|
President's Message
Informed, Inspired & Entertained!
As we reflect on the success of our 2008 conference, we are proud to have welcomed international delegates and attendees from every province in Canada, including Nunavut. We were informed, inspired and entertained by renowned Canadian authors and educators, from bestselling authors Jane Urquhart and Vincent Lam, to iconic writer and storyteller Robert Munsch.
Many thanks to our hard-working executive and volunteers whose time and energy made this year's conference a success. The East York-Scarborough Reading Association is already preparing for next year. Mark the dates for Reading for the Love of It: February 12 and 13, 2009 at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto.
Literacy and fostering a love of reading have always been integral parts of Reading for the Love of It. As our school year comes to an end, I would like to thank you, as educators, for all you do every day to engage learners in literacy and to nurture a love of reading.
Vangie Kalanderopoulos, President
Return to Headlines
Teaching Reading: Inspiring Hope
Early Literacy Intervention
Every September and every February, I have the privilege to work with a new group of grade one and grade two students in the Toronto Catholic District School Board's early literacy intervention program, the 5th Block. As I meet these children for the first time, I am excited by the challenge of making a difference in their lives in a mere 17 weeks by providing a foundation for future learning. The challenge is not only to teach them how to read, but to spark their desire to read and to nurture a love of reading.
Intervention programs, like the 5th Block, are vital for struggling readers. The window of opportunity closes early for these children, so literacy intervention programs are essential. In spite of effective classroom teaching, there are students who require more explicit, targeted and intense instruction in a small group. Each day, I face children who are struggling in their early reading attempts; children who lack confidence and are not engaged because of frustration. I have witnessed their success! They make significant gains in their reading because of the support provided and the opportunity teachers have in intervention programs to tailor instruction to students' specific needs. Teachers help children by engaging them in learning and providing rich, varied and appropriate texts to build both confidence and proficiency. With struggling readers, teaching strategies and skills is not enough; instruction must be focused on promoting confidence and creating opportunities for success. This increases students' motivation to read in long-lasting and profound ways.
After nine years of teaching this program, I continue to reflect on my practice, fine-tune my instruction and ask myself what more I can do to build a love of reading. There are times when I feel a sense of uncertainty, but uncertainty leads to asking questions, researching and exploring new approaches and ideas. New approaches and ideas lead to change and innovation. I believe that we owe it to our students to be reflective in order to become better at our craft. It's not about being the "best" teacher; it's about bringing out the "best" in our students.
Last year, we had a book fair at our school and as I was in the midst of teaching a group of students, the librarian announced the winner of the "bag of books" prize over the PA. Jubilant to hear it was one of my former students, I swung my fist high and exclaimed "YES!" It is intriguing that instead of returning to his class with his prize, the winner made a point of stopping by my classroom to tell me the exciting news. He announced, "Mrs. Filice, I won the bag of books at the book fair and I know I can read them all now!" I was struck by the child's confident voice and the look of hope and anticipation in his eyes. How can we ever deny our children the gift of literacy?
It is an honour to be a literacy teacher. It is an honour to inspire hope. The ability to read is an essential skill in everyday life and opens the door to a lifetime of opportunities.
Carolyn Filice, 5th Block Teacher and Literacy Coach
Toronto Catholic District School Board
Return to Headlines
Teaching Reading: Inspiring Hope
The Power of Literature to Inspire Hope
Many years ago, a quote in Shelley Harwayne's book: Lasting Impressions, reinforced for me what I knew to be true - that reading quality literature to children can transform their lives. The quote was from then Secretary of State, Edward Bennett, who stated that, "the teaching of humanity begins with 'once upon a time'." Reading powerful stories helps to create classroom communities, change relationships, build empathy for others and inspire hope.
Teaching and learning for the real world means that we have to address social issues that can be difficult to talk about and hard for children to understand. Rich, authentic stories can help us to mediate issues, such as conflict, change, peace, war, poverty, bullying, and in doing so, provide children with alternate perspectives and ways to envision hopeful outcomes. One such story is Gleam and Glow by Eve Bunting, an author who does not shy away from social issues. In this beautifully illustrated picture book, Bunting tells the story of a family uprooted by war, with all the stresses and hardships associated with fleeing conflict, but she offers hope and endurance as two goldfish left behind in the pond are found alive and multiplied on their return to the village. She leaves the reader feeling optimistic that lives can be rebuilt and families and communities can withstand great adversity.
Another example of literature to inspire hope is The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter. In this story, based on actual facts, war-torn Iraq does not prevent the strength and resourcefulness of Alia, the librarian in Basra, from saving thousands of books from her library as the conflict creeps nearer. She is determined to preserve the cultural heritage of her country, and dreams of some day rebuilding the library that was the centre of discussion and lively debate in the community. Hope can lead to action, and sometimes that translates into positive change.
Rukhsana Khan tells stories of hopes and dreams in her books: King of the Skies and The Roses in My Carpets. These inspiring stories explore the courage of a disabled boy competing in the annual kite festival in Pakistan and a refugee boy in Afghanistan who is learning to weave carpets to make a living for his family. In a drab, ravaged land he dreams of weaving colourful roses into his carpets that will eventually be the means to a brighter future, full of hope and promise.
Such stories challenge thinking, raise questions and allow children to consider different viewpoints and to find solutions to problems of their own. These stories, through their compassion and honesty, inspire us to be hopeful, to empathize with others and to consider diverse worldviews and universal themes to which we can all relate. As teachers, we know the power of stories to transform lives, and what greater pleasure is there than reading and sharing stories with one another?
Carol Munro
Return to Headlines
Detour of a Doctor!
Vincent Lam was one of the luncheon speakers at this year's Reading for the Love of It. He spoke in a comfortable manner, adopting a conversational tone to tell his story: that of a child with a love of reading who became a man with a passion for writing. Lam's story began in the suburbs of Ottawa, where he grew up as an "awkward looking kid," sitting in doorways to read during recess. This love of reading led to his decision to become a writer.
Lam looked to American classics he admired for insight, but also realized it would be vital to go out and experience the world. Yet, unlike Hemingway, Lam admitted, "I was not keen at all to go to war and every great writer went to war." The writer decided to make peace, instead of war, and became a doctor in order to find the experience needed. The evolution Vincent Lam has undergone, from reader to doctor to author, allowed him to express the art of writing from a multifaceted perspective.
The story took a slight detour as Lam reflected upon this "questionable set of motivations" to become a doctor solely for the purposes of "human character study." It seems the experience needed by writers for drastic challenge provided poor motivation. Lam revealed, "My academic career was just going to crash and burn."
After volunteering in hospitals, the blossoming writer decided to become a dedicated doctor. Lam eventually became enamoured with medicine and successfully completed medical school. Three years later, he finished his first novel Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, with no expectation of publication. Fortunately, the novel inspired by his experiences as a doctor received both publication and acclaim. In fact it was the first debut novel to receive the Giller Prize.
The novel reflects parallels between the art of writing and the art of healing, "Medicine seemed to me to be profoundly concerned with story." The story of medicine combines the narrative of patients and the narrative of physicians during events of incredible importance to human life. Patients present a narrative to doctors who continue the narrative by entering the plot and by improving the story. Once Lam illustrated the view of medicine as story-telling he simply asked, "How could I resist writing?"
The writing Lam has accomplished is reflective of an articulate manner and a humorous approach to some aspects of the profession. While the novel relies heavily on fiction, he admits that dialogues from real life encounters may have found a way into his tales. For example, Lam cited the comedic experience arising from a dubious attempt to recite negative side effects as quickly as possible in order to erase a patient's doubts about a beneficial treatment.
Vincent Lam won the crowd through recitation of passages from Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures - passages that demon-strated the humour behind the humanity of encounters between physician and patient.
The autobiographical account given, con-firmed that Lam has the gift of interpreting every instance of drastic challenge through storytelling with the delicacy and the intricacy necessary for a writer and a doctor.
Julia Lovgren, Third Year Student, Western University
Return to Headlines
Outreach
The East York - Scarborough Reading Association Outreach Committee is honoured to have supported twenty charitable organizations this year. The generosity of the delegates who attend Reading for the Love of It makes our Outreach work possible. The organizations that we fund support individuals who are diverse in age, culture, language, circumstance and educational needs. Many of them live right here in Toronto, others in further regions in Ontario and some overseas in countries such as Kenya, Israel, Jamaica and Mexico.
The following are some of the resources and services we proudly funded this year: school uniforms, entry and transportation fees, school construction, purchasing of texts, including dual language books, and hands on materials such as globes and games. Assistance was also provided for: tutoring, homework and book clubs, literacy instruction, professional development and sessions in peer mediation.
Many thanks to all who attended Reading for the Love of It and offered encouragement and support to Outreach. Read all about our involvement in Ecuador!
Kathy Lazarovits, Chair, Outreach Committee
A "Free the Children" Experience in Ecuador
On the seventh of March, twelve of us began a life-changing adventure in Ecuador. In association with Free the Children and Leaders Today, our group furthered the "Me to We" principles in two rural Ecuadorian communities. The objective was the building of a school in Chimborazo province, and completing improvements on a school that Free the Children had built eight years earlier. Chimborazo, one of the poorest provinces in Ecuador, receives limited attention from the Ecuadorian government. In these communities, 99% of the population lives below the poverty line; that is on less than $2 a day per family, yet the children, in their belted-cloth skirts and muddy sweatpants, possess unmatched joy and openness. The community members who came out everyday to lend a hand demonstrated an inspiring work ethic and a remarkable welcoming nature. These factors allowed us to work side by side, despite the language barriers.
We worked in communities where children often leave school at age nine in order to help support their families. When the hacienda system was disassembled, the allotment of land was not based on the plot's proximity to the family's home. For many, the mornings begin with a five kilometre walk to work. Parents are unable to return home throughout the day to care for babies; to prepare lunch; to accompany the school-aged children home; or to ensure that the animals are fed. This becomes the responsibility of the eldest daughter whose formal education ends. These factors keep children from attending school.
In one community in which we worked, there was a daycare in the school. Because of this, more young girls were able to attend school instead of staying home to care for their younger siblings. Free the Children is also building schools with facilities to provide a lunch service to students, eliminating the responsibility of food prepara-tion by the young girls. Since the students 'commute' to school on their own, schools will be located in a place accessible to children from the entire community. Currently the 'commute' twice daily is a near-vertical walk on a muddy path beaten down by their many little footsteps. We walked the students home one day, and while the children navigated the descent easily, our group stumbled cautiously.
It is often spoken of, the injustices that are ever present in the global community, but being immersed in the culture of the indigenous Ecuadorians who continue to be slighted by the historic Spanish influence, brought the reality home. This fifteen day international excursion was an eye-opening experience. We learned we must work toward a change and that education is empowerment and empowerment leads to independence. The education of children is the key to change.
Katherine Stewart-McNeil
Grade 12 student, Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School
2007-2008: Organizations supported by Outreach
Attawapiskat Teachers, P.D. for First Nations Educators
Elephant Thoughts, National & International
Family Residence, Toronto
Free the Children, Kenya
Frontier College
Jessie's Centre for Teenagers
Jewish Immigrant Aid Services
Literature for Life
Matthew House, Toronto
Northwoods Community Centre Homework Club, Toronto
ORT, Downsview Mediation Centre
ORT, Kadoorie School, Israel
Riverton Family Centre, Jamaica
Rosalie Hall, Toronto
Roycroft Motel, Toronto
San Pancho School and Community, Mexico
St. Felix Reading Club, Toronto
St. Gaspar Elementary School, Tanzania
Teacher Mentors Abroad
Temak & Watoto, Kenya
The Toronto Centre for Community Learning and Development
Return to Headlines
Great Summer Reading
Friend of the Devil
Peter Robinson (mystery)
Remembering the Bones
Frances Itani
The Thirteenth Tale
Diane Setterfield
No Time for Goodbye
Linwood Barclay
Consolation
Michael Redhill
Late Nights on Air
Elizabeth Hay
October
Richard. B. Wright
Carol Munro
Return to Headlines
Reading Award Winners 2008
Johanna Nieuwkerk from Earl Haig Secondary School and Deanna Giffen from St. Bruno Catholic School were this year's Reading Award winners. The presentations were made at the Awards Banquet.
Return to Headlines
Reading for the love of it 2009
Plan to attend next year's conference on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 12th and 13th, 2009 at the Sheraton Centre. Online registration at readingfortheloveofit.com will open on October 1, 2008. We recommend that you register early.
Return to Headlines
Return to Homepage
|
