Geeta Kumar General

Structured Literacy Shift Series: Final Thoughts

Over the past year I have been reflecting on my shifts in practice in relation to my literacy practice. You can see them all below:

There have been many more shifts, as I continue to learn about better and best practices. However I named these shifts because they are the ones that stayed in my practice in lasting ways and had a significant impact on student outcomes. Each shift was not an add on, but rather a better understanding that literacy development extend beyond phonics instruction to include other areas such as reading comprehension, vocabulary, morphology, writing.

What kept me motivated was the way my students decoded unfamiliar words with more confidence. I heard it in their dialogue and use of language during discussions. I noticed it when they make connections across texts and ideas. These were not isolated successes. This was the result of sustained, intentional shifts in instruction.

Through these shifts, I learned that meaningful change in literacy instruction (or any practice for that matter) is not about constantly adding something new. It is about strengthening and refining what works. It will not work well the first time (and most of the time quite frankly, it did not). Engaging in critical dialogue with peers, collaborating with colleagues and experts, and reflecting on assessment data helped me to refine these practices over time.

These shifts are not an endpoint. They are a foundation that I will keep refining. I know there will always be more to learn, more to refine, and more to shift. But perhaps the more important question is not what else we can add, but what we are willing to stay with long enough to see real change?

Geeta Kumar Math

Good at math?

I can’t tell you how many times in my career I’ve heard students share with me “I’m not good at math!”. This often comes out of frustration when a task is challenging, students feel pressure or compare their performance to others. Math confidence is so important to foster as it’s tied to belonging, self-efficacy, and achievement. 

This year my school has been focused on improving students’ experiences in math, and helping them see themselves as successful mathematicians. In the fall, we collected some data to assess how students felt about math in different divisions. We found that as students moved into the junior and intermediate grades, their beliefs about themselves as mathematicians often shifted from positive to negative. It was a powerful reminder that students do not just learn math content over time; they also develop beliefs about whether math is ‘for them’.

As a school team, we decided to become more intentional about how we end each math lesson, whether it’s a 3-part lesson or a purposeful practice. At the end of each lesson, we now include a verbal self-assessment checklist. For example, students might hold up 5 fingers, and put a finger down if they tried more than one strategy, or used math talk, etc. This small routine gives students a chance to reflect on their learning,  notice the actions that support mathematicians. 

I have also been trying to make math feel more positive in my own classroom. I have found that when I normalize mistakes, students are more willing to take risks. I also praise perseverance, strategy use, and mathematical thinking rather than only correct answers. I also incorporate a self-assessment during exit tickets, so students can name how they are feeling about the learning. When students feel seen and supported, they are more likely to participate and try again.

“I’m not good at math” is not a complete sentence in our classroom anymore.  With the right structures, encouragement, and opportunities to reflect, students are beginning to extend the phrase “I am not good at math but or and… I can persevere and try different strategies.” When students begin to see themselves as capable thinkers, their relationship with math starts to change.

How do you respond when students say, “I’m not good at math!”?

Geeta Kumar Inquiry, Literacy

Structured Literacy Shift # 7 – Structured Read Alouds

In the beginning of my career, read alouds used to be a one-time event. To be quite honest, not much planning went into it, besides ensuring it connects with current learning goals. However, in recent years, I have changed my approach. Read alouds are now more purposeful, and usually a more structured lesson. To read about my other shifts, see below:

Structured read-alouds made me more intentional with how I introduce texts in my classroom community. Rather than reading it once and moving on, I return to the same text with a clear purpose each day. This allows students to experience the text in different ways and at different depths. 

  • Day 1: Read for pleasure; It is often a shared starting point, where students can simply listen, enjoy, and begin to connect with the story. I often introduce the author, ask some pre-reading, during reading and post-reading questions orally with the students to help build understanding. 
  • Day 2-3: Vocabulary; I explicitly introduce Tier 2 vocabulary and re-read the text. Students make meaning together through discussion, and making real-life connections. This is often followed up by an “exit ticket” after some collaborative work, so I can assess understanding. 
  • Day 4-5: Knowledge building/comprehension tasks: By this point, students are ready to think more deeply about the message, the characters, or the author’s purpose. The students often engage in some collaborative work around these tasks. 

Afterwards, I may introduce other texts or media related to the same message or learning, even if it is not a multi-day read-aloud. This helps extend thinking and build connections across texts and ideas (also known as text sets).

This shift showed me that understanding does not happen all at once. It grows through revisiting, conversation, and time. When I stay with a text longer, my students have more opportunities to think deeply, speak confidently, and notice more of the author’s message.

Structured read-alouds have helped me see that depth matters more than speed. By giving a text time, I am also giving my students time, and that time makes the learning stronger. This is equitable practice, as it supports all learners. 

I highly recommend “Ramped-Up Read Aloud” by Maria Walther to deepen your understanding of structured read alouds further!

Geeta Kumar Start of the year, Year End Activities, Year End Reflection

Planning for September…

As the school year comes to an end, it is so easy to just push everything away from our brains and toss it into the closet! As educators, we have done so much work and now it’s time to rest and rejuvenate.

I know September is the last on your mind but doing a little planning now will make a big difference later.

Here are some suggestions things I plan out for September

Reflect on your routines and classroom layout. Think about what worked well and what you may need to refine next year. I personally like to take pictures of anchor charts, layouts, bulletin boards, so I can refer to it in the fall.

Organize with intention.  I like to create a bin full of activities that I typically use at the beginning of the year such as collaborative tasks, welcome newsletters, class calendars and read alouds). Grouping activities by subjects/units and labelling it clearly helps to ensure I am not scrambling in my drive for ideas later. I also take time to think about key literacy and math assessments I will likely need.

Below are items in my own “September” Box, that work for any division and range of abilities

  • First Week Activities: Read Alouds, Low prep collaborative tasks 
  • Newsletters/Class Calendar from previous year I can refer to, reuse or adjust
  • Assessments materials for math and literacy
  • A checklist of routines I explicitly taught
  • Daybook basics to help me get started right away

Taking just a little bit of time now can help you start September feeling calm, prepared, and ready to focus on what matters most, your wellbeing!

Is this something you like to do? Or do you prefer to leave it for a bit later?

Geeta Kumar Assessment and Evaluation

Visual Arts Assessment: A reflection

The last few years, I have been reflecting on assessment in visual arts, and the impact it can have on my students. In Visual Arts, the curriculum highlights the creative process (experimentation, expression, problem solving), not just the end product that we all see. This makes voice and choice essential during backwards design planning.

In the early years of my practice, I often used checklist or rubric to assess the final product and wrote some anecdotal notes about the process. However, we all know, the end product does not encapsulate the creative process. Real learning takes place during the creation: when a student changes their approach, reevaluates their colour choices or, work through frustrations of using certain materials. These moments matter. They reveal thinking, creativity, and growth.

I have found that by giving voice and choice (with some clear boundaries), students become more invested in the creative process. Students are willing to explore different materials, methods and modes of expression. This leads to deeper and more meaningful reflections. Even small choices made a huge difference.

I personally found that the most effective ways to support voice and choice in Visual Arts was during the reflection process. Asking open-ended questions (e.g., What was your plan? What made you change this part of the plan?) invited students to see themselves as artists. It also helped me to assess growth and intentions in ways I cannot access by simply using a checkbric with their final products. 

Of course, voice and choice do not mean that assessment becomes vague or unstructured. Success criteria still matter. Students need to know what they are learning and what success can look like. The difference is that the criteria should leave room for creativity and individuality. 

In Visual Arts, some of the most significant learning happens through the creative process, and that learning is not always easily captured in a report card comment. This is one reason why ongoing communication with students and families remains so valuable.

What are your thoughts about assessment in the Arts?

Geeta Kumar Design, STEM

Breaking Barriers in STEAM Learning: A Reflection

This year I took the opportunity to apply for and attend to attend a two-day Women’s Program (WP) workshop hosted by ETFO Provincial: Breaking Barriers in STEAM Learning. I was pleasantly surprised to be accepted and thoroughly enjoyed the experience!  This experience reminded me exactly why seeking and investing in my own professional matters, it is not just for the educators, it is for the students I serve!

What the Workshop Was About
The workshop gave me dedicated time and space to deepen my understanding of how to meaningfully bring STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) and Design Thinking into my teaching practice. Rather than a passive sit-and-listen experience, it was collaborative, hands-on, and built around the idea that learning should be engaging and accessible for everyone.

Key-Take Aways

The research is clear: the gaps don’t start in high school or university, they begin as early as kindergarten. Girls often grow up without visible role models in STEAM fields, or they’re introduced to these subjects in ways that feel dry, irrelevant, or simply uninviting. Even more subtle are the ingrained cultural biases we may not realize we’re reinforcing, like asking girls to help with crafts and boys to troubleshoot technology. These small moments add up over time and shape how children see themselves as learners and future problem-solvers. This was a meaningful reminder for me as a primary/junior teacher. The messages I send (intentionally or not) about who “does” well STEAM can have a lasting impact.

The workshop also offered practical guidance on how to design effective STEAM experiences through a Design Thinking Lens:

  • Choose tasks that are challenging but achievable, to foster confidence and a growth mindset
  • Within the engineering design process, prioritize reflection above all else as that is where the deepest learning occurs
  • Rather than trying to cover every strand, focus on 1 or 2 well-designed challenges with intentional cross-curricular connections that solves ‘everyday problems’. This approach actually leads to more curriculum expectations being addressed, alongside richer critical thinking (especially important for split-grade teachers!)

Some advice if you are looking to participate: 

  • Pay attention to those ETFO newsletters! Opportunities for Professional Development are often embedded in the email. 
  • Follow ETFO on social media to stay up to date
Geeta Kumar General

3 Lessons from This School Year (2025/26)

It’s that time of the year where I reflect on my practice, and think about THREE major lessons to take away. Here are my lessons from last year, if you are curious! 

This year felt like a lot. Being a combined grade primary-junior teacher (Grade 3/4) combined with starting off in a brand new school took a lot of energy. I felt capable when a lesson was successful and both grades were engaged. Some days I felt more tired.

But I showed up. Every day. And now it’s June, and I’m reflecting on what this year taught me.

1. Positive Self-Talk Matters… so everyone puts forth their best! 

Positive self-talk is about being kind to yourself and building resiliency through hard tasks. By modelling self-talk as an educator, it helps students experience growth and success, especially during times they feel stuck in the learning cycle.

2. STEM Matters… now more than ever!

Building identity, relations, and connection to STEM is important. It helps build resiliency, reasoning and critical thinking skills. By helping students see current diverse role models in STEM, students get the message that “we belong in these spaces.”

3. Handwriting Matters… to build neural pathways ,

In the times of technology, and as wonderful as it is… I reverted back to more pencil-paper tasks. I saw students slow down when they wrote by hand. They thought more. They remembered more (especially capitals and punctuation!). Of course technology is provided as support (or if it was outlined in an IEP).  But by pushing more handwriting tasks, students shared their own thinking more. Their notes, their reflections, their drafts – they approached the work differently. 

It wasn’t a perfect year but it was full of growth and moments where I surprised myself. And for me, that’s more than enough! 

What are your three lessons from this school year?

 

Geeta Kumar General

Lessons of a Combined Grades Teacher

This was my first year in a long time that I taught a combined (Grade 3/ 4) class. Sometimes combined grades are also referred to as split grade classrooms. I had some ideas about planning and organization before the school year began, and since then I’ve refined them as I go in order to better meet the students in front of me and protect my own wellbeing. See below some tips and reflections I’ve made learned this year!

  1. Considerations for the physical environment

I set up common bins for shared resources like manipulatives, art supplies, and reference books. When creating seating plans or groups, I try to mix the grades up using equitable strategies to support collaboration and learning skills.

  1. Set expectations early and follow through! 

Co-create class rules, routines, expectations and transitions. It took time and reinforcement but it eventually led to independence so that I can do more complex tasks with each group, especially when we needed to separate between grades. I also focused a lot of community building and reinforced it regularly throughout the year, to ensure all students were treated equitably and respectfully.

  1. Find Overall Expectations that Overlap!

During backwards design planning, I personally found that planning 60% of lessons together on big ideas led to more engagement because we were together. Fortunately the language and mathematics curriculum is framed like a continuum, so it is easier to find overlaps. When you backwards design for other subjects such as Science/Social Studies/Health, there are often overlaps, and then you can branch when there are specific expectations that differ by grade. Summative assessments with similar outcomes, but grade specific expectations, also made planning more manageable. 

  1. Be intentional with differentiation

Differentiation became essential in a combined class. I used open-ended and choice tasks so students could work at different levels on the same big idea. This allowed me to meet grade-specific expectations while keeping the class together as much as possible. I also leaned on small groups and conferencing to target specific needs, whether it was extra support, extension, or practicing a particular skill.

These were some of the key takeaways this year. Do you have any tips to add?

Check out this resource from ETFO shop, if you’d like to learn more!

Geeta Kumar Year End Activities

Engaging and Meaningful Learning During the Month of June

As we come to the end of the year, here are some learning areas I have focused on in the past that support meaningful and rich learning for students, keep structure in the classroom and continue to support ongoing practice! This is a list of areas I’ve weaved in alongside all the other exciting things that usually happen in schools (e.g., assemblies, public library visits, etc). 

Indigenous History Month

June is a meaningful time to deepen learning about First Nations, Inuit, and Métis perspectives. I like to incorporate read-alouds from Indigenous authors while engaging students in reflective responses to texts or arts. Keeping the focus on respect and voice is key.

Pride Month

Pride month provides an important opportunity to continue to build an inclusive classroom community and celebrate identity. We read inclusive picture books, discuss the importance of belonging, and co-create messages of acceptance. Students design posters, write affirmations, or participate in discussions. This connects beautifully to ongoing social-emotional learning and classroom community building.

Collaborative Class Yearbook

I love making a class yearbook each year. This is an opportunity for students to reflect on their growth as learners and a meaningful way to close the year. Students can contribute pages about their favourite memories, proudest moments, and goals for next year. I often include student writing, and collaborative pages to capture our classroom community.

Which One Doesn’t Belong (WODB)

As a class, we have seen and answered so many versions of WODB in both math and literacy. This is an opportunity for students engage in creative thinking and design their own to present to the class! It fosters creativity, critical thinking and oral communication skills. This is often engaging because students know the routine,  and get to be the teachers now! 

STEM Challenges

Hands-on STEM challenges are always a hit in June. I like to keep materials simple (e.g., popsicle sticks, cups, paper, tape) and give open-ended tasks such as building the tallest structure or designing something that can hold weight. These challenges encourage collaboration, problem-solving, and perseverance.

Outdoor Art

Taking learning outside can be refreshing for everyone. Students can create nature-inspired art using found materials, sketch outdoor scenes, or experiment with chalk art. This is also a great way to integrate mental health learning and observation skills while enjoying the warmer weather.

Gratitude Cards

Throughout the year, we often practice gratitude, and June is a perfect time to revisit this. Students can write thank-you cards to classmates, school staff, or family members. This helps reinforce kindness, reflection, and appreciation for the community we’ve built together.

What are some key activities that you like to do as you consolidate the learning for the year?

Geeta Kumar General

Considerations for Ongoing Communication

As we know, communicating with families is a key component to student success. When we take the time to build that home to school connection in the beginning of the year, students are better supported in their educational experiences. When families and caregivers understand the learning, they can reinforce classroom lessons at home, feel more connected to their child’s learning journey, and help foster a genuine love for learning.

Some considerations

  • Clear: Be specific and actionable; offer concrete examples in plain language of what a student is doing well and where they need support
  • Accessible: Consider families’ preferred language and method of communication (e.g., email, phone call, notes)
  • Ongoing: Monthly newsletters, biweekly emails, calendars.. however you decide to share progress, make sure to not do it just during assessment periods or when a concern arises
  • Timely: Allows for communication to be responsive and continuous throughout the year

Some strategies:

  • Welcome letters in the beginning of the year
  • Asking families for their preferred method of communication
  • Connecting with families with positive news more often (i.e. “sunshine messages”)

We each use our professional judgment to determine how and when communication takes place. Here is another article for your own reflections ETFO Voice: Connecting with Parents