CMEC Pan-Canadian Literacy Forum

[Richard Beaudry]

Hello everyone,

On Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday (April 13th to the 15th) I was at the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada (CMEC) Pan-Canadian Interactive Literacy Forum in Vancouver. This was a rather unique experience in Canada. Educators, learners and literacy providers from West to East and into the North were gathered together to discuss themes such as Aboriginal Literacy, early literacy and workplace literacy.

Since we were meeting by webcast with people across the country, we had to start our day in Vancouver at 6:45 am so people in S. John, New Brunswick could start theirs at 10:45 am.

Here are the cities/towns who were linked and the themes they worked on:

Whitehorse, Yukon: Building Literacy through Technology
Yellowknife, NWT : Aboriginal Literacy: Stories of Success
Arviat, Nunavut: Literacy: The path to Success
Saint John, New Brunswick: Literacy: Passport to Prosperity
Montréal, QC: Vision, Innovation, Participation
Toronto: Ont.: Literacy for Life
Winnipeg, Man.: Literacy Works! Building a Skilled and Resilient Workforce
Regina, Sask.: Aboriginal Literacy: Stories of Success
Edmonton, Alta: Literacy: Never too Early, Never Too Late.
Vancouver, B.C.: Communities Working Together for Literacy

The proceedings opened in Vancouver Sunday night because we had to start up so early on Monday morning to catch up to the rest of the country.

The first Keynote speaker was the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson (Former Governor General of Canada), who gave a speech recognizing the importance of literacy workers across the country and the contribution of teachers and librarians (teacher librarians included) in the literacy education of the children of Canada.

Other Keynote speakers of note were Susan Aglukark who talked about growing up in Arviat, Nunavut and her journey as a songwriter and signer in Canada. Dr. Fraser Mustard, who made a compelling argument for early literacy based on models and
studies done in Sweden and Finland. Frank McKenna on how much we can benefit as a society if we increase the literacy levels of our children,

In BC, we looked at several models of successful literacy programs. Revelstoke, BC has the regional district, library, city and school board working together on one of the most integrated literacy programs I have ever seen. The Vancouver Public Library and the Vancouver School Board are also working together at integrating their literacy programs but it is still too early to
see any results.

Richard