This was found during a search for something else, but it appears to be from the Lambton-Kent School Board’s Riverview School council meeting.  It is the school’s response to the school council (no date given).

http://riverview.lkdsb.net/Council Minutes/Response_re_Gr3_EQAO.pdf

Notice that nowhere Is there any mention on HOW reading will actually be taught. Most of the initiatives the school proposes are nice, but not likely to lead to any significant improvements in reaching achievement.

The school seems to be more concerned about how parents are doing things at home.  Considering school councils’ main job is to monitor student achievement, I’d say the school is not being accountable at all and puts all the blame on the parents. Again.
Sigh.

(For some reason the link doesn’t print out properly in the comments. There should be a percent sign and the number 20 between “..Council” and “Minutes…” when you put it in your browser.  In case you still can’t get the link, I’ll print out the full text below)

Response to Council members question on the low EQAO Grade 3 Reading Results for
the past couple years and what is being done to address the issue:

- Writing folders consistent practice all grades
- Bins organized by interest e.g. boys..
- Smart Board purchased for all classrooms/listening centre all rooms/non-fiction
books new additions in classrooms
- Professional Book for all teachers: Reading With Meaning and Better Answers
- DRA – 3X per Year: Oct/Jan/April – target setting – small groups Jump 2 to 3
focus
- Learning Upgrade for 20 Junior students struggling readers in Spring 2008
-  Premier Suites Grade 3-8 in-service for students and all had flyer information sent
home. UBS for non high speed users for Premier suites download at home
- Writing Continuum – Writing consistent practices all grades for 2008-09
- Materials for teachers Central Storage Library – mentor texts for Reading and
Writing
- Graphic Novel – resources purchased and put in classrooms for struggling
readers
- System Support– Irene Katzman LKDSB program contact, teacher moderation
PLC for teachers, literacy coach (Anne Hazzard), Arm contact Geri Haskell
(Spec. Ed.) developing common IEP practices in system, Student Tutor 7 hours
per week in literacy block times to help struggling readers
- PD Workshops for teachers attended on Write Trait/Smart Board
- 100 min. blocks of literacy – tardiness of late students arrival has been addressed
through parent communication and loss of time late arriving at recesses.


Concerns Riverview Staff still have regarding making improvements to academic scores:

- holiday during school year, many families take vacation thus evaluation of skills
learned cannot be assessed.
- attitude survey for reading in last EQAO survey of students in grade 3 and 6
indicated very little home support for reading with children
- support of home for R/W/M shows lack of support for an adult helping children
with homework in these areas.

“Professional Book for all teachers: Reading With Meaning and Better Answers ” and “Learning Upgrade for 20 Junior students struggling readers in Spring 2008” and “Spec. Ed.) developing common IEP practices in system, Student Tutor 7 hours
per week in literacy block times to help struggling readers ”  Bad news all around for the students and more so for the students of IEPs and the parents. Why? It is all about reducing the individual learners needs to a common set of needs, regardless if the student is Autism, LD and a host of other learning problems unique to the individual student. The IEPs will be reduced to the lowest common standards of what best suits the needs of the schools at the expense of the individual students, and their unique learning needs. Oh my, student tutors will surely do nothing for the students who are truly struggling in reading and writing.

That said, I used my crackerjack search skills in the new wave of emotional learning courses for teachers making its way across Canada. Next post all about the Avon Maitland District School Board course on the go at the ETFO Summer Academy. Training teachers that reading struggles is all about low self-esteem about students and NOT because the student have low phonemic awareness. A few years ago I had to once again fight to prove that my child has a reading problem and not a mental or emotional problem. First I did the research, only to discovered that Social Emotional Learning (SEL) was being used as the newest excuse for not providing reading remediation and/or accommodations. My first call went to the school accusing them of discrimination and the legal implications of the actions of the educators involved. My second call went to the top level of the Ministry of Education, who are only too aware of the legal implications, and proceeded to aid me by reading the riot act to the school board and the school. It was very important because it would render the psycho-educational documentation stating LD not meeting the criteria to access supports at the post-secondary level and the federal grants that students with disabilities have access to.

The course in Strafford is called - Emotions Matter! Promoting Emotional Literacy To Create Healthy, Supportive, And Inclusive Classrooms
https://summeracademy.etfo.ca/node/238

Oh my this is what caught my eye - “. Discover how the brain responds in emotionally charged situations and understand how feelings affect student learning, which can transform instructional practice. Effective strategies for managing an “emotional hijack” will be shared, and educators will be provided with a repertoire of tools for supporting students in managing their range of emotions”

Emotional hijack??  Over in the psychology files - “Emotional hijacking is a state when an individual’s cognitions are overpowered by his/her emotions. It is usually referred to in the context of aggression or fearfulness.”  http://lifepsychologyandalotmore.blogspot.ca/2008/11/emotional-hijacking.html

What I could not find is the term being used in the context of education. What I did find after a 30 minute search, are the education folks who probably are the first ones to cherry-picked the science of emotional hijacking. “From Project Happiness, this 9-part series includes social and emotional learning curriculum for elementary school students.” http://www.edutopia.org/blog/project-happiness-ninja-mastery-randy-taran

The current SEL and mental health programs on the go in the K to 12 is all about managing behaviour. It has little to do with improving achievement of children because the focus is never on the education policies and teacher practices that is the cause for most students’ behaviour and emotional problems. They wants kids like my dyslexic child to become happy learners even though they cannot access the reading material. One of the unintended consequences is that children have their meltdowns at home, instead at the school.

Their bottom line is to teach the kids, but educrats always find ways to avoid their main reason for being in the educational system at all!

I wish Doretta’s comment could be reposted as a guest blog, since it deserves a discussion too.

“In the Western tradition, we have focused on teaching as a skill and forgotten what Socrates knew: teaching is a gift, learning is a skill.” – Peter Drucker