Diné Bizaad Bínáhoo’aah: Rediscovering The Navajo Language Teacher's Edition CD-ROM

To the Teacher

We have decided to do a lot of the work for you, especially for you who are “new” teachers of Navajo, so that all you will need to do is pick up this Teacher’s Guide, read each chapter thoroughly, read the statements and directions that appear on the side of the actual text, then walk into your classroom and teach.

You will notice that Goals and Objectives have been included in each chapter. This is in line with the “user friendly” quality of the Textbook and Teacher’s Guide CD-ROM. We know that teachers are extremely busy people who would appreciate the availability of these basic items. In the first 30 chapters, the Goals have been divided into Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor Goals. The Cognitive Goals have been analyzed further to become Cognitive Objectives, which are objectives that can be measured. The Affective Goals cannot be measured, but are important because it is the affective domain that will carry the student further into the language rather than just learning the language; he/she will begin to appreciate the language and accept it as part of their heritage or a learned language. Psychomotor Goals are subjective on the part of the teacher. The objectives are written in somewhat general terms to allow the teacher the freedom to “tweak” each lesson a little. This is a good starting off point but feel free to incorporate what you feel is appropriate to facilitate your students’ learning, as long as the parents and students are comfortable with the subject matter. We do strongly suggest that you, as the teacher, remain aligned with the goals, objectives, and activities as this is a tried and proven process through the piloting of the Textbook, Workbook, and Teacher’s Guide CD-ROM for three years.

To keep in line with providing you with a Teacher’s Guide that is “user friendly,”You will notice the statements and directions that appear in color on the sides of the Teacher’s Guide CD-ROM. These are notes to you.