Our Language Our Souls:
The Yup'ik bilingual curriculum of the
Lower Kuskokwim School District: A continuing success story.
Edited by Delena Norris-Tull,
University of Alaska Fairbanks,
School of Education, Fairbanks, Alaska
copyright
1999
Chapter 8
Yup'ik Language and Culture:
A Description of the 5th -
12th Yup'ik Curriculum and its Revision
By Rosalie Lincoln
Toksook Bay, Alaska
Copyright 1998
The Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) has a mission of
integrating the Yup'ik and Western ways of teaching its students
their cultural heritage and has tried various ways to fulfill it. One
such way is through Yup'ik First Language (YFL) programs. These are
divided between K-3rd grade which is taught virtually all
in Yup'ik, and 4th-12th grades which are taught
in Yup'ik for one hour each day, while the rest of instruction is in
English. There was a need to come up with an appropriate plan of
teaching our language and culture. Then there came an idea of
including our Elders in the planning of developing the new
curriculum.
Since I've been taught in the Western way of learning in
schools and raised in my cultural way, I'm caught in between two ideas as
a
Yup'ik teacher. I use a little bit of my cultural ways of teaching
(and mostly) the Western way of teaching by following school
policies. I grew up watching the school dominate over "the cultures
of the pupils" (Posner, p.119).
In our cultural way of teaching, we teach our children in an
integrated way and without allocated times of day for separate
subjects. By contrast, Western teaching follows a curriculum found in
school textbooks which is broken down by subject area, and most
teaching is done out of textbooks. Traditionally, Yup'iks were
expected to observe, listen and, then, do. Our Elders, in their
learning years, were taught to become good observers and listeners.
As good observers, they were to watch carefully what was being
demonstrated. As good listeners, they were to pay attention with
their mouths closed, listening respectfully, and to hear the whole
message without any interruption. Hands-on activities apply their
knowledge in real life situations. This idea of a Yup'ik way of
teaching will truly be an appropriate teaching approach for Yup'ik
language and culture. Therefore, Elders have become the most valuable
part of the developmental process of our Yup'ik curriculum.
The first draft of the 4th to 12th Yup'ik
Maintenance Program was started in the 1996 LKSD Summer Institute.
The persons who were involved from the beginning were LKSD's Yup'ik
teachers. The organization that made this possible was the LKSD's
Curriculum/Bilingual Department. During the institute, the Elders
were guests and were valuable sources of knowledge for our thematic
units. Within the four short weeks of the first summer institute, the
group was able to develop the scope and sequence for fourteen
thematic units, vocabulary pages and two-week lessons under each
thematic unit. Time ran out before any further revision was made and
other components such as assessments could be added.
The missing aspects of the first draft are understandable due to
the shortness of time. First of all, the curriculum did not have a
mission statement of its own. Although LKSD does have a district-wide
mission statement (96-97 report), the 4th-12th
curriculum group never got the chance to finish a written statement
of mission goals and objectives. Although the goals were not written
down, the team of Yup'ik teachers and the Elders in the institute
knew, in their hearts and minds, the importance of our language and
traditional cultures. Other unfinished elements of the new curriculum
were evaluations of some of the lessons taught. Assessing the
students' learning in some of the unit lessons was not an easy task
to do because of the total difference of Western ways of teaching
versus Yup'ik ways of teaching. The 4th grade curriculum
was eliminated from the development of Yup'ik Maintenance curriculum
in 1997 because the 4th, 5th, and
6th grades were too large for most of the teachers to
write for in one summer institute. Although it was still incomplete,
the curriculum was carried out the following academic year. In order
to maintain our identity, it was important not to delay the
implementation of the new curriculum.
Although the first draft was expected to be implemented right away
in the following school year at each site, some of the sites did not
exactly follow all of the thematic units due to: 1) regional
differences in accordance to the seasonal activities, 2) religious
beliefs (i.e. Yup'ik dancing could not be practiced in some villages)
and 3) some sites had to follow their bilingual plan of service goals
and objectives, which did not take into account the new thematic
units.
The first year program was evaluated in the following summer's
institute by 4th - 12th grade Yup'ik certified
teachers, teacher aides and associate teachers. Elders were also
included because of their effectiveness in the previous year. Much of
the evaluation was on the vocabulary sections and the topics under
the units. Sharing took place to discuss why some activities
succeeded while others failed.
One obstacle that was successfully overcome in regards to the
Ceremonies and Celebrations unit was the revival of Yup'ik dances in
a few of the villages. The teachers relied on other village Elders to
accomplish this. These Elders were invited to come and teach Yup'ik
dances and songs. Other obstacles that were overcome were the lessons
unknown by the Yup'ik teachers themselves. Elders were the resource
people whenever the lessons needed them. The elder's knowledge became
one of the most valuable foundations in this program.
On the other hand, there are still some obstacles yet to
be
overcome. For one, Yup'ik dancing is still not allowed in some
villages. This causes teachers to avoid the thematic unit, Ceremonies
and Celebrations (1996 First Draft). Units which require trips and
camping outside of the villages is still a problem because of the
liability issue, though camps are one of the most valuable places for
teaching in our culture. Another problem we face these days is a lack
of genuine materials. Most Yup'ik instructional materials cannot be
purchased they must be made by hand. This makes the teaching
of cultural skills difficult and time consuming. The lack of adequate
materials makes lessons less meaningful. Lack of money is one of the
reasons why certain materials are hard to get; another reason is the
inconvenience of acquiring natural materials (fur and skins, for
example) and the time it takes to collect and create materials for
the hands-on lessons.
While implementing the draft curriculum, there were some
observable successes in the program. I have had students come to me
and express their desire to keep on doing the activity they learned
in class in their daily lives. Another student came to me and told me
that she would like to write a book about her heritage. Others have
expressed their interest in learning more about our way of life and
how our ancestors lived before.
I'm going to share some of the problems I encountered in my site.
First of all, my most uncomfortable situation was not having a
central place for cultural learning. As a Yup'ik language and culture
teacher, I have been going to different classrooms throughout the
day, or to the students' regular classrooms. Going from one place to
another becomes a hassle and I sometimes end up losing some of my
materials. Another problem was the time allocated in the life skills
activities. When students begin project-centered lessons, hour-long
periods are not enough. Also, the resource people don't like the time
limits when we have to teach something that has value for Yup'ik
culture. In relation to the life skills lessons, materials become
hard to get due to the limited Johnson O'Malley program (JOM) budget
and the incapability of processing our own materials in school (lack
of space). At the end of this year, I was confused when our secretary
asked if the Yup'ik Language grades and the Yup'ik Life Skills grades
could be combined as one in the students' permanent records. It turns
out that our secretary was trying to solve the problem of fitting in
the various courses by combining the Yup'ik courses' grades as one
full credit. But the solution was to decide on a single course title,
which must be approved by the LKSD Curriculum Coordinating
Committee.
The second year evaluation conducted in 1998 Summer Institute
is
still in progress when this article was written. Again the
Bilingual/Curriculum Department is making this possible by having
another summer institute. The persons who were involved in the first
curricular revision are once again involved in this ongoing process
of curricular development. We now have changed the title, "Yup'ik
Maintenance Program" to "Yup'ik Language and Culture." According to
Duane Magoon the previous title reflected an emphasis on simply
maintaining the use of the language. The new title will integrate
both concepts through the thematic units. We also rearranged the
thematic units by moving them around so that each unit flows right
next to its related area (e.g. "Getting Materials Ready" with
"Clothing"). We combined the units "Celebrations with Masks" and
"Ceremonies" because they are really one unit. We added new thematic
units such as "Nuna" (Land), "Ella" (Above the Earth's Surface),
"Qanruyutet" (Values and Beliefs), "Univkaq" (History), and "Temeta
Aklui" (Anatomy).
We are also writing the learning objectives by grade levels.
But
the daily lessons are not written into the curriculum because each
regional area will have to teach the lessons by fitting the lessons
into the local context. These changes we are making this year by
looking at the frameworks of Akula School in Kasigluk, and the
Inuuqatigiit's curriculum of the Northwest Territory in Canada. We
are very excited to adopt the "Y/Cuuyaraq" poster (Yup'ik/Cup'ik
educational philosophy statement), that was presented by Cecilia
Martz, as our Mission Statement. The Elders (Lupie, Andrew, and Paul)
fully agreed with the sayings in that poster and strongly advised us
to use it. Therefore, we will encourage sites to recite this as our
Yup'ik pledge. During the time of our summer institute this year
we've had three Elders with us for an entire two weeks and they have
helped us to make these changes. One thing we failed to complete or
to even begin is the assessment of each unit. But, the Yup'ik
teachers will keep in touch throughout the upcoming year. Lessons and
assessments we create will be shared at our next summer
institute.
The participants of all the Summer Institutes know and understand
the importance of our Yup'ik Language and Culture curriculum. They
know the benefits of the programs are many, and that's why they keep
coming back to participate and to develop more materials, trying to
make our Yup'ik curriculum better each year. The Yup'ik programs help
the students to realize who they are and the value of the culture
they have had passed on to them. The curriculum has a strong impact
not only on the students, but also on the school system and the
community in which they live. The school is helping maintain the
community's language and culture. Living in the Western way of life
and the Yup'ik way of life is a reality we all face right now, and
it's a blessing when a student comes to a Yup'ik teacher or anyone
and expresses their appreciation for learning something about their
tradition.
If we ever discontinue our Yup'ik curriculum every part of our
identity will gradually fall apart, if not quickly, in this changing
world we live in. Already, other cultures in Alaska have lost much of
their language and culture. Even here in our district, we have
students coming into kindergarten speaking mostly English although
their parents are fluent Yup'ik speakers.
Bibliography
Posner, George J. (1995). Analyzing the Curriculum,
2nd. Ed. New York: McGraw Hill, Inc.
Inuuqatigiit, The Curriculum from the Inuit Perspective.
Northwest Territories Education.
Waite, Willard. (1996-1997). Celebrating Our Kids, 1996-97 LKSD
Annual Report Card. Bethel: LKSD Print Shop.
Lupie, Nick, Frank Andrew, and Julia Paul. Interviewed June 8-12,
1998. Bethel: 1998 Summer Institute.
Yup'ik Thematic Units/ 4-12 Yup'ik Maintenance. (1998).
Bethel: LKSD Print Shop.
Table of Contents
- Introduction to the Kuskokwim
Delta - Delena Norris-Tull
- Introduction to the Yup'ik
Language and Culture Programs of the Lower Kuskokwim
School District - Delena Norris-Tull &
Beverly Williams
- Chapter 1: The Yup'ik
First Language Program: Lower Kuskokwim School District
- Mary Lou Beaver & Evon Azean, Sr.
- Chapter 2: The Balanced
Literacy Program in Yup'ik - Pamela Yancey & Sophie
Shield
- Chapter 3: Creating Yup'ik
Books, Translating, & Orthography - Pamela Yancey
& Sophie Shield
- Chapter 4: Ayaprun Immersion
School - Loddie Ayaprun Jones
- Chapter 5: Analysis of the Yup'ik
Immersion Program In Bethel - Agatha Panigkaq
John-Shields
- Chapter 6: Yup'ik Language and Culture: A
Description and Analytical View of the 4-6 Yup'ik Thematic
Unit - Dora E. Strunk
- Chapter 7: K-3
Thematic Units and the Alaska Cultural Standards - Nita
Yurrliq Rearden
- Chapter 8: Yup'ik Language and Culture: A
Description of the 5th-12th
Yup'ik Curriculum and its Revision - Rosalie
Lincoln
- Chapter 9: Yup'ik
Discipline Practices Inerquutet and Alerquutet To
Implement Into Yup'ik Schools - Theresa Arevgaq John
- Chapter 10: Recommendations
for Yup'ik Curriculum at Lower Kuskokwim School District - Sally
Casey
email the
editor, D. Norris-Tull
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