Coyote trots again.  He trots for multimodality in a virtual universe.

​

Coyote says to connect directly academic learning, content and skills, to local problem solving.  And to use technology as much as possible when it’s available!  You, too, must realize “that students needed to be able to compose with images, sounds, and words in order to communicate persuasively and effectively in the twenty-first century.”  (Remixing Composition, 2)  Coyote’s reminders sting. 

 

Here is what Coyote says about language learning.  Language learning begins at home.  Coyote insists that children learn best through action, that children enjoy learning engaging in well-designed activities.  Telling kids Coyote stories and asking them questions about what they could possibly mean is limiting.  So he insists on using approaches that make the most of multimodalities.   “Think about the kids,” Coyote demands.  “Remember what Richard Gerver learned at Grange Primary School in central England who writes, ‘We are born with all the skills---all the basics---we need.  Babies and very young children are incredibly intuitive, naturally creative, and deeply curious.’”  (Creative Schools, page 39)  Yes, youths do not come empty; they bring experience, especially in the area of composing multimodal texts. (Palmeri, 2)  Further reflection made me realize that my pedagogical approach to language learning reflected more my own learning styles and limitations, rather than focusing on the individual learning needs, strengths, and interests of the kids.  So, instead of just asking them to tell me what they think about the coyote stories, they will have more fun drawing them or maybe coloring in what one of my brothers may illustrate.  I think it will be more fun if we camp outside at night and listen to and record coyotes howl in nearby canyons to the east or out on the plains to the west.  This way the kids will begin to place coyote within the landmarks they see daily.  “I’m not talk,” Coyote says.  “I’m all about action,” he scolds.  So I decide to take the kids to museums and zoos to learn about the ways of animals.  We’ll start with coyote, of course.  While we’re on these trips, my parents will come along so they can speak to their grandchildren in Navajo.  Our children can create websites about their learning the Navajo language and link their sites to create a collective, to begin learning about networking through technology.

 

“Make them feel high, make them feel low and I’ll speak to them,” Coyote says.  Acting classes and the performing arts teaches them critical and creative thinking skills through linguistic, aural, visual, spatial, and gestural modalities, he commands.  We’re going to play theater games and learn about movement, voice, and storytelling, guided by Coyote’s voice.  We’ll go high and go low.  We’ll laugh and cry. “Let them have fun. Encourage their curiosity,” he demands.  “Curiosity never kills anyone.  Hey, I’m still around.  How many storytellers have I run out?” he muses. When we do the plays, we’re going to make props and musical instruments using materials from the land around us.  This will encourage curiosity and promote creativity.  At the same time, the children will learn in more detail about the environment in which they live.  My parents can help with Navajo names of the materials of sticks or plants, bushes, shrubs, trees, from which they come.  Then from the top of Lime Stone Mesa, we can point to where these plants live on the land.  We even can do maps of where certain plants live.  Again, my parents can help with names of plants.  In this way, we’ll be acting on Coyote’s advice.  “Action,” he says.  “And forget about assessment.  Let them speak the language and have fun,” Coyote laughs.

 

“And, Rex,” he chides.  “Don’t forget about technology.  Take the camcorder, the cameras, the tape recorders, and the digital cameras out of your closet and teach the kids how to use them.  Use them.  Here, they’re just collecting dust now,” he teases.  The teasing stings because, of course, as always, he’s right.  The kids can learn so much about photography, interviewing, videotaping, tape recording, and digital storytelling. We can play interviewing games in the spirit of Oprah Winfrey or Barbara Walters talk shows.  The children can interview “their elders” and record them on videotapes that they can show on the television for the rest of the family.  They also can record using their smart phones and up load onto to social media.  With tape recorders, they can transcribe their interviews, small sections of it, and turn them into little books using the computer and digital cameras.  “Digital storytelling”, he laughs.  “I’ll still be around when that phase of human learning passes, too,” he giggles.  They will learn about desktop publishing.  Like coyote says, all that equipment needs to come out of the closet.

 

Hey, concentrate on the teaching of critical and creative writing in non-classroom settings, directly linking academic knowledge and skills to solving local problems, to creating community learning/writing centers, to connecting through virtual exchanges local learners to a collective of global problem solvers, and publishing collaborative works.  “Come on man, you can do this in the Navajo language,” Coyote demands.  Coyote is tickled that young Navajo minds just may challenge his own creative, imaginative lifestyle.  Yet he pushes and pulls.  Create writing centers at the youth centers across the Navajo Nation where the Navajo people will learn how to use the English and Navajo languages to do meaningful research and writing projects that address local problems using local knowledge and stories.  “Use my stories,” he chirps.  Community members will learn to read and write, do local interviews, use the latest technology, produce digital stories, and get involved globally through virtual exchanges.  Community writers will come together and use literature and stories to better their lives and communities.  We will use these non-Western canonical literature and “First World” life experiences to offer solutions to some of the most pressing intellectual concerns and daily issues which were created by the imposition of Western ideologies.

 

Focus on food literacy, fitness literacy, fiscal literacy, and feelings literacy!  Coyote gets all excited when it comes to nurturing students.  Projects must be literature/story based.  Analyses of local literature and stories may offer solutions to local problems.  “Try the following,” he advises.  Food literacy can focus on stories associated with family recipes and traditional food gatherings as well as written texts.  Writers can connect these story-based analyses to local and global issues like lacking access to quality food, its accompanying malnourishment and chronic illnesses, and inequities in food economies resulting in food deserts and poverty.  Another example might be reading and writing about the natural world and what human activities are doing to damage it, and what they can do to preserve the environment.  Learners may research and develop plans for forest management, botanical gardens, and ecotourism.   They may also take fitness literacy classes, read and write biographies of elite athletes and research associated economic developments like rock climbing and rafting or kayaking outings.  They also will be developing feelings literacy in the areas of negotiation, conflict resolutions, difficult conversations, and peace making.  In working with fiscal literacy they will be working both with financial and other resources.  Many of our people are on fixed income and those with jobs live from paycheck to paycheck.  These literacy programs will allow participants to speak for themselves, backed by research and well thought out solutions to the issues they face. 

 

“You’re dealing with kids, and their families,” he says. “Excitement.  Risk taking.  Action.  Fun. Challenging.  These must become part of your daily vocabulary,” Coyote instructs.  I think about his ideas; they make sense.  Coyote can easily connect all the language choices in my home in fun and exciting ways. He insists on baby talk Navajo not only during baby talk time, but also to use it whenever it becomes useful, just like his nasalized talk. “That’s baby talk all the way,” he says. “While you’re doing these projects, the Navajo language will allow you to act on your thoughts, to accomplish your goals, to realize ideas in physical forms.  Navajo then becomes a language of action, excitement, working together and accomplishment. How much more useful can you get than that?” he asks.  “This is the language of true love,” Coyote says.  “You teach the children how to fish way out in the sea of sand.  They learn to use Navajo as a way of thinking and acting.  Let them be actors: not the ones acted upon,” Coyote almost raises his voice. 

 

Then Coyote runs away.

 

That’s what Coyote says.

 

In the mean time, 18 Navajo students are learning how to read, write, and do research on health issues that have been impacting the Navajo people since Coyote started trotting in their minds.  Athletes are looking beyond their own popularity to help others discover the value of traditional foods.  Blind students are seeing beyond obesity and diabetes and demand of their peers and family members to run for health and wealth.  Navajo beauty princesses are going beyond their looks and use digital storytelling to engage others in healthy eating habits that kept the people strong in the past.  “We can do it again,” they urge.  The very shy ones are becoming the loudest and most articulate when it comes to learning and teaching others about fighting chronic illnesses through nutrition and exercise.  These Navajo students are challenging Coyote in their reach of imagining a better and healthier world that the Coyote has been used to.  Young Navajo high school students are presenting the outcomes of their research at local conferences as well as travelling the national scene to voice their findings at professional gatherings.  They are connecting with other youths across this country and will soon reach out to the rest of the world.  They are connecting directly their academic learning to solve local problems.  In so doing, they also are using their academic skills and local knowledge to address global issues.  They are sincere, serious, and extremely determined and resilient.  They are imaginative, creative, and in many ways, down to earth.  Their literacy skills and digital storytelling will soon rival the imaginative landscape where Coyote trots.  They are pushing the boundaries of our imagination through local concrete activities to solve health issues.  They are exploring, experimenting, discovering, and soon will be inventing.  They also may be curing diseases that our generation created.  Their stories shall make the Navajo Nation strong and healthy.  And Coyote will howl for the better. 

 

And these students shall push themselves to the limit.

​

​

Final Alphabetic Teaching Philosophy

​

I firmly believe that:

• Youth are opportunities we must invest in: they are our best resource for meaningful and sustaining purposes;

• Young people bring knowledge, skills, and experiences that we must build on;

• We must help youth use what they are learning in school to create research-based solutions to the many social justice issues that their communities face;

• We must help youth translate their creative processes to produce multimodal projects that enhance their intelligence and practical skills;

• Youth must make the most of the many technologies available to them;

• Youth must network and share their projects face-to-face as well as through the internet; and

• We must encourage youth to be curious, to explore and discover, to experiment and invent, to learn from risk taking and, most importantly, to have fun while learning.

Many Navajo youth are exposed to ceremonial rituals and dances, songs and prayers, sand and body paintings, rug weaving and jewelry making, and various musical instruments.  They come to us already knowing how to “compose with images, sounds, and words in order to communicate persuasively and effectively in the twenty-first century.”  (Remixing Composition, 2)  In teaching them Navajo, they were able to translate creative thinking into fun and exciting multimodal compositions in Navajo through illustrations, painting, sculpture, animation, visits to zoos and museums, and interviews with community members.  They also made plays, which they turned into video productions for public viewing on the local television station run by youth.  In so doing, these youth developed critical and creative thinking skills through linguistic, aural, visual, spatial, and gestural modalities.

Today I work with one Navajo youth organization where 45 youth leaders research and write to solve local problems.  Obese youth present on health issues, athletes look beyond their own popularity to help others discover the value of traditional foods, blind youth see beyond obesity and diabetes to demand of their peers and family members to run for health and wealth, Navajo beauty princesses go beyond their looks and use digital storytelling to engage others in healthy eating habits, and the shy ones become strong articulate voices for fighting chronic illnesses through the promotion of nutrition and exercise programs.  They present their research findings at local and national conferences and connect with other youths across this country.  By solving local problems, they use their academic skills and local knowledge to offer solutions to global issues.  In the spirit of Flower and Hayes, youths “translate ideas about a topic in multiple ways: gathering or creating visual images, drafting words, recording speech, gathering or creating music and atmospheric sounds” in the health field.  (Mixing Composition, 37)

In the future, Navajo youths will focus on four literacies: food, fitness, fiscal, and feelings.  Working with these literacies, Navajo youths will tap into creative processes to produce multimodal compositions that offer solutions to local problems.  For food literacy, they will focus on stories associated with family recipes and traditional food gatherings, and connect these story-based analyses to local and global issues like lacking access to quality food, its accompanying malnourishment and chronic illnesses, and inequities in food economies resulting in food deserts and poverty.  They also will read and write about the natural world and how human activities are damaging it, and research and develop plans for forest management, botanical gardens, and ecotourism.  For fitness literacy, youth will take fitness classes, read and write biographies of elite athletes, and research associated economic developments like rock climbing and rafting or kayaking outings.  For fiscal literacy, they will work on making the most of both financial and other resources.  For feelings literacy, youth will develop negotiation, conflict resolutions, difficult conversations, and peace making skills.  These literacy programs will allow participants to speak for themselves, backed by research and well thought out solutions to the issues they face.  Youth will create websites where they will share videos, music, performances, film, and products of all their works.