Oral Language Project - Closing Gap Aboriginal

Larry Hope
Jack McMaster
Jeannie McMaster
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a research project to develop and evaluate
strategies and approaches to oral language
assessment and instruction
aim to assist the language development of
all students and help close the achievement
gap between Aboriginal and non Aboriginal
JK, SK(2007 -2008) and Grade 1 students
(2009)
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Many students commence school with low
levels of oral language
Because it provides the foundation of
reading and writing, it is vital that teachers
give close attention to oral language and
adjust their instructional language and
teaching approaches to get all students to
high levels
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Oral Language Assessment – short screening test, consisting of
15 sentences, comprising three sets of five sentence types. A
student receives a score of ‘1’ for every sentence repeated
correctly. The possible range of total scores is thus from 0-15.
Distribution of OLA Total Scores by Grade: SIP, September 2008
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Aboriginal students generally progressed at
the same rate as their Non-Aboriginal
peers, although from a much lower starting
point.
At the end of the year, the profile of SK
Aboriginal students was virtually
indistinguishable from that for JK NonAboriginal students.
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To go deeper in bringing about change in our
Oral Language instruction – to take the
strategies into grade 2 and then grade 3
To build internal capacity within the
participating NOEL boards so that the
improvements become self-sustaining
To build lateral capacity that would enable
the understandings and practices developed
to be implemented across the province.