Curriculum Guide: Teaching Yukon Native Languages
Second Edition
Since its original publication in 1980, Teaching Yukon Native Languages: A Guidebook for Native Language Instructors, has been used extensively in Native Language classrooms not only in Yukon, but also in Alaska, the Nortwest Territories, British Columbia and Alberta. The Yukon Native Language Centre has received many positive comments on the usefulness of this guide from instructors in the field. The pioneering effort has served as the model for other guides such as the three Carrier versions developed by the Yinka Dene Language Institute (Teaching Athapaskan Languages: A Guidebook for Native Language Instructors, 1990).
Also since 1980, the conversation examples throughout the guide have been translated and recorded in all Yukon languages, and usually in several dialects. Twenty-six versions of the conversational Language Lessons are available as booklet and tape sets. Beginning in 2002, the same material, both text and sound, as well as new colour images, has begun to appear on the Centre's web site as the Centre makes use of new technologies to improve native language teaching and documentation.
A revised and updated edition of the curriculum guide appeared in 1997. The basic structure and content of the first edition were not altered.
Jo-Anne Johnson presenting the Guide at a Native Language Teacher training session.
The second edition came in response to the needs of the two teacher trainers at YNLC, Jo-Anne Johnson and Margaret Workman, who have each spent almost twenty years using the guide and training teachers to use it. The improvements made here over previous versions are substantial. The number of listed activities has increased from 73 to 127. The Materials section has been enlarged. The original edition had 53 pages and now it is 109 pages long, more than double the original. Other sections have had more modest size increases but each has been thoroughly reviewed and updated. The Curriculum section has been revised so that the teaching plan using the five parts of a lesson is clearly indicated and followed throughout.
Organization of the Guide
The binder is divided into six sections. The first three sections, Notes, Skills and Teaching are introductory and cover such things as literacy, objectives, first year outline, classroom planning and oral teaching methods. In the Curriculum section (123 pages), lessons for the ten months of the school year are presented. The parts are laid out in columns on facing pages. The left hand page contains the material in English and in Northern Tutchone, which is used as the sample language throughout. The right-hand page contains a blank column for the teacher's language and a column with sample oral language teaching activities. The Activities section (124 pages) describes 127 learning games which can help children practice what is taught. Finally, the Materials section (109 pages) contains professionally drawn black and white images which can be used by teachers to create flashcards and other materials.
ISBN 1-55242-230-5. $65 Order Form
