Class 7 Resources
Willie Tailfeathers - 4th Grade
Contents
Teaching Math in Blackfeet Language
Napi Elementary teacher Willie Tailfeathers explains her strategy and teaching philosophy as a language immersion teacher, including how her students start learning their numbers and mathematical operations and how she reinforces their skills, how she herself learns more of the language, and her approach to helping kids feel comfortable using it.
Reviewing Together
In this clip, watch how Ms. Tailfeathers engages students in review. In her interview, you heard her explain how her students reached this point – lots of slow beginnings, practice, and repetition. You can see how she cleverly makes “mistakes” so they will correct her. And, she demonstrates how students do all the basic math operations using the language, then adds even more practice when they count by threes.