Kenaston School developed these ELA Choice Boards to support their project-based learning.
- Subject:
- English Language Arts
- Material Type:
- GAP 4
- GAP 5
- GAP 6
- Teaching/Learning Strategy
- Author:
- Sandra Lutz
- Date Added:
- 10/28/2021
This is a collection of resources to support the development of literacy. Literacy is foundational to students’ academic and future success. Literacy includes reading, writing and oral language. A substantial portion of your day should be spent explicitly teaching literacy strategies and skills during your ELA classes. Additionally, students should also be provided with opportunities to practice literacy strategies and skills in all subject areas to help work towards mastery.
English Language Arts instruction should be evidence based and align with Structured Literacy (that follows the Science of Reading). Instruction should address both parts of the Scarborough Reading Rope and include Word Recognition (Phonological Awareness, Decoding & High Frequency Words), as well as Language Comprehension (Background Knowledge, Vocabulary, Language Structure, Verbal Reasoning & Literacy Knowledge). Together both parts of the rope develop fluency and result in Reading Comprehension as skills become increasingly strategic and automatic.
As students develop Word Recognition skills they move from looking at the sound, to the syllable to the morpheme. While you will need to utilize all of these features while working with words, these grades are wonderful time to start introducing students to morphology. Your school will have a copy of Morpheme Magic which can support you in leveraging learning how words work with your students.
The Writing Revolution is another support that your school should have a copy of. Lessons to integrate writing into all content areas has been developed by teachers for sentences, note-taking, paragraphs and larger pieces of writing.
To learn more about Structured Literacy please visit our Structured Literacy Collection and watch for Professional Development Opportunities throughout the year. You can also find many supports including ELA Course Maps, Grammar Scopes and Sequences, Rubrics, Exemplars and much more on The ELA Hub.
Kenaston School developed these ELA Choice Boards to support their project-based learning.
This unit consists of five lessons and is recommended for grades 5-8. The five lessons consist of:The Cat's Out of the Bag - students investigate the morphology, physical characteristics, and physical adaptations of four cat speciesMountain Mixer - students participate in a role playing, systems thinking activity to understand the relationships among species before constructing a food webIt Takes All Kinds of People - students participate in a town hall meeting in an effort to reach a concensus regarding conservation plansWhat's the Plan? - students explore the emerging issues through simulation activitiesTaking Action - students are led through a service-learning project of their choosing to raise money to donate*Planet earth videos referenced in the activities are available on YouTube.
This new website from Agriculture in the Classroom is a kid-friendly, engaging website that will bring the story of agriculture to life through highly interactive information, colourful illustrations, real-life photos, informative text, quizzes, teacher lessons and more! Students will discover the Past, Present, Evolution and Future of agriculture in Saskatchewan.
This activity can be used to help find the main idea or keyword from a passage of text. This activity is excellent to develop vocabulary and deepen understanding of the content being examined.
Final Project- Novel study Choice board
A Fortnite or Lip Sync Battle
FourDirectionsTeachings.com is a visually stunning audio narrated resource for learning about Indigenous knowledge and philosophy from five diverse First Nations in Canada. Navigate to the site map for access to the teacher lesson plans to go along with the interactive audio and visual content.
Junior: Grades 1-6
Intermediate: Grades 7-9
Senior: Grades 10-12
Four Directions Teachings rend hommage à la tradition orale autochtone, en mettant en valeur le procédé d’écoute attentive, lorsque un ancien ou un professeur traditionnel partage un enseignement, selon son point de vue, sur la richesse et la valeur des traditions culturelles provenant de sa nation.
Available in:
Flash Version - English and French
HTML Version - English and French
Subtitles Version - English and French
Sample writing prompts are included. Sign up for emails from John Spencer to get 100 free prompts emailed right to you. (He's great, you won't regret it!)
A complete novel study for the novel, Hatchet. This novel study includes chapter comprehension questions, video links, formative and summative assessments, choice board, rubrics, etc.
Honouring the Buffalo: A Plains Cree Legend is a useful educational tool for social studies/treaty and language arts/literacy curriculum teaching. Included on the website is a resource guide, educational guide (questions), audio recordings, and curricular connections. There is a book trailer as well as an exerpt in English and in Cree.
This is a 45 minute virtual field trip.
Learn about Canada’s ongoing human rights journey by engaging with Indigenous concepts of human rights and discovering how people have used and continue to use their voices and effective action to claim their rights. Our guides will take your students on an age‐appropriate and inspiring journey while helping them to see how these stories continue to be relevant and ongoing in Canada today. We’ll help your students walk away with a greater understanding of human rights and how the impacts of colonialism and racism continue to affect life in Canada.
Students will:
• Learn that human rights protections in Canada were fought for and won through the effective actions and voices of many groups and individuals.
• Experience exhibits and the inspiring Museum architecture as if they were at the Museum in person.
• Interact with a Museum guide and their classmates to deepen their understanding of equality and human rights.
• Engage in discussion, critical thinking and reflection on how colonialism and racism have ongoing impacts on the rights of people living in Canada today.
This writing continuum was created by Kenaston School (Nicole Duley and Cindy Menzies). It has taken the writing outcomes for Grades K-8 and organized them in a scope and sequence. This can be used to track individual student progress through the outcomes and follow the student through the grades to support in the implementation of the PeBL philosophy and the creation of personalized goals.
Made by a Grade 5 teacher in Saskatchewan. Kids Boost Immunity (KBI) provides dozens of classroom activities and teacher resources developed by health and education professionals.
Kids Boost Immunity matches Saskatchewan curriculum outcomes from Grades 4 to 12. You can read a description of the core lessons available for Saskatchewan students. Each grade has a tailored selection of lessons that fit their curricular need.
The Critical Thinking and Evaluating Information lessons on Kids Boost Immunity are aligned with multiple subjects within the Saskatchewan curriculum. These lessons provide examples of how misinformation can sway opinion, often by creating a sense of fear. A checklist evaluation method enables student to assess the trustworthiness of information sources. Other evaluation strategies include learning how to recognize personal bias and using a scientific approach to test ideas. For older grades there are lessons in designing experiments, creating a working hypotheses, exploring biases, and understanding correlation versus causation.
We currently offer 3 school programs:
1. Little Legislators Scavenger Hunt: 40-60 minutes, Pre-K to Grade 3 - Students will participate in a scavenger hunt for Saskatchewan symbols, and important people and objects in the Legislative Building. They learn about what government does in the building, monarchy connections, treaty maps and Indigenous leaders in Saskatchewan, and more.
2. Let's Get Legislative: 2 hours, Grades 4 to 12 - Students will gain an in-depth understanding of the function of the Legislative Building and of the elected members of the Assembly, and have the opportunity to ask their school’s MLA questions about what they see and learn in the Chamber. The Let's Get Legislative tour is only available when the Assembly is in session. For this program, please refer to the parliamentary calendar to select a date when the Assembly will be sitting.
3. Standard School Tour: 30 minutes, all grades - Our 30-minute tour, tailored to your students’ grade level. Learn the history of the building, government, the Westminster parliamentary tradition, and more.
"A task I have given my students is to write a letter to themselvces on their day of graduation!"
This unit plan overview provides links to all lessons along with links to accompanying teacher support materials that include: Student worksheets and answer guides for individual lessons; Inquiry activities with support materials. This unit includes 5 lessons that includes: Understanding Indigenous Symbols, Vocabulary and Literacy Builder activities, Medicine from the Land, "The Story of Sky Woman" and worksheets and activities to accompany the story.
The Literacy Shed is home to a wealth of visual resources that have been curated from YouTube, Vimeo and other sites to meet curricular outcomes in ELA.
The resources can be used in stand alone literacy lessons, can form the basis for a whole Literacy unit or can support literacy units that you already have in place. With the many book based activities using the book alongside the digital resource is recommended.
This self-reflection tool is designed to ensure that teaching practices are aligned with Structure Literacy. The user is encouraged to note (by checking off the boxes) all areas they are currently putting into practice. The completed reflection can then be used with the principal or the leadership team to set targets for professional learning, professional growth, and/or a plan for Structured Literacy implementation. The goal is to ensure all areas identified are implemented within the classroom. Adopted from The Reading League’s Curriculum Evaluation Tool https://www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Curriculum-Evaluation-Tool-August-2020.pdf
This Website allows you to directly locate and find lessons through the SK curriculum and has specific activities aligned with a number of different SK Subject Outcomes.
- Arts Education
- Career Education
- Social Studies
- Science
- Math
- Health
- Practical and Applied Arts
- Cross-Curricular Competencies
- ELA
- Communication Media
Grade 6 Specific Health Related Activities:
o Avatars and Body Image USC6.1
o Gender Stereotypes and Body Image USC6.1 USC6.2
o Image Gap USC6.1
o Introduction to Cyberbullying: Avatars and Identity USC6.1 USC6.2 USC6.5
o Kids, Alcohol and Advertising – Lesson 1: Messages About Drinking USC6.7
o Kids, Alcohol and Advertising – Lesson 2: Young Drinkers USC6.7
o Kids, Alcohol and Advertising – Lesson 3: Understanding Brands USC6.7
o Kids, Alcohol and Advertising – Lesson 4: Interpreting Media Messages USC6.7
o Media Kids USC6.2 USC6.5 USC6.7
o Media Minute Lesson 2: Media are constructions USC6.2 USC6.7
o Mirror Image USC6.2 USC6.1
o Pay for Play USC6.7
o Prejudice and Body Image USC6.1 USC6.5
o Stereotyping and Bias USC6.1 USC6.2
o Tobacco Labels USC6.7
o Understanding the Internet: Communication and Social Media USC6.7
Educational Games:
o Data Defenders
o A Day in the Life of the Jos (same as above – paid for program) USC6.1 USC6.2