Inuktitut Sanginivut
With support from the Department of Culture, Language, Elders & Youth, the NLC is designing resources to support the delivery of family literacy programs in communities across the territory.
The family’s role in the development of language and literacy skills is critical. Parents and extended family members ensure the survival of a language by passing it on to their children. In turn, families that create a rich language environment in the home assist their children in developing strong literacy skills.
The link between literacy and language development is crucial. Literacy skill development begins with language development. Without strong language skills, literacy development is impeded. This works the same in reverse as literacy plays a key role in all successful language revitalization efforts. Literacy also allows for the transmission of culture and traditional knowledge. Once passed on orally, traditional knowledge and culture can now be shared in written form, through the schools and in the community.
Language can be viewed as a key to unlocking a culture. Without language, children cannot learn from their families. The cultural knowledge held by the elders in particular cannot be properly transmitted. Language unlocks the door to cultural knowledge, customs, history and spirituality.
Oral storytelling is an excellent way to promote language and literacy development. The Nunavut Literacy Council is developing family literacy resources that will encourage storytelling in a fun way. The resources will be sent out to libraries and other programs across the territory. One of these resources is “Unikkaaqtuat Puuqsimajut”.
Unikkaaqtuat Puuqsimajut is based on the Storysacks model. A Storysack is a large cloth bag containing a good quality storybook with supporting materials, such as puppets, soft toys and a game to stimulate reading and language development activities. Librarians, parents, program providers or children use the props to act out stories that are usually read. The activity is extended by adding games and activities relating to the story. Storysacks are a different way of sharing stories for people who are not confident readers. They work especially well to encourage children who are reluctant readers. Our version of Storysacks has been demonstrated at our workshops and participants really enjoyed the activity. They particularly enjoyed the way that we used the activity to promote oral storytelling – an important traditional activity that was critical in the development of language fluency.
View Storysacks Promotional Sheet - PDF (121k)
