By Tesina Jackson
“The reading center is a portable resource used in a classroom setting,” said CNF Executive Director Kimberlie Gilliland. “It is incorporated into daily lesson plans to help with literacy and Cherokee language fluency. The reading center is currently being used in the Cherokee Nation Language Immersion School in a first grade classroom.”
The books were written by Ray D. Ketter and Wynema Smith and illustrated by America Meredith. Cherokee sisters America and Samonia Meredith of Noksi Press donated the first audio books. Audio recordings were produced by Andrew Sikora, director at Cherokee Media and feature the voice of Wynema Smith. The book titles are “The Three Bears,” “The Little Red Hen” and “Origins of Oak Leafs.”
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For more on the subject, see:
http://www.cherokeephoenix.org/Article/Index/6624
CNF releases Cherokee language audio books
Noksi Press originally printed the books in 2008, and in July 2012, the CNF secured funding necessary to include the audio element and reprint in larger quantities for mass distribution.
“The books were created to help with Cherokee language literacy and fluency,” Gilliland said. “The audio element is the best possible way to address common difficulties in the annunciation of the Cherokee language.”
So far, the audio kits have been distributed to 16 students at the Cherokee Language Immersion School and a few at-large California Cherokee community groups.
CNF officials hope to expand the project by donating 500 audio kits to local libraries and schools within the tribe’s 14-county jurisdiction in November in honor of Native American history month. Each kit would include the three print books accompanied by its audio.
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