Current Initiatives
Reading Well
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Contact Information
Fort Vermilion School Division No. 52 P.O. Bag 1, 5213 River Road Fort Vermilion, AB T0H 1N0 Phone: (780) 927-3766 Fax: (780) 927-4625 General Inquiries |
Reading Well is a response to the Fort Vermilion School Division’s goal of increasing the number of students reading at or above grade level. The vision of Reading Well is to see all students learning and reading successfully in a literacy-rich environment. The plan behind Reading Well is to provide a comprehensive framework of instruction and support intended to improve the reading skills of all students. All of our students, from ECS through grade 12, will grow as readers as a result of Reading Well.
The importance of reading as we prepare students for life now and in the future is unquestionable! Evidence strongly supports that sound literacy skills are essential to school success and completion, and are becoming increasingly more crucial to job success and satisfaction. As we educate all students to become better readers, we help them grow into informed, skilled and productive citizens pursuing high-quality personal lives. And let’s not forget - a child reading well will have more success in class and find school more enjoyable!
There are six components of Reading Well that provide comprehensive instruction and support for students.
Balanced Literacy provides an instructional framework for elementary classrooms, dividing literacy instruction into the three components of reading, writing and working with words. It balances ‘best practice’ instructional strategies used within these three components to meet the needs of a wide range of learners. Instructional strategies move students from supported to independent learning. At the heart of this balanced literacy approach is the strategic, knowledgeable and supported teacher who facilitates children’s literacy learning. The Balanced Literacy framework supported by Reading Well is based on the Division 1 and Division 2 Balanced Literacy manuals authored by Dr. Anne Brailsford and published by Edmonton Public Schools.
Two balanced literacy coordinators provide a two year PD model that includes large group sessions, in-services and in-class demonstrations and coaching. The first cohort of participants completed their training in 2008-09, and a new cohort was started in 2009-10. Changes to the PD model (not the elements of Balanced Literacy) were introduced in 2009-10 to better meet the needs of our teachers and our school division. 2009-10 also saw the introduction of a PD model for ECS teachers that links ECS literacy programming with components of Balanced Literacy.
Principals of balanced literacy schools receive PD to support and supervise the implementation of balanced literacy programming. School-based resources are aligned with the balanced literacy framework
Adolescent Literacy Commitments (ALC's) are literacy strategies designed to assist secondary students meet learner outcomes in content area courses while enhancing their literacy skills. These strategies....
While each school selects ALC's specific to the needs of their students, some of the ALC's found in FVSD are graphic organizers, scheduled reading time, vocabulary development, SQ3R and common note-taking.
In Reading Well students read, read and read!
The correlation between the amount that students read independently and their reading achievement along with school success is well documented!
In 2007-08, the first year of the Amazing Reading Race, students read a total of 263,936 books. They read 298,809 books in 2008-09! The Amazing Reading Race helps to provide a literacy rich context for students and promotes reading for life.
Students who are reading significantly below grade level receive intensive reading instruction. This is provided in the form of intervention for primary students using an early literacy program, and in the form of remediation for older students. The early literacy program targets students in grades 1 and 2. Older grades see a variety of different supports, including in-class assistance, language arts replacement programming and individualized pull-out.
A Pyramid of Reading Intervention has been drafted to guide instruction for stuggling readers. This pyramid reflects how classroom programming can provide the necessary support for some struggling students, more focussed options available for other students, and the role of individualized programming for special needs students. The bottom tier of the pyramid is labelled Foundation Programming, which includes instruction designed for all students and additional in-class assistance for students needing the extra support. The next tier, Supplemental Programming, targets students that need additional literacy supports that might move beyond classroom instruction. The term 'supplemental' is key, as we look at providing supports for students in addition to, rather than instead of, classroom instruction. Instructional processes and resources continue to explored and piloted to improve supplemental programming. And the final tier, Intensive Programming, seeks to provide highly individualized programming, overlapping significantly with Special Education programming.
In Read to Achieve, students receive the help necessary to improve their reading skills.
Preschoolers’ early reading experiences are important to their future success in school. Read With Me seeks to help parents in their journey of providing pre-reading activities for their preschool children. Central to this endeavour is an evidence-based ‘tips for parents’ document that is distributed in different formats through a variety of avenues. While the impact might be minimal at first, the long term effects should be beneficial to our future students.
The key message is read with me - encouraging parents or other family members to read to their preschool children.
We will know that we are successful if reading skills increase for our students. This is measured by CAT3 testing that is administered every fall to the students of the Fort Vermilion School Division. The baseline data was finalized in the September, 2006, administration of the tests. Targets are set for each year. Measuring results helps us to identify and celebrate our successes and ensures that we focus on students’ progress. Results will be communicated to all school communities. More importantly, as children read proficiently and with pleasure we will know that Reading Well is successful!
There are many individuals within the school division who are providing leadership, including school administrators and teachers. Many schools have organized teams, such as literacy teams, to provide direction and support for school based literacy initiatives. Through AISI funding the school division has hired a Director of Literacy and two Balanced Literacy Coordinators to facilitate the jurisdictional Reading Initiative and carry out the Reading Well plan. Director of Literacy contact information: (780) 928-3947
Educators know that the most critical factor in student learning is the classroom teacher. Crucial to Reading Well is supporting the teacher in the classroom, those new to the profession and those with experience. In his book, The Learning Leader, Reeves (2006) writes “If educators and leaders are to achieve their goals of excellence and equity, then the keys are monitoring, evaluation, values, beliefs and implementation – not one more stack of beautifully bound documents.” While the plan of Reading Well is important, the vision of improved reading is much more so, and the focus must remain on what is unfolding for students at the classroom level. The vision will remain, but the plan itself is a working document that will be revisited and modified as necessary. To illustrate, two new components, namely Best Practices in Reading and Writing and Read With Me, were introduced in 2008-09, and considerable depth was added to the plan in 2009-10 as we moved into AISI Cycle 4. Reading Well helps us to monitor, evaluate, examine our values and beliefs about learning, and implement great literacy instruction for students. Increasing the Number of Students Reading At or Above Grade Level |
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