b'The CTOPP-2 provided school teams with insights into threeStructured Literacyspecific areas of development: phonological awareness (how students decipher betweenSome refinements had to be made to teaching literacy in the sounds in words) Kindergarten to Grade 1 to effectively respond to the results working memory (how much information students canshown in the CTOPP-2 screening. Along with early screening, retain and retrieve)the research clearly concluded that teaching literacy skills explicitly and sequentially using multi-sensory techniques is the rapid automatized naming (ability to name digits andmost effective approach. In practice, this is commonly referred symbols quickly and automatically). to as Structured Literacy, which provided us with a frameworkfor changes to instructional practices.Schools analyzed the results to inform classroom programming and targets for support. A group of about 20 teachers with experience in structured literacy from various schools, members of the Learning Team, school leaders, and clinicians came together to discuss professional learning and create a comprehensive list of supporting resources. A few members from this group also developed a comprehensive scope and sequence document, which was introduced to teachers over three professional learning sessions delivered by fellow teachers and clinicians. Other professional learning was led by external experts.In January, more than 200 teachers and clinicians had the opportunity to spend a day with Dr. David Kilpatrick from Syracuse University, who is regarded as an authority onThe Science of Reading. He provided an in-depth overviewof the research and concrete examples of how this couldlook in classrooms. In February, nearly 150 educators spent two days withLise LHeureux, a reading clinician from Montreal. She ledtwo full-day workshops in French and two in English on howto support readers who struggle the most. I applaud the recent efforts to continue refining our approach to literacy; however, as we support young readers and writers, we have to be mindful to not pathologize diverse ways of learning and being, said Christian Michalik, Superintendent."I look forward to seeing additional outcomes from thisrecent initiative." OutcomesThe spring CTOPP-2 results showed significant growth across the division in the areas targeted by the instructional changes and, as a result, potentially reduced the risk of future literacy challenges for many students. Several teachers commented on their students increased confidence, their improved phonological awareness proficiency, and the efficiency ofthe strategies they apply to decode unknown words. Other assessment measures for reading fluency were implemented in K to Grade 1 in May and June and we look forward to doing an in-depth analysis of those results in the fall with our research partners to see the full impact of the changes, said Ron Cadez.Overall, the initiative has been successful by bringing in more research partners from Manitoba and abroad and fostering new partnerships with organizations such as the International Dyslexia Association Ontario Branch, Learning Disabilities Association of Manitoba, the University of Manitoba, andAlberta Education.41'