Teaching Strategies
Culturally Relevant Teaching Approach
The style of learning for this curriculum will be the Culturally Relevant Teaching approach where the teacher will select a variety of Navajo authors with various genres for students to read and to incorporate prior cultural knowledge that will tie into the writing using nature to capture the interest of the students.
Within the classroom some ideas that I would like to implement towards the usage of the Culturally Relevant Teaching Approach will be: including the importance of the self-identity (through clans) and its strong connection to nature and the universe; to be culturally sensitive and open to the Navajo teachings being read or being told by the student’s families and the teacher; having open discussions, sharing and listening to each other in a positive learning environment; to have an understanding or sense of belonging between humans, nature and the universe; sharing family stories, media and resources to empower the student’s level of Navajo teachings, history and language; creating a vocabulary dictionary with the new terms that are being used with this curriculum; supporting the background cultural teachings from the various regional areas of the Navajo reservation because the dialect and teachings from the different areas of the Navajo reservation are not the same; and inviting local elders or family to come in to the classroom as guest speakers that live in the Navajo environment.
Reading and Storytelling
As Donna J Eder wrote in her researched journal article about Navajo storytelling:
To many of the Dine who embrace traditional values, storytelling is a core practice by which to teach children the important principles necessary to live well. For these people, living well is grounded in the concept of “sa’a naghai bik’e hozho.” This is a key Navajo philosophy, one that is very difficult to accurately translate into English. Farella (1984), a non-Navajo who spent three years among Navajos, uses several phrases that by themselves are incomplete but that together approach a fuller translation of “sa’a naghai bik’e hozho”: wholeness, continuity of generations; one’s relationship to the beginning, to the past, and to the universe; responsibility to future generations; life force; and completeness. Of all the purposes of Navajo storytelling, I will focus on storytelling to children. The telling of stories to children reflects the cyclic nature of Navajo thinking. Stories are told to teach children how to live well, which means understanding the Navajo worldview, which in turn means understanding one’s purpose in life, which further learn to—part of that purpose—continuing to tell stories of children.7
Journal Nature Writing with Navajo Cultural Dualities
During Journal Nature Writing time, it will be a quiet and peaceful time with nature. It is a time to observe the natural surroundings and to select some living thing that can be illustrated into the journal, followed by writing a personal reflection of the living thing.
Supplies: pencil, pen, markers, watercolors, colored pencils, watercolor brushes, notebook, or blank papers and a “sit spot”.
Sit Spot: a place to sit comfortably outdoors in nature and to observe the world. It could be under a tree, on a park bench, on the grass, on a boulder or rock, just a place to spend some time viewing the world.
Additional suggestions: a rug to use to sit on, a pair of binoculars, a cellphone to take pictures, a watch to keep track of time, a bottle of water or a water container, a hat, umbrella, sunscreen lotion, light-weight backpack, or tote bag, and/or a folding chair.
Journal Entry should include: (a) the name of the animal, nature, plant, tree, rock, clouds, etc., (b) the entry date of the observation, (c) the drawing/illustration, and (d) the journal writing of the senses.
Students will select a place to sit comfortably and to enjoy the time observing the world around them. Draw something from nature that you can put into your journal page or take a photo of it and draw in the details later like the colors, shapes, etc. Students will use their senses to write what they see, hear, smell, and feel.
Every time the students have a Nature Journal Entry Day, they will follow the steps above and draw something new each time---creating a journal of new connection to something in the world as they observe the outdoors.
Nature writing can be therapeutic and healthy; it can bring out creativity in a person; it is time to slow down and to listen to nature, and to draw freely. The Journal Nature Writing can help to make connections between the individual and nature, which is part of the learning and understanding of the Navajo philosophy and dualities.
Nature-Based Writing
In Kiri L. Manookin’s qualitative research paper on Nature Writing, she shares what she learned about the benefits of nature-based writing:
Linguistically and affectively, ELL students clearly benefit from nature-based writing. Their engagement and sense of place provide powerful motivation and a relevancy to utilize the language skills they have and develop them further to say whether that includes using vocabulary from the content or finding ways to say in English what they already know in their L1. Students report feeling less stressed and more inspired by the experience, but their writing also shows them taking more risks in language by using more poetic language and structures, which indicates a more flexible, investigative, and sometimes even playful approach to using language.8
Poetry – Cultural Storyteller
Luci Tapahonso is the Navajo Nation’s First Poet Laureate, who shares her poetry from a cultural storyteller style of writing; she conveys her cultural connection to nature, animals and the universe in her writing and you can feel through her words the emotions one would encounter as a Native American storyteller. Through her poetry she shares with others her sense of identity, her connection to people and the world, and passing down her legacy through her words.
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