Professional Learning and Capacity Building Include:

Differentiated Staff Development

• Hanen training was provided to eight teachers and four educational assistants in Upper Canada District School Board. Hanen is a research-based developmental approach to promoting children's social language and literacy development. The training was provided by two speech pathologists. Prior to training each teacher or educational assistant was asked to submit a fifteen minute video of him or herself participating with a group of children in an oral language activity. Following three days of training each participant in the project was asked to submit a second fifteen minute video demonstrating interaction with children. All videos were scored and compared by a speech pathologist using the "Teacher Interaction and Language Rating Scale". Most of the teachers and educational assistants experienced growth in the nine categories of the rating scale. It was evident that they benefitted from the modeling and use of oral language stimulation strategies. [Upper Canada District School Board Final Report]