Keen to learn more about using assessment to drive structured literacy in your classroom? Catch up with our Next STEPS Summer Book Study. Resources related to this ONlit event series, hosted by Jordan Sloan, can be found here. Each session in the series tackles a foundational reading skill, unpacking what it is, why it’s necessary for…
Modeled after Core Knowledge Language Arts units, this language and social studies unit is designed for use in Canadian kindergarten and Grade 1 classrooms. The unit is comprised of 10 lessons, each about an Important Canadian, with a teacher read-aloud document and accompanying slideshow for student viewing during the lessons. Explicit vocabulary instruction and comprehension…
Vocabulary knowledge must be intentionally nurtured to ensure that students are ready for the greater vocabulary demands of reading complex texts and writing multi-paragraph essays, but we need to pay attention to cracks in the foundation and scaffold our lessons accordingly, or it all falls apart. This workshop equips participants to consider the role of…
With shifts to literacy instruction and intervention and the revised 2023 Language curriculum, many schools have unused Levelled Literacy Intervention books in their book rooms. While LLI isn’t an evidence-based literacy intervention and doesn’t meet the needs of struggling readers, the individual texts can be repurposed to support structured literacy instruction. Developed by Catherine Shawana…
Thank you to Greater Essex County DSB for generously sharing this spreadsheet! It contains sets of texts aligned with content from the 4 frames (kindergarten), social studies and science curricula (grades 1 – 6), and history and geography curricula (grades 7 and 8). These content-rich texts are meant to be used in repeated shared…
Teaching vocabulary is a key element of the revised Language curriculum that stretches across all grade levels. Effective vocabulary instruction is crucial for developing students’ reading comprehension and writing skills. One engaging way to teach vocabulary nuances is through the Shades of Meaning activity, which uses semantic gradients to help students understand subtle differences between…
REWARDS is a research-validated, specialized reading intervention program designed for students in junior, intermediate and senior grades. There are three YouTube videos for different versions of the program: REWARDS Intermediate, REWARDS Secondary, and REWARDS Social Studies.
Concept sorts introduce students to the vocabulary or ideas of a new topic or text. Students are presented a list of terms or concepts and have to determine how they are related by placing them into different categories. When used before reading, concept sorts provide an opportunity for you see what your students already know about a given…
In this activity from FCRR, students use a web graphic to identify multiple meanings of target vocabulary words.
A word map is a graphic organizer that supports connections among vocabulary and ideas. This resource from TextProject provides Word Maps for core vocabulary – the most important words in written English. Three types of words maps are available for the core vocabulary: synonyms, morphology, and multiple meaning of words.
Keeping a vocabulary journal is a strategy for helping students apply their knowledge of new words. Research shows that writing supports memory of words because it requires the cognitive skills of retrieval and repetition. Their vocabulary journal can also be a reference for students to use as they write. And they can add to it…
Maya’s Book Nook is a website created by Speech-Language Pathologist Dr. Lakeisha Johnson. The Behind the Book section houses a bank of materials to accompany a diverse, culturally relevant children’s book. Equally useful for both parents/caregivers and educators, these handouts include target vocabulary words, as well as questions to support dialogic reading to build language comprehension.
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