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At the beginning of the school year, I ease my working mom anxiety by watching a lot of videos about quick after school dinner recipes.  While there are hundreds of things to worry about related to teaching every day, somehow this makes me feel better and more prepared to tackle these sometimes exhausting fall beginnings every year.  

I start out looking at the main ingredients required, the measurements so I will know how much to purchase and whether it’s simple enough for me to figure out on my own.  As I watch the video and see the cooking techniques and instructions, it starts to make sense to me.  I can imagine the textures, the tastes – even see how many pots and pans I’ll have to clean after dinner.  These videos are entertaining and also help me to gain confidence in trying new flavours or learn how to tweak my tried and true recipes. 

My favourite phrase is when the creator gives permission to “measure with your heart”.  This small four word sentence honours that everyone’s tastes may differ; your family may like a little less salt and a little more garlic, or might prefer maple syrup over honey for a sweetener.  The small tweaks personalize that recipe and help me to make it my own.  When I measure with my heart, I think about who I am cooking for; family, friends, or even just myself and that recipe becomes customized with them in mind. 

When I get the opportunity to meet students in these early fall days, I’m still following some of those tried and true ‘recipes’ at the beginning of the school year – lots of smiles, spending time getting to know each other, building a community together.  I work my way through the measurements – assessments that help me to learn more about their academic experiences and how I can best meet their needs as their teacher.  

But somehow, without my noticing, I start to measure with my heart.  I see all the unique qualities and personality traits of the students and they start to learn a little more about me, too.  Some may need a little more gentle encouragement and others like to laugh and joke around with me. I learn who has siblings and who has a hamster and who takes swimming lessons on the weekend. I ask about these experiences that are important to them – personalizing the way that we show care for one another.  Maybe it’s suggesting books that centre their identities in language class; maybe it’s using real life examples that help them feel seen in math class.  Just like cooking, when I measure with my heart I think about who I am teaching – not just as students, but as children who are brilliantly unique and gently adjust the flavour of our classroom with them in mind. 

As we move into the unending deadlines that always seem to be present in education, I’m going to remind myself to measure from the heart every day.  To think not just about what students need to learn, but the ways our classroom can best reflect how they need to learn.  Perhaps it’s a  little more scaffolding at times or a more hands-on experience in other subjects.  Maybe Monday needs to be a little sweeter than the other days while Friday needs to be more spicy and bolder.  There’s no recipe that can guarantee what we will need most each week;  I’m just going to measure with my heart.

Those of you who have had the privilege of being ESL teachers will know the look I am about to describe.  It’s the expression on students’ faces when you arrive at the classroom door to collect them for tutorial support, their smiles lighting up the room as they realize it’s their turn to go with you. Other times you might notice a jump in energy when you walk in, as students suddenly rush to grab their pencils and head over in enthusiastic anticipation. Yes, ESL support classes can create an incomparably safe, fun, and dynamic environment full of rich learning. It’s a smaller space, quieter … where a few familiar students and a dedicated, specialized teacher provide the extra scaffolding, time, and support new students may need to find their footing and continue to learn.

It goes without saying that many multilingual language learners appreciate and look forward to these welcoming and affirming tutorial programs.

But …

But.

Not all students do.

Those of you who have been ESL teachers will also be familiar with a different look, I think. Sometimes, it is an older student who looks a bit embarrassed, not wanting to be singled out in front of peers as needing “help”; sometimes it is a student who is passionate about the next lesson topic, and looks frustrated and disappointed they will miss it; other times the student is unmistakably crestfallen, having worked tirelessly on their art project or science demonstration, only to find they will not be present for the first part of the class presentations on it; one of the worst is a quiet look of sadness, the student’s desire to stay with their friends seeming to hang in the air in front of you, everything about their expression telling you they just want to stay and participate in everything their peers are doing.

Make no mistake, these looks are not the result of subpar teaching or lackluster ESL learning programs; on the contrary, ESL teachers are some of the most talented and knowledgeable educators among our ranks. It is simply a part of that undeniable truth, that students have unique and varying learning needs, and that while some may appreciate and benefit from tutorial instruction in the traditional sense, others need something else. They want to stay and be included in their learning community in the classroom, be the same as their friends, and learn English and curriculum in the process.

In my last blog entry First, then, I described some of the potential academic pitfalls of isolated ESL tutorial instruction, where educators teach separate programs with little to no communication and collaboration. In such isolated models, students may not have as many opportunities for scaffolded support and recycling of key language structures needed in the mainstream classroom, potentially resulting in reduced linguistic development and curriculum access. However, academics are not the only consideration in this scenario. The innate desire we all have as humans to contribute and be included is equally important. And in decades’ past, when ESL support models overwhelming defaulted to isolated tutorial support, we may have met the needs of some students … but not all.

Implicit in a model that requires students to learn English as a separate subject before they are able to participate in classroom lessons is the assumption that students do not have the ability to participate as they are, here and now. That their current linguistic repertories are irrelevant to learning. That their rich experiences and skills do not count in school. That they are not enough. 

Fortunately, today’s ESL teachers are no longer relegated to isolated islands of instruction; classroom teachers and ESL teachers can now actively collaborate with one another to ensure MLLs are included in daily instruction, and have access to a full and robust curriculum, with the language supports they need to do so. To accomplish this, some educators co-teach in the same classroom, ensuring MLLs can stay with their peers and continue learning English; some teach separately but communicate with one another, so that their language programs are aligned and mutually-reinforcing.

All of this is well and good if – if – proper supports for educators are in place, with students’ needs centred. And regardless of support model used – tutorial, or integrated, or some wonderful combination of the two –  the professional judgement of teachers, coupled with adequate funding and teaching staff, are critical to choosing, creating, and sustaining responsive learning programs for students.

I will not repeat the myriad of ways collaborative, inclusive teaching models can be accomplished. I will however offer the link again, to ETFO’s infographic quick guide “Collaboration and Co-teaching for MLLs” as well as additional infographics in the same series, “Translanguaging” and “Program Adaptations”, which detail how students’ first languages and background knowledge can be included and affirmed in the classroom, and used for rich curriculum learning. ETFO Secure – Supporting English Language Learners Resources

Wishing you the best of luck in re-imagining your classroom environments, in which all students’ identities, knowledge, and languages provide bright paths to learning. Where they are more than enough … right here, right now.

This year, a part of my roles is serving as a Kindergarten Planning Time teacher. It’s a unique position, one where I drift between classrooms, slipping into the children’s day like a background melody. I’m not their “main” teacher, yet I’m a constant presence. And over the months, I’ve realized something powerful.

We talk so much about academics, routines, and expectations, but underneath all of it is something deeper. That is, what children come to believe about themselves, their inner voice. The one that will one day whisper encouragement before a big test, calm them when they are overwhelmed, or remind them that they are capable and loved.

Since September, I’ve watched a quiet transformation. When I enter a classroom now, the children greet me with familiarity, comfort, and joy. They know me. They trust me. Many of them open up in ways they didn’t at the start of the year.

It made me realize:

Even in a short period of time, even in a shared role, even in just one period a day, we matter.

Our tone, our consistency, our reactions, our presence… all of it becomes part of a child’s internal narrative.

There’s one moment that has stayed with me this year, one I think about often.

In September, every time I walked into one particular Kindergarten class at the end of the day, one little girl started to cry. It wasn’t about me; it was about the clock. My appearance signaled one thing to her:

It’s almost home time.

And for her, that transition felt overwhelming.

Every day, she cried.

Not loudly, not dramatically, just an overwhelming feeling that sat in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

I sat with her. I talked to her. I told her she was safe, that she was okay, that she was brave. In the beginning, she would repeat it back to me as a question.

I didn’t push her. I just showed up consistently with the same calm voice, and gave her the same gentle reassurance.

And slowly, so slowly at first, her inner voice began to change.

Where there was once panic, she started to build predictability.

Where there was fear, she began to find comfort.

Where there were tears, she began to show quiet strength.

Now, months later, she no longer cries when I walk in. Instead, she greets me, accepts that it’s almost home time. She gets ready calmly. She smiles. She chats. She knows she’s okay. She knows she’s brave.

And somewhere inside her, a new inner voice has formed. A voice that sounds a little bit like her… and maybe just a little bit like the reassurance she heard from me all those times.

“This is routine. I can handle this. I’m brave.”

This experience reminded me that how we greet a child becomes how they learn to greet themselves.

How we respond to their fear becomes how they learn to handle fear.

How we speak to them becomes their self-talk when we are not around.

We are not just teaching curriculum.

We are teaching self-regulation. Resilience. Self-talk.

We shape their inner voice, one moment, one connection at a time. And sometimes, it’s the smallest roles, the smallest windows of time, that make the biggest impact.

This is the first of three posts where I’ll share my work towards supporting the students I teach in becoming more confident and competent readers and writers. In this post, I’ll focus on how I’m helping students in grades 7 and 8 develop their writing skills by explicitly teaching them how to identify and construct the four sentence types (declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory) and the four sentence forms (simple, compound, complex, and compound complex) listed in specific expectation B3.1 found in the revised Grades 1 – 8 Language curriculum (2023).

While I am aware, according to the revised Language curriculum, students in intermediate grades 7 and 8 should have a clear knowledge and understanding of sentence forms and types from their previous schooling experiences, my assessments have revealed otherwise. Meaning, while many of the students with whom I work can compose sentences, when I asked them to identify the sentence form or type of sentence they composed, they said that they didn’t know what I meant or they just looked at me with blank stares.

To ensure my language program responds to student learning needs, I’ve incorporated a foundations of literacy component to my program where I explicitly teach students about sentence forms, sentence types, syntax, grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and other foundational literacy knowledge and skills. I began with sentences because I understand them to be one of the essential components of writing that students in intermediate grades need to firmly grasp as they start to engage in longer more complex forms of writing. I also began with sentences because I recognized that I could explicitly teach students about syntax, grammar, capitalization and other foundational literacy knowledge and skills while doing sentence work. I arrived at these insights after reading several books on how to teach students to write, one of them being, The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subject Areas, by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler. In it the authors write,

“The importance of spending plenty of instructional time working with sentences can’t be stressed enough. Sentence-level work is the engine that will propel your students from writing the way they speak to using structures of written language. Once they begin to construct more sophisticated sentences, they’ll enhance not only their writing skills but also their reading comprehension. And sentence-level work will lay the groundwork for your students’ ability to revise and edit when they tackle longer forms of writing.”

In preparation for my lessons, I thought about a scope and sequence that would move students from simple to more complex sentence concepts and incorporated the gradual release of responsibility model to slowly transfer the cognitive load from teacher to students to support their success. Recognizing sentence types to be an easier entry point than sentence forms, I began with the four sentence types then moved on to teaching the four sentence forms. When I taught the four sentence forms, I taught them in order from easiest (simple and compound) to more challenging (complex and compound complex).

Here is a brief lesson outline that I used and found positively impacted student learning. I began this lesson by sharing the learning goal and success criteria with students to inform them of what they were learning, why they were learning it, and how they would know when they had been successful in their learning. Here is the learning goal and success criteria I shared with students. Learning Goal: I am learning to create simple declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences to develop my ability to use a variety of sentence types when I write. Success Criteria: I can compose a declarative sentence, an interrogative sentence, an imperative sentence, and an exclamatory sentence. After sharing the learning goal, I then explained that we were studying sentences to help them better organize and communicate their ideas in written form and support their reading comprehension skills.

Next, I had students engage in a hands-on activity to add a kinaesthetic component to the lesson to promote movement and conversation. As a minds on for the introductory lesson to the four sentence types, I placed students in groups of 3 or 4 then had them participate in a matching activity where they matched each sentence type with the meaning/definition and examples. See an image of the activity below. Once students completed their matches and I had verified that they were correct, I had them record the sentence type and meaning/definition in their language notebooks for future reference.

When most students had completed the matching activity and recorded the information I requested in their notebooks, I debriefed the activity by having them share their matches. I then explained and modeled when to use each of the four sentence types as an opportunity to review the concept, reinforce understanding, and provide some explicit instruction. For example, to review I asked students to share a definition of a declarative sentence. Listening for the response, a declarative sentence can be a fact, opinion, explanation, or observation. Then, to reinforce their understanding, I said, “when do we use declarative sentences?” Listening for the response, “Writers use declarative sentences to share a fact or facts, an opinion or opinions, provide an explanation or explanations, or share an observation or observations”. Then to provide some explicit instruction, I modeled the creation of each of the four sentence types and co-construction one of each with students before having them work in small groups to create their own examples which I had them record in their notebooks.

The next day, to further review and expose students to the four sentence types, I found a passage from a short story we had read to provide an example of how an author employs the four sentence types in their writing.

After weeks of sentence level work, I administered a quiz to measure my instructional impact on student learning. The assessment revealed that most if not all students fell into one of two categories: either exceptionally well or in need of further practice to continue consolidating their knowledge and understanding. Only a few students fell somewhere in the middle. Again, using assessment data to inform my instruction, I began working with students who required additional support in small groups and 1:1 where possible to provide additional guidance.

Since the start of my lessons on sentence structures several students from the different classes I teach have shared that they didn’t know there was so much to know about sentences and that they feel their ability to construct sentences has improved from the lessons. For me this serves as a reminder that spending the time and energy to explicitly teach students how to construct sentences should not be underestimated.

 

Part 1: Winter’s Gifts: An Indigenous Celebration of Nature by Kaitlin Curtice illustrated by Gloria Felix

A citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin Curtice has created a beautiful story explaining the importance of loving the earth at the winter solstice. I have read this book to classes from kindergarten to grade 3, using the story to expose children to Indigenous perspectives and to better understand the solstice and the significance it holds.

Before Reading – Minds On

Have students think about the late sunrises and early sunsets that have been happening. How has this natural change impacted their lives? Have their routines changed?  Review the concept of the winter solstice, helping them understand that the daylight hours decrease until December 21st , then there will be increasingly more daylight each day until we reach summer solstice. I like to demonstrate using students to play the role of sun and earth and show that earth orbits the sun and has a tilt that causes the changes in how much sunlight we receive.

During Reading

During the read aloud I will stop and ask questions about what they have noticed about the change in seasons. We might discuss how our clothing changes to warmer jackets, boots, mittens and hats or we might focus more on animal behaviour and how the animals we see are adapting to the season. The story focuses on winter being a time of rest, do the students agree or disagree? Can they explain their thinking? There is also an opportunity to review the Potawatomi perspective in the story about sun, moon and earth who are described as grandfather, grandmother and mother. 

After Reading

Depending on the age and stage of the class, I will make a t-chart with the words Goodbye and Hello as headings.  Under “Goodbye” we list the activities, weather, clothing, etc, that end in the season of fall/autumn. Similarly, under the heading “Hello” we list what is expected in winter.  With older students, this could be completed independently. Now students can take those ideas and create a Goodbye Fall, Hello Winter poem with artwork to accompany their poem. 

Part 2: Follow Up – Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter by Kenard Pak

The children in this story greet natural features such as wind, leaves, snow and birds. The children say hello to them and they get a reply explaining what that particular feature is doing in the season of autumn.  It is critical to pay attention to the illustrations in this story because they are telling a story of their own. On each page, the children are walking through different environments: fields, forests, a farm, and a town. The signs of winter begin to show as the book progresses, ending with the children back in the field from the first autumn illustration in the book but now it is a winter scene. 

The watercolour illustrations inspire students to create detailed sketches and paintings showing the change in seasons.  The subject of their art could be the same focus as their Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter poem. There are hints in this book that it is set at the time of the winter solstice and there are references to decorations and gift shopping that leave us wondering what they are celebrating.

Since I am new to using watercolour paints, I use tutorials from Andrea Nelson to help me learn. I have included a recent fall painting as an example.  I believe our students could create something similar.

I hope your students enjoy the chance to write and paint about this season change. 

Brenda

Communication and collaboration with families is a core element in any educator’s pedagogical practice. When teachers share information with families about their child’s successes, and challenges in school, while also being transparent about our programming and pedagogical practices, we build trust with the community and create opportunities for family engagement.

When I started supporting Multilingual Language Learners (MLLs) years ago as a grade 7 teacher, transparency always seemed a challenging thing to navigate. Why?

In my own work context, there seemed to be an implicit assumption among educators and families that being an English learner was a stigma – a gap that needed to be closed, a deficit that needed to be corrected. As a middle school teacher, I worried that families would be unaware that their child was an ELL, or that they would be surprised that their child was still identified as one. I feared that talking about ESL programming would make families upset, so when I did bring it up, I tried to minimize its importance as much as possible

Secondly, I wasn’t even sure how to talk about ESL/ELD programming with families. Most of the support I was providing was happening “in the moment”: using a translation tool, changing an assignment or rubric, or providing alternative activities. I didn’t really understand what tier 1 support should look like for ELLs in my classroom, or if what I was doing “counted” as programming for ELLs. What could I possibly share with a parent or guardian without sounding inexperienced or unprofessional?

A third factor contributing to my discomfort about talking about ESL/ELD programming with families was that I didn’t feel equipped to talk about how the programming actually worked, especially to guardians and caregivers that were likely unfamiliar with the Canadian education system and perhaps even learning English themselves. How do I explain STEP? Modifications and accommodations? Interpersonal vs. Academic language? Many of these terms were new to me at the time, and I feared explaining something incorrectly and getting called out for it later.

As a much more experienced educator, I have realized how important it is to be clear and transparent with families about ESL/ELD programming, and what my own responsibility is as an educator to learn how to speak about the topic. When we don’t share information about the programming an MLL is receiving, or give updates on a regular basis, we perpetuate the  “stigma” that is often associated with being an English learner and the erroneous idea that programming for MLLs limits opportunities for students, when in fact it does just the opposite. When we avoid taking the time to share the richness of the programming we provide, we also miss an opportunity to acknowledge the work we do as educators to support students. When we see ESL/ELD programming from a deficit lens, we miss an opportunity to see language learning for what it should be – a challenge and journey that is both rewarding and joyful.

So what can we do to ensure that MLL families understand the ESL/ELD programming their child is receiving in schools? In the next part of this article, we will discuss some strategies and practices we can easily implement to build communication and transparency with MLL families.

My annual learning goals are centred around deepening my understanding of Structured Literacy. You can read more about it here.

Ontario educators already use a wide range of thoughtful, equitable, student-centred practices. Deepening my understanding of the science of learning has been one way I’ve strengthened parts of my teaching, but it exists alongside many other effective approaches. My goal in this series is simply to share and reflect on shifts I have made that have supported my learners in their journey of reading.

Shift # 1 – Explicit Instruction

Explicit instruction is sometimes misunderstood as “teacher-centred,” but in reality, it is profoundly learner-centred. It removes guesswork, makes learning transparent, and ensures every student has the tools they need to succeed. Using a gradual release model—“I do, We do, You do”—offers students modelling, guided practice, and the confidence to work independently.

Explicit instruction isn’t less creative, less fun, or less student-centred. In fact, it is more equitable, more predictable, and more effective for our diverse Ontario classrooms.

This approach aligns seamlessly with Structured Literacy practices such as:

• Phonics instruction 
• Morphology work
• Modelling decoding and encoding strategies
• Teaching comprehension strategies explicitly
• Building academic language intentionally

Since shifting toward more explicit instruction, I’ve observed meaningful changes in student learning and engagement. Some benefits include: 

• Learning feels more accessible: Concepts are broken into clear, manageable steps that students can follow
• Thinking is modelled out loud: Students hear the reasoning process, not just the final answer.
• Guided practice bridges the gap: Students get support before being asked to work independently.
• Language and expectations are clear: Directions, success criteria, and vocabulary are no longer left to interpretation.
• Students are more confident and independent: Predictable routines build trust.
• Classroom management improves: When students understand what to do and how to do it, engagement in learning increases.

It is important to note that explicit instruction is deeply connected to equity. Explicit instruction levels the playing field. It ensures all students receive clear, high-quality, structured teaching. My shift toward explicit instruction continues to evolve, and I know every teacher’s journey looks different. If you’re curious about trying elements of explicit instruction, I hope this reflection offers a helpful starting point. You can also review this ETFO resource for an example what explicit instruction can look like and tips how to get started! It is also available at the ETFO assessment website.