Between 2010-2013, the NU Centre for Literacy created a Literacy Award to promote excellence in literacy education in the educational community. The nominations were reviewed by a committee of the Literacy Centre Advisory Board. The winners of the award received a plaque, one hundred dollars and free registration to the Literacy Centre’s professional development conference in North Bay.
Literacy Award (Previous Recipients)
Christina Davis (FJ McElligott Secondary School, NNDSB) [2012]
Christina Davis was nominated for her outstanding leadership and enthusiasm in promoting literacy education in the Near North District School Board. Chris introduced Mattawa Reads to Mattawa where she applied for grants from Trans Canada Pipeline to purchase "Hannah's Suitcase" in 2011 and "The Book of Awesome" in 2012. The successful program fostered a love of reading within the community. In addition, she was a co-lead in the Questioning Structure Project at the Board level. Chris' role was to educate teachers in using Questioning Structure to increase student achievement. At F.J. McElligott, she worked with a team of teachers to develop strategies to implement Questioning Structure into their lessons, assessments, and evaluations. The result was an increase in student achievement due to increased comprehension and engagement.
Roberta Henry (Assumption College School, Brantford) [2012]
Roberta Henry was nominated for her commitment to students, sharing her love of reading and writing, and for her tireless work to this end. In addition to her classroom duties, Roberta was also the co-chair of the Assumption College School Literacy Committee, and was responsible for the development and delivery of the preparation program for the 350 students who annually participate in the writing of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy test. She co-ordinated the schedules, developed the literacy tasks and created a web site for communication with parents. Roberta had piloted an "E-reader" program where she provided two of her classes with class sets of electronic books as a trial to explore this new learning tool. The pilot project was met with great enthusiasm by both groups of students; more so than was ever anticipated. It was because of one teacher and her profound education and enthusiasm that these students had a new found joy in literacy and love for reading.
Ashley Gaves (Northern Secondary School, Sturgeon Falls) [2011]
Ashley Gaves was nominated for her role as Northern Secondary School's Lead Literacy Teacher. She shined in the area of literacy promotion and development, and had created a literacy program that fit students’ needs. Ashley had influenced her colleagues to recognize the teaching of literacy as a collaborative and essential effort, and helped staff cultivate their skills through a number of initiatives: she team taught with teachers who were incorporating literacy skills; she invited guest speakers to share ideas; she presented at staff meetings on new cross-curricular literacy initiatives such as graphic novels, and offered new ideas through her monthly Literacy Team Meetings; she communicated constantly will staff about student progress, and she had established and worked with a group of teacher mentors who each assisted 3-5 high needs' students weekly. Her success with disengaged students was her greatest accomplishment. Literacy promotion at Northern was forever changed thanks to Ashley Gaves.
“Grade Five Team” ~ Steve Anscheutz, Chris Shearim , Cecilia Vrugteman (Banbury Heights School, Brantford) [2011]
The members of the “Grade 5 Team” exemplified the inquiry, collaborative practice and reflection that was inherent in the Teaching and Learning Critical Pathway model of precision teaching and professional development. Using common prep time and working together outside school hours, the team developed, implemented and refined highly engaging and integrated curriculum activities for grade 5 students and students integrated from a class of identified exceptional students with communications learning disabilities who work with SEA equipment as the primary vehicle for their teaching and learning. Together, the members of the team created and implemented a school- wide initiative to encourage reading at home and school. “Read to Succeed” was a school wide, sport-themed reading initiative. The team involved staff and the community in supporting and acquiring sponsorship for the program. The “Read to Succeed” program further encouraged students at Banbury Heights School in reading both fiction and non-fiction texts. It placed a focus and priority on the habit of taking time to read outside the school environment, enriching the literacy experience for all students in our school.
Lynda Marshall (Widdifield Secondary School, North Bay) [2010]
Lynda was nominated for her commitment to her students and to the teaching profession concerning literacy education through:
- organizing and presenting at four teacher conferences in the Near North School District,
- presenting her initiatives on using graphic novels with secondary school students to graduate education students at OISE and to the Ministry of Education research conference in Sudbury,
- writing a section in the book Whatever Happened to Language Arts?, where she described her classroom work in literacy with male readers experiencing difficulties, and
- continuing her role as a knowledgeable and supportive literacy resource teacher in her secondary school.