Involving Community Members to Develop Culturally Relevant Word ...

Introduction
The Gift of Language and Culture Project is based out of two main sites. The Curriculum Resource
Unit staff at the Lac La Ronge Indian Band work on the development of core language programming.
They promote and produce teaching documents and supplementary resources for the Cree, Michif
and Dene language teachers. The staff at the site of the Onion Lake First Nation work towards
the development of Cree immersion language programming. They also produce supplementary
resources that complement their thematic units. The Gift of Language and Culture is a partnership
project between the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, Onion Lake First Nation, Prince Albert Grand
Council, Meadow Lake Tribal Council, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, Northern Lights School
Division No. 113, Saskatoon Public School Division and Northwest Education Authority Inc.
The Aboriginal languages resource units at both sites develop curriculum and supplementary
resources. They also provide assistance to support Aboriginal language teachers by providing inschool
site visits in the classrooms in First Nations and Métis language and culture classrooms in
provincial and band-controlled schools.
The curriculum documents and additional resources are developed by bilingual educators. They
all have previous experience in teaching an Aboriginal language and culture program in a school
setting operated by First Nations and provincial organizations. This team of bilingual educators
also performs other duties as curriculum developers and as in-service trainers for Aboriginal
language teachers in the schools. They maintain ongoing professional development for the teachers
in the schools. Each unit includes a recommended target word list for elementary students from
nursery to grade two. The word list is written in each unit plan with topics and concepts from a
scope and sequence chart. Some of the topics and concepts of the units include: daily routine,
numerals, animals, buildings, astronomical terminology, clothing, cultural activities, health, birds,
kinship, food, and fish for Grades 1 to 9. The scope and sequence is available online:
www.giftoflanguageandculture.ca
Curriculum developers and researchers are given the responsibility of validating the current target
vocabulary by fluent speakers with strong cultural background. It is important to mention that
the target word list presented in each unit is not exhaustive and is subject to validation by Elders.
This short-term research study has validated the existing terminology and enhanced the vocabulary
list. It has provided the curriculum teams with a deeper understanding of First Nations and Métis
language development that is culturally relevant.
During the course of this research project, the group met with a selection of fluent speakers from
each of the following communities: La Ronge, Hall Lake, Sucker River, Little Red River, Beauval,
Pinehouse, Grandmother’s Bay, and Stanley Mission.
Collectively, the executive directors and the curriculum teams from both sites of the Gift of
Language and Culture Partnership Project developed a five-year strategic plan. One of the areas
of intervention is to assess and to evaluate the curriculum documents they produced. Although
this research project attempts to address some of the issues as outlined in Goal #4 (below), it
does not fully explore all areas of the goal. This goal was taken as an action item from the fiveyear
strategic plan that was written collectively by the Gift of Language and Culture Partnership
Project Partners:
Goal #4: Short-term Research Study
1. Explore potential for supporting research study.
2. Condition for joining partnership project will be to conduct research/evaluation.
3. Determine best practices from similar language programs.
2 RESEARCH REPORT: Involving Community Members to Develop Culturally Relevant Word Lists for First Nations and Métis Students