In Ottawa yesterday we had a full house, with representatives from various community organizations, educational institutions and government. With a variety of presentations from many researchers and local organizations the panel was once again shown how much good work is taking place in the areas of language and literacy, and how much is still to be done. Stay tuned for posting of the presentations.
Following is a presentation from our Toronto session. Penny Milton presented on behalf of the Canadian Education Association. Please watch and tell us what you think!
Yesterday’s public consultations in Toronto helped to crystallize a number of themes that will influence the content of the NSEL:
Teacher training: The vast majority of teachers across the country receive little to no training in reading instruction in university or college.
Presenters shared with us a range of perspectives on the efficacy of systematic phonics and the balanced literacy approach.
Today we are at the 5th of 8 NSEL public consultations and are in Toronto. We have a fully packed day with 18 presentations scheduled. With representation from many stakeholders in the areas of language and literacy including the hearing impaired community, Aboriginal community, public libraries, school boards and more.
Following are links to video presentations from the Fredericton public consultations. We will post more videos as they become available.
We have reached the midpoint of our journey as we have completed 4 of the 8 scheduled sessions for the National Strategy for Early Literacy. To summarize a successful day here in Fredericton our moderator, Randy Boissonault, discussed the variety of presentations seen and added to his “Four C’s” principle. Watch the video:
From the presentation by Katherine d’Entremont of the National Adult Literacy Database. From an anonymous source:
“What if we train them and they leave? What if we don’t and they stay?”
The sun is shining here in Fredericton and we have a full house of panelists and presenters here at the fourth of the eight public consultations. There is an interesting slate of presenters lined up for today. They include representatives from local print media, economists, social policy research institutes, the francophone community and the Aboriginal community, to name a few.
Our facilitator just closed our Halifax session with an inspiring and thought-provoking poem. Watch the video:
Our final formal presentation of the day here in Halifax just finished, and it was a wonderful way to conclude the day. Kay Desborough spoke on behalf of the Mi’Kmaw Kina’Matnewey community and told the group about some of the wonderful programs that have been established, specifically in the past 5 years. Before retiring and volunteering in this community Kay worked in education and health, two fields that she feels lend themselves to partnership with family literacy development.
Her work focuses on families and bringing literacy and language awareness to them early in life, especially in the first 5 years when learning is so critical. Kay described a number of programs that have been working in this community as well as some that she and her colleagues hope to implement during the coming years.
Watch Kay’s presentation:
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Penny Milton, Canadian Education Association