POTAWATOMI LANGUAGE STANDARDS AND BENCHMARKS

1. COMMUNICATION

Students communicate in the Potawatomi language while demonstrating literacy in all four essential skills:  Listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

At the beginning level or in grades K-4 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes:

• Comprehending common memorized words, expressions, and cognates when hearing the language spoken; and
• Demonstrating comprehension of everyday conversations and familiar situations.

At the intermediate level or in grades 5-8 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes:

• Identifying the main idea from simple instructions or conversations, basic survival situations, and familiar topics, such as school, leisure time activities, and family life;
• Obtaining meaning from simple conversations at a normal rate of speech; and
• Identifying the main idea and/or specific information from a one way listening situation, live or recorded, such as stories, dialogue, films, songs, poems, plays, and face to face conversations.

 At the advanced level or in grades 9-12 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes: 

• Deriving meaning through context, intonation, and situations from listening sources including face to face communication, speakers, authentic videos, films, and brief recordings; and
• Obtaining and processing information by selecting, categorizing, and analyzing from these sources.

 For students extending their Native language education, what they know and are able to do may include:  

• Processing information by organizing, synthesizing, and evaluating from all types of authentic listening sources;
• Integrating listening skills by interacting and/or participating with members of fluent speaking communities who still use the Native language in question; and
• Using listening skills to interact culturally with peers and/or others in the language.

1.2 SPEAKING

Students speak in the Native language for a variety of purposes and for diverse audiences.

At the beginning level or in grades K-4 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes:

• Using learned pronunciation and intonation patterns;
• Speaking in predictable, familiar situations using learned vocabulary and phrases;
• Expressing personal opinions and desires with learned phrases;
• Describing everyday topics using appropriate vocabulary and grammatical structures; and
• Asking and answering simple questions.

 At the intermediate level or in grades 5-8 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes:

• Applying pronunciation and intonation patterns;
• Describing and narrating with learned vocabulary;
• Expressing and justifying simple opinions;
• Maintaining brief face to face conversations on familiar topics; and
• Asking and answering complex questions.

At the advanced level or in grades 9-12 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes: 

• Applying pronunciation and intonation patterns at a normal rate of speech;
• Making predictions, analyzing, drawing conclusions, and expressing facts and opinions;
• Defining points of view; and
• Summarizing and paraphrasing.

For students extending their Native language education, what they know and are able to do may include:  

• Communicating and talking about topics of current, public, and personal interest; and
• Handling complicated tasks such as describing, narrating, and hypothesizing with increasing accuracy.

1.3  READING

Students read and derive meaning from a variety of materials written in a Native language.

At the beginning level or in grades K-4 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes: 

• Recognizing cognates and common expressions;
• Inferring meaning of unfamiliar words from context;
• Showing comprehension of reading materials; and
• Identifying cultural elements found in reading materials.

At the intermediate level or in grades 5-8 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes:

• Comprehending main ideas of reading selections based on familiar vocabulary;
• Responding to the reading selection; and
• Analyzing cultural elements found in the reading materials.

At the advanced level or in grades 9-12 of a K-12 Native Language program, what students know and are able to do includes:

• Analyzing and synthesizing reading materials;
• Recognizing the author’s point of view and purpose;
• Expressing personal reactions to reading materials; and
• Interpreting cultural elements found in reading materials.

For students extending their Native language education, what they know and are able to do may include:

• Using literacy terminology accurately including setting, character, conflict, plot, resolution, and theme; and
• Responding to and discussing novels, poetry, short stories, plays, essays, speeches, and literature.

1.4  WRITING       

Students write in a Native language for a variety of purposes and for diverse audiences.

At the beginning level or in grades K-4 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes:

• Writing about everyday topics using learned vocabulary and grammatical structures;
• Obtaining and reporting information and expressing personal opinions and desires with learned phrases; and
• Using correct grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

At the intermediate level or in grades 5-8 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know are able to do includes:

• Writing descriptions and narrations using expanded vocabulary and complex grammatical structures;
• Expressing and justifying opinions;
• Obtaining and reporting factual information;
• Developing and organizing ideas for essays on familiar topics; and
• Planning, drafting, revising, proofreading, and editing their own work and that of other students.

At the advanced level or in grades 9-12 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes:

• Using specialized vocabulary and advanced grammatical structure;
• Analyzing and drawing conclusions;
• Selecting and expressing ideas and opinions on topics from various content areas; and
• Incorporating information from native language resource materials in their writing.

2. CULTURE

Students acquire and use knowledge of cultures while developing native language skills.

At the beginning level or in grades K-4 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes:

• Observing and identifying everyday cultural practices;
• Using interactions; and
• Listening to or reading materials in the language from the culture being studied.

At the intermediate level or in grades 5-8 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know are able to do includes:

• Discussing components of the social patterns of the culture being studied;
• Using culturally appropriate language and gestures to interact with peers and adults; and
• Expressing themselves in writing in a culturally appropriate manner.

At the advanced level or in grades 9-12 of a K-12 Native Language Program, what students know and are able to do includes:

• Analyzing aspects of the culture being studied, such as social and political institutions and laws;
• Performing in a culturally appropriate manner, through speaking and writing, in complex social and work situations; and
• Researching a topic of interest using sources from the culture being studied.