Literacy for All

A Community of Practice for Teachers of Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

The Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium (through the Alberta Regional Consortia), in collaboration with Alberta Education, hosted year long communities of practice for teachers from 2011 to 2016. The goal of these professional learning opportunities was to enhance teacher capacity to better meet the literacy and communication needs of students with significant cognitive disabilities. Participants met face-to-face twice during each year and collaborated in a private online environment from September to June.

The purpose of this web site is to provide information and strategies for teachers in Alberta who want to learn more about literacy and communication instruction for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Much of this content has been co-developed with participants of the Literacy for All communities of practice based on the work with their students.

To learn more about the Literacy for All Community of Practice and students with significant cognitive disabilities, please visit About this Project.

reflecting-on-community-of-practiceReflecting on Community of Practice (2 min. 44 sec.)

A cohort of Alberta teachers worked together to pilot the teaching resources MEville to WEville and Children with Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four-Blocks Way in the Alberta context. (This resource has been recently updated.) Please view this short video to hear what these teachers had to say about their experience in the Literacy for All community of practice.

“A community of practice is a group of people who share a common concern for something they do 
and a commitment to learn how to do it better by interacting and collaborating regularly.”