We received a delegation of Secwepemc teachers and Elders. It was exciting to share our methods and to be starting the SIXTH textbook of the Nsyilxcn Curriculum. Wonderful to hear Secwepemc language in the classroom. We had 100% attendance on Wednesday and learned the qʷʕasqi lesson from N3 and several review lessons while our visitors observed and took notes. We were happy to share Elders recordings with them and our lesson plans and dreams for future language growth across our Nations. We heard that the Language House method with the Nsyilxcn Curriculum is a successful model and is creating a safe space for language to grow. Dr. Janice Dick Billy is one of Sʔímlaʔxʷ’s heroes and her Masters and PhD theses, TPR Textbooks, and methods were guides on the language path we are on. Excellent classroom discussions this week. Even our grammar drills are frequent opportunities for laughter. We are getting stronger in the language.
What an incredible week. We switched to full immersion last week and like any real achievement it is powerful, sacred, and authentic. We had already been at 90% immersion since the beginning of the program, but last week we challenged ourselves to go 100%. Each student was given six beans and one was taken away each time they said one English word. All 15 students had beans left at the end of the week. This week we learned two Captíkʷł stories, tkaʔkaʔłís iʔ sncʔiw̓s, and snk̓lip naʔł iʔ spəqmix. Sʕamtíc̓aʔ visited and taught us to make sp̓ic̓n and shared some words of encouragement and wisdom. x̌ast kʷ tə səxʷm̓am̓áyaʔm̓. limləmt Sʕamtíc̓aʔ. Sharing clips of two classroom exercises that help us learn Captíkʷł 2 stories, compliments of Paul Creek methods. The first is "reader's theatre" and the second is "discussion questions", a series of question and answers about the story. Even though we are in full immersion, the air is filled with language and each student is speaking. caʔkʷ wikntxʷ Sʕamtíc̓aʔ ilíʔ.
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