Before instruction can take place effectively, it needs to be grounded in equitable approaches to learning and achievement. My graduate research is focused on supporting refugee families as they transition their children to school in Ontario. My work uses an asset’s approach to understanding the forms of capital (social and cultural) that refugees maintain as they reconstruct their lives in a new country. Through this work, I became a peer-reviewed expert in critical policy, equity, and leadership, as it pertained to education in Ontario’s school system.
My experience as a researcher heavily informs my approach to improving the instructional program. I am committed to making research accessible for educators so that best practice can be effectively implemented into instruction. In order to improve the instructional program in my own role, I worked with a colleague in the early years division to run a year-long PLC targeted at structured reading instruction. My colleague and I met regularly as critical friends to deprivatise our practice and offer each other resources, ideas, reflections, and next steps. We were able to honour our different teaching styles while remaining accountable to research-informed best practices in reading instruction. We saw gains in our students’ reading abilities and felt empowered to continue our learning and growth as educators in this area, primarily in the area of assessment. This PLC inspired my PQP practicum project, which was a resource for teachers that addresses the Right to Read mandated by the Ontario Ministry of Education. This resource includes long range plans for reading instruction in Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2, digital tracking forms, links to resources, a video series summarizing the research about reading instruction, a video series for parents about how to encourage reading in the home, and letter templates for teachers to provide to families to bring them into the learning process.
CourtneyAnnePhD 