Manitoulin Island's land-based learning improves literacy skills for students

Students on Manitoulin Island's Wiikwemkoong First Nation are enhancing their reading and writing skills through land-based learning.

All three schools in the Wiikwemkoong Board of Education are participating in the learning, which can range from tracking, hunting and other activities based on the season.

It's a research project through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council at the University of Toronto that's been held in communities in northern Ontario, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, extending as far as Sweden and New Zealand.

The research involves hearing from teachers and the findings of land-based learning, and how it benefits reading and writing.

"We start with the questions, the interest, the issues that are important to the teachers and all the teachers," said Shelley Stagg Peterson, professor in the Department of Curriculum Teaching and Learning OISE/ University of Toronto.

On Thursday, Kindergarten students at Wiikwemkoong Junior School learned about skinning a deer and the cultural practices involved in the process.

Students then headed inside to write and draw about what they learned.

"We're taking the kids outside of the classroom and giving them opportunities to demonstrate their learning in a more meaningful, cultural way," said Craig Cress, school principal.

Jacinta Manitowabi, teacher at the school, helped develop the second part of the NOW Play project, which involved Indigenous teachings.

Students on Manitoulin Island's Wiikwemkoong First Nation are enhancing their reading and writing skills through land-based learning. All three schools in the Wiikwemkoong Board of Education are participating in the learning, which can range from tracking, hunting and other activities based on the season. (Amanda Hicks/CTV News)

Students on Manitoulin Island's Wiikwemkoong First Nation are enhancing their reading and writing skills through land-based learning. All three schools in the Wiikwemkoong Board of Education are participating in the learning, which can range from tracking, hunting and other activities based on the season. (Amanda Hicks/CTV News)

Manitowabi said students are demonstrating success in reading and writing at just five years old.

"They're forming letters, they're putting sounds together to form words and it better prepares them for Grade 1," she said.

Keagan Manitowabi-Turner, five years old, said he enjoyed the experience.

"I like land-based learning," Keagan said. "It's fun."

Manitowabi said it’s the lived experience that makes it so impactful for students.

"You can ask them what they did on the weekend or something about winter, but unless they experience it and you get to them to write about it immediately, they don’t want to write," she said.

"But if it’s something they just finished doing, they're excited about it, they're motivated to write their story and draw."

Nathan Bryant, land-based learning instructor, said it's important for students to connect with nature and culture at an early age.

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"We may not have the creature comforts we do now, such as the stores, hydro, the electricity, the running water, so I think it’s important to learn these skills at a very young age," Bryant said.

"Being part of the First Nations, it's part of our culture and unfortunately, a lot of it’s been lost and we're trying to bring that back, getting back to the land, teaching from the land, what we learn from Mother Nature."

Due to its success, land-based learning will be a part of the school curriculum, making changes and adjustments based on students' responses.