Project summary: Dorothy demonstrates that literacy is developed in all subjects across the curriculum and that progress in all disciplines is dependent upon the ability to use language. Through her analysis of the role that talk plays in her grade-one math class, Dorothy shows that language is a way to get things done, to explore new concepts, and to express both the process of coming to understand information and of grasping an idea. Her lucid and engaging writing style enables Dorothy’s readers to get inside her head and follow her thought processes as she runs a class discussion in math with the children in her class. This ephemeral, but vital part of teaching is rarely captured on paper; however, Dorothy describes the decisions she makes “on the hop” that allow her to tease out her students’ understandings of math and to build on their prior and developing knowledge. In addition to highlighting the crucial role of talk in her students’ learning, Dorothy also incorporates reading and writing activities into her math class. This integrated approach demonstrates the truly cross-disciplinary nature of language and why proficiency in all aspects of using language is part of all learning.

Project Summary: Elizabeth  combines her passions for art and English Language Arts in the project she did with her grade-three class on the artist Vincent Van Gogh. Together, she and her students created sketch journals which enabled her to examine the impact on visual literacy on print literacy and the parallels between producing visual and written texts. Her students learned to read and to create visual texts and through writing about their processes of doing so, they also developed new understandings of the structures and features of visual texts and new ways to use language to discuss and describe visual literacy and to reflect on their learning. Visual texts were the catalyst that informed, inspired, and enriched their print literacy.

Project Summary: Jennifer describes the challenges and successes of creating a differentiated language arts program in her grades seven and eight classes in the stories of four of her students with a wide range of passions, problems, and learning styles. She shows how these students developed under the wide umbrella of a literacy -- rather than a literature -- program. Her lucid and engaging story-telling illuminates those normally ephemeral and too-little-discussed elements of the curriculum -- the interactions between student and teacher that determine success or failure in school. By making choice the focus of her English class, Jennifer is able to provide differentiated instruction to all her students, a central element of the new Québec curriculum.

Project Summary: Joan and her grade-six class explored the geography of the imagination in a project on the Middle Ages. Their interest in this historical period to them to many other areas of the curriculum, -- literature, math, drama, art, architecture, music, media literacy, and French.  Joan’s students’ enthusiasm became a passion for learning itself and a rich rooting-system for developing the literacy of reluctant readers and writers. This unpromising group of students formed a genuine learning community in which they supported each other’s processes of researching their own  authentic questions and of growing as writers. As in Trudy Williams’ classes, this project was much more than a journey across the curriculum, but an experience in how to learn and how to develop academic and life skills that can be transferred to other situations, both in and outside of school.

Project Summary: Josie Salvatore takes her readers through the processes and excitement which she and her grade-two class shared when they investigated the marketing of cereal. By considering the cereal box as a text, her students not only analyzed the structures and features that contributed to the meanings the children found in these texts, but they also developed their understanding of target audiences. Finally, they put this knowledge into action by designing and producing their own cereal boxes. Collaboration and exploratory talk played essential roles in this project, and Josie captures this often ephemeral and difficult to describe part of the learning process well in her accounts of the kinds of discussions she had with the children. This project demonstrates in a concrete way, how powerful and appropriate media literacy is in Cycle One.

Project Summary: Karen Rye tells the story of how she and her grade-six students produced and edited video productions of the versions they wrote of six Shakespearean plays. Actually, the video productions were the focal point and culmination of the project, Karen’s students spent along time immersing themselves in Elizabethan England before writing and producing their plays. They developed their research processes, as described in the English Language Arts program, investigating topics of interest that would inform their interpretations of Shakespeare’s works and the writing of their own plays. While this was a “ high-tech” undertaking, Karen shows that it is not beyond the reach of most teachers. Karen and her students show that reading, writing, talking, listening, collaborating, drawing, researching, reflecting, and self-evaluating were all parts of this project, making this a stunning example of an integrated literacy project that develops higher-order academic, intellectual, and life skills.

Project Summary: Myrna Hynes focuses on the reading competency of the English Language Arts program and demonstrates that developing a response process is central to the development of proficient readers in elementary and high school.  Her work with grade-two students and grade-seven students shows how this key feature also connects the other key features of the reading competency and the other competencies of the English Language Arts Program.  When the emphasis of a reading program is the construction of multiple, individual meanings through a variety of modes -- talk, drama, art, and print -- one basic approach is appropriate for readers of all ages and stages, requiring only minor modifications from cycle to cycle.

Project Summary: Stephanie Vucko shows that portfolio assessment and evaluation is not only inclusive in nature, but also a way of living and learning in her grades-seven and eight classrooms.  Goal-setting and reflection are essential elements of keeping portfolios and Stephanie shows with many concrete examples of how she “taught” these elusive and ephemeral activities.  She and her students show that it is possible to develop specific strategies and processes for setting and monitoring progress towards personal and learning goals and for reflecting on all aspects of learning.  In addition, Stephanie and her students demonstrate that experience with goal-setting and reflection is not enough; the students’ experience must be focused, and they must understand the reasons behind what they are doing.  This classroom study clearly illustrates the evaluation instrument recommended in the English Language Arts Program, but also the concept of learning how to learn, the foundation of the new Québec curriculum.

Tanya Paradis - The Sooner The Better:  Developing Literacy in Kindergarten  

Trudy Williams - Looking Beyond the Classroom: Going Cross-curricular Through English Language Arts