To support Ontario educators in the intermediate grades, ONlit has created two new resources to support fluency instruction. In the Fall of 2024, the Grade 8 Changemakers series was released. This resource included a collection of 14 passages about diverse changemakers. In addition to this, the Grade 7 Across the Curriculum series was released in April 2025. This resource includes a collection of 22 passages about content-rich topics from the Grade 7 curriculum. These resources support more than just fluency instruction, but instruction in vocabulary, morphology, syntax, comprehension, and knowledge building.
Content was carefully considered to ensure that it shared perspectives that have been underrepresented, that sparks students to think critically, and reflects some of the history, values, and experiences of diverse individuals who live, or have lived, in the place we now call Canada. The team reflected on each passage carefully, asking themselves many questions to ensure the resource would support fluency instruction, but also to ensure that the collection consisted of diverse stories and content.
The Grade 8 resource focuses on Changemakers, individuals who stood up for themselves and others, who fought hard to overcome obstacles, made a difference, and found joy and success in a variety of fields. Passages focus on individuals from the past to present, including Autumn Peltier, Simu Liu, Jully Black, and Delwin Vriend. Grade 8 teachers can use the passages to learn about these stories while also providing instruction in essential literacy skills.
The Grade 7 resource has topics that connect directly with the content of the Grade 7 curriculum. The passages are purposefully written to flexibly support a variety of instructional routines, including reading fluency, multisyllabic decoding, vocabulary, morphology, syntax instruction, and comprehension. Topics were selected from across the Science, Geography, History, Health, and the Arts curricula and include titles such as The Atom, Ocean Currents, The Robinson-Huron Treaty, Online Gambling, and Theatre in Your Community.
In April of 2025, the ONlit team released a webinar to support the implementation of this resource. In this 60-minute recording, the team shares their process, a walk-through of the resources, and practical examples. Grade 8 classroom educator and ONlit team member, Catherine Shawana, shared how she used the educator summary to plan instruction over the week. Each day, she focused on an essential literacy skill found in the 2023 Ontario Language curriculum, followed by a quick fluency routine. She also shared great tips on how to implement the resource in a classroom of real students.
These passages were purposefully created to support Ontario educators. Educators required materials that supported fluency instruction that were relevant to the Ontario context. ONlit intentionally designed these resources to support both of these needs. As a result, educators now have a valuable resource to improve student learning and educator workload.
ONlit encourages educators to provide feedback on the resources. If you notice an error in a passage or have suggestions for additional content, your feedback is appreciated. ONlit would also like to hear your success stories in the classroom using the resource. Email [email protected] or tag us with your success story on one of our social media accounts: Instagram, X or Facebook.
These resources are all available for free download on the ONlit Resource Library. The Webinar is also available on the ONlit YouTube Channel.
