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 “juicy sentences,” where students learn to deconstruct and reconstruct sentences,…

Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction: Connecting Assessments to Effective Interventions

This book is a fantastic resource aligning closely with much of the new Ontario Language Curriculum and reinforcing how assessment can inform our instruction and interventions in order to best help students succeed in literacy. It’s valuable learning for classroom educators, those working in coaching/consulting roles and those in special education. While targeting skills typically…

Tier 2 Vocabulary for K-6

Tier 2 vocabulary words are words that are useful and necessary across different content areas or domains, but that may not be frequently used in oral language. Christopher Such, author of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading, has assembled a list of Tier 2 vocabulary words for explicit instruction.

Foundations for Literacy: An Evidence-based Toolkit for the Effective Reading and Writing Teacher

This resource has been compiled by a group of Canadian language and literacy experts. It is organized into three primary segments. First, it highlights the essential information educators should possess about various research types, enabling them to stay well-informed and knowledgeable about the connection between language, reading, and writing instruction. The next section focuses on…

The Vocabulary-Rich Classroom

By modeling the use of sophisticated words, educators can promote students’ vocabulary growth and word consciousness. In this article, the research support for this approach is explained, suggestions are provided for how teachers might accomplish this goal, and examples are shared from teachers who have done it successfully. Don’t miss the helpful list of sophisticated…

Morphology for Meaning

Melinda Hinch, Speech-Language Pathologist at Greater Essex County DSB, has adapted morphology lessons from The Morphology Project, an open-source series of lessons developed by a group of teachers and school leaders in Australia. This is a series of slides to teach grades 1 – 3 students the affixes listed in the Language Foundations Continuum.

Academic Word Finder

Tier 2 words appear in many different contexts and are often subtle or precise ways to say relatively simple things. Since these aren’t words that will typically be used in a student’s conversations and they aren’t domain-specific, they should be given more focus than Tier 1 and Tier 3 vocabulary. The Academic Word Finder produces…