Northwest Native American Reading Curriculum

I encourage teachers and parents of Indian students interested in preparing Indian students to be readers to check out the Northwest Native American Reading Curriculum which is a research based, culturally relevant supplemental reading curriculum for American Indian students in Kindergarten through the second grade in Washington State. The curriculum is based upon a research report Reading and The Native American Learner” published by the Washington State Office of Public Instruction in 2001.
A PDF file of the report is linked here
http://www.evergreen.edu/ecei/reports/RdgNAlrner.doc

The curriculum addresses the social linguistic and social cultural differences that were identified in the research report, and provides children with multiple opportunities for reading and writing stories from their own cultural heritage. In an article about the Northwest Native American Reading Curriculum Magda Costintino and Denny Hurtado In the Journal of American Indian Education Volume 45 number 2 the curriculum consist of three separate units Hunting Gathering, the Canoe and The Drum. “In each section the teacher are provided an array of literacy development skills and activities. Most activities are meaning based. The teaching of individual reading skills is embedded in the task. Special emphasis is placed on teaching of comprehension strategies and intensive vocabulary development. When appropriate, text features are introduced and the students are explicitly taught story structure and story development for both narrative as well as expository text. Teachers are also encouraged to add additional skills development tasks based on needs of their individual students.”

The article continues with an interesting assessment of the reading curriculum against the six attributes of culturally based education. These attributes are
The Recognition and use of Native American languages
Pedagogy the stress cultural characteristics, and adult child interactions
Pedagogy in which teaching strategies are congruent with the traditional culture and ways of knowing and learning
Curriculum that is based on traditional culture and that recognizes the importance of Native Spirituality
Strong native community participation in educating children and in planning and operation of school policies and activities.
Knowledge and use of contemporary social and political mores of the community.