Early reading is proven to be vital to later educational attainment and students at Wiikwemkoong Junior School have been engaged in a program aimed at promoting early literacy over the past few months in partnership with Innovations for Learning, an organization aimed at improving literacy among youth.

The students interacted with two different human resources during the program, explained Innovations for Learning’s Deanne Kondrat. The first is with an early literacy interventionist (ELI), that is a paid professional (like Jacob Pitawanakwat, who you see hosts the event at the Junior School and can be seen in a Livestream of the event at bit.ly/wbe-eli). ELIs are recruited from the community and work with students in person every day at the school. The ELIs can be seen in conference in the classroom and at home with families through smartphones during the video.