Wicoie Nandagikendan Urban Immersion Preschools Program
(This is still under construction!) E-mail Lisa with comments and suggestions
Wicoie Nandagikendan Early Childhood Urban Immersion Project provides a 3-hour-a-day preschool language immersion experience. It builds on the integral connections between culture, literacy, and educational attainment. The project partners with existing programs to provide fluent speakers and language curriculum.
Young children's brains are wired to absorb language--easily and without effort. By the age of 3, most children surrounded by words produce sentences as readily as laughter or tears.
The Wicoie Nandagikendan Urban Immersion Preschools Program began in January 2006 with a grant from ANA. Because the future of native languages is in the children, it is crucial to expose children to these languages at a young age. When the language (Dakota or Ojibwe) is not spoken in the home, due to generations of language loss, schools and day care facilities offer an alternative opportunity to expose children to their heritage languages in a supportive, non-threatening environment.
There are currently three preschools in operation through this program, with plans for a fourth underway. All of these preschools are located in or near the Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis and serve predominantly American Indian families. (See below for locations.)
Each class meets for about 3 hours each day, mornings Monday through Friday. There is an average of about five children per class, ranging in age from two to five years.
The classes are held in separate rooms of each daycare facility from the rest of the regular preschool. In each immersion classroom, teachers make the greatest possible effort to speak only Dakota or Ojibwe (depending on the class). Because there is not always an overlap between childcare professionals and fluent speakers, each classroom has a licensed childcare professional in the room at all times, though he or she may not speak the language. An auxiliary program exists to help these caregivers and parents further instruction in the language.