MARYSVILLE, Washington—A couple years ago, the principal of Tulalip Elementary School issued a challenge: Could students create something to make summer reading more exciting for younger children? Improving early literacy skills is an ongoing goal here on the Tulalip Reservation, where innovative programs are improving children's proficiency in English as well as Lushootseed, the first language of the tribes native to eastern Puget Sound.

Students in David Cort's fourth- and fifth-grade class rose to the challenge with an idea to combine technology with traditional storytelling. They proposed making talking books, digital "books" that are read on a computer screen. Software allows readers to click on text that appears on the screen and hear words spoken aloud. "Students love reading these books. When they found out they could create them to share their own stories, they were very excited about learning how to do it," Cort explains.

A Tulalip elder, Hank Williams, offered to share his grandmother's story with the class. He visited each week and reviewed the students' work, offering guidance and encouragement as they transformed the story to a digital medium.

The result of the students' efforts is "Owl and His Wife, Frog," a tale that's richly illustrated with children's drawings and whimsical computer animations. With a click of the mouse, a reader can hear the words spoken aloud in English or Lushootseed (both versions appear side by side on the screen). Flash software provides for a "seamless" experience for the reader, Cort says. "There's no wait time for audio or animation effects." The talking book is presented on the school Web site, and is also available as a CD-ROM. It's easy for children to share the story at home because the Tulalip Tribes have given a computer to every family in the tribal community.

The talking book project is an example of the learning that happens regularly at Tulalip Elementary. The tribes have invested in a state-of-the-art computer lab and have also brought in teachers for the school's Native language program. Cort, now the school's technology coordinator, is able to work with students from all grades on projects that make the most of interactive learning. "It's so powerful," he says. "The software helps children share language and culture in a way that's fun."

Students also have turned their creativity to producing computer games that reinforce literacy skills while sharing information about tribal culture. For instance, one game challenges the player to navigate a canoe through currents to a safe landing on shore. Along the way, participants learn Lushootseed words such as Spee-Bi-Dah, which means small bay. They also learn about the ocean journeys of the tribes that for centuries have navigated the waters of Puget Sound by cedar canoe.

Student engagement is high, Cort reports. "One boy is labeled learning disabled, but he's reading a college-level text to learn how to do 3-D gaming. He's motivated to learn." Students' technical abilities vary, Cort says, "but with guidance, they can do amazing work."

His advanced students help maintain the school's Web site, which has blossomed into a rich collection of student projects and cultural resources. A section on storytellers shares information about Martha Lamont, a Tulalip elder and master storyteller. "Owl and Frog" is a story she first recorded in Lushootseed in 1964. There's another section about Native math, where traditional methods for taking measurements are explained. And a section about Native language explains the urgent need for preserving endangered languages. Until a few years ago, only a handful of elders still spoke Lushootseed. That's changing, with the success of the Native language program and the tribes' ongoing efforts to preserve their heritage. But as the school Web site emphasizes, "the vast majority of small languages in the world are struggling for survival."

This is a lesson students here have taken to heart. Recently, a child's grandmother came to visit Tulalip Elementary. She is a native of Peru and speaks Quechua. "Our kids realize how endangered Native languages are," Cort says. "They can appreciate the need to support other languages in addition to their own." So now, he says, "we think of Quechua as our school's sister language."

Visit the Tulalip Elementary Web site at http://www.msvl.k12.wa.us/
elementary/tulalip/home.html*