When the Elders sit down and articulate their collective thoughts and ideas in a subject area their thoughts and ideas are vast and all-encompassing especially when expressed in their heritage languages. It is at this time that curriculum teams comes alive, the translators, the writers of Tlingit, the curriculum developers, the learners, the attending children of the Elders, the community, all engage with elder knowledges. The objective of my presentation is to share what the elders I have worked with define as culturally responsive language and literacy teaching. My presentation shows how these same Elders have used their funds of knowledge for curriculum design and for the culturally responsive classroom pedagogy.
