SIP / LNS Oral Language Project

This is a research project sponsored by the Literacy Numeracy Secretariat. This project combines the Self Identification Process with oral language and is looking at how strong oral language skills impact on literacy skills. The project involves all eight school boards in North Western Ontario; Superior -Greenstone District School Board, Superior North Catholic District School Board, Lakehead Public Schools, Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board, Rainy River District School Board, Northwest Catholic District School Board, Kenora Catholic District School Board, Keewatin-Patricia District School Board as well as the Northern Schools Resource Alliance.  All Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten teachers are involved in the research. This year the grade one teachers have joined the learning journey.

Teachers are involved in professional learning sessions with Carmel Crevola and Dr. Peter Hill. In the professional learning sessions, teachers have been introduced to two very powerful strategies that they can use in their classrooms to help develop the expressive language of their students. One of these strategies is called "Generating a Discussion."  In this process children are asked to discuss a picture.  The process is broken down into four sections:  1. Expressing thoughts and opinions, 2. Justifying a point of view, 3. Listening and responding, 4. Questioning and Challenging.  These are all skills that we want children to be able to do with a text, and believe that if we teach children to have these discussions without having to decode the text they will become familiar with the process and therefore find it easier to do when reading.

We have been collecting data through the Oral Language Assessment (OLA), which is a measure of the students' receptive language, as well as establishing a text level for SK and Grade One students.   Our initial data shows us that Aboriginal students are scoring across the range. This means that we have Aboriginal students scoring anywhere from 0 (the lowest level) to 15 (the highest level).  In comparison to non-Aboriginal students, the data shows us that Senior Kindergarten Aboriginal students score the same as Junior Kindergarten non-Aboriginal students.  By way of the data, we are seeing that Aboriginal students appear to be 10 months behind in their receptive language in comparison to non-aboriginal students.  As educators we know that at the age of 5 and 6, 10 months is a gap we can overcome.  We need to ask ourselves what we can do as educators to help close this gap.  Our data is confirming that results are not solely based on the ability of students, but is also closely related to the instruction provided by the teacher.  Our results to date are also showing that with specific instruction in "Generating a Discussion," children improve their OLA scores.  It is our belief that by improving oral language skills, we will increase the level of comprehension when reading.

For additional information on this project, please contact Jeannie McMaster, NOEL Coordinator, at jeannie.mcmaster@kpdsb.on.ca.


Literacy Numeracy Secretariat and Self Identification Oral Language Project (LNS/SIP) Report, produced by Carmel A. Crevola and Peter W. Hill:
2007-2008 Report
2008-2009 Report