Giglets in Canada: Our Next Adventure!

My name is Jenenee Sivam, and I am Giglets Education's Canadian representative. Before joining the team at Giglets, I was a Classroom and Special Education Resource and Methods Teacher with the Toronto District School Board. I've also had the pleasure of working as a Special Education Needs Teacher at a Special School for Pupils with Autism in London, England. For me, these roles have highlighted the importance of the tools and resources used by our schools, teachers and students.

In anticipation of the official launch of Giglets in Canada, I'm setting out to meet schools and teachers and inviting them to try Giglets (for free) in their classrooms. I'm eager to hear what Canadian teachers think about how Giglets can be used in daily practice in schools, classrooms and homes. There are so many ways that Giglets can support our students, especially: special education students, French students and students who speak languages other than English. It will be great to hear what teachers think and work to meet their needs!

I'll be reaching out to administrators, teachers and parents in the weeks ahead to share more about what Giglets has to offer and to learn from them how they would see Giglets working successfully in their schools and for their students. I am now looking for teachers and schools who would like to work alongside me in rolling out Giglets in classrooms for free!

What is Giglets?

Giglets is an online literacy resource used by thousands of teachers and children in the UK. Giglets allows teachers to share texts and activities that children will love to work on in school or at home.

Giglets includes an accessible and ever-expanding library of colourful and enjoyable texts in over 35 languages. Children are engaged before they have begun to read, drawn in by enhanced texts that include audio support, illustrations, animations and theme music.

Each child's reading and learning experience is supported by interactive tasks and questions focussed on reading comprehension and higher-order thinking. The rich selection of texts encourages independence and improves children's motivation to read.

Giglets Education is a UK-based company that is passionate about inspiring children with a love of reading.

How do I know Giglets Education is the right fit for Canadian schools?

Students: Giglets Education values children and pays attention to their needs and requests. On Giglets, each student can personalize their experience by choosing the font type, font sizes, page background colours and avatars. Their entire reading experience can be adapted to support engagement and differentiated instruction.

Parents: Giglets supports many schools and families in delivering hybrid and online teaching and learning experiences. Giglets is very easy to use, and support is available through video tutorials and printable texts and activities. Giglets is accessible from anywhere and on any device.

Teachers: Giglets supports educators with a range of features and resources. Texts are levelled by reading and interest age. They are also supported by tailored higher-order thinking skills questions, reading comprehension questions (that are automatically marked!) and cross-curricular tasks. Students can be assigned texts and tasks individually, in guided reading groups or as a whole class.

Administrators: Giglets allows schools and administrators to track students' progress, supporting reading interventions and informed decision-making. Moreover, Giglets helps prepare students for standardized testing using interactive reading comprehension questions (it could be an excellent resource for the upcoming year's EQAO testing). Giglets is also compatible with text to speech software and browser extensions such as 'Read & Write' to support all of your students.

If you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch via our contact page. I'd love to hear from you and benefit from your experience.