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##  Teaching Reading to American Indian/Alaska Native Students. ERIC                Digest.                                                                      

This Digest summarizes ways to help young American Indian and Alaska            Native (AI/AN) children become fluent readers--an essential skill if            they are to succeed in school. The extent of the AI/AN reading                  problem is indicated by "The Nation's Report Card: Fourth-Grade                 Reading 2000" (Donahue, Finnegan, Lutkus, Allen, & Campbell, 2001),             which found only 43 percent of American Indians reading at or above             a basic level versus 73 percent of White students. 
Teachers                   looking for ways to help students improve their reading are faced               with conflicting advice from the experts. Some recommend                        emphasizing "phonics" while others promote a "whole language"                   approach. Phonics advocates ground their approach in behaviorist                learning theory and support their claims about its effectiveness by             pointing to comparison studies; likewise, whole language advocates              ground their approach in constructivist learning theory and base                their claims on ethnographic classroom studies (Chall, 2000;                    McQuillan, 1998). In between the phonics and whole language camps,              and often criticized by both, are advocates of a "balanced                      approach," drawing methodology from both sides. 
Complicating the              choice of instructional approach is the fact that AI/AN children                often speak different dialects of English or, in some cases, they               come to school speaking only their Native language. Speaking in an              Indian English dialect can limit the number of words children can               decode using traditional phonics approaches, which are designed for             standard English speakers. Students taught to decode words that are             not in their oral vocabulary end up parroting what they read without            comprehension (St. Charles & Costantino, 2000). 
While early                   reading experiences can depend on learning how letters in words                 relate to sounds (phonemic awareness) and how to pronounce those                sounds, students who later continue to focus on these sounds become             poor readers. At around the third grade, "learning to read" shifts              to developing competency in "reading to learn." "The Nation's Report            Card" cited earlier indicates that the majority of AI/AN students               may be having difficulty making that transition. PACKAGED READING             PROGRAMSFor over a century, the main way to teach reading in the            United States has been through the use of graded sets of relatively             easy-to-use reading textbooks called "basal readers." These                     textbooks typically include literature anthologies with                         instructional activities. Responding to the reading controversy and             other market demands, basal publishers in recent years have added               more multicultural content, systematic phonics, and popular and                 classic "authentic" children's literature. 
Besides basal readers,             there are other widely marketed "research-based reading programs."              One gaining popularity is "Success for All," described by its                   proponents as especially appropriate for students from low                      socioeconomic backgrounds. Recently, however, critics have marshaled            evidence that casts doubt on developers' claims (Pogrow, 2000). This            is a fairly common phenomenon in the reading debates. The same sorts            of claims and counter-claims have been made about other reading                 intervention programs. 
It may be that any program that spends                 extra time and money on reading will tend to have positive results.             The downside can be that less time and money are available for                  teaching other subjects. Also, promoters of new programs tend to                evaluate them with tests that focus on the particular skills their              programs teach, and students usually show good progress, especially             early on. However, results tend to be less positive on more general             standardized achievement tests, and, while students do better, they             usually don't catch up with national averages. 
One of the major               criticisms of basal readers and programs like "Success for All" is              that the reading material is chosen for a generic American audience             with few, if any, stories that relate to the diverse experiential               and cultural heritages of AI/AN children. Further, phonics programs             tend to presume that the students know and speak the sound system of            standard English. LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE APPROACHAn alternative              method of teaching beginning reading is the "language experience                approach." In this method, teachers write down the actual words                 students use on a chalk board or piece of chart paper, often after              the students have participated in some kind of activity.                        These "stories" are then used to teach phonics, vocabulary, and                 grammar. Using the language experience approach can ensure that the             words the students decode are in their oral vocabulary, often not               the case with commercial materials. Sylvia Ashton Warner, a pioneer             of the language experience approach, emphasized using words with                deep personal meaning for her students. Using students' names,                  familiar stories, community oral histories, word games, big books,              and predictable books to teach reading lessons can be more effective            than using materials found in many commercial reading                           programs (Reyhner & Cockrum, 2001). WHOLE LANGUAGE                            APPROACHKasten (1992) has argued that "whole language philosophy            is compatible with many common Native American beliefs and with the             way in which American Indian children are typically taught and                  socialized in their home environment" (p. 108). Her conclusion is               supported by Oglala Sioux educator Sandra Fox who calls it                      the "Indian way" of teaching (p. 118). However, Fox takes a balanced            approach that includes an emphasis on "reading strategy instruction             on pronunciation, comprehension, [and] critical thinking" (1992, p.             168). 
McCarty (1993) describes how at Rough Rock Demonstration                School, the first Indian-controlled school in modern times, "basic              skills routines produced Navajo students with near-perfect English              diction, but with little comprehension of oral English or text" (p.             183). However, by using "contextualized reading strategies and a                cooperative learning center system" developed by the Hawaiian                   Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP), "rich, bilingual print               environments have been constructed as classroom walls, school                   hallways, and ceilings display students' research hypotheses and                findings, their creative writing, and their artistic work." This was            done by "focusing classroom inquiry on interests and themes                     generated by the students themselves" (p. 185). 
In addition,                  teachers can help students understand academic content better if                they integrate different subject matter into thematic units that are            connected to the social and physical environments in which their                students live (Deloria & Wildcat, 2001). HELPING TEACHERS                     TEACHA key issue in any reading approach is how structured it               is. Teachers need some structure, but too much structure limits                 their ability to adapt to the special needs of AI/AN students. Less             structured methods such as the "whole language" approach can put a              heavy burden on teachers to plan and organize, which can be                     overwhelming and can lead to chaotic classrooms. Some whole language            teachers rely on the instructional scope and sequence in a basal                teacher's guide to provide structure to their teaching. 
In                    balanced approaches, teachers can use a specific basal or other                 reading program thoughtfully and supplement it with activities and              reading materials related to the particular background, needs, and              interests of their students. Ideally, readers would be available                that featured elements of Indian students' culture and experiences.             However, the practicalities of producing such a series are                      complicated by the presence of hundreds of tribes in the United                 States, which share some commonalties but are also very different               from one another. Consequently, the more practical course is to seek            community and tribal sources for reading materials to supplement                commercial readers. 
Cleary and Peacock (1998) report that some                AI/AN students exhibit resistance to reading and writing because of             continual correction of their attempts by teachers, comprehension               problems resulting from English idioms and dialects, and the                    decontextualized nature of much classroom instruction. Reading                  materials should be chosen to develop students' AI/AN identities as             well as introduce students to the wider world. For AI/AN students,              it is particularly important to supplement any reading program with             local stories they can relate to. EMBRACING LITERACY AND                      MAINTAINING IDENTITYCenturies of experience with literacy helped            produce a positive view of reading and education among people of                European descent. Further, reading is central to Christianity                   because of the importance of Bible reading. 
However, some Native              Americans have negative attitudes towards literacy because of this              very association with European "conquerors," Christian missionary               efforts, and repressive Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) boarding                 schools of the past. Native people who share this view see literacy             as taking them away from their Indigenous oral culture and                      assimilating them into White society. However, it is mistaken to                identify literacy exclusively with Europeans or Christians, as                  Mayans, Arabs, and Asians can point out. 
If AI/AN students are to             do well in school, their communities need to embrace literacy in                English. Hopefully, they will support literacy in their Native                  language, as well. There is growing evidence that using curriculum              materials written in students' Native language produces improved                reading skills, in some cases in both the Native language and                   English (Markowitz & Haley, 1973), and improved attitudes toward                school (Franks, 1988; Rudin, 1989; Radda, Iwamoto, & Patrick, 1998;             Demmert, 2002). 
The 2000 National Report Card on Reading indicated            that fourth graders who watched less television, read more for fun,             had more reading material in their homes, and talked more about                 reading with family and friends were better readers (Donahue et al.,            2001). The best way for students to expand their vocabularies is by             extensive reading. Efforts, such as "sustained silent reading," that            promote free voluntary reading in school give students the practice             they need to become fluent readers with large                                   vocabularies (Pilgreen, 2000). Unfortunately, those students who                read less outside of school usually also read less in school and get            fewer chances to visit libraries than do better readers (McQuillan,             1998). 
Fox (2000) asserts that "reading to children is the single             most important activity that parents can provide to help their                  children succeed in school" (p. 3). For teachers, she makes the                 following recommendations: 
* Use reading materials that relate to             children's lives, to help them understand that literature is                    experience written down and that it is interesting to read. 
*                 Strengthen and expand children's language abilities by providing                them many opportunities to have new experiences, to learn new words,            and to practice oral language in English and in their Native                    language (p. 1). 
Finally, it is important to note that traditional            AI/AN stories contain sophisticated vocabulary and can be used to               teach reading to students who come to school speaking their Native              language. Stories can be read in English, as well. Students who                 learn to read in their Native language can transfer those skills to             learning to read in English (Francis & Reyhner, in                              press). REFERENCESChall, J. S. (2000). The academic                       achievement challenge: What really works in the classroom. New York:            Guilford. 
Cleary, L. M., & Peacock, T. D. (1998). Collected                   wisdom: American Indian education. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. (ED               422 138) 
Deloria, V. Jr., & Wildcat, D. R. (2001). Power and                  place: Indian education in America. Golden, CO: Fulcrum. 
Demmert,             W. (2002). Improving academic performance among Native American                 students: A review of the research literature. Charleston, WV: ERIC             Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. 
Donahue, P.               L., Finnegan, R. J., Lutkus, A. D., Allen, N. L., & Campbell, J.                R. (2001). The Nation's report card: Fourth-grade reading 2000.                 Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational             Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics.             Retrieved December 13, 2001, from                                               http://nces.ed.gov/naep3/pdf/main2000/2001499.pdf 
Fox, S.                     J. (1992). The whole language approach. In J. Reyhner (Ed.),                    Teaching American Indian students (pp. 168-77). Norman, OK:                     University of Oklahoma Press. 
Fox, S. J. (2000). Creating a sacred            place to support young American Indian and other learners (Vol. 1).             Polson, MT: National Indian School Board Association. 
Francis,                N., & Reyhner, J. (in press). Language and literacy teaching for                indigenous education: A bilingual approach. Clevedon, UK:                       Multilingual Matters. 
Franks, M. E. (1988, November). Using the               gap reduction model to evaluate a successful bilingual/ESL program.             Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Educational              Research Association, Louisville, Kentucky. (ED 303                             505) 
Markowitz, A., & Haley, F. (1973). A bilingual Navajo                    curriculum project. Profiles of promise 16. Boulder: CO: Social                 Science Education Consortium. (ED 095 073) 
Kasten, W. C. (1992).              Bridging the horizon: American Indian beliefs and whole language                learning. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 23(2),                          108-19. 
McCarty, T. L. (1993). Language, literacy, and the image              of the child in American Indian classrooms. Language Arts, 70(3),               182-92. 
McQuillan, J. (1998). The literacy crisis: False claims,              real solutions. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 
Pilgreen, J. L. (2000).            The SSR handbook: How to organize and manage a sustained silent                 reading program. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook. (ED 438                          509) 
Pogrow, S. (2000). Success for All does not produce success              for students. Phi Delta Kappan, 82(1), 67-80. Retrieved December 13,            2001, from http://www.alt-sfa.com/pogrow_kappan2.html 
Radda, H.               T., Iwamoto, D., & Patrick, C. (1998). Collaboration, research and              change: Motivational influences on American Indian students. Journal            of American Indian Education, 37(2), 2-20. 
Reyhner, J., & Cockrum,            W. (2001). Reading, language, culture, and ethnic minority students.            In P. R. Schmidt & P. B. Mosenthal (Eds.), Reconceptualizing                    literacy in the new age of multiculturalism and pluralism (pp.                  163-85). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing. 
Rudin,                    C. (1989, October). Omaha language preservation in the Macy,                    Nebraska, public school. Washington, DC: National Science                       Foundation. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Mid-America                   Linguistics Conference, Cedar Falls, IA. (ED 347 785) 
St. Charles,            J., & Costantino, M. (2000). Reading and the Native American                    learner. Research report. Olympia, WA: Office of Superintendent of              Public Instruction, Office of Indian Education. 
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Jon                   Reyhner is an associate professor of education at Northern Arizona              University where he teaches bilingual multicultural education                   courses. 
This publication was prepared with funding from the                  Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of              Education, under contract no. ED-99-CO-0027. The opinions expressed             herein do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI,            the Department, or AEL.                                                      **Title:** Teaching Reading to American Indian/Alaska Native Students. ERIC                Digest.                                                                      **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC/CRESS, P.O. Box 1348, Charleston, WV 25325-1348. Tel:                      800-624-9120 (Toll Free). For full text:                                        http://www.ael.org/eric/digests/edorc01-10.htm.                              **Descriptors:**  American Indian Education, Basal Reading,  Culturally Relevant                 Education, Elementary Education, Language Experience Approach,                  Limited English Speaking, Phonics,  Reading Instruction, Reading                Material Selection,  Reading Strategies, Whole Language Approach             **Identifiers:** Balanced Reading Instruction, ERIC Digests                                   
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