A project led by 91亚色 Faculty of Education Professors Heather Lotherington and Jennifer Jenson at Joyce Public School in North 91亚色, and funded by the (SSHRC),聽has received two awards.

The 91亚色-Joyce Public School Multiliteracies Project involves graduate students and researchers working with teachers at Joyce Public School to develop traditional and digital literacies. It was one of the winners of the . The awards highlight outstanding individuals, projects and programs in TDSB聽schools. The project's聽second award, the , went to聽the team of teachers from Joyce Public School聽who are聽working with Lotherington and Jenson.

Left: Heather Lotherington

Over the past seven years, this school-based initiative has been developed as a result of Lotherington鈥檚 SSHRC grants. The most recent grant for Lotherington,聽on which Jenson is co-researcher,聽has created a dynamic learning community to research a multiliteracies approach to learning that聽incorporates traditional literacy, culture and heritage literacies, language literacies and current digital technology literacies. The聽project has produced a wealth of聽teacher and student learning projects, such as the multilingual digital video game 鈥淭alk Time鈥� designed to help parents teach critical thinking to young children; a series of multilingual creative narratives; video clips such as 鈥淚magine a World鈥�; and student-created public service clips that address issues of social justice.

鈥淚 am delighted with this recognition of our evolving work, which belongs to all participating teachers, staff members, research assistants, researchers and the kids, who have created beautiful stories! We have worked together for many years to develop our learning community,鈥� said Lotherington.聽鈥淭wo regular SSHRC awards and several minor grants later, the 91亚色-Joyce Public School partnership has expanded and evolved into a feature of the school.聽Our learning community is a model for both in-service professional development through collaborative action research and theory-building by translating cutting-edge theoretical concepts into classroom practice.鈥�

Right: Jennifer Jenson

Also honoured was聽the team of Joyce Public School teachers and support staff who have been working with Lotherington and Jenson. The group received the 2010 Premier鈥檚 Award for Teaching Excellence 鈥� Team of the Year, given to a team made up of two to 10 individuals who have worked together to achieve a common goal.

Sixty-five per cent of the children at the school speak English as a second language and 90 per cent of the parents are from outside Canada. The聽teachers working with Lotherington and Jenson received the Premier's Award for their聽work on the multiliteracy projects that use digital technology and feature students and parents using personal experiences and first languages to reimagine popular stories.

Lotherington鈥檚 project "Researching New Literacies in the Multicultural Classroom: Developing a Ludic Approach to Linguistic Challenges in Elementary Education" received $125,788 from SSHRC in the 2007 competition. The research team continues to explore聽how teachers can teach socially responsive, immersive literacies in the contemporary multicultural, multilingual classroom.

For聽more information, visit the聽 Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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