Seven inner city and North End elementary schools have implemented a framework that puts an emphasis on reading skills.
At King Edward School, this reading time is referred to as their “golden hour.” For sixty minutes every day, children are divided up into small groups of no more than five or six and given one-on-one attention from a teacher or a teaching assistant.
RELATED: Manitoba students perform worst in Canada in science, reading, math
The framework has only been in place for two years and the results are already being noticed.
“We’ve completed two years of this framework for how we’re instructing and we’re finding that we’re turning the table on student outcomes. So in the past, we’ve found that in our community, in our school, a good number of kids were not at grade level by the end of the year,” Principal of King Edward School, Aaron Benarroch said.
Benarroch said that the program is changing the year end outcomes which has an impact on future learning.
“As they get older, we know, not just here but anywhere, if they’re below grade level, that gap tends to increase and what we’ve turned around now is the vast majority of our kids are at grade level or beyond. This group of kids behind me right now they’re grade 3 but many of them are at grade 4, 5 level.”
And the benefits are also spilling into other areas of study as well.
“We’re now starting to see growth in numeracy. In their math. But there’s other areas, self-confidence, motivation, attendance, student engagement. All those things are on the rise. And those are all really positive indicators. Not just for success in school but for success in life. And that also is what we’re about.” said Benarroch.