St. Patrick Elementary School Literacy Night Empowers Parents to Support Reading at Home
by Chloë Ranaldi
On November 14, St. Patrick Elementary School hosted its third annual Cycle 1 Literacy Night, providing an engaging and interactive experience for both parents and students.
The event aimed to give parents more tools to support their children’s reading development at home.
Three years ago, Carole Montpetit, a Speech-Language Pathologist and Meghan Morin, an English Resource Teacher at St. Patrick Elementary saw a need to better involve parents in the literacy process.
“A couple of years ago, we had a conversation about the students not practicing reading at home with their parents,” said Montpetit.
“I said to Meghan, imagine if we have a hard time sometimes with students having difficulty, how will parents be able to do it.”
Montpetit says this was the impetus to create a literacy night, to give parents all the tools they need to help their children succeed.
The event kicked off with a presentation by Montpetit on the importance of early literacy and how parents can build these skills at home, keeping it fun and interactive.
Morin says they wanted to show parents fun, interactive activities that are accessible and keep children engaged, making literacy something children can look forward to rather than a chore.
After the presentation, parents visited their child’s classroom, where teachers led engaging literacy activities in both English and French.
Students were given a “literacy passport” and earned stamps as they participated in the activities.
Teachers demonstrated how to ask the right questions and provided guidance, using materials to help students read that can be found around the house to support learning.
“We know that homework can be difficult, after a long day of working,” Morin said. “Getting your child to sit and read when they’re struggling can create a negative environment at home and a negative attitude toward the objective or learning goal.”
Morin says that they wanted to make sure they could provide parents with tools to help their children learn and also have fun and foster that relationship with their child.
Montpetit says one of the best parts of the evening was seeing the students take the lead. “When they show their parents how to do the activities, it empowers them and fosters a sense of pride in their learning,” said Montpetit.
Morin added, “one of the biggest things it encourages is family engagement in literacy and invites them to actively engage and participate in their child’s learning and strengthen the home and school connection.”
The night also featured snacks provided by St. Patrick’s Home & School, and students also chose a book with the help of the librarian’s selection and read with their parents.
At the end of the night, parents received a take-home toolkit with activity ideas they could implement at home.
The toolkit also included a QR code linking to additional resources, to further support literacy development.
