Staff, students buy in to literacy program

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This article was published 10/05/2018 (2945 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When you commit yourself to helping others, good things can happen. Just ask Leslie Dickson.

A social studies and English language arts teacher, Dickson was recently honoured with a Premier’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Dickson was recognized for her work in strengthening the literacy skills of students at Elmwood High School.

“It’s been a journey how to best serve the needs of our kids, trying different programs, changing the way we teach,” Dickson explained.

“The quality of work Leslie did initially has led to the success of the literacy program,” said Mike Babb, principal at Elmwood High. “She’s well-respected in the school, so she’s led the literacy effort and is still doing it. She’s able to adapt to new ideas and work it into what she’s already doing.”

While elementary years teachers receive training in how to teach kids in their grade levels how to read, teachers of secondary grade levels often lack those skills.

“It’s expected they should be able to read,” Dickson said. “We’ve developed enrolment classes for kids who are functioning low to get extra support. Not just academically, but as a holistic approach to teaching kids.”

In order to help develop strategies for improving literacy for teenagers, Dickson has attended professional development sessions and connected with reading clinicians and leading researchers in the field.

“It’s a process of learning, something I’m continuing,” Dickson said. “I’ll be starting graduate studies with focus on adolescent literacy in the fall (at the U of M).”

As a result of Dickson’s efforts, and those of support teachers Laura Buller and Rhianna Church, Babb believes the teachers are Elmwood are up to date with current research in the area.

“In many schools across North America, subject teachers don’t think they need to teach literacy,” Babb added. “The English people were always doing something different, but now we have content teachers working on literacy in their own areas. But the buy in by the subject areas has been really high.”

The program, which grew out of the school’s Student Success Centre, started eight years ago as the Student Success Initiate, a provincial pilot program that began in 2010 aimed at increasing graduation rates of high school students in communities with high rates of poverty. Elmwood represented an urban community, while schools in The Pas and the Interlake represented northern and rural communities.

“It was a remarkable program,” Babb said. “After the first year, a lot of kids bought in. They saw what it was, and how it helps so many kids in our school that it’s not uncool to go there.”

Babb noted that in the years seven years preceding the project, average graduating class size among students who required academic support was 62. Now, seven years later, class size has improved to over 87.

“I was vice-principal here before (the project), and we probably lost a lot of those kids because we didn’t have the programs to support them,” Babb said. “I think the learning culture in the room (the Student Success Centre) is quite remarkable.”

Babb also noted that Elmwood’s Indigenous Leaders Group, which also developed out of the Student Success Centre, has been played a role in engaging Indigenous youth at the school.

“It supports them culturally, and with their success in school,” he said. “Basically, we try to do whatever it takes to help the kids be successful.”