With $53,000 in funding from the Vancouver Foundation, the Coyote Reads program will expand to three School District #83 middle schools by the end of the school year.
Starting at Shuswap Middle School, the after-school literacy program for aboriginal students that has been so successful at the elementary level, will be made available to students in grades 6 and 7.
Program partners include four North Okanagan schools, School District #83, the Literacy Alliance of the Shuswap Society (LASS) and Okanagan College.
“They have a wonderful children’s library that they will allow us to access,” said an enthusiastic Irene Laboucane of the college, noting that at the middle school level the program will be called Coyote Club.
The School District #83 principal for Aboriginal Education, says the Grade 2 to 4 students who have participated in Coyote Café have improved reading skills.
Café is an acronym for “clarity, accuracy, fluency and exploring new words.”
Students are tested in mid-October and those in need of help with their reading are referred to the program that provides three hours of extra literacy per week for 24 weeks.
Following a snack, students visit four stations, where they read to themselves, read to an adult, listen to a story and play literacy games.
“We have a cultural component,” says Laboucane, noting the program, complete with a blessing by an elder, is based on authentic aboriginal authors and materials. “It has really become a positive group at school... They learn and have a great deal of fun.”
Laboucane laughingly tells the story of a young boy who initially told her he hated reading. By the end of the program he was asking the adults to hurry up so he could go and read.
Research has shown that unless a child is reading at level by Grade 4, their chances of completing school is reduced, Laboucane points out.
Some 40 aboriginal children met at the Salmon Arm campus of Okanagan College Nov. 26 to celebrate the expansion of the Coyote Reads program.