Deh Cho education council tackles literacy
Cross-discipline literacy 'absolute focus' this year, says regional superintendent
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, October 6, 2016
DEH CHO
As more children and youth spend time on electronic devices, schools in the Deh Cho are looking at bringing the focus back to reading books.
Terry Jaffray, the superintendent for the Dehcho Divisional Education Council, estimates between 40 and 65 per cent of students in the Deh Cho are reading at the level they should be, a number which fluctuates but is neither declining or increasing.
"It's definitely below the standard, I would say," she said.
"But I think that across the North in the small communities, it's on par."
Some factors tying into a lack of literacy include erratic school attendance and not enough reading practise, she added.
To tackle the issue of literacy, schools in the Deh Cho have been taking part in numerous literacy-related initiatives. During Literacy Week from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1, Bompas Elementary School in Fort Simpson held a literacy night for parents and students, which took place Sept. 29.
That evening featured board games, sight word games and counting games, and approximately 20 children who attended all went home with books.
Bompas principal Kelley Andrews-Klein said the school hopes to increase the number of literacy events it holds this year, striving to hold one each month.
"We need to promote literacy as much as possible so it's happening in and out of school," she said.
One of Andrews-Klein's goals is to increase the reading levels of students at Bompas. The school's literacy night included suggestions for parents on how to read to their children at home.
Jaffray said the education council has made literacy a priority.
"What we know is for all areas of study at school, reading is important. You can't do math if you're not a good reader; you have to be able to read to do science and social studies; and in order to be a good communicator, you need to be able to read and write," she said.
"That's our absolute focus this year."
Teachers from across the Deh Cho - dubbed "literacy leaders" by the education council - have been meeting twice per year to talk about strategies for improving reading and writing skills.
"They look at our results in the region and look at ways of improving it," Jaffray said.
At the end of the last school year, literacy leaders met with principals and representatives of the education council and decided the focus for students in the Deh Cho had to be on reading.
Currently, the territorial Department of Education, Culture and Employment is conducting a pilot study with junior and senior high teachers, titled Reading Apprenticeship.
That study, which includes Thomas Simpson Secondary School in Fort Simpson, will provide strategies for teachers to pass discipline-related literacy skills on to their students.
"Rather than just using direct teaching . this reading apprenticeship is that (teachers) are modeling those skills for students and then giving them lots of time to practice within the subject area," Jaffray said.
"Within the science class, we're going to give science teachers the strategies to work with their students, to model how to read science texts and documents."
Other literacy-boosting support in the Deh Cho includes the Student Success Initiative. The Dehcho Divisional Education Council receives funding from the territorial government for that initiative, which allows the education council to do an annual survey with education staff and students on how people feel about literacy, success or lack of success of students and how teachers are feeling about teaching literacy skills.
The survey has been conducted for the past three years, Jaffray said.
"Something that hasn't changed in a long time is the fact that the most important factor in schools, in terms of students learning, especially in the area of reading and writing, is quality classroom instruction," she said.
"That's where we're putting our focus. So we don't buy resources for the classroom, per se, but we provide professional development (opportunities) for teachers and we support them in doing action research projects."
