Skahwatsí:ra Mohawk Language Program
Traditional Leader Eddy Gray gives Encouragement to Mohawk immersion students.
Photo: Shannon Burns
In 1985, the people of Ahkwesahsne assumed control of their children’s education with the founding of the Ahkwesahsne Mohawk Board of Education (AMBE). This founding brought into being the infrastructure necessary for our educational self determination. The Ahkwesahsne Mohawk Board of Education presently administers elementary schools in all three Ahkwesahsne Districts: Ahkwesahsne Mohawk School on Kawenoke, Kana’takon School, and the Tsi Snaihne School. AMBE also provides for students attending Secondary and Post-Secondary school off-reserve, and for Special Education students.
Mohawk language is a vital part of our culture, and the need to preserve it is evident. To address this need to promote the learning of our language, the Ahkwesahsne Mohawk Board of Education first implemented its original Mohawk (Kanien’keha) immersion program in 1995. This initial immersion program concentrated on Kanien’keha language acquisition in the early primary grades, pre-Kindergarten to Grade 3, and successfully produced AMBE’s first full immersion Mohawk classrooms. Building on this success, AMBE developed the Skahwatsí:ra (One Family) Program. Skahwatsí: ra based its curriculum on the restructuring of the full immersion program, developing the model to reate a more holistic and culturally based classroom setting. Because the Mohawk culture has a strong oral history, the Skahwatsí:ra program is designed to focus more on creating functional fluency among the students, compared to the initial full immersion program, with less time on reading and writing the Mohawk language.
The AMBE Kanien’keha Specialist has developed a program called “Ronta:tis Kenh ne Kanien’keha ? (Do They Speak Mohawk), which assesses Kanien’keha fluency using rubrics & AMBE Kanien’keha Program requirements. The program requirements are comprised of lesson plans that guide Kanien’keha instructors to teach within four categories of language acquisition: conversational, recitation, announcing and introduction. Using the Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen, or Thanksgiving Address, and the yearly ceremonial cycle, as their thematic outline, the students complete their lessons in Kanien’keha.
Photo: Shannon Burns
Lessons of this type teach learners to dialogue with one another, how to recite basic speeches, how to announce during social gatherings, and how to introduce themselves citing their names, age, grade, clan, Nation, family and place of residence. Teachers assess the students’ fluency using rubrics, or scaled grading, which looks at the level of their speaking skills rather than by grade level.
The Skahwatsí:ra Program, in its second year of restructuring, has proven to be successful because the students are meeting the Kanien’keha requirements according to functional fluency expectations as opposed to grade-level reading and writing assessments.
One great result of the language program, among the many, has been the development of an array of original Kanien’keha resources by AMBE and the Kanien’keha faculty, such as textbooks with audio CDs that assist with hearing language in its natural form. Musical CDs help students with learning contemporary and traditional songs in Kanien’keha. There are also video DVDs for entertainment and yet another reinforcement tool for language learning. These wonderful resources are also used by other local schools, language organizations, and Kanien’keha and Rotinonshonni Programs in other Haudenosaunee Nations. Niawen to Nonni Cook Peters of AMBE
