University Professor and renowned children's author Steven Layne spent a week in March working with students, staff and administrators in the Lakeland Catholic School Division.
Layne, who is currently a professor at Judson University just outside of Chicago, has been making trips up to northern Alberta for the past three years. Each time he comes up, the extent and content of his visit expands.
“I've worked with young kids, high school kids, new teachers, veteran teachers, administrators and talked to community members,” said Layne after a public speaking session on March 25 at Notre Dame Elementary.
Layne's speaking engagements and workshops all revolve around literacy as he considers himself a lifelong advocate of literacy and had dedicated his teaching career to helping stress its importance.
“Literacy impacts everything that you want to do in life,” said Layne. “When I look at kids in school my view is that the adults are the custodians of the future. I know that a person's ability to read and write impacts their success in the job market and really just impacts so many areas of life.”
In fact, it was LCSD's stance on literacy that brought him to the district in the first place.
Four years ago, Layne was approached by LCSD Associate Superintendent Diane Bauer after speaking at an international literacy conference. The conversation led to Layne being brought in to speak at a District event, which then expanded to him making yearly trips to the schools throughout LCSD.
“I just really fell in love with the attitude that I found here,” said Layne. “The belief system in literacy practice and the sustained practice and professional development is amazing.”
According to Bauer, Layne has been brought back year after year due to the resounding requests from the teachers.
“The teachers took what he said and brought it to the kids and to the classroom and it really changed they way we viewed literacy in the classroom,” said Bauer. “The teachers were 100 per cent in favour of brining him back. So we have brought him back.”
This year Layne held several writing workshops at Assumption in Cold Lake and Notre Dame High in Bonnyville. These classes were specialized for those students interested in writing.
His sessions with teachers were with the newest staff members in LCSD. Most of his time was spent bringing them up to speed with what he has taught the other teachers in the district over the past three years.
“We have been looking at engagement issues with kids and text and how to structure a classroom environment to be engaging and gets kids to want to engage with text,” said Layne
“He makes my year every year,” added Bauer. “It is truly about taking an initiative (literacy) and moving it forward so that you are living and breathing it and making it a part of your teaching practice, not just for a year, but for your whole teaching career.”
