Western School Division is taking a new approach to its English Language Arts structure.

Cyndy Kutzner, Assistant Superintendent for the division, explained that the curriculum has not changed. Teachers are simply looking at ELA in a different way.

Shelley Warkentin, who is with Manitoba Education and Training, will help with the changes. She is an ELA and Literacy Consultant for Kindergarten to grade 12.

"She is working with 14 of our teachers to help them see our English Language Arts, the way we teach it, in a new way," said Kutzner. "What we really want to focus in on is that deeper thinking, that critical analysis of what you hear, what you see, what you take in, and also being able to generate good questions about things."

Kutzner added that with how technology has taken over today, kids should be able to look at media and news with a critical eye. The objective is also to get students to be able to expand upon information, synthesize it, and create something new.

She reflected on the fact that the ELA curriculum is about 20 years old, and this would be a way to help keep things up to date.

"They talk about the six language arts, which is reading, writing, viewing, speaking, listening and representing, and they want kids to use all of those language arts in a way where they're thinking very deeply and critically," said Kutzner.

Kutzner believes it will be a successful change. "I really think we're going to have teachers that are better trained to be able to generate ideas from students in a more productive way," she said.

The 14 teachers get to participate in the training on October 11, and Kutzner said she believes that students may notice a change in the next few months.

"I don't know if the students would have realized that there are some changes happening with the way teachers are approaching things, but by... the end of January teachers will be taking more risks in terms of approaching things differently."