Local school boards are waiting for additional details on upcoming curriculum changes, which involve the return of cursive writing and phonemic awareness.
The Ontario Ministry of Education recently announced a return to phonics, typing, and cursive writing, making it mandatory in elementary schools as of this fall.
Lambton Kent District School Board Superintendent of Education - Early Years/ Elementary Program Ben Hazzard said the curriculum specifies that students in Grades 1 and 2 will learn printing, cursive writing will be taught from Grades 3 to 8, and keyboarding skills will be from Grades 4 to 8.
Hazzard said until they get additional details from the province, such as possible training material for staff, they're moving forward based on what they have.
But Hazzard said some of the curriculum changes had already started this past year to prepare students for September when it comes to phonemic awareness and phonics, which helps pupils understand how sounds accompany letters and words.
"A return to explicit phonemic and phonics teaching is embedded in the curriculum and we have done a lot of groundwork to be able to do that work with our teachers in the fall. We've been implementing that across our schools this year so that we're ready for the new curriculum come September," Hazzard said.
He also said the board has noticed growth in this area in classrooms from Kindergarten through Grade 3.
"Phonics (in Grades 2-3) was a pilot program but we saw big success as students had really targeted specific instruction that helped them understand words better," he said.
Although math typically tends to be the area students struggle with, some also recently had difficulty with writing and literacy, according to last year's EQAO results. Only 50 per cent of Grade 3 LKDSB students met writing standards.
"Writing and math were challenges to teach remotely and they were challenges in the EQAO following the pandemic. Writing and reading are so intricately connected that that's part of it as well," Hazzard said.
Beyond cursive writing or keyboarding, Hazzard said different types of writing will be practiced at different grade levels. For example, some students will focus on writing an informational text or a persuasive text (a form of non-fiction writing).
"So we're gathering that type of information from the curriculum, putting it into charts … so we can really show that to teachers as they plan for September," he said.