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 […]
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 […]
Levelled Literacy Intervention (LLI) is a commonly used literacy intervention grounded in the ineffective three-cueing approach to reading instruction. In 2022, the Ontario Human Rights Commission found that LLI is ineffective, both from external research on its effectiveness and boards’ own data on student outcomes. […]
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 […]
In this video, Dr. Anita Archer models an explicit vocabulary lesson with older students. Note how Dr. Archer involves active participation: students are engaged throughout. Note also the high level of teacher-student interaction. See if you can count the number of “serve and return” interactions!
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 […]
REWARDS is a research-validated, specialized reading intervention program designed for students in junior, intermediate and senior grades. This YouTube playlists contains training videos for several versions of the program: REWARDS Intermediate, REWARDS Secondary, and REWARDS Social Studies.
Even as students enter kindergarten, there are huge differences in their individual vocabularies. If we are to narrow the achievement gap that students from different economic levels exhibit in the upper grades, we must provide systematic, robust explicit vocabulary instruction in the primary grades. One […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]