Source: Pedagogical Leadership K-3: Learnteachlead.ca
Explore: Knowing Your Learner
in the Reading-Writing Environment
Possible Questions to Explore
As educators, understanding the importance of knowing your learner and deciding which explicit instructional strategies are necessary in the reading and writing environment is crucial.
Effective literacy instruction is intentional when educators are aware of purpose and practices and monitor and adjust instructional strategies to meet the learning needs of the students
- What is your curiosity on this topic?
- How can we ensure that learning is precise and personalized for the needs of the child… ‘Why this learning for this child at this time?’
- How can we use the program/ curriculum expectations and developmental continua to support our understanding of the learning?
- How can we be flexible with the structures and environment, and differentiate instructional strategies, to be responsive to the learner?
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Print Resources to support your inquiry questions.
Capacity Building Series: Reading Fluency (Link to Resource)
This monograph includes practical strategies for developing fluent readers in a comprehensive literacy program. Educators will deepen their knowledge and understanding about intentional instruction around phonological awareness, alphabet letter knowledge, and alphabetic principles, as well as reading fluency and the reading/writing connection.
What Works? Supporting Early Language Literacy: (Link to Resource)
This monograph summarizes current research on literacy development and offers practical research-based strategies to support young children in becoming literate learners.
What Works? Supporting Struggling Writers (Link to Resource)
Some students struggle with communicating what they’re learning as well as using writing to interact with others. This monograph supports educators in helping students overcome writing difficulties and enhancing their motivation to write.
What Works? Word Study Instruction: Enhancing Reading Comprehension (Link to Resource)
Why is word study important? And how should it be taught? According to educator, Dr. Ruth McQuirtor Scott, word study direct instruction provides important knowledge to students that will aid in the comprehension of texts. This monograph explores the understandings or recent approaches to word study, theories of spelling development and implications for classroom practice.
Capacity Building Series: Canadian-born English Language Learners (Link to Resource)
This monograph focuses on academic language proficiency as a starting point for school team discussions on how to set the stage for appropriate instruction for Canadian-born English Language Learners and in doing so to improve their opportunities for success.” (p.1)
What Works? Assistive Technology Tools: Supporting Literacy Learning for All Learners in the Inclusive Classroom (Link to Resource)
This monograph emphasizes the importance of using assistive technology in supporting all learners, including those with special education needs. It describes a wide range of assistive technology available to students and teachers from the Universal Design for Learning perspective.
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (Link to Resource)
This monograph emphasizes how crucial it is to acknowledge our student’s multiple social identities and how they intersect with the world. The intent is to deepen understanding of teaching practices that engage student populations with a full range of differences in learning background, strengths, needs and interests.
Video Resources to support your inquiry questions.
Re-imagining Literacy and Mathematics Throughout the Day (Link to Resource)
- Part I: Planning for Small-Group Shared Reading
- Part II: Inviting the Children Into New Learning
- Part III: Explicit Learning About Concepts of Print
This three-part series of video clips highlights the educator working with Kindergarten students in a small group learning setting. The educator is very precise about purpose for gathering the students, choice of text and balance of teacher/student talk and she connects children’s interests to reading and writing during this explicit teaching time within a play- and inquiry-based classroom.
Reading the World in a Grade 3 Classroom - Read Aloud: Main Idea (Link to Resource)
Through the instructional strategy of Read Aloud, the grade 3 students explore the message in the non-fiction text. Throughout the Read Aloud, students engage in the talk strategy of Think Pair Share to dialogue with peers about the text’s key messages.
Repeated Interactive Read- Aloud: The First, Second and Third Reading-Kindergarten (Link to Resource)
In this three video series, a Kindergarten educator engages her students in the Read Aloud instructional strategy for the specific, intentional purpose of deepening comprehension, enhancing vocabulary development and building analytical talk. In knowing her learners, this educator identifies the needs of the students and purpose for implementing this instructional strategy.
Reading the World in a Grade 3 Classroom: Shared Reading (Link to Resource)
Through the instructional strategy of Shared Reading, the students explore key messages and text features in a non-fiction poster.
Primary Discussion Paper:
Guided Reading Informational Poster (Link to Resource)
The educator supports students with strong decoding abilities to develop their comprehension skills in a small guided group setting.
Guided Reading: Debrief (Link to Resource)
The debrief illustrates the educator’s precise and purposeful planning for the guided reading session with her students: the intent/purpose of lesson; choice of text; use of text features to support student thinking and understanding of unknown vocabulary in the text.
Guided Reading: iPads (Link to Resource)
Students use ipad apps to help them make meaning in a small guided reading group setting.
Allan Luke: Indigenous Education - No Magic Bullet (Link to Resource)
Allan Luke discusses how we wait for the one instructional technique that will magically solve all of the problems in Indigenous education or any other kind of system. Expert teaching is the solution – this repertoire of weaving together of different pedagogical strategies.
Other Resources to support your inquiry questions.
International Literacy Association: Misconceptions About Appropriate Literacy Instruction for Young Children (Link to Resource)
Katharine Miles explores thinking about effective literacy instruction for early readers and the danger of equating direct and explicit instruction with didactic instruction in a play-based environment. She addresses the misconception that a play-based learning environment excludes explicit instruction.
Supporting English Language Learners in Kindergarten: A Practical Guide for Ontario Educators (Link to Resource)
This document is a resource and tool for teachers, administrators, and other school staff as they support English Language Learners in achieving the overall expectations of the Kindergarten Program. It will help them provide a quality beginning school experience for English Language Learners.
______Consolidating your learning
Potential reflection questions:
- What does this mean for my role? (e.g. So what? Now what?)
- How might this learning about responsive pedagogy cause us to think with greater flexibility and purpose in order to refine some of the commonly used literacy practices as we consider, ‘Why this learning for this child at this time?’
- How can we use program/ curriculum expectations and developmental continua to support our understanding and support of the learning?
- How can we support ourselves in deepening our knowledge to develop intentional, responsive and effective literacy instruction?