At the end of our school year, our teachers reflected on our reading actions this year. Here’s what we thought:

Key Successes & Strengths:

• Systematic Phonics Instruction: There is strong positive feedback on the success of directed phonics programs like Heggerty and UFLI French. These tools are working very well for teaching decoding and fluency.
• Engaging and Creative Activities: Students are highly motivated by activities that allow for creativity and connection to high-interest topics. This includes writing original stories inspired by characters like "Carlos le carlin" and watching French TV shows.
• Community Engagement: School-wide initiatives like Family Literacy Nights and the Book Swap have been very successful and are valued by staff.

Emerging Themes & Next Steps:

• Focus on Oral Language: A significant, shared goal is to increase opportunities for oral language development. We would like to enlist more support and time for French-speaking activities and other oral practice to build fluency and comprehension.
• Implementation of Literacy Groups & Centers: There is clear enthusiasm for starting structured literacy groups (UFLI) and re-introducing literacy centers. This reflects a desire to move towards more small-group, differentiated instruction to better meet the needs of all learners.
• Making Reading More Meaningful: There is a collective interest in moving beyond simple "quiet reading" towards more active and meaningful reading practices. This includes more teacher read-alouds to model fluency and more engaging guided reading sessions.

Areas for Review and Change:

• DART Assessment Books: A critical point of feedback from multiple teachers is the need to change the DART books. The consistent comment is that the assessment questions do not align well with the content of the books, causing frustration and questioning their effectiveness. This suggests an urgent need to review and select new assessment materials.
• As a result of this feedback, our school is currently working with district literacy specialists and our Resource Teachers to provide more authentic reading assessments next year.