By Chris Jaster
The Chinook School Division’s balanced literacy program is proving to have more of an impact than anyone on the school board thought it would in its first two years.
The division initially hoped at least
80 per cent of the students will meet or exceed expected reading levels, and the division has almost reached that target in four of the five grades where they were keeping track of students’ results.
The review showed 77 per cent of Grade 9 students, 68 per cent of Grade 6 students, 71 per cent of Grade 2 students and 71 per cent of Grade 1 students met or exceeded the expected levels in the 2009-10 school year. The jump in Grade 1 students is staggering considering only 58 per cent of students met or exceeded expected reading level during the 2008-09 school year.
“I am ecstatic,” Liam Choo-Foo, Chinook’s director of education, said after hearing the results of the literacy program’s review.
“Thirteen-per-cent growth in one year for our kids. You talk to any statistician, that’s unheard of.
“I did not think we would get this far this quickly. I felt that this would be a program we all truly believed in, but it would take longer to take root in the field and to make the impact that it has so quickly.”
Trudy Loftsgard, Chinook’s lead literacy co-ordinator, was given a lot of credit for the program’s success, but she refused to take all the credit.
“Nobody does anything like this by themselves, ever,” she said. “It is because teachers have bought in. It’s because I’ve had that level of support from the board. I’ve had the (reading) coaches.
“It basically (comes down to) the teachers and kids in the classroom and that’s where the rubber meets the road. It isn’t any one person. I can get excited about things and start things, but it’s not me in the classroom. It’s all of us.”
One aspect of the program that made the biggest impact is how the students are assessed.
At the start of the year, children take tests and their reading abilities are rated on a scale. This allows the teachers to work with the students at their own individual level instead of trying to teach a curriculum that may be above or below different students’ reading level. This is important so students don’t get left behind, as the school division’s research shows if students don’t get up to grade level by Grade 3 then they struggle to attain a high school education.
The assessment part of the literacy program is so successful that it will be the foundation of the incoming math program and future programs the school division will implement.
The balanced literacy program is heading into its third year and Choo-Foo said it’s going ahead full board, but with one slight change.
“Kathy Robson, who has worked with Trudy for a number of years and is an elementary co-ordinator, will take on this balanced literacy portfolio as part of her file,” he said. “Her and Trudy have a very strong relationship and the transition will be seamless and Kathy brings a lot of different perspectives as well and she has a lot of strengths on her own. I think it’s just the right way to bring the finishing touches to this initiative.
“Having said that, it becomes something that we believe will be ingrained in Chinook. So even though we don’t have it profiled as what we’re all about, it’s going to become what we’re
all about and it’s how we do business. Then we will shift to the math, but the groundwork has already been laid. The content will just change.”