Meet the dedicated educators of ONlit, driven to empower their peers with evidence-based, systematic, and explicit instruction that supports Ontario’s new Language and Français Curricula. In this series of blogs, we showcase their impactful work.
Spotlight on Teresa Oud: Passion for Structured Literacy at the Intermediate Level
In her 18-year career in education, Teresa Oud has taught nearly all grades. In the 2024-25 school year, Teresa is a Literacy Resource Teacher for the Huron Perth Catholic School Board, which effectively supports teachers’ transition to structured literacy, and a member of the ONlit Curriculum Assistance team.
Teresa’s journey into the science of reading began when she grew frustrated watching her primary/junior (grade 3/4) students continue to struggle with reading. She sought better ways to support them, immersing herself in podcasts, blogs, courses, and more. This journey led her to pursue a Master of Education in Literacy Education with UBC and she recently completed her Principal Qualification Program (PQP). Teresa is always searching for answers and ways to become a better teacher for her students, especially those who struggle. She believes that all students have the right to equal opportunities, beginning with the right to read.
As a teacher and in her duties for ONlit, Teresa now fulfills her particular interest in assisting students at the intermediate level. “While much focus is rightly placed on early foundational skills, I am concerned about older students who may have struggled from the beginning. With the interruption of COVID, many of these students may have continued to miss out on crucial literacy skill-building. There is a significant need here, which I hope will become a short-term focus on a larger scale with the impact of excellent core instruction in foundational literacy skills within the early or primary grades,” she says.
During the 2023-24 school year while she was a grade 7/8 teacher, Teresa worked with her school’s Special Education teacher to support a group of students identified as needing Tier Two support in reading fluency and comprehension after conducting universal screeners. The six students participated in an intervention program to boost their reading fluency and comprehension. She recalls that the improvement in these students’ fluency and comprehension was remarkable: “More importantly, their confidence as readers also significantly increased. Students who previously never volunteered to read aloud began eagerly offering to read any shared reading or announcements displayed on our class screen. They took pride in their accomplishments and viewed themselves as capable learners.”
She highlights that student learning successes were the result of a joint effort between the school and the board. She is thankful for the team effort and support she received from her principal, Tara Cakebread, Special Education Teacher, Laura Marsh, and the Literacy and Special Education departments at the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board. Teresa also points out that while research supports the importance of developing foundational literacy skills for our youngest learners, there is also a strong need to support older students. Many of these students may have experienced the Matthew effect, where the gap between poor and strong readers widens noticeably after Grade 1. This gap is especially evident in grades 7 and 8.
Support for Intermediate Teachers
Since the 2023-24 school year, Teresa has been assisting many teachers, particularly those in the intermediate divisions, from across Ontario through ONlit’s support form. She responds to emails with questions about everything from universal screeners to fluency, accuracy, decoding, comprehension, and vocabulary.
In addition to contributing several different resources to the Resource Library, Teresa has been working with the fluency passage team on creating a series of fluency passages on Canadian changemakers at the grade 8 level. She is also developing a series of text sets to support grade 7/8 educators across the curriculum, which will be available during the 2024-25 school year. She is selecting a series of texts to support students’ background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension of Science, History, and Geography topics, paying attention to the different strands. “I would love to help educators across Ontario infuse the curriculum expectations for each area while focusing on building literacy skills. One way to do this is through text sets, which build vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency.”
Teresa expresses her excitement about being part of the ONlit team: “I need to pinch myself whenever I join ONlit for book studies, webinars, or bi-weekly meetings. I can’t believe that I get to be a part of this fantastic team as we work to support educators across Ontario. The collaboration and shared commitment to literacy development among team members make this an incredibly enriching experience.”
She looks forward to the coming year and the ongoing development of new resources and continuous professional growth. Teresa is excited about the positive impact they can make on literacy education. To learn more about Teresa, watch our introductory video on YouTube featuring her story.
