Teaching Grammar Part I: Reflecting on My Lack of Experiences Learning Grammar in School

With the release of the revised Grades 1 – 8 Language curriculum (2023) and the addition of more explicit instruction in the language conventions needed to write, I began reflecting on my own educational experiences related to learning language conventions, particularly the one on grammar.

When I reflect on my educational experiences as an elementary student in Alberta and Ontario’s publicly funded school systems, I can recall no moment when I received explicit instruction in grammar. This is not to say that I didn’t receive explicit instruction in grammar from competent teachers, it’s just to say that I cannot recall any. If I speculate, my inability to recall explicitly learning grammar may be for several reasons. Some of those reasons may include sparse grammar lessons, studying grammar in siloed lessons that didn’t help me to understand the direct connection to writing, other areas of language and literacy being prioritized over grammar instruction, or perhaps a combination of these or a list of entirely different reasons altogether. Instead of accepting any of these speculations, I’ll just share what I’ve come to accept which is I don’t know why I can’t remember learning grammar.

What I find interesting is that I can vividly recall receiving explicit instruction in other areas of language and literacy. When I was in kindergarten, I remember reciting the alphabet with my peers and teacher, identifying upper- and lower-case letters, and explicitly learning letter sounds. In grades 1, 4, and 7 I recall learning transcription skills. First print, then cursive, and finally keyboarding. In primary and junior grades, I remember my teachers modelling then instructing me to use my knowledge of phonics to blend letter sounds together to decode unfamiliar words then segment letter sounds apart to encode and spell words. There are other foundational language and literacy skills I can easily recall explicitly learning from skilled teachers however, the absence of grammar from the above examples leads me to wonder if I received explicit instruction in the discipline, shouldn’t I be able to remember it.

Further thinking about my educational experiences as an adult student enrolled in an Ontario teacher preparation program, I recall receiving no training on how to explicitly teach grammar to elementary students. Again, I have no definitive reason to explain why grammar instruction was missing from my pre-service teacher program despite the presence of specific grammar expectations in the 2006 iteration of the revised Grades 1 – 8 Language curriculum. However, I can recall explicitly learning instructional approaches to support teaching other expectations found in language curriculum.

From the absence of explicit grammar instruction in my formal schooling experiences, it seemed of minor importance in comparison to other perhaps more major areas of language and literacy learning such as phonics, transcription, and spelling. As I continue to think about these collective schooling experiences, I’ve deduced that I must’ve developed an implicit knowledge of grammar at some point because I applied it throughout my elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education to write.

Yet, what I learned from my experience working overseas in the role of English as a foreign language teacher, is that I need an explicit knowledge of grammar to teach it because I need to able to explain to students how a competent knowledge of grammar supports their writing compositions. I also accepted that my lack of explicit grammar knowledge did not absolve me of my responsibility to teach it when the school curriculum mandated it.

In my next post, I’ll share the approaches I used to close the gaps in my grammar knowledge so I could better teach students the discipline.

Protecting your Energy: 4 Things I Wish I Had Done Differently in My First Years as a Teacher

Hindsight is a gift, and I have never appreciated it more than when I talk with newer teachers and share the things I wish I knew when I was in their position. So what advice would I give to a new teacher? The number one piece of advice I would give is to protect your energy. You will need your energy for yourself, your family, and for all the other demands that teaching can bring.

I have distinct memories of putting my head down at the end of the day and nearly falling asleep, taking bags of student work home that I inevitably would not mark that night because I was just too tired to face it. When I became a parent, it became clear that I needed to preserve my energy since there was no longer an option to take a break after school and a long commute.

I’m thankful when I consider how much experience has made my life easier. I spend less time stressing over things that I cannot change, working “smarter” instead of harder to be more efficient, and knowing when it is time to stop working and focus on what matters – health, family, and relationships.

Teaching a new class, and planning units and lessons is so much better when you know where to start. As a new teacher, it was overwhelming to face the realities of planning, classroom management, and school events every day.

Here are the top 4 things I would do to protect my energy if I were a new teacher – and even if you are not “new” to the profession, perhaps you will find something you can bring to your practice.

Rethink Classroom Management

When I started teaching, I foolishly believed that all my energy should be focused on creating great lessons and planning activities. Let’s be clear – this is all very important – but you’ll never get to implement those plans if you don’t have a well-managed class.

Classroom management is so much more than setting high expectations for achievement and behaviour and setting up routines and roles (though those are all important elements to have in place). It is also about determining which times of the day will be most conducive for teaching certain subjects and running certain activities.

For example, in my experience, mornings are usually the best time for teaching essential core subjects like literacy and numeracy. The later part of the morning and later afternoons are times well spent for independent or group work. These are great times to take your foot “off the pedal” and create space for collaboration, relationship-building, and student conferencing.

It can be exhausting when you feel like you are constantly trying to calm students down, or motivate students to self-regulate when you are in the middle of a lesson. Know when your lesson simply isn’t working, and when it is time to shift gears. A good “red flag” is when you can feel your own emotions – frustration, anger, or despair – bubbling up.

Focus on Time-Saving and Efficiency when Planning

When I started teaching, I found that resources were scarce, and my colleagues were rather protective of the content they had created. To be fair, the internet was nowhere near as useful as it is today and educators were deeply dependent on textbooks and blackline masters (no, we didn’t have Google Drive to keep all those documents close at hand). I spent endless hours trying to develop lessons and content, and naturally never had the time to get my lessons exactly the way I envisioned.

Avoid spending excessive time researching and creating content – this can be a drain on your valuable planning time minutes and after school time. Focus instead on building on the content that is already available to you – whether you find something great online that aligns with the Ontario curriculum (always be critical of what you discover on the internet), at a professional learning session, a teacher resource, or content a colleague has shared.

As an experienced teacher, I now know that most, if not all of my energy on the job should be spent teaching, working with and managing my class, and adapting content for neurodiverse and multilingual learners. Sure, it can be fun and even rewarding to develop a brand new lesson – but if you are teaching multiple subjects avoid doing this for everything all the time.

Another great energy-saving strategy is to co-teach a unit or lesson with a teacher whose schedule aligns with yours, or that knows your class. Swap classrooms to implement a lesson you know well. For example, I had a colleague who was great at teaching podcasting, so I’d teach his class a lesson in news article writing while he’d teach a podcasting lesson to my class.

Get Connected with the Right People and their Resources

It’s amazing how much time and energy you’ll save by networking with the right people and leveraging their resources, knowledge, and experience. There are so many other educators in your school and board that have expertise and can share their “tried and true” strategies, tools, and resources.

For example, you may have teachers who have a role where their purpose is to share resources  and consult in areas like educational technology, literacy, mathematics, the arts, or or social studies. They may have the title of coach, itinerant, or resource teacher – it can vary from one board to another.

You may have people you work with that are particularly passionate or skilled in an area like math or reading. They can tell you exactly what practices are most effective, which will save you a lot of research and time spent on trial and error.

Optimize Assessment

I remember being a teacher that gathered piles and piles of student work, only to be overwhelmed when reporting time came near. Save yourself a lot of marking time by taking a triangulated approach where you are not only collecting products, but frequently gathering evidence from conversations and observations.

It is important for students to be assessed through multiple means, so gather assessment as much as possible through activities like group work, presentations, and media creation. Assess students in the moment, and focus on providing 2-3 pieces of feedback at a time (and share it in the moment, if possible). Use an tablet or mobile device to gather assessment data quickly and take photos of student work and collaboration for your records.

Final thoughts

Your time and energy is precious. Protecting your energy as a teacher is critical for work-life balance – ensuring that you are investing your efforts wisely is key to longevity in the job and maintaining your mental wellness.

Reporting on Mathematical Processes

Teachers across the province are preparing and writing their term one report cards.  

While time consuming to write, report card comments are a way to communicate with children and families about the children as learners. I always struggle with how I let them know that I see them as capable and intelligent people, even when their grades are not what they expect.  It’s taken me awhile to find the way that I feel celebrates students as mathematicians and learners in the comment section.  For me, the best way to express my ideas about students is through commenting on the mathematical processes. The front matter of the mathematics curriculum states: 

“The mathematical processes cannot be separated from the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students acquire throughout the year. All students problem solve, communicate, reason, reflect, and so on, as they develop the knowledge, the understanding of mathematical concepts, and the skills required in all the strands in every grade.”

 If you aren’t yet familiar with the processes, they include: 

  • problem solving
  • reasoning and proving
  • reflecting
  • connecting
  • communicating
  • representing
  • selecting tools and strategies

To further support my thinking, I opened the Growing Success: The Mathematics Addendum, Grades 1 to 8, 2020 which states: 

“…describe significant strengths demonstrated by the student and identify next steps for improvement; they may also describe growth in learning. When appropriate, teachers may make reference to particular strands in their comments.” 

This was what I wanted!  I wanted my comments to reflect what I knew about students and how I saw them as learners each day.  It shifted what I was looking for in the classroom to being asset-based thinking – what were students doing and learning, their strengths and how could I use that information to build on their experiences in mathematics.

I thought about what I noticed happening in the lessons for the students and came up with ways to express what I thought was important for them to read about themselves.  For example,


*Name* is gaining confidence in their use of representations in mathematics.  They are comfortable using number lines to express understanding of equations and show their work when solving problems.  They were also able to model new thinking when working with fractions this term using pictures and diagrams, such as rectangles and squares divided into equal parts to model parts of a whole.  

For other students, I wanted to highlight their strategies and decided to comment on their participation in sharing ideas in class.  For example, 

During whole class discussions in math class, *name* was an active participant.  They enjoyed sharing their estimation strategies, such as rounding numbers, to provide reasons for their estimations.   For example, when working with larger number expressions, such as 28 x 2, *name* would estimate 60 and justify that 30 x 2 was a close friendly expression to use.

Some students excelled in building connections between strands. I wrote comments that demonstrated how they saw connections in mathematics and not just each strand as a singular stand alone.  An example of these comments are:

*Name* looks for connections between mathematics strands to make sense of new concepts. They recognize the relationship between geometry and measurement, especially when exploring perimeter.  *Name*  used an understanding of the sides of squares and triangles to explain the perimeter as being the distance around an object.  They also extended this understanding to measuring distance around a city block and could explain why metres would be a more accurate unit of measurement than centimetres. 

Of course, all teachers have their own style and flair for report card writing.  You are entitled and encouraged to use your own professional judgement about how to best communicate with families and students about learning.  These examples are not the only way to approach math comments, but the process of thinking about what I wanted to say and looking into the curriculum and Growing Success Addendum helped me to frame my own thinking and understanding about reporting in math. 

Becoming Radically Pro-Kid

I have always enjoyed spending time reading and thinking about teaching – what does the curriculum say and what does it mean? What are some of the theories and strategies I can learn about as an educator? How do these translate to student learning? All of these help to shape my understanding of teaching and learning and what’s best for students. Reading, attending professional learning, and taking those moments to think deeply about what school means to me have given me a lot of information.

But it isn’t always this way. I don’t always have the opportunity or enough time to think as deeply as I’d like. Like most educators, I’m just trying to do my best. There is so much to learn about the curriculum and even more to find out about myself as an educator – what does my ‘teacher voice’ sound like? What do I know about students and learning and teaching? How can I take my new learning and make sense of it in action? It is all so very overwhelming and yet all so necessary.

When I learn about new strategies or information, I try to take the time to digest and consider what that might look like in the classroom. This year as I make sense of new curricula and new research and learning, I’m planning to focus more on what it looks like in practice. I spent last year radically dreaming of all the possibilities of what school could be and have spent so much time reading and learning for myself. The question for me this year is what does this mean at 8:45 am when the doors open and the classroom is set or when my prep is done? What do the conversations sound like? What are the students feeling, saying, and doing in the moment?

I’m going to spend more time learning about students, about these people I’m so lucky to share space with every day. I want to engage in more conversation, get curious about them, learn what they like, their fears, their identities and learn what they need to feel like they belong and are safe at school. I’m planning to cultivate the joy of learning and a space that builds their confidence as learners. I’m going to focus on becoming radically kid-centred.

Cornelius Minor explores the idea of being “Radically Pro-Kid” throughout his work in examining and reflecting on the education system. As he entered into conversations and interviews about his book “We Got This: Equity, Access, and the Quest To Be Who Our Students Need Us To Be”, he shares:

I always say that it is my role as a teacher to initially create opportunities for children and to eventually teach them how to create opportunities for themselves.

I always say when people ask me what my politics are: I am radically pro-kid. That definitely means that I am walking into every arena that attempts to abridge opportunities for kids and I’m attempting to disrupt those things.

This makes so much sense to me. Learning curriculum for myself, learning about myself as an educator, learning about what I believe in…. All of this is important, but not more important than learning about students – their experiences, who they are, and helping them to discover who they can and want to be. Being radically pro-kid means thinking bigger about the children’s experiences, being present for family to partner and build spaces where they belong. It means unpacking and examining my own biases and classroom rules – even when it’s an uncomfortable truth. It means being willing to change, to adapt, to centre student experiences, to provide opportunities, and to dismantle barriers that I didn’t know existed.

It still leaves me wondering what this looks like, in practice, at 8:45am. I wonder how this shift will change the climate of the classroom and how it will change me, too. I trust it’s going to take some time, but I believe it’s going to be better for all of us.

Four Tips to Pace Yourself During the Post-Holiday Sprint

In my early years as a classroom teacher, I often experienced what I call the post-holiday sprint. The post-holiday sprint is returning to work after a relaxing winter break only to realize that I am behind in my long-range plans. With this realization comes the feeling that I need to burst into a metaphorical sprint to catch up to where I believe I need to be, prior to reporting on student achievement in early February. While I enjoy running in my leisure time and find sprints, at times can be a fun exercise to measure my physical fitness, I find metaphorical sprints stressful when they are unplanned, unexpected, and I feel compelled to participate.

Yet with more knowledge and experience from my years of service as a classroom teacher comes an array of skills and strategies to respond to unplanned and unexpected situations such as the post-holiday sprint. Below I’ll share four tips that I use to pace myself during the post-holiday sprint to minimize stress and avoid burn-out.

  1. Start writing report cards early and begin with learning skill comments

Learning skill comments consume a significant amount of space in the elementary report card and for me they are the most labour intensive part of the reporting process. To craft individualized comments that I believe best captures how students have demonstrated their learning skills, I need lots of time. Therefore, to pace myself, upon returning to work in January, I write 3 learning skill comments either before or after the instructional day with the goal of completing the comments for all student within two weeks. I then exchange my comments with a colleague to read and review to limit the probability that my comments will need mass revisions when I submit them to my principal or vice-principal for review. Once my learning skill comments are complete, I take the same approach with subject comments. From years of experience, I’ve found that a slow steady pace to writing report cards alleviates much of the report card induced stress.

  1. Use a backwards design planning approach to catch up on long range plans

To ensure my lessons are more focused and I better use my instructional time, I apply a backwards design approach to program planning. I begin by reviewing the curriculum expectations I have yet to explicitly teach found in my long-range plans. I then think of ways that students could potentially demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the concepts, skills, or strategies through rich tasks. Finally, I estimate the approximate number of lessons, activities, and work periods needed for students to potentially acquire the concept, skill or strategy. Of course, I ensure that I include time to reteach or review lessons as needed to support positively impacting student learning.

  1. Plan for planning times

At the end or prior to the start of the instructional day, I define how I want to use my planning time to ensure I use the time effectively to complete essential tasks. When I started planning for my planning times, I was pleasantly surprised by how much work I could complete within 40 minutes. Even if I was able to only complete one or two items on my to do list within a given planning time, it still helped me to experience a sense of accomplishment and reduced feelings of stress associated with being behind in my program.

  1. Know when to slow down and stop

There are some evenings and weekends when I opt to fully detach from work so I can enjoy time with loved ones or just rest free from the guilt that I should continue working. I think too often dedicated teachers forget that it’s okay for us to sometimes fully detach from work after the instructional day to rest and relax so that we can be more mentally and physically prepared to teach and support our students. Therefore, there are some days that I leave work promptly after the instructional day, take no work home with me, and enjoy an evening doing something that makes me happy.

The Winter Planet Parade of 2025

Night Sky, watercolour and acrylic. B. MacNaughton

The current parade of planets in the night sky has me thinking about the engaging ways to use this event in the classroom. After all, with the early sunsets and late sunrises in this season, even our youngest students will be awake as darkness descends and the planets become visible.

This January through March several planets in our solar system will be visible, almost looking aligned, along the ecliptic. What’s the ecliptic? It represents the plane of the solar system in which the planets orbit around the Sun. (NASA)

Many students are curious about the night sky and have ideas about what is happening out there, especially after the solar eclipse that impacted us last year. It’s a wonderful topic to let their imaginations soar with stories, songs and images.

Language 

*Use space related ideas as writing prompts such as what might exist in the solar system or even the galaxy. What would a planet need to be more ideal planet than Earth?

*Create poetry written from the perspective of each planet.

*Read aloud fiction and non-fiction fiction that encourages students to consider their role in the solar system. This is a great opportunity to read astronaut Chris Hadfield’s book, The Darkest Dark.

*Study Indigenous stories such as the Sky Woman creation story. Michelle Corneau wrote about it in “Strong Stories Kanyen’keha:ka: Creation Story Sky Woman”. It is also told in Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

*Share facts and ask further questions about the night sky.

 

Turtle Island

Math

Our concept of time comes from mathematical calculations relating to the earth’s orbit of the sun and the daily rotation of Earth.

Science

*Explore the slogan “There is no Planet B” in relation to the curriculum expectations for your current science unit.

Social Studies

*What is it about the night sky that brings us together? All societies have been impacted by the night sky through navigation, science, exploration, myths, storytelling and the arts. Look at the far reach of van Gogh’s Starry Night painting! How does the night sky relate to your current social studies topic?

Physical Education 

Planet themed movement games can include the ideas or orbiting, gravitational pull, and space exploration.

Planet Earth for Juggling – Handle with Care!

The Arts

Create a Planet Parade! There are so many ways to dramatize, paint, sculpt, and sing together plus there are amazing music pieces to enjoy and use to choreograph dance/movement. Immediately I hear 2001: Space Odyssey, the Star Wars theme, and the Star Trek Next Generation narration, “to boldly go where no one has gone before!”

Planet Parade: When To See It In January 2025

Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, Neptune, and Saturn will be visible together in January 2025, with Jan. 21 being a good time to look in the evening. (University of Guelph News)

Fostering students’ curiousity about the solar system and the galaxy gives teachers the opportunity to reinforce that our beautiful home planet is unique. Listening to Indigenous peoples we must take care of Earth as if she were our mother. I hope the parade of planets inspires you and your students to explore and create together.

Keep looking up!

Brenda

P.S. Students may also be interested to hear about Canada’s involvement in the 2026 Artemis II mission to orbit the moon. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will be on board. (Canada Space Agency)

Co-teaching – A Way to Support Student Success: Part One

In this series, I will discuss Co-Teaching as a way to support student success. I do recognize that MLL support models look differently across the boards, which means not everyone can access this model. As you read this series, I hope you consider other colleagues you can work with (e.g., grade teaching partner, SERT). I have seen that MLLs thrive when a model of team-teaching is provided. They deserve a model like this as it is a powerful way to ensure equitable learning outcomes.

 

An Overview

Collaboration takes place where members of an inclusive learning community work together with the purpose to support student success in the classroom. Through teacher collaboration and co-teaching practices, a variety of studies have reported increased student achievement in content areas and improved sense of belonging in the school community. Key outcomes for teachers include enhanced peer support, authentic job-embedded professional learning, and shared ownership of all students . There are principles of teaching co-teaching to consider while collaborating: time gifting, communication, control surrendering, perspective seeking, relationship investing.

The Collaborative Cycle

While defining collaboration and coteaching, it is important to note that it is a process, not an event. Honigfeld and Dove (2017) describe the collaborative cycle as Co-plan, Co-Act, Co-Assess and Reflect. It is similar to the Plan-Act-Assess-Reflect cycle, but the difference is that it is done in collaboration. Teachers need to engage in all parts of the collaborative cycle in order to ensure successful outcomes for students.

Retrieved from ETFO Article resource: Supporting Multilingual Language Learners: Collaboration and Co-teaching

Co-planning: This part of the cycle is considered the most important aspect, and is often overlooked. It is recommended to avoid low-impact co-planning (e.g., today’s lesson, tomorrow’s lesson, one one graphic organizer). To work towards high-impact co-planning, where each partner is seen as an equal, it is recommended to focus more on unit planning, student groups, assessments, extension activities, curriculum mapping and lesson and language sequencing. Developing an ongoing document, such as a unit plan organizer, can help work towards high-impact co-planning.

Some key questions to consider during co-planning

  • What are content learning goals? What are the language learning goals?

Both the content teacher (classroom teacher) and resource teacher (MLL Support Teacher) bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to co-planning. Below is a list of some of the skills (not comprehensive)

Content Teachers MLL Support Teachers
Set content objectives and learning cycles Knowledge of the MLL learners, including their STEP levels and background history (with a focus on strengths)
Curate Resources, and knowledge of curriculum content Scaffold access to resources, including technology
Create content specific success criteria and assessments Differentiate content, process, and product in linguistic and CRRP lens, while advocating for identity affirming interactions

Co-Teach: There are many models of co-teaching. This is time to identify co-teaching models, considering the learning environment and learning goals. The most common models includes:

  • Team Teaching: both teachers providing instruction at the same time
  • Lead support teaching: one leads, other supports instruction
  • Parallel Teaching: two teachers providing instruction to two different groups at the same time, process might look different although content may be the same
  • Station Teaching: students in small groups, multiple stations, and each station has a different task, each teacher manages their own station

Co-Assess: Assessment is usually established during co-planning; therefore both teachers share the responsibility of assessment (e.g., rubric, success criteria, observation log). It is recommended to also create a reflection collaboration log to record reflections during the co-teaching experience.

Co-Reflect: During the co-reflection meeting, teachers should discuss successes and refinements by using the assessment as their guiding tools. This will in part support the next co-teaching cycle to be more successful.  

In 2022, I started to build my co-teaching capacities as a means to improve outcomes for all students through my role as an MLL support teacher.  In Part Two I will share my reflections, including the benefits, and advice of how to get started ! 

In the meantime I invite you to review this ETFO resource: Supporting Multilingual Language Learners: Collaboration and Co-teaching

“Stretching Language”: Supporting ELLs in Building Academic Vocabulary

“Stretching Language”: Supporting ELLs in Building Academic Vocabulary

“Stretching” language is an essential but underrated way educators can teach academic language to students, especially those who are acquiring English as an additional language.

Incorporating new and infrequently used vocabulary into our linguistic repertoire is not easy – even for adults. As educators, we must often adopt new terminology to align our practice and professional discourse with ever-evolving instructional strategies.

For example, I probably never used the phrase “phonemic awareness” as a middle school teacher. But as foundational literacy or “science of reading” approaches have quickly become part of my day-to-day work, I kept running into the phrase.

But once I encountered the word a few times, and was compelled to use it in conversations with colleagues, it became a term I felt comfortable using. In short, I needed to find ways to “stretch” my language usage to make it a word I could use comfortably.

Students are constantly learning new, infrequently used words every day in Ontario classrooms, particularly in subjects like math, science, and social studies. But in order for them to make those words easy to retrieve and use, they must have opportunities for practice.

The practice of using new academic words is even more challenging for English language learners (ELLs), who may also be learning everyday social language as they learn subject-specific vocabulary. As educators, it is important that we create opportunities for students to “stretch” their linguistic abilities so they build language skills for academic success.

What does it mean to help Students “Stretch” Language?

Stretching language, as Pauline Gibbons points out in her book, Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, is all about compelling students to step beyond their linguistic comfort zones. It is an essential element for teaching ELLs in the mainstream classroom: pushing students into their zone of proximal development, and encouraging to take risks with words.

We can start by “front loading” new words and phrases when we start a lesson or unit of study. It is important not to overwhelm students too much with too many new words at once. Personally, I find that 2-3 words is great for elementary students including ELLs.

One great way to introduce new words is to use a strategy like picture word inductive model. This might involve projecting a detailed image related to the content on a white board and getting students involved in labelling it, and adding more “academic” versions of more commonly used words. For example, imagine a picture of a tractor plowing through a field of wheat. Students might come up with words like “tractor,” or “crops,” and the teacher might bring in words like “agriculture” or “commercial farming”.

a photo of a tractor in a wheat field, harvesting crops. The photo is labeled with words for students.
an example of picture word inductive model.

You might also encourage students to notice new vocabulary in a video, information text, or article. Capture those words on a word wall or chart paper. Point out any morphological elements, like prefixes or suffixes to help students create meaning.Next is the fun part – getting students to use the new words in conversation.

“Strive for Five” Conversations: a Strategy for Stretching Language

One resource that explains how to stretch language effectively is Strive for Five Conversations, by Tricia A. Zucker and Sonia Q. Cabell. In this book, the authors focus on how oral comprehension and speaking skills support reading and language acquisition. How? For most people, talking and interacting in a target language is essential to learning how to read and communicate with it. Through hearing words and connecting their sounds with contextual meaning, we learn language. And in the case of English, once those sounds and meanings are learned, we can map them on to alphabetic code.

How does Strive-for-Five work?

Strive for five is a 5-turn conversation a teacher would have with a student while they are engaging in learning tasks, independently or in small groups.

  1. Teacher asks an open-ended question
  2. Student responds
  3. Teacher responds with an upward or downward scaffold depending on whether they need a challenge or support.
  4. Student responds
  5. Teacher expands, and may incorporate academic vocabulary to help the student build their ability to understand and use more content-specific language.

Of course, there are a number of directions these conversations can go, and the authors do an amazing job of unpacking different scenarios. The main takeaway is that these simple conversations are a high impact way of getting students to stretch their academic language through meaningful talk. The book contains easy to reference scaffolding charts, plus examples of Strive for Five conversations in different contexts.

For example, classroom teacher might have important vocabulary listed on a word wall in the classroom. A sample conversation with an MLL about the water cycle might sound like this.

Teacher: What is happening in that picture? (points at graphic of the water cycle in a student science resource).

Student: The water is drying up, then it makes a cloud.

Teacher: Oh – I see what you mean, it is evaporating. That’s the word for drying in the water cycle. And then the condensation forms a cloud. And then what happens?

Student: The water goes back to the earth as rain from the cloud.

Teacher: Yes! That’s also called precipitation. First there’s evaporation, then condensation, and precipitation. 

Final Thoughts

“Stretching” language is an easy-to-implement instructional strategy that complements content based instruction for elementary learners, and will support students’ abilities to read and understand texts with increasing amounts of academic language. Using strategies like PWIM and Strive for Five can support ELLs as they work to acquire academic vocabulary as they learn English.

Tech in the Classroom: Just Dive In and Have Fun

I’m a firm believer that integrating technology into teaching brings a whole new dimension to learning. It’s not just about gadgets—it’s about helping students create their own games, design 3D models, and even turn everyday objects into piano keys! These tools make learning hands-on, fun, and more relatable. Let me share some of my favourite ways to bring tech into the classroom, why it’s worth it, and how you can get started.

When I first introduced tech into my classroom, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But seeing students light up while working on projects like coding micro:bits to create wearable gadgets or designing custom toys with Tinkercad was incredible. These tools go beyond just fun; they build collaboration, critical thinking, and digital skills students will carry with them forever.

Take micro:bits, for example. These pocket-sized computers let students program light shows, step counters, and even digital dice. They’re also perfect for sustainability projects. Students can program a micro:bit to monitor temperature or track energy usage at home, connecting tech to real-world environmental solutions.

Then there’s Tinkercad, a 3D design tool that sparks creativity, whether it’s building geometric shapes in math class or designing prototypes for STEM challenges. A few years ago, one of my students designed a toy prototype for his media lesson, which we then brought to life using our school’s 3D printer. Even today, he still recalls that experience, showing how hands-on tech can ignite creativity and make learning memorable.

Makey-Makey is always a hit—it turns everyday objects into touchpads. Once, my students used it to create an interactive timeline of ancient civilizations, where each button on the board played a short clip or fact about a specific civilization, such as the Inca Empire, the Six Nations, or Indus Valley. Students were having fun while learning—it doesn’t get better than that.

Over the past few years, I’ve been exploring a dynamic platform called Lumio, and it’s been a game changer for my lessons. This tool turns traditional teaching into interactive lessons and collaborative activities. I’ve seen the benefits of using Lumio in both congregated and mainstream classrooms. It supports differentiated learning, allowing me to adapt content for various skill levels, so every student can participate and learn at their own pace.

Starting with technology can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Pick one tool, introduce it during a lesson, and let students explore, you can even explore it with them. Tie activities into what you’re already teaching and the curriculum. For example, use Tinkercad during a geometry unit or let students code micro:bits to track steps in a health project. The best part? You don’t need to be an expert. Many school boards have educational technology resource teachers, teacher-librarians, or other knowledgeable individuals who can provide guidance and support.  

Check with your school board to see if they already have a license or offer a technology lending library. These libraries provide access to tools such as robotics kits, virtual reality headsets, and other resources, without needing to purchase them outright. These lending libraries allow you to experiment with technology while providing students with hands-on learning opportunities.

The learning journey is part of the fun—for you and your students. So grab a micro:bit, a Makey-Makey, or Lumio, and watch your students transform into creators and innovators. Trust me, they’ll love it—and so will you!

Explore these links to learn more:

https://microbit.org

https://www.tinkercad.com

https://makeymakey.com

https://www.smarttech.com/lumio


Re-thinking Approaches to Student Feedback

The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning. This is the first sentence in the fundamental principles section of the Growing Success document. In this section, the Ministry of Education lists seven fundamental principles to support teachers with ensuring that assessment, evaluation, and reporting are valid, reliable, and lead to the improvement of learning for all students. Included in this list is providing ongoing descriptive feedback to support student learning.

In 2010 when the Ministry released Growing Success, I was in my first-year teaching. At that time, I was in a long-term occasional teaching assignment. I was hired as a Grade 7 rotary teacher assigned to teach Language and Social Studies to two classes. I was ecstatic because I received the opportunity to work with students at the age and grade that most interested me and teaching my favorite subject areas. Reading the Growing Success document that year, I strove to incorporate the seven fundamental principles in my assessment and evaluation practices. Particularly the principle on feedback because I believed and continue to believe that if I provide descriptive feedback to each student, it has the potential to improve their academic achievement.

One incident that continues to resonate with me is the feedback I received from a student. I remember spending hours reading student work then writing copious amounts of comments. I would sometimes write one to two pages worth of constructive and descriptive feedback to guide students in ways that I believed would lead them to improve the quality of their work along with a grade. I recall returning one written assignment to a student at the end of the instructional day where I watched her look at the grade, then crumple her paper into a ball and throw it into the recycling bin as she exited the classroom. I was shocked. Yet more than shocked I was disappointed in myself. I knew that I had made an error, but with a lack of teaching experience I had yet to identify what that error was.

Two years later, again teaching grade 7, this time in in a core model as a permanent teacher, I gained some insight to the experience with the student while attending a school staff meeting. A centrally assigned instructional resource teacher facilitated a session on assessment and evaluation. She shared that if teachers attach a grade to student work, they should include limited feedback. She went on to say that students think that the grade signals that they are at the end of a learning cycle so there is no opportunity for them to action the feedback to improve the quality of their work because they’ve already been evaluated. However, the facilitator also said, include enough, but not too much specific descriptive feedback to help students improve the quality of their work if students are in the assessment stage of their learning. She went on further to say that if students have ample time and opportunities to apply feedback to their work prior to being evaluated it has the potential to lead to improved student achievement.

These comments made sense and provided some clarity in relation to why the student ignored my comments when she saw the grade on her paper. The facilitators comments also helped me to understand that I provided far too much feedback to the student at the time of evaluation that may have been overwhelming and disheartening. Following this staff meeting, I began revising my assessment and evaluation practices but still I felt I had more to learn about feedback to support student learning.

Years later I read the book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond.  In the book Hammond writes, “Contrary to what we may think, simply giving feedback doesn’t initiate change. It has to be accepted as valid and actionable by the learner. He then has to commit to using that information to do something different” (p. 102).

This quote helped me to understand that I need to teach students how to read my feedback then show them how to use my suggestions, if they believe them to be useful, to improve the quality of their work.

The meaning that I’ve now been able to deduce from the experience with the student in my first-year teaching coupled with my ongoing learning about assessment and evaluation practices is that I provided too much feedback at the time of evaluation where she had no time to use the information to improve her work. I also failed to teach her how to use my feedback to improve the quality of their work. I further understand that feedback between students and teachers is a reciprocal and iterative process. Students through direct and indirect ways provide information regarding how well I am supporting their learning while I provide direct feedback for how well they are progressing at developing the knowledge, skills, and competencies outlined in Ministry curriculums.

When I work with teachers, I share these insights by encouraging them to think about the ways they use feedback from students to re-think the feedback they give to students to support their learning. I also ask teachers to consider embracing the idea that as we gain more practical experience assessing and evaluating student work combined with our growing knowledge and understanding of diverse student learning needs and revised curriculum documents, our feedback practices should adjust and evolve in ways that better support their learning.