Peggy Revell
Mine Centre Public School may be small but there’s high hopes a newly-launched initiative to extend Ojibwe language instruction will mean big improvements in the success of its aboriginal students.
Since beginning in September, the initiative has seen the school’s 13 senior kindergarten and Grade 1 students instructed in Ojibwe every afternoon for about a 90-minute block of time, which covers different subject areas like science, social studies, music, art, and gym.
“The majority of the time, the instruction is given in Ojibwe as much as possible,” Mine Centre School principal Leslie Barr Kellar said of the new project.
Instead of playing “duck duck goose” in gym class, for instance, the game has been changed to the Ojibwe equivalent, “zhiishiib-wewe.”
Or when teaching the curriculum about families, and changes in the weather, the teachers are speaking in Ojibwe and integrating concepts such as what First Nations’ families do at home to prepare for the fall.
“[The teachers are] trying to immerse them as much as possible,” Barr Kellar said.
“Certainly there’s some struggles because [students are] not fluent yet, but they’re moving that way!”
In fact, Barr Kellar estimated that with the way they’re moving, there probably will be very little English spoken in that particular block of time by Christmas.
The new project has its ties to the Ministry of Education’s “Ontario, First Nation, Métis and Inuit Education Policy Framework,” she explained.
Released in 2007, it identified three goals in aboriginal education for the province: high level of student achievement, reducing gaps in achievement between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, and high levels of public confidence.
Particularly when it comes to oral language skills, the data which has been gathered has found a trend whereby aboriginal students—especially at the ages of four and five—are about 10 months behind when it comes to achievement, Barr Kellar noted.
“It’s expressive and receptive language skills,” she explained. “And we’re really hoping that the extended native language programming might address that need.
“At the very least, it gets [students] listening and really working on the listening skills.”
The program also aligns with strategies which the Rainy River District School Board has adopted to include the cultural perspectives of local First Nations since it promotes aboriginal students’ sense of belonging and value, and ties in with the many ways Mine Centre involves the surrounding First Nations’ communities when it comes to education.
Having a population of 80 students, of which 90 percent are aboriginal, was part of the reason Mine Centre was chosen as a site for this initiative, noted Brent Tookenay, aboriginal education leader with the local public school board.
As well, it was the skill of the staff, and their knowledge and connection with the First Nations’ communities (Seine River and Nigigoonsiminikaaning) whose students attend the school.
“The language is [the youths’] key to the tradition and their culture and if we don’t have that, then we’re going to lose everything,” Tookenay warned.
“I think [the extended language program is] very important for these kids, and that they get it at this primary age,” he remarked.
And having Ojibwe spoken throughout that block of time means students who want to learn the language don’t have to miss out on other classes like phys. ed. and the arts, he noted.
But the program isn’t just for aboriginal students, Tookenay stressed.
“It’s not just segregated for our native kids to take, it’s for everybody,” he said. “When you learn a language, you also learn a culture, too.
“So that’s what’s important.”
Having just begun the new school year, data and the initiative’s exact impact haven’t been evaluated yet, but educators already have noticed a differences with the students.
For example, they are learning the language at a faster rate than they normally would in just a 40-minute session, noted Gail Jones, one of the native language instructors who also is the cultural co-ordinator at Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation.
“And they’re actually using some of the language outside of the classroom. You hear it walking down the hallway,” she enthused.
At first, the students’ reaction was, “‘I don’t understand you! Why are you speaking this language to us?’” recalled Doreen Skinaway, one of the other native language instructors.
“But once they get used to it, then it becomes normal to them,” she said, noting she can now hear the language when the students are sitting down and doing their work or conversing.
An improvement in listening skills has been noticed, as well.
“I think when I speak Anishinaabemowin to them, that’s when I get their attention,” said Skinaway. “Like they know they hear it and they have to stop and look and go, ‘Okay, teacher’s talking this language again. Let’s listen and try to figure out what she’s saying.’
“We’re just trying to use the norms that we grew up learning, as being listeners and how we sit,” she explained. “We sit quietly and we use our ears and our eyes, and we just listen, right?”
It’s a skill the elders really stress and which her generation had when growing up, Skinaway noted, but which hasn’t been taught as much for young people.
“So that’s a skill we’ve been working on.”
“And just learning to have respect for the speaker,” added Jones, noting this is important when elders come into the school as part of the cultural activities that take place.
“That’s what we did with the Grade 2s and 3s last year, just a lot of listening,” Jones reiterated “And they got to the point where they just sat there and waited for someone to finish speaking before they spoke.
“They really listened to the speaker and what they had to say before they said whatever they wanted to say.”
This sitting and listening in an attentive and respectful way all are part of developing the receptive and expressive skills students need to achieve in other areas, Barr Kellar stressed—and, in the end, hopefully helps bridge the gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students when it comes to achievement.
“We’re hoping it’s a strategy that will work for us,” she said, lauding the teachers and educators who have been involved in getting the program running.
Having the 90 minutes of Ojibwe is a challenge itself and a lot of hard work, admitted Skinaway, noting there isn’t much existing curriculum for teaching in Ojibwe and even the curriculum that does exist has to be adapted to local Anishinaabe culture.
But the challenge also means a chance for professional development and learning for the educators themselves, and Skinaway said she’s lucky to be a part of the program and having the opportunity to work with Jones.
“I learn from her, we sort of learn from each other,” she remarked.
“[Skinaway has] got her B.A., she’s from the western style and I’m from the traditional,” noted Jones. “So they kind of blend in together.”
“We know there might be some bumps in the road, but I think it’s going to work out,” said Tookenay, who praised the “great staff” and administrators who have been behind the effort to implement the program.
“There might be a demand for it,” he added, noting education counsellors from some of the First Nations’ communities already have asked if junior kindergarten students can be exposed to the program, too.
“So I think it might snowball a little bit. But the problem with it snowballing is that you only have so many teachers and so many hours in the day,” Tookenay noted, explaining that schools like Robert Moore are unable to offer Ojibwe at the primary level because there’s too many students and not enough Ojibwe teachers.
Still, he’s confident the program eventually will expand to other schools—and it will be successful.
Supporting research for why such a program will be successful comes from the information shared at last spring’s conference on native language hosted by the Rainy River District School Board, Tookenay explained.
Part of the conference included Bemidji State University professor, Dr. Anton Treuer, who spoke about teaching Ojibwe and language immersion.
“He said that kids who were exposed to immersion-type programs in Wisconsin and Minnesota, 100 percent of them passed state testing at whatever grades they do testing at,” Tookenay said.
“100 percent, that’s what we want. We want all kids to be doing well on EQAO, [Grades] 3, 6, and 9,” he stressed.
“We want to see if this will make a difference, and I think it will.”
