Rationale
In the Diné culture and language, math is seen and found in most aspects of life, and in the arts and crafts. We see it in the Navajo wedding basket, the cradleboard, in our livestock (horses, cows and sheep), cornfields, the hooghan, and more. Although these math concepts are embedded in our culture, our students have only a very basic understanding of their culture and language. They view their culture and language as insignificant and in the end they do not absorb it deeply. When it comes to reading, comprehending and solving math word problems about their culture, our students really do struggle, because they are not fluent in both the Diné and English languages and realize it is difficult to read, write, and comprehend math word problems. This puts our students at the midpoint, of no strength in either one.
I know from experience that teaching topics about their culture and language along with content helps students make connections and will make learning more meaningful. Also, frontloading and scaffolding basic math skills like the multiplication and division facts will make solving math problems move a lot smoother when students know the basics. This is important because, when our district teachers review the Arizona State assessment results on solving math word problems we find it as the lowest score. This issue has always been a problem because many of our students are not proficient at grade level, and some students are two to three grade levels below the norm of our state standard math scores.
The students within our three schools and district are 98% Diné. However, when I ask my students a class of 28, who is able to speak the Diné language fluently, none of my students will raise their hand. Then I ask who is able to understand their language 10 students will raise their hand. I find that these 10 students reside outside our school district boundaries and some of them travel 120 miles to and from school weekly. They begin at 5:00 a.m. and end their day at 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Despite these disadvantages, some of them understand Diné better than the local ones.
All our students are required to complete the state and district math assessments. The results of assessment show that our fifth grade student scores are at the 46%tile and below. I believe the reason is that most schools on the Diné Nation still use a scripted text book as their core curriculum in the humanities, mathematics, and in the sciences. Our district, for example, adopted the Eureka Mathematics Curriculum. My understanding is that the scripts in Eureka Math are for purpose of example, and not intended to limit teachers. However, our administrators insist that teachers follow the scripts. Many of the teachers resist the change and find that students struggle with grade level concepts. Even though many students are not at grade level, we are instructed to teach the model because it is our district’s initiative.
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