| Are you aware that only 21% of Native youth
graduate from high school and only 1% graduate from college? Do you
know that the average literacy rate for Native youth is one-third that of
the rest of the population? Does it surprise you that a high
proportion of Native youth are reading at levels three to four years below
their grade? This is the current status. Therein lays an
enormous potential for educational improvement and to introduce a special
way to prepare Native youth to be highly achieving students, members of the
workplace, and gaming industry. By far, the most common reason for this
situation is that a majority of our Native students lack basic vocabularies
and, hence, most are not good readers. Their learning strengths
have not been properly used to maximize vocabulary retention. Too,
it must be realized that many Native students are fearful of mispronouncing
words and often refuse to read aloud in front of their peers. By not
reading aloud, the correct pronunciations of many words are not learned;
perpetuating the low reading cycles. Native youth would rather quit
school than to be laughed at by their fellow students.
The answer lies in introducing
vocabulary building techniques that capitalize on their Native learning
strengths of visualization and linking it to pronunciation.
Research shows that most Native people
learn best visually, followed by verbal stories. Natives are verbal
people. Thus, by having words pronounced, while visually imprinting
them, brings together two of our most powerful learning strengths.
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