Nanaimo's Sensational Schools
Nanaimo Schools offer exciting learning opportunities for their students. This story is a celebration of the work they do at the student, teacher, and school district levels.
Thomas likes reading. Accessible Books (AB), available from SET-BC’s Accessible Books library, are the reading material for his adapted reading program. Thomas uses a switch to independently read his books.
Randerson Ridge, Thomas’ Elementary School, uses the Accelerated Reading management program to support and manage students’ individualized reading programs. Thomas completes comprehension questions using the AR program (Visit AR Website).
Thomas’ team checks the AR list of recommended titles, for his reading level, and then selects from their in-house AB library to provide an engaging, accessible, reading environment. They have compiled a collection of 100 accessible books from which to choose.
Some of Thomas’ favorite titles this year included:
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- Waiting for Whales
- Just a Minute
- Ghost Wolf
Meanwhile, students at Quarterway, an industrious Nanaimo dual track (French and English) elementary school, are creating accessible books to support literacy activities in their school. The grade 5-7 students are proud and excited to learn skills in electronic book creation and narration through their accessible books project. This is the second year in which Nanaimo’s district partner, the SET-BC consultant, and the school team worked with students to create Accessible Books of classic literature titles. The choice of books and dynamic narration by student readers, in English or French, are proving popular with students at Quarterway and throughout British Columbia. Karina Younk, the talented and industrious Learning Assistant teacher, facilitates writing and reading and web design groups in both French and English. Check out the school website www.sd68.bc.ca/quarterway.
We would be remiss if we wrote a Nanaimo District story without mentioning the incredibly talented District Integration support team of Debra Hagen, Jennifer Elgie, and Amy Fleming. They offer training and mentor teachers in the use of AT to support student learning on a daily basis. They are currently exploring the use of video instruction for students with Autism, the use of PowerPoint for social stories for transition, the use of AT software applications to enhance student learning, as well as creating accessible books for early language and literacy development.
The BC celebration continues. Students and teams in many BC schools are now authoring their own accessible book creations. An exciting project is underway in Port Hardy. School District staff are working with the community to add First Nations language text to the popular British Columbia-authored Eaglecrest Series and Elders are adding the narration. A community celebration and feast is planned for fall 2006 when the project is completed.
Visit SET-BC’s accessible books page.
www.setbc.org/setbc/acccessiblebooks
- View the list of Accessible books.
- Find out how to submit an Accessible Books order for your students
Contributions to the collection are always welcome!