September 25, 2011
By Katherine Mortimer

Close to 200 students had the chance to improve their reading skills this summer, thanks to the Vernon School District’s summer reading program.

Director of instruction Joe Rogers updated trustees at Tuesday’s district board meeting.

“The program was a great success, with 180 students attending, mostly Grade 2s and 3s,” he said.

“And for the first time we had French immersion as part of the program.”

The program was offered at seven district elementary schools, with students attending for two hours per day for the month of July. Lumby students attended an extra 30 minutes to support a community-based activity program one day per week.

As well, the program at Mission Hill Elementary ran an extra hour of sports/fun activities each day, thanks to a donation from a private donor.

Students in attendance had been recommended by their classroom teacher, who felt they would benefit from extra reading instruction.

“Parents applied for the program and paid a small fee to cover a daily snack,” said Rogers, adding that students from 13 different schools attended at one of the seven sites, which were chosen based on space availability and the number of students who applied at each site.

The program hired 18 teachers, all of whom were trained by district literacy resource teacher Lynda Henney using aspects of the district’s balanced literacy model. The program involved guided reading, shared reading, sight words, phonological awareness, independent reading, shared writing and home reading.

“We had a huge gain, with most students improving their reading by one or two benchmarks, and 64 students improving by three or more benchmarks.”

At the end of the program children were given two free books at their individual reading levels that had been donated by Scholastic Book Fair in Kelowna, Scholastic Publishing in Vancouver and Pearson Canada.

Started by former director of instruction Bev Gess, the program began five years ago with 40 students.

“It has been a pleasure to work with this program,” said Rogers, adding that teachers are paid a stipend to work in the program.

“The teachers did an excellent job of meeting each child’s individual needs and offering suggestions to parents on ways of supporting their child’s reading development.”

Source: Vernon Morning Star