Smooth Rock Falls Secondary School, located on Highway 11 between Cochrane and Kapuskasing, has a student population of 38 and is the smallest regular-program school in Ontario.
The school’s OSSLT success rate for students writing for the first time has climbed from 64% in October 2002 to 86% on the October 2004 test.
In a small community, teachers can really get to know and care about each student. That’s an intangible but very important factor in our success.We have a school-wide focus on literacy. As well, we run a number of specialized programs, including supervised silent reading, a six-week OSSLT preparation course and teacher modelling of literacy. The modelling component is the cornerstone of the program, because it provides students with a target that they can strive to achieve.
Alex Crump,
Principal
Every teacher takes part in the school-wide initiative to improve the overall literacy skills of the students. Teachers are required to devise, implement and share lessons that focus on one of the four core writing tasks every month. A recent example involved students viewing a music video and composing a newspaper article that depicted the scene being portrayed. Parents often become engaged in the process by encouraging their children to read for content through media that appeal to young people, most notably the television show Pop-Up Video.
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