One of the key initiatives of human development is curriculum reform. Literacy is seen as a major element of curriculum reform and hence the Ministry of Education has accepted the challenge as a major mechanism for change. According to Tompkins, (2010) Literacy is defined as, “the ability to use reading and writing for a variety of tasks at school and outside of school (p.4). The concept of literacy has been broadened to include the cultural and social aspects of language learning, and children’s experiences with and understanding of written language both reading and writing. The Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report (2006) states, “Literacy, besides being a fundamental human right, is a foundation not only for achieving EFA but, more broadly, for reaching the overarching goal of reducing human poverty” (p. 19).
The development of this document was based on an assessment of the West Gate Hills Schools performance which showed no progress in literacy for the years 2013 and 2014. Knowing the importance of literacy for human development the balanced approach to literacy will be the basis of the intervention in order to reinstate the school’s mastery performance in literacy.
Statement of Problem
West Gate Hills School is located in an urban area in a Caribbean Country. The …show more content…
This assessment provided a national overall average assessment of the school and an average assessment of the grade levels at the school. The assessment was conducted on grades one to nine in the areas of reading comprehension and writing. The National Reading Assessment agency used a criteria of mastery which is 85 % to 100%, intervention needed which is 65 % to 84% and inadequate progress made 0% to 64%. In 2012, the school’s overall average performance and individual average in reading comprehension and writing in all grade levels were