French Immersion Parent Literacy Night
As part of DCDSB's ongoing efforts to strengthen home-school connections in French Immersion, we’ve launched a series of French Immersion Primary Parent Literacy Nights for families with students in Grades 1 to 3. These evenings are designed to build parent understanding of how children learn to read, the recent shifts in literacy instruction, and how families can support literacy development at home—regardless of the language spoken. To date, this presentation has taken place at three schools, (St. Monica, St. Mark the Evangelist, and St. Leo) with four additional sessions scheduled in the coming weeks.
Each session includes a presentation covering:
- The evolution of literacy instruction over the past five years in Ontario
- How students learn to read through structured literacy approaches
- The unique application of structured literacy in French Immersion
- The transferability of reading skills between languages
- Practical strategies for supporting literacy at home
Parents receive take-home kits filled with tools and ideas to reinforce reading skills. Following the presentation, they rotate through eight interactive stations led by educators, where they learn strategies such as blending and segmenting sounds, using sound boxes, reading aloud, building vocabulary, and supporting fluency.
A key message throughout is that parents do not need to speak French to support their child’s literacy development. Research shows that foundational reading skills practiced in a home language can transfer to French learning in the classroom—and vice versa.
The response from families has been overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to continuing this initiative across additional school communities.