As many parents are aware the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test is one of the current ministry requirements for graduation. Often, there is some concern that students will struggle with the test.

    At St.F.X we have developed a Literacy Support system for our students. First, we administer a "mock" literacy test to assess our students' needs and identify those students who need extra help.  Then these students are taken from class to be given small group instruction in order to support their individual needs.

    In addition, a school-wide literacy initiative called Literacy Fury is being implemented. This new system allows students to be given literacy support across the curriculum.

Mondays, 4th period - "Stop, Drop and Read" - 15 minutes

    Teachers read to, with and for students during a 15 minute period. Teachers are selecting magazines for their classrooms in order to be sure that there is interesting reading material at their disposal. This 15 minute time frame allows teachers to model good reading stategies such as visualization, inferencing, questioning and connection.

Wednesdays, 2nd Period - "Literacy Activities" - 30 minutes

    Teachers across the school use a literacy template and course specific material in order to familiarize and acclimatize students with the forms they will see on the test. These activities include working on the newspaper report, the summary, the opinion piece and basic grammar and conventions. This time allows teachers to model the correct way to brainstorm, write and revise the different items required on the literacy test.

     Finally, students also have the opportunity to take one of two literacy courses at St.F.X. The first, Literacy Skills Grade 10 (ELS 2O) is a course designed to support students who have been unsuccessful on the test improve their results for the second time they write. These students are given intensive support by their literacy skills teacher on the forms, skills and components of the literacy test as well as general literacy skills.

    The Ontario Secondary Schools Literacy Course (OLC 4O) is a course which students take only if they have been unsuccessful on the test twice. This course again provides intensive support for the skills and components of the test. OLC 4O is usually taken in Grade 12 as a replacement for passing the test and assesses all the skills that the test covers.

Helpful Tips for Students Writing the Literacy Test:

Read Instructions Carefully - If you are asked to write a news article and instead you write a narrative you will be marked "off topic."

Support! Support! Support! - You must give reasons for opinions. In many cases this support should come directly from the given text.

Check your Answer Carefully - Reread your work to check for spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. Try reading your answer backwards to check for spelling errors.

Answer Every Question - If you don't even try to answer a question, no marks can be given.

Fill the Space, But Don't Go Over - The test gives you the amount of space that the ministry feels it will take to answer. Use as much of the space as you can, but don't write below the lines given.

Links:

http://www.what2learn.com/games/literacy/  - promotes, spelling and word identification.