University of Alberta-led literacy intervention program enhances elementary students’ reading skills

A is for astonishing. B is for bouncing back. C is for captivating: words to describe the improvement among struggling young readers as a result of a University of Alberta-led literacy intervention program.

Amid declining reading levels among kids in grades 1 to 3 in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic — on average those students were eight months to a year below grade level — George Georgiou, a professor in the Faculty of Education, and doctoral student Kristy Dunn created the intensive program. It consists of face-to-face mentoring with teachers four times a week for half an hour.

Within four-and-a-half months, 80 per cent of the 352 struggling readers who took part in the program improved their reading level by about a year-and-a-half.

“This is the first time we have seen positive data for students’ performance following the pandemic, so there is reason for optimism,” says Georgiou.

The program was field tested with grade 2 and 3 students from the Greater St. Albert Catholic, Black Gold, Fort Vermilion and Lakeland Catholic school divisions.

Georgiou’s reading intervention involves combining phonological awareness (the ability to perceive and manipulate speech sounds) with phonics (the ability to map letters to sounds) and shared book reading. Using the method with trained teachers — while exposing kids to “decodable text” designed for beginning readers — “you can work miracles,” he says.

“It’s like every child has their own reading doctor,” says Georgiou. “Whatever their weaknesses are, the teacher will be providing the right kind of instruction. Lo and behold, these kids are improving much more than others in the province.”

Post-pandemic literacy is an ongoing challenge. To help turn the page on reading struggles, Alberta Education is asking schools to test all students in grades 1 to 3 in reading, and providing more than $45 million to deliver literacy intervention.

Georgiou’s program has expanded to other jurisdictions including Manitoba and the country of Belize. He has also been asked to write a report on the impact of COVID-19 on children’s academic achievement, commissioned by the Royal Society of Canada and UNESCO Canada, with hopes that his procedure on early intervention will spread across the country.