Matthew McCormac

66 Mortensen Drive, Amherstview, Ontario K7N 1W5 cell: (613) 532-8489- 12mdm11@queensu.ca

RE: Read-A-Lot Summer Literacy Program Instructor Position

Dear Mrs. Mace and Mrs. Wyncoll,

As a teacher-candidate, tutor, student and community member, working alongside students to

develop a curiosity and consciousness for learning lies at the very foundation of my beliefs. When we
can give students the tools to consider, hypothesize, evaluate and solve questions they have of
themselves and of the world around them, we have created conscious and autonomous thinkers. A
sense of curiosity to understand and assess beliefs and ideas is the ultimate sense of wonder in learning
that an educator can instill upon pupils to which they work with. In furthering an application to the
position of Read-A-Lot Summer Literacy Instructor, it is both my intention and responsibility to inspire
curiosity and wonder within the students of my school community.

If given the opportunity, I will build upon the work I have done previously in the summer
program to fill gaps in student learning by paying particular attention to fostering engagement, intrigue
and investigation. As a program tutor, my main focus has been to use interaction and play as a means to
implement data-driven student interventions in reading and writing skills. I believe students learn best
while acting as investigators, solving problems and asking further questions in small stations. It is with
this approach in mind that I have designed and facilitated word level learning frameworks and activities
in my three years within the Read-A-Lot program. Using data from the program’s phonics screener and
Words Their Way diagnostic assessment tools, I have re-created games such as Connect-Four, Candy-
Crush, and many others that specifically address student letter-sound patterns needs. In designing these
resources, it is my goal to encourage students to explore in-activity strategies, enhance interpersonal
skills by collaborating with others, all while progressing their foundational literacy abilities. While
working the past summer with Grade Seven and Eight students, I worked to extend my inquiry-based
approach to teaching close-reading skills in non-fiction texts. Here I used cloud-based, interactive
technologies to have students question and discuss critical modern topics involving mental health,
environmental protectionism and autonomous driving.

Learning is always at its best when approached as a community working towards common goals.
Acknowledging and including the voice of all stakeholders is essential to the creation of a
comprehensive learning community. When students, faculty and Kingston community members all have
the ability to co-create goals, assess the learning, and devise solutions when problems arise, students
will enhance their agency and intrigue in their own education. Giving students the ability to choose what
they learn about and scaffold goals to structure their learning has been a large part of my approach as a
tutor in the Spring Literacy Program and as a teacher-candidate in humanities courses. Teaching history
and geography in LDSB and KPRDSB schools has taught me the value of discovery, guided practice, and
consolidation within flexible centers of learning that respond to both students interest and skills. This
program takes student learning beyond the data collected or the skill being consolidated, and engages
communities of learners through interaction, play and investigation. Having seen the success of former
students, I can think of no better opportunity to foster more curiosity, skills and wonder in Limestone
students than within the Read-A-Lot Summer Literacy Program.

Thank you in advance for your time and for the opportunity of application to this position. I look
forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,
Matt McCormac
Matthew McCormac
66 Mortensen Drive, Amherstview, Ontario K7N 1W5 cell: (613) 532-8489- 12mdm11@queensu.ca