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In February 2022, the Ontario Human Rights Commission released the findings of the Right to Read inquiry and their recommendations for improving literacy instruction in Ontario (click here to access the OHRC Right to Read Executive Summary and Key Recommendations). Since then, educators across Ontario have been working to better understand and implement these recommendations to improve student success and improve best practice.
LD@School asked a group of educators from Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board to share some of their journey into evidence-based literacy. Our bloggers include classroom teachers, instructional coaches, and superintendents.
We are grateful for the teams from the school board for sharing their thinking and experiences regarding the change in literacy instruction in Ontario.
Written by Candice Zonneveld, Grade 2 teacher, St. Basil’s School, BGCDSB
The use of decodable readers in our Grade 2 French Immersion Classroom
In implementing a structured literacy approach in my grade 2 FI classroom this year, finding the path from levelled reading to decodable reading has been fluid in many ways. The students have had great and rapid success using the decodable readers. Used in part and explicitly chosen to pair with our current focus sounds, and to only include previously taught sounds, the books reinforce the student’s ability to recognize and apply their new grapheme/phoneme in a practical way.
Figure 1: Facile à Lire Book “Rose et la robe” passage. Demonstrating repetition of sounds and words makes comprehension complicated for students.
With the primary goal of the decodable texts being to reinforce a specific sound, they're structured to provide as much practice with decoding phonemes and graphemes presented in words within one to two simple sentences on a page. While the students like the decodable readers because they feel confident and they are capable of figuring out how to read the words on the page, often the text's ideas are somewhat abstract and they take some explaining. (see Figure 1)
Figure 2: Comprehension non-fiction report using the Facile à lire book, “La Giraffe”
One way I have explained these books to my students is that they are like a poem or a tongue twister. Sometimes words are chosen because they rhyme or they help the rhythm of the poem flow, but they make you think hard and have to figure out their meaning. The concept of a book composed of many words containing one similar sound for extra practice is wonderful, they are not the only effective tool for building age-appropriate and useful vocabulary or comprehension for a second grader. Thus, we have started using the decodable readers in different ways than solely as our small group reading material. Another way they are used in our classroom is as a next step in different independent centres or activities. Sometimes we do follow-up work using a non-fiction decodable text. The students first respond together orally and then write responses to questions about the text or write a recount of the text in their own words, highlighting and building upon their comprehension and increasing their vocabulary (Figure 2). The decodable texts have also ended up quite often at our oral language centre. My students really enjoy playing school, and regardless of the group’s ability, they often choose to mirror a read-aloud, using a decodable text. They feel confident reading them and then they have begun asking their ‘class’ follow-up comprehension questions, or they mimic a small group reading group and the ‘teacher’ helps support the ‘students’ modelling the focus sounds. (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Oral language centre with students playing school using the decodable readers and modeling our structured literacy lessons.
Results
Since it is only the first year, we have made the switch to a structured literacy program using decodable readers, and it has been a big change. It is so refreshing to see the confidence in the students right away when starting a brand new book. Seeing students independently pause and recite different learned grammar rules as they are decoding words has really illustrated just how much and how well they are learning the language—and not just memorizing words. So, while they have their limitations within a grade 2 class, they are absolutely worth it and so rewarding for both students and teachers.
Enhancing the Program
We are now beginning to include other resources and books within some of our small reading groups. This helps to build the student’s French vocabulary and expose them to more complex thoughts, ideas and structures, and grammar found within normal texts. Since implementing structured literacy, my approach to choosing different texts for my small group is less based on level and more on our current focus within our program. For example, are we focused on silent -ent endings, or the different spellings of the /o/ sound etc? I also choose books related to what we are working on as a class and make sure that the students will be successful in reading the books based on what we have already covered teaching through our program.
Written by Christina Speers, Classroom Teacher, BGCDSB
Searching for Answers
Introducing structured literacy makes so much sense to me. Before, I was always on the hunt for what was going to ‘fix’ my students' struggles with reading. Small groups made complete sense and I did it, but despite my best efforts, there were still students who were stuck or struggling. Enter phonemic awareness training. Hit them 10x a day with practice and the struggles will stop. Still, no matter how many times a day I was able to actually fit it in, students didn’t progress, or they slid back through the summer. This was not the answer. I was trained as a reading recovery teacher and I thought “this was it”, I finally have the answer. Don’t get me wrong, students did progress, but it wasn’t all of them and some seemed to peter out later in their school career. I still didn’t have the answer I was looking for. I thought maybe there were no real answers, and this was just the way it was. Then enter the Science of Reading body of research, and it all started to come together. Finally, I feel like I can support all of my students' progress. Is it always fun? No. Do students tend to like it? Yes. It makes them feel powerful. It is them against the words, and they are winning.
Progress For My Students
For some students progress is fast, and they are quickly working beyond our whole class lessons, however, for some it is slower and for a few VERY slow. But no matter the pace, there is progress. To structure my small groups, I use a differentiated grouping system as a model for my classroom. All of my students participate in whole- and small-group instruction that includes phonics, phonemic awareness, comprehension, and Lexia (https://www.lexialearning.com/). I pick whole-group goals from our board's scope and sequence. In addition to this, I use a DIBELS screener and a diagnostic assessment such as the CORE Phonics Survey and the PAST assessment from Kilpatrick to help identify and sort students' individual needs. All of my students participate in small-group instruction based on their needs.
| Tier 1 (Classroom Instruction) | Tier 1 Classroom Instruction + Tier 2 or Tier 3 Intervention | |
| Group 1 – Small Group Instruction | Group 2 – Small Group Intervention | Group 3 – Small Group Intervention Plus Tier 2 or 3 Intervention |
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*bolded is added to the individual needs of students depending on where they fall within classroom differentiated instruction
This is where flexibility comes in for planning. For my students that are working far below our classroom whole-group lessons, I increase the frequency to almost daily small-group instruction. This is Group 1 for me. I am using more manipulatives, increased frequency, and consistent check-ins to look for consolidation of skills.
Next, in Group 2 instruction, I have a couple of students that flow in and out of one-on-one instruction on top of their small-group and whole-group instruction. For these students, their frequency is daily one-on-one intervention, no matter what is going on. These students are chosen for increased frequency because they are not progressing the way the rest of the students are in their small groups or in whole-group. These students do not receive one-on-one instruction all the time. It is usually for a couple of weeks until they have consolidated a skill and then are ready to move back into regular small-group instruction and one-on-one instruction ceases until needed again.
Then Group 3 enters. I have a group of students that are part of the Tier 3 Empower reading intervention program, in addition to all their classroom (Tier 1) instruction that I provide. They participate in daily explicit lessons that are about an hour long. This instruction is all on top of whole- and small-group instruction they get within the classroom. Empower is daily and intense. And the results have been remarkable for these students.
For my Group 2 and 3 students that need it, they also receive daily extra phonemic practice with an EA.
A flexible, differentiated approach in my classroom helps me to plan and see the big picture when I am thinking about my students. It is easy to get bogged down by the daily needs and expectations in the classroom, but using this differentiated approach allows me to think of the broader spectrum, within literacy. I am able to really hone in on what I need to focus on to help my students learn the code they need to be the best readers they can be.
A goal that I have to further this system in my class is to get better at progress monitoring with my Group 2 and 3 students. I regularly monitor all students' learning with constant check-ins to ensure the consolidation of skills. This includes weekly check-ins for phonics code they are learning and phonemic check-ins when I notice they are manipulating sounds in words with automaticity in small groups. However, I can see where the benefit would lay to monitor progress with my students that are slow to progress. This is a goal that I am hoping to implement in the next school year.
Christina Speers is a teacher by day, a parent by night and doing all the adulting somewhere in between. In her 14 years of teaching, Christina has taught all grades from K-8, been an instructional coach, a Reading Recovery teacher and had a couple of kids. To say the least, it has been busy. However, after all of these years, she finally feels like she have a handle on how to effectively teach students to read using explicit teaching strategies and a structured literacy approach. It is Christina's hope that these tips will help you on your journey of teaching your students how to read.
Candice Zonnefeld has been teaching primary French for 12 years at her current school, St. Basil’s. She is a mom of two young boys, a crazy dog and soon-to-be a few hundred bees. She grew up in the French Immersion system and has been a passionate French learner her whole life, even completing part of her undergraduate degree in France.
