Camp fills gap in literacy
Taloyoak mom brings joy of reading to community at first book camp
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, September 26, 2016
TALOYOAK/SPENCE BAY
Taloyoak doesn't have a public library or a youth centre.
So this year, the hamlet's first Frontier College Summer Literacy Camp helped fill a seasonal gap in public spaces and programming for young children in the community when school is not in session. The camp ran from July 4 to 22.
Nellie Ann Uquqtuq, who worked as a counsellor, said the camp was a great way to fill a gap in youth education but, as a mother and substitute teacher, she learned a lot too.
"I always had these books sitting there on the bookshelf and I just thought, 'They'll get them themselves.'"
Training for the position in Rankin Inlet and spending a summer teaching kids to love reading made her think otherwise.
"The books aren't going to open themselves. They are there and you've got to make sure they are being read," she said.
It is the third year that Frontier College camps have been hosted in the territory.
And, the literacy focused educational group opened an Iqaluit chapter this spring.
The summer literacy camps are directed towards First Nations, Metis and Inuit students in remote communities. The programs are designed to complement existing formal education and supplement school systems in rural or isolated communities, especially in the summer months.
Campers are given the tools to own their education, identify both passions, challenges and gaps in their educational journey, and are encouraged to try new things, make mistakes and ask lots of questions.
Uquqtuq said the summer program goes beyond the pages. Counsellors planned outdoor activities where students learned about nature and the land, and organized arts and crafts projects incorporating Inuit culture like building Inuksuit.
Campers have fun and learn practical lessons
Campers learned to read recipes and make bannock and had theme weeks for science and fantasy.
They also had presentations on drum dancing, throat singing and Arctic sports, and community elders visited the day camp to share traditional stories and oral histories.
"The children were really quiet and intrigued by the stories the elders had to tell," said Uquqtuq.
To really get children engaged in reading, Uquqtuq said it's important to provide children with reading material at their own level, and to asks them what they think will happen next or what their opinions are of the story.
"You can read and read the whole day through, and they won't understand unless you ask them questions at the end or even in the middle of the story."
She said this helps children learn to process or analyze a narrative - an experience she has had in her own home since her two children, Mackenzie, 9, and Natalie, 6, participated in the camps.
"My children are more into reading and understanding now," she said.
The camp even made new additions to their home library, by giving books to the participants.
"Literacy is an everyday thing," said Uquqtuq. "It's not only at school."
