Salish School of Spokane seeks to be a supportive partner for other endangered Indigenous language communities and learners.

Summer Immersion Symposium 2025

At Salish School of Spokane, July 17-18, 2025

Training New Fluent Teachers & Establishing, Staffing, Funding, and Sustaining an Indigenous Immersion School

Symposium Goal:  provide training and inspiration for teachers, activists and leaders on how to develop a proven fluency transfer system and to plan and operate a successful Indigenous immersion school.

Salish School of Spokane serves students from 1 year old to 8th grade with Salish immersion care and instruction. Our students are becoming fluent speakers and have high achievement in literacy, math, science, culture, physical education, music and art.

We are also training 26 adults in our Salish Language Educator Development (SLED) program, and serving 50 adults in our evening and weekend Salish language classes.

 At the Summer Immersion Symposium, participants will learn about:

  • our Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System

  • how we train new fluent adult speakers & teachers

  • how we teach reading, math, science and other subjects in Salish immersion

Training will include observation in immersion classrooms, workshops with Salish immersion preschool and K-8 teachers, and the sharing of operational and funding plans and procedures.

Past Symposiums

 We have had some successes, including the development of an effective fluency transfer system, the training of some new advanced fluent speakers, and the establishment of a successful n̓səl̓xčin̓ immersion school.

Periodically, we offer Immersion Symposiums. These symposiums are fundraisers for SSOS, and offer training for other Indigenous language learners and communities. Symposiums are offered both at SSOS in Spokane, and on-site with hosting communities. The topics of our Immersion Symposiums change depending upon the needs and interests of participants. The focus of previous Immersion Symposiums have included:

  • How to develop and implement the SSOS Indigenous Language Fluency Transfer System (ILFTS)

  • How to establish, administer, and fund an Indigenous immersion school meeting Head Start, ECEAP, and K-10 standards in an Indigenous immersion school setting

  • Orthography and literacy theory and methodologies for Indigenous immersion schools

  • Culture-based science programming and curriculum for Indigenous immersion schools

  • Immersion math as a first focus of Indigenous language immersion instruction

  • ILFTS curriculum building from archival language recordings and resources