Literacy in Today's Classroom

September is Basic Education and Literacy Month, a time for Rotary members to focus awareness on our involvement with literacy and education and recommit to finding solutions that meet needs of illiteracy and gaps in education in our own communities and internationally.
 
Rotary Club of Stirling member and public-school educator Kim Caron, reminded us with what Rotary is doing, what our club is doing and provided great insight into what is currently happening in today's classroom.
 
 

Literacy in Today's Classroom

More than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. That’s 17 percent of the world’s adult population.

Rotary’s goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy. We support education for all children and literacy for children and adults.

What is Rotary International Doing?

  • Opening schools: In Afghanistan, Rotary members opened a girls’ school to break the cycle of poverty and social imbalance.
  • Teaching adults to read: Rotary members in the United States partnered with ProLiteracy Detroit to recruit and train tutors after a study showed that more than half of the local adult population was functionally illiterate.
  • New teaching methods: The SOUNS program in South Africa, Puerto Rico and the United States teaches educators how to improve literacy by teaching children to recognize letters by sounds instead of names.
  • Making schools healthy: Rotarians are providing clean, fresh water to every public school in Lebanon so students can be healthier and get a better education.
  • Enhancing educational systems: In Kenya, Rotary clubs are working with the Global Partnership for Education and local and national governments to advance life-long learning opportunities for poor and marginalized children. 
“When you teach somebody how to read, they have that for a lifetime. It ripples through the community, one by one.” 
Mark Wilson
Rotary Club member
 

What is our Club Doing?

  • Donations to the Food for Learning Program HPEDSB
  • Youth Exchange
  • Post Secondary Education Scholarships
  • Grade 8 Graduation Awards
  • Spelling Bee to promote spelling literacy
  • Math Bee to promote mathematical learning
  • Cooperation with students in their community Trash Bash
  • Building of our Outdoor Classroom learning space
  • Earlyact
  • Partnering with high needs students for success

Kim’s Background

  • Education
  • Bachelor of Child Studies - Brock University
  • Bachelor of Education - Brock University
  • Primary, Junior, Intermediate Qualifications
  • Additional Qualifications - Reading Part 1, Special Education Part 1, Computers in the Classroom Parts 1,2,3, French as a Second Language Part 1
  • Empower Reading Intervention Program - Sick Kids Hospital

Experience

  • 27 years experience
  • practice teaching in Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Welland, , Stirling, ON
  • Stirling, Tweed, Marmora
  • Grades Kindergarten through to Grade 7
  • Rotary French, Computer Lab

New Mathematics Curriculum 2020

  • SEL (Social-Emotional Learning)
  • Number Sense and Numeration
  • Coding
  • Financial Literacy
  • Time/Temperature (removed)

What is SEL?(Social-Emotional Learning)

Throughout this grade, in order to promote a positive identity as a math learner, to foster well-being and the ability to learn, build resilience, and thrive, students will:
  • apply, to the best of their ability, a variety of social-emotional learning skills to support their use of the mathematical processes and their learning in connection with the expectations in the other five strands of the mathematics curriculum.
1. identify and manage emotions
2. recognize sources of stress and cope with challenges
3. maintain positive motivation and perseverance
4. build relationships and communicate effectively
5. develop self-awareness and sense of identity
6. think critically and creatively
 

Number Sense and Numeration

  • B2.2 recall and demonstrate multiplication facts from 0 × 0 to 12 × 12, and related division facts
  • B2.3 use mental math strategies to multiply whole numbers by 0.1 and 0.01 and estimate sums and differences of decimal numbers up to hundredths, and explain the strategies used

Coding

  • Writing Code
    • -create commands, loops, conditional statements, other command structures
  • -Scratch, Code.Org
  • Executing Code
  • Debugging Code

Financial Literacy

  • F1.1 describe several ways money can be transferred among individuals, organizations, and businesses
  • F1.2 estimate and calculate the cost of transactions involving multiple items priced in dollars and cents, including sales tax, using various strategies
  • F1.3 design sample basic budgets to manage finances for various earning and spending scenarios
  • F1.4 explain the concepts of credit and debt, and describe how financial decisions may be impacted by each
  • F1.5 calculate unit rates for various goods and services, and identify which rates offer the best value
  • F1.6 describe the types of taxes that are collected by the different levels of government in Canada, and explain how tax revenue is used to provide services in the community.

New Literacy Curriculum 2023

  • The Right to Read
  • Digital Literacy
  • Cursive Writing
  • Indigenous Content

Digital Literacy

  • Digital Citizenship
  • Online Safety, Well-Being and Etiquette
  • Innovation and Design
  • Word Processing skills

First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Perspectives, Indigenous Context of Various Text Forms

  • Read, listen to, and view various forms of texts by diverse First Nations, Métis, and Inuit creators to make meaning through Indigenous Storywork about First Nations, Métis, and Inuit histories, cultures, relationships, communities, groups, nations, and lived experiences