An Innovative Literacy Initiative at St Pat’s
submitted by Dean Graddon, Principal of St. Patrick
Throughout the school year, kindergarten and Cycle 1 teachers at St Patrick Elementary School in Pincourt have been meeting regularly to develop a new scope and sequence of introducing letters, letter sounds, phonics and phonemes across the first three years.
With the support of Carole Montpetit, the school speech & language pathologist and Nancy Potvin, until recently our vice-principal, the team has done incredible work collaborating to accelerate the acquisition of literacy skills in both English and French by our students.
Early in 2023, Meghan Morin, grade 1 & 2 English teacher, recognized that something was missing in our approach: our students’ parents. What if parents were better equipped to help their children learn to read? From that lightbulb moment came a brand-new initiative – our very first Cycle 1 Literacy Night. The team came together through January and February to research, brainstorm, strategize and plan the event.
Earlier this year, nearly 70 families came back to school in the evening with their kids. Four classrooms were set up with a variety of literacy games. Our staff members taught the parents how to play each game and the parents got busy playing them with their kids. Each family then left with a kit filled with everything they would need to play the games at home, along with a link to a Google folder with even more resources.
A huge thank you and congratulations to Ms. Meghan and the rest of the cycle 1 team for such an inspiring initiative. They are already planning our next Literacy Night for the fall of 2023!
One Response
So lovely to hear teachers going out of their way to show parents how they can get more involved in their children’s education. I wish more schools would be more proactive in teaching the PARENTS the tools they need to help their children themselves