Mystery Bag: Promoting Oral Language

Mystery Bag is an engaging classroom activity designed to enhance students’ oral language skills. Students generate clues about a mystery object, and their classmates use question sticks to prompt and structure discussion.

See-Think-Wonder

This visible thinking routine developed by Harvard Project Zero uses observations, inferences, and questions to develop vocabulary and background knowledge, and foster conversations among students.

Reconsidering Reading Levels

The Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Right to Read inquiry concluded that running records and reading level assessments have not been effective in identifying students who need additional support or in providing teachers with accurate information to guide instruction. We now know that there are more […]

Home Reading Materials

Fostering partnerships between school and home is key to supporting strong student outcomes. Jenni vanRees and other educators at Blue Heron Public School (WRDSB) have created this collection of materials to support a home reading program aligned with structured literacy and the science of reading. […]

Juicy Sentence Guidance

Far too often, students who struggle with reading and language are given simplified, uninteresting texts. These texts are judged to be “at-the-students’ language or reading level” but deny students access to rich, interesting, age-appropriate text. This guidance document outlines some ideas for fostering conversations around […]

Syntax Knowledge to Practice

In the webinar, Margie Gillis and Nancy Eberhardt explored the effective use of syntax in teaching reading and writing. The webinar highlighted the role syntax plays in enhancing language and literacy. Gillis and Eberhardt highlight a « function-first » approach to teaching syntax, a key element of […]

Sortegories from Sound to Syntax

In this webinar, Nancy Hennessy, Nancy Eberhardt and Sheryl Ferlito unpack syntax instruction. This webinar provides a high-level overview of best practices for syntax instruction. Hennessy and Eberhardt highlight a « function-first » approach that is aligned with the Ontario curriculum – instead of naming and identifying […]

Arbre de décision pour le dépistage

Il peut être difficile de gérer les nombreux sous-tests qui peuvent être utilisés dans le cadre d’un dépistage universel ! Une bonne lecture implique l’intégration de nombreuses sous-compétences. Ce tableau peut être utilisé pour identifier le besoin le plus urgent de l’élève.

Making Sense of Screening Decision Tree

It can be challenging to navigate the many subtests that can be used in universal screening! Skilled reading involves the integration of many subskills. This chart can be used to identify the most pressing need for instruction. For older students – start at the top […]