
said. 

  "As we lose our seniors, we can't replace them," he said. 

  Native languages in the middle schools have been missed by American Indian
families. 

  "The first attention it's getting is from the new charter," UNM's Suina said.
"No one in the middle schools even asked for our assistance until now." 

  UNM and the charter school will complement each other, he said. "The school
came to us and we're going to be working out the details. We have every
intention to use it as a laboratory." 

  Native American Academy founder Kara Bobroff said the university is a welcome
resource for the new school. 

  Suina and Johnson were among consultants called on to help develop the
charter school. 

  Johnson is one of three Navajo language teachers in the elementary schools. 

  She doesn't blame Navajo parents for not teaching their native language to
their children. Most of them didn't learn it themselves and are now afraid of
losing it, she said. 

  Only one Navajo parent in the past two years did not sign the permission form
required to enroll children in Johnson's language classes. 

  She said the student attended one of her classes and "thought it was too
hard." 

  During her classes, Johnson rarely speaks a word of English. Her students
develop vocabulary through songs, artwork, games, stories and life-skills
instruction. 

  Her students will be ready to break the Navajo code for the spring parent
program. 

  They'll also introduce themselves and their parents and recite the Pledge of
Allegiance to the American flag and the Navajo Nation, all in Navajo. 

  Johnson said she is learning what works and what doesn't as she teaches her
native language. 

  "In a way, you can say they are my guinea pigs," she said of her Navajo
students.

Links:
------
[1] mailto:sgran at abqtrib.com
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