Dear Friends,
 |
| Football Huddle |
One of our students’
classes this semester is Navajo Language Class. This is very difficult for me;
just learning to count to ten has been a real challenge. I can’t even make a
couple of the sounds. One girl leaned over to me as I was trying to repeat a
word and whispered that I shouldn’t say that word. (oops) And I can’t
remember any of it from one class to the next. This helped me understand how my
students feel when learning concepts and rules in my math or grammar class. It
takes many repetitions and much work outside of class to get it.
Navajo is a
verb-based language. For example cat is
the thing that meows, and animal is
the thing that walks around on four legs. But the verbs do not change for the
tense. Other words perform the time function. So, our students have difficulty
remembering to put the endings on their verbs when they write. It’s easier to
be patient with them now that I understand why they do it.
It is a
very descriptive language too. Purple is the color rocks are; blue is the color
that sky is; and winter is the season when no thunder sounds. One thing that has
been eye-opening is that no sounds in their language require them to open their
mouths much, so it seem to us that they are mumbling rebelliously, which they
may or may not be doing. Another thing is long vowels. In English when the
teacher says it is a long vowel, it has a completely different sound. But in
Navajo, the long sound is held out longer… a clue to why phonics instruction
doesn’t “take” with many of them.
Roger and I
have started reading Navajos Wear Nikes, recommended to us by a friend
from our days in California. So far, it has been depressing. We just keep
saying this is so true of what our kids
deal with.
Anyway, we
had a day off today and went to Flagstaff. What a beautiful winter day it was
there! We were grateful for a little respite. Thank you for your encouragement
and prayers.
No comments:
Post a Comment