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Tlingit immersion students making the grade at Harborview
by Mary Lou Berry
04/17/02

Now in first grade, Bradley loves school, and Richard Wright, once a skeptic, has become an avid supporter. "At first I was worried about his reading, writing and arithmetic, but he’s doing well—he’s right where he should be scholastically."

"It’s a very good program," says Wright. "I think it gives students a feeling of self, of what they are. It gives them a basic knowledge of the language. He knows many names of things. He can count to 140 or 150—I can’t even say ‘one’!"

"He enjoys it immensely. He started out learning Tlingit songs and from there went into learning dances," Wright adds. "The teachers are great. The first year it was on-the-job training for them; they, too, had to learn as they went along."

Eunice James-Lee agrees. Her son Hunter is a second grader in the K-1-2 bilingual classroom. "I love it," she says. "It’s great, especially when he comes home and quizzes me. I have to guess what the words mean or he won’t tell me! He learns about his culture. He learns colors. They tailor their field trips around words. Last year they went blueberry picking at the university, and the children brought their pails to t he teacher and counted the berries. He can count up to 100.

"It’s been heartwarming to see Hunter this happy about going to school and this confident of himself," says James-Lee. "My parents were both Tlingit speakers, but they were punished if they spoke Tlingit in school. One of my concerns was how they would balance the language with the academics, but he’s doing wonderfully."

The Harborview Tlingit Culture and Language Primary Classroom, now in its second year, is the result of a partnership with Sealaska Heritage Institute. The program is partially funded through the United States Department of Education Demonstration Grants for Native Children. The goals of the two-year grant are to exceed academic standards, promote family involvement, and teach lifelong learning skills through the development, implementation, and evaluation of a high quality bilingual program.

Pioneering this project, the first of its kind in the school district, is elementary teacher Kitty Eddy. "We were K-1 (kindergarten and first grade) last year with 19 students, and we’re a K-1-2 this year with 23 kids. This includes a few students from Gastineau," she says. "Next year we’ll be K-1-2-3."

In actuality, the federal grant that finances the project has not yet been awarded for next year, but Harborview staff members are optimistic about qualifying. "We try to focus the language portion so it fits the regular curriculum," Eddy continues. "There is a strong emphasis on reading, writing, and speaking. Tlingit is an oral language. New students coming in during the year picked it right up. Our students are good about teaching each other and sharing with each other and new students."

Kitty Eddy shares classroom duty with culture specialist Nancy Douglas, who has been reading and writing Tlingit since her own second grade days in Sitka, and Robert Milton, a Tlingit elder who serves as "Grandfather" for the class. Douglas and Milton team-teach.

"This has been an amazing, awesome experience," Douglas says. "It’s something that has never been tried before in this district, so we also had to learn how to do it as we went along. The parents give it rave reviews—they are excited to have this opportunity for their kids because they never had it for themselves."

"Bilingual" and "immersion" are not words that Douglas likes to use. "This is just like normal school," she insists. A typical school day begins with "Morning Meeting" where language is reinforced. Students recite the alphabet and count in Tlingit, then use their Tlingit knowledge to discuss the day’s weather. Simple directions are given bilingually, always with Tlingit reinforcement. After the 2:15 break, an activity like "Reading Buddies" is conducted in the Native language.

The immersion program is kept on course by an advisory committee comprised of strong, core parents which meets quarterly to review course development and make suggestions for possible improvements. The program is open not just to students from Tlingit families but to all children in the district in the applicable grade levels.

During last summer, a two-week "Jump Start" program was held to prepare incoming students for the unique structure of their new experience. Last May a bilingual play about animals was performed with more than 100 audience members in attendance. A similar event is planned for this May.

In addition to increasing parental involvement, the program appears to be positively impacting attitude as well as learning. "I get into the classroom quite often and see the kids in their daily activities," says Robert Dye, Harborview principal. "It’s such a happy classroom. It’s a calm, beautiful learning environment."

Teddy Castillo has two daughters: Krista, currently in grade 2, and Cora, who will start kindergarten this year. "Krista brings home vocabulary words to study. She loves her teacher and looks forward to being in school every day—she never wants to be late," Teddy says. "Cora is looking forward to being in that class. She knows Kitty and Nancy. She already feels a part and thinks that’s her classroom."

One requirement of the grant is to keep records so that the program’s effectiveness can be determined. "Based on results from the first year," says program evaluator Annie Calkins, "the kids were equal to or outperforming other Alaska Native kindergartners and first graders throughout the district in reading and writing." Another year’s worth of test results will become available in June, she says, from end-of-the-year exams.

Parents like Teddy Castillo, however, aren’t worried. "Most kids have improved their performance since they’ve been in the classroom, and many are performing above standard," she says. "Kitty Eddy is a wonderful teacher. No way a child in Ms. Eddy’s class is not going to meet the standards. People don’t have a real understanding of what this classroom is about. People think you’re going to have to ignore one to get the other, and that’s not the case."

Photos by David Sheakley.

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