Previous GET Recipients and Projects

Elementary

Sandra Bernatchez (RSB), Response to Literature – Teaching response using the storybook The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.

Tracey Blonder (NFSB), Photography in Writing – Storytelling using photography; students will take photographs that they will then use as prompts/inspiration for writing short stories. Stories and photos will be published as books and there will be a vernissage.

Marguerite Cox (Littoral SB), Buddy Reading Project – Older kids read to younger kids; after reading they complete a personal response postcard (summary, message, important aspects of text) in order to build knowledge about author message, setting, background knowledge, and making connections of cueing systems to understand and construct meaning. After reading and responding to five books they will receive an image made by 3D printer.

Lolita Fuhlrott (NFSB), Partnership through Mentorship – Creating a partnership between K students and students in grade 5 to support/reinforce literacy through the ELA competencies, including using mini lessons.

Megan Martin (NFSB), Teaching Self-Regulation Through ELA – A classroom library of books to be created and used to teach students about self-regulation to be shared with the whole school.

Jennifer Silva (SWLSB), Literacy Trunk – Talk to Learn with Informational Text – Creation of a literacy trunk that promotes the reading of information texts and talking to learn, as well as flexible lessons that can be used as part of a Daily 5.

Janice Wong (RSB), Comics – Lit circles with graphic novels; reading strategies, discussion, response, writing a script for a part of a story, creating students’ own comic, as taught by an invited artist.

Secondary

Pamela Bussey (NFSB), Exploring Residential Schools & Indigenous Resistance and Residential School Book Trunk – Creating a unit plan on residential schools and indigenous resistance, as well as creating an ATEQ Book Trunk on residential schools.

Celia Anne Coyne (RSB), Let’s Get Graphic – Lit. circles using graphic novels with discussion focusing on codes & conventions of multimodal texts, as well as storytelling, symbol analysis, and writer’s intentions. Focusing on forming a broader worldview (values/beliefs/ideologies).

Tiffany Dickie (NFSB), Resilience in the Face of Adversity – Using YA to help students recognize resilience in fictional characters and public figures in order to help them recognize characteristics of resilience in themselves. Students will write responses connecting their own life and a text, as well explore writing techniques in order to write non-fiction narratives.

Aline Gosdanian (SWLSB), Discovering Me – A series of writing workshops on personal narrative/memoir writing, using mentor texts and meeting an author.

Allison Holloway (EMSB), Using Graphic Novels & Critical Theories to Connect Students to Social Justice Issues – Lit. circles with graphic novels to explore social justice (“discrimination”) issues and learn to think critically.

Matthew Kennedy (LBPSB), Teaching Reading Strategies Through Graphic Novels – A Differentiated Approach to Enhancing (Multi-) Literacy in the ELA Classroom.

Lisa Silver (WQSB), Representation Matters – An Indigenous Book Collection: Reading circles to teach about native peoples, including other themes such as dystopian fiction, search for identity, and LGBTQ lives.

Elementary

Daniel Aucoin (ETSB), Puppets and Puppeteers – Teaching storytelling using puppets in order to strengthen students’ language abilities, as well as build imagination and self-confidence.

Vicki Fraser (SWLSB), Putting Words to Pictures – Exploring picture books, discussing the different ways stories can be shared, investigating/identifying structures & features of picture books, learning figurative language, and storytelling orally and/or graphically.

Jennifer Mercer (LBPSB), Getting Familiar with Emotions through Interactive Read Alouds – Creation of a “portable emotional regulation library” of picture books as well a binder of lesson plans to be shared within the school. Interactive read alouds to support students in recognizing/reflecting on their own emotions as well as exposing them to rich vocabulary and providing them with opportunities to develop their oral language skills through class discussions.

Anne-Marie Yaworski (EMSB), Tactile Stories: Experiencing Stories Through Touch and Interactive Play – Creating books for autistic and visually impaired or blind children to add to a tactile book library, and have children write/create their own personal tactile books.

Secondary

Pamela Bussey (NFSB), Exploring Residential Schools & Indigenous Resistance and Residential School Book Trunk – Creating a unit plan on residential schools and indigenous resistance, as well as creating an ATEQ Book Trunk on residential schools.

Celia Anne Coyne (RSB), Let’s Get Graphic – Lit. circles using graphic novels with discussion focusing on codes & conventions of multimodal texts, as well as storytelling, symbol analysis, and writer’s intentions. Focusing on forming a broader worldview (values/beliefs/ideologies).

Tiffany Dickie (NFSB), Resilience in the Face of Adversity – Using YA to help students recognize resilience in fictional characters and public figures in order to help them recognize characteristics of resilience in themselves. Students will write responses connecting their own life and a text, as well explore writing techniques in order to write non-fiction narratives.

Aline Gosdanian (SWLSB), Discovering Me – A series of writing workshops on personal narrative/memoir writing, using mentor texts and meeting an author.

Allison Holloway (EMSB), Using Graphic Novels & Critical Theories to Connect Students to Social Justice Issues – Lit. circles with graphic novels to explore social justice (“discrimination”) issues and learn to think critically.

Matthew Kennedy (LBPSB), Teaching Reading Strategies Through Graphic Novels – A Differentiated Approach to Enhancing (Multi-) Literacy in the ELA Classroom.

Lisa Silver (WQSB), Representation Matters – An Indigenous Book Collection: Reading circles to teach about native peoples, including other themes such as dystopian fiction, search for identity, and LGBTQ lives.

Elementary
Deirdre Potash (LBPSB): Garden in the Sky: A Community Project. This project focuses on students interviewing their families and creating written texts based on their family histories and then sharing these orally with others. Students use a leaf or flower representative of their country of origin to express the love of where they come from.

Layla Barroca (LBPSB): Teaching Response through Literature Circles using Current Children’s Fiction. This project involves the use of blogging and the app Explain Everything to engage student with literature.

Dorothy Taker (ESSB): Empowering Non-Fiction Reading. This project involves purchasing non-fiction books and using them with students to help them learn to experience and decode informational texts. 

Christine Piercey (ESSB): Costumes for Fluency. This project involves the use of reader’s theatre, read-alouds, and CAFE fluency strategies to practice reading and fluency; it also involves multi-age reading buddie

Secondary
Kathy Panek (SWLSB): Literacy Trunk Creation.  The teacher will create a new trunk for the reluctant adolescent male reader focused on ways to respond to literature. especially through talk.

Annalise Ogle (EMSB): Expressing Ourselves through Text and Image.  Students will produce an anthology of their own writing and photography. 

Lise Kuhn (EMSB): Elizabeth High Independent Reading Centre Library. The teacher will create and update a school library for moms and kids that offers books and activities related to literacy.

Matthew Kennedy (LBPSB): Teaching Reading through Graphic Novels: A Differentiated Approach to Enhancing (Multi-) Literacy in the ELA Classroom. The teacher will create a graphic novel reading program.

Annette McIntyre and Nick Warren (EMSB): Manga in the Classroom. This project involves the creation of a manga library to be shared between outreach schools and managed through the outreach website.

Elementary
Karen Stoddart (SWLSB): Getting Creative with Technology is a project in which students used tablets (iPads) to create a variety of written stories throughout the year. They began by completing both individual and group writing projects in class on a related theme. Their stories were then transformed into e-books and animated stories using the iPad and a variety of apps.

Loulia Vassina (ESSB): I am a writer! is a project aimed at teaching students writing strategies by analyzing various quality books. The teacher made a selection of books where authors used different writing strategies to convey their messages and engage readers. These books include various genres: mystery, fables, fantasy, poetry, adventure, etc. After reading a book with the class, the teacher guided students in discovering particular strategies used by the author (strong verbs, text organization, sentence structure etc.). Students then practiced applying these strategies in their writing. The final product of this project was a published book including the best writing of each child.

Secondary
Louise Bourque (RSB): Bringing Visual Literacy to the ELA classroom is a project designed to provide teachers with an opportunity to develop a project for Sec. 3 students that focuses on image instead of print while honouring the foundations of the ELA program. Teachers would use the students’ understanding of the codes and conventions of image and how it supports the message of the text to print. 

Elementary
Kerry Ann King (CQSB): Dyslexia and Other Reading Challenges: Let’s Try Something New. This project focused on various reading difficulties and how to teach reading in a simpler more step by step fashion to help emergent readers who have difficulties.

Kaylie Bernert (NFSB): Senior Reading Buddies. This project was about supporting students in setting and meeting reading goals through the use of leveled reading materials, volunteer reading support, and at home/school consistency.

Jennifer Clark (LBPSB): Silver Birch Reading Program is an award program created by the Ontario Library Association which fosters participation in various classroom reading activities; offers an opportunity to get students excited about reading; gives them a sense of ownership; and, exposes them to a variety of new, age appropriate literature.

Sheryl Cree & Karen Stoddart (SWLSB): I Can Be Anything: Encouraging Personal Connections to Nonfiction Texts. This project was about exposing students to a variety of occupations by having them read several texts, make connections to professions seen in their everyday lives, and do mock job interviews with one another among other projects.

Secondary
Tiffany Dickie (RSB): Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust is a project designed around the use of this book as an educational resource to provide clear historical information with photographs that show the reality of the time period. This is to help students to understand the importance of standing up for the human rights of all people.

J. Goodall, P. Morrissete, L. Bourque, et al (RSB): Flipped ELA is a project about exploring the use of technologies such as edmodo and tumblr to flip the way we teach ELA by creating units that can be posted online, students can own their learning.