Literacy

Three students reading together

The Ministry of Education and Child Care defines literacy as “the ability to understand, critically analyze, and create a variety of forms of communication, including oral, written, visual, digital, and multimedia, to accomplish one’s goals. Literacy helps students apply reading, writing, speaking and listening skills across a variety of subject areas.”

Quality literacy instruction spans all grades and all disciplines. It must be meaningful and requires explicit instruction in ways of reading, writing, thinking, and communication which are specific to subject areas and contexts.

Valuable literacy support in the district is provided by Literacy Helping Teachers. They work alongside classroom teachers to explore and make sense of research-informed literacy instruction and assessment practices. The Literacy Helping Teachers collaborate with classroom teachers to tailor instructional strategies to our learners, co-teach, provide resources, and design literacy curriculum (virtually or in-class). Literacy Helping Teachers provide guidance in exploring new strategies for supporting our students as well as assisting classroom teachers in locating and making sense of resources. In addition, the Literacy Helping Teachers provide significant support to the district through enabling district-led literacy-based initiatives.

In collaboration with district Literacy Helping Teachers, the Research and Evaluation Department conducts a variety of assessments of district-led literacy-based initiatives that support literacy instruction and student learning. Our researchers analyze quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate the impacts of district-led literacy initiatives. This data is collected, organized, analyzed and reported on by the department. The reports produced, for the district, are used to inform future initiatives, planning, and district decision making regarding ways to continue providing literacy support to students.

The Research and Evaluation Department provides support with the following initiatives. Downloadable reports and infographics are provided where permission has been granted.