INUVIK
A common teaching approach and new initiatives implemented at East 3 Elementary School have resulted in the number of students reading at or above their grade level to more than triple in just a few years.
East 3 Elementary School principal Janette Vlanich and her staff have worked hard to improve literacy levels at the school and their efforts have yielded impressive results. - Miranda Scotland/NNSL photo
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In the past, students would be sent on to the next grade even though they weren't reading at the appropriate level yet, but these days it's very rare for that to happen, said Grade 1 teacher Cathi Ross.
Also, children now come into Grade 1 knowing how to read, she said adding it saves her two months of teaching pre-reading skills.
"You are just able to take off right away so you have 10 full months to devote to getting their reading at the level they need for the next grade," Ross said.
Currently, about 70 per cent of students are reading at or above grade level, compared with 18 per cent in 2006 when the school first started tracking student progress.
Principal Janette Vlanich said East 3 is still working to increase that percentage by another 10 points. To do this, she said, the school will continue with initiatives already in place.
Staff and administration presently use the PM Benchmark reading assessment resource to identify what level a child is reading at. That information is then conveyed to the student and his or her parents so it is clear what needs to be done.
The system has really motivated children to improve, said Vlanich.
"They want to be performing within expectations or above expectations," she said. "You know yourself that anytime everybody else can do something and you can't, it's not a very good feeling. So if it's been identified and shown to them this is what you need to do, they do it, they work at it."
Students are also provided with books and assistance tailored to the level they are at.
Additionally, East 3 has adopted the four blocks program, which promotes guided reading, writing, spelling and grammar and self-selected reading.
The school's efforts are further strengthened by assistance from program support teachers and the speech language pathology unit at Inuvik's hospital. Still, the students' guardians have done some of the greatest work.
"Reading at home and listening to children read at home is something parents have really assisted with," said Vlanich, adding it makes an enormous difference.
"When they go to school, the child that's been read to a lot is going to have a lot easier time learning to read than the child who has not. Now I'm not saying that we can't take that child and teach them to read. We can. But the more attention that parents can pay to their kids at a younger age when it comes to reading and talking to them the better."
In her time at the school, Vlanich has worked hard to get funding to buy new books for the library and the classrooms.
In 2008, East 3 received an Indigo Chapters grant for $108,000 to update the library collection. The Inuvik District Education Authority (IDEA) also contributed funds for new reading material while more money was gained from school fundraisers.
It's important to have a well-stocked library, Vlanich said, because students aren't going to read if there aren't up-to-date and engaging books available to them.
"We have a large selection of Northern books so that students are able to read about familiar places, familiar things, familiar animals, because a lot about reading is comprehension and a lot about comprehension is what you're reading you're understanding and making connections with what you already know," she said.
Also, assistant principal Jason Dayman said he believes culturally-relevant education materials and programming are key to engaging students in the learning process.
"If you look at the whole picture it gets back to, do the students want to be in school? Are they seeing themselves in the school and are they learning?" he said.
If the answer to those questions is "no," then students aren't going to come to class consistently and it's going to be harder for them to learn important skills such as reading, Dayman said. He added that even though attendance isn't a huge problem at East 3 Elementary, it is still an issue.
Vlanich agreed, saying it is an area staff are still trying to work on with some parents.
"I would say 98 per cent of students with less than 80 per cent attendance are the ones that are not reading at grade level," she said. "If the student has good attendance and good home support and good instruction in school, if they're not progressing then there is a problem."
