The Rotary Club of Sackville is dedicating its efforts to helping to improve the reading and writing skills of children and adults in the local area over the next two years.
Through a collaboration with many organizations in Sackville that deal with literacy education and training, the club is hoping to find out where the loopholes are in the system that allows some students to "fall through the cracks". While the schools are improving their literacy statistics continually, and the many supportive programs, such as those for adult education, are having very positive results, there are still many places where the system could use a little help from the community.
The Provincial Literacy Assessment, which tests both reading and writing skills and fluency in Grades 2, 4, 7, and 9, has set a target of having 90 per cent of New Brunswick elementary students, and 85 per cent of middle and high school students, at an appropriate level by 2013. (Note that figures quoted in this article represent only English language results)
Grade 7 students at Marshview Middle School have scored slightly better than the provincial average, but are still well below the target of 85 per cent (reading is 69.4 per cent and writing is 54.9 per cent). The percentage of Grade 9 students at Tantramar Regional High School with appropriate reading skills is similar to the provincial average at 66.8 per cent and writing at 75.6 per cent.
At Salem Elementary School in Sackville, the percentage of Grades 2 and 4 students reading at an appropriate level has risen significantly since 2007. The figures are currently 83.8 per cent for Grade 2 and 86.8 per cent for Grade 4 students. While the figures for reading are above the provincial average, they have not quite reached the provincial target. The writing scores however are not nearly as successful: 54.1 per cent in Grade 2 and 63.2 per cent in Grade 4.
Ellen Hicks, a resource teacher at Salem Elementary, says the literacy situation at the school is “in good shape”; that teachers are now better trained than ever before to help individual learners tackle reading and writing. Teaching language has gone beyond the phonics of old (linking letters with words) and now incorporates something called phenomic awareness, which involves understanding the spoken language through both letter and sound pairing in words.
Hicks says, “While each learner enters Salem at different levels of reading and writing experience, the teachers believe that each child, with help, will be able to read and write by Grade 4.“
The teachers know how to reach the children, now the stumbling blocks are in the lack of technological resources.
“We have lots of books in the school and they are still important, but now we also need resources like computers and Smart Boards to assist in our teaching.”
“This is a different group of children than 5 -10 years ago,” Hicks says “They are coming to us with more and more exposure to computers and the internet so software learning programs at the school help us to keep literacy lessons fun and motivating.”
Students in pre-school to high school are not the only ones with some level of difficulty. The most recent survey of adult literacy skills by Statistics Canada in 2003 indicated that New Brunswick, along with Nunavut and Newfoundland and Labrador were all below the national average. The International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS) was based on testing in four areas: prose literacy, document literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving. In other words, the testing determined the ability to understand and use information. According to the IALSS: “About two in five Canadian adults aged 16 to 65 score below (the) desired threshold for coping with the increasing skills demands of a knowledge society.”
Teena Adams has seen both struggle and success in learning. As a child Teena struggled with math, word problems in particular, and after years of frustration and diminishing self-confidence, dropped out of school before graduating Grade 9. She bounced from pillar to post and odd job to odd job but finally found a home with her husband and children back in Sackville. Life was happy but there was still something missing.
Every year a flyer came in the paper advertising adult education classes with the Community Adult Learning Program, which her husband urged her to look into. Every year Teena said to her husband, “I can’t go back; I can’t revisit the nightmare of school.”
"Every learner is different; it is all about finding the learning method that best suits the student.” - – Teena Adams
Finally, she did “look into” the Adult Learning Program and found Cynthia Adams at the Tantramar Adult Learning Centre.
“Cynthia is wonderful!” cries Teena. “She worked with me as an individual learner, rather than just as another body in a classroom. If one way of learning didn’t work, we tried another. The fear of school was gone.”
Teena is now “doing things she never thought she would do” and is an outspoken champion of both literacy and adult education. “Parents need to be engaged in their children’s education, ask questions, talk to other parents – you’re not alone, be involved,” Teena says. “Every learner is different; it is all about finding the learning method that best suits the student.”
And on the subject of adult education, Teena’s plea to any adult (young or not so young) who is struggling to read or write or needs to upgrade: “Don’t be afraid, put your fear aside and take that step. Learning as an adult is not like the school you remember. It will help you unlock your future.”
But learning and literacy don’t begin and end at a classroom door but rather continue at home. Sharon Hachey, a volunteer with the Tantramar Family Resource Centre and Learning Project manager for the NB Early Learning and Child Care Curriculum with Early Childhood Care and Education NB is in favour of a community approach to raising awareness of Family Literacy.
Sharon notes that according to the NB Literacy Coalition publication Side to Side, Family Literacy refers to “the many ways parents, children and extended family members use literacy skills to accomplish every day tasks in the home and community.”
One of the biggest impacts of adults facing literacy challenges, is on their children. “Parents are a child’s first and most important teachers,” according to the Coalition. Family literacy provides the foundation for learning, by helping children to build the basic skills required later to learn to read and write.
“It happens when we sing lullabies and make shopping lists, when we pass on ‘family stories’ and count out freshly laundered pairs of socks being put into a dresser drawer,” the publication says.
Since 1931 the Rotary Club of Sackville has been working to help both the local and international community. The Club is looking to focus its efforts over the next two years on literacy.
As is the case with any initiative, both human and financial resources will be required for success. The Rotary Club has decided that some of the funds raised from the Rotary Wine and Beer Tasting Evening on May 7 will be used to support youth and literacy programs over the coming year. We would urge you to purchase a ticket to this Friday evening’s event at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre . . . not only will you enjoy yourself but you will also be contributing to a worthwhile cause that hits close to home.
Tickets are $30.00 and can be purchased from any Rotarian or at Bridge Street Café.
What is literacy?
Typically literacy is described as the ability to read and write but it is much more than that.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines literacy as the "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts.” While reading and writing remain the building blocks of literacy, dealing with printed text is only part of literacy; it also includes music, numbers, images, video, and electronic media. Literacy is the use of language in a continuum of learning that allows people of all ages to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.
