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This collection of favourite recipes reflects research-based practice for effective literacy instruction. As in The Balanced Literacy Diet (litdiet.org), each recipe is tagged with a "food group" (literacy skill area) and recommended age group. The collection includes examples of explicit instruction and guided/independent practice. The emphasis on poetry and music reflects my personal teaching style of inspiring children’s creativity, and draws on my own interests and strengths.
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by Gudrun Mackness
Assessment: Success Criteria (Gr. 2 - can be adapted to other grade levels) - It is important for students to understand what is expected of them, not only so assessment is fair, but also so that feedback is meaningful and so that students can recognize and experience success when they meet expectations. Involving students in the creation of success criteria ensures they understand the expectations and promotes motivation by giving them control over this aspect of their learning.

ASSESSMENT: Co-constructing a success criteria with your students is an excellent way to build an assessment that they are motivated to complete. In addition it clearly defines expectations in relation to their product.

Text Structures & Genres: Fairy Tale Checklist (Gr. 1-4) - Developing this checklist lets students analyse a familiar genre, and could lead to many open-ended activities involving higher-order thinking. Students can use personal experiences with other narrative forms for comparison to help them understand this genre and the concept of genre itself. Through critical analysis of fairy tales, students can engage in deep thought, rich oral language activities, and persuasive and creative…

-- "Fairy Tale Checklist" - students will LOVE to learn about features of fairy tales!

Oral Language & ELL: Television Stars! (Pre-K - K) - This is a creative, engaging way to promote oral language development at an early age and for ELL students. The teacher can model and provide guidance as students practice speaking. The "television" makes it fun, but also provides context for teaching students about oral speaking skills, such as volume and clarity. The activity is open-ended and could be integrated with media studies or to explore content knowledge in other subjects.

This activity, "Television Stars!", is an engaging and motivating way for students to practice oral language. It also integrates with Art and can provide students with an exciting means to approach oral language development.

WRITING PROCESSES & STRATEGIES: Writer's Workshop (Pre-K - Gr. 1) - Writer's Workshop is an effective way to help children learn writing processes and strategies. It should be conducted in a cycle of mini lessons (using modeling and think alouds) and guided practice. This recipe outlines how this program can be simplified for the earliest stage writers. It incorporates oral language and phonemic awareness exercises, and tells how to explicitly teach some elements of writing in this stage.

Writer's Workshop - Modelling and Guiding the Writing Process in Kindergarten: Food Group - Writing Process Strategies

Assessment: Running Records (K - Gr. 3) - Running records are a useful way to assess and individual's reading fluency, expression and comprehension, and this recipes describes how to conduct one without expensive assessment tools, using any book deemed appropriate for the child. Additional tips suggest accommodations for struggling and ELL readers. The video is a helpful illustration of how assessment criteria and feedback can be made meaningful to the student.

Assessment: Running Record and goal-setting component.

Oral Language & ELL: Bag of Mysteries (Pre-K - Gr. 1) - This activity creates a shared experience to promote descriptive language, so all students can engage. Restricting the experience to the sense of touch requires students to focus on details. Pairing students creates a safe audience and provides purpose for oral expression. The activity has endless possibilities for introducing interesting objects, and could be adapted to focus on any of the five senses, as per the kindergarten…

Literacy-laden show-and-tell - encourage children to use descriptive language while providing clues about their mystery object.

Reading Comprehension Strategies: Tableau Summaries (Gr. 4-6) - This simple activity provides students with an interesting way to practice summarizing and selecting the most important points in a text. The integration with the dramatic arts and the use of group work mean students have an opportunity to make meaning from the text, and to create a physical and social experience to help them connect with that meaning and with the reading comprehension strategy itself.

Objectives Students will explain how we use our bodies in theatre to convey information. Students will explain when in their daily lives they are using elements of drama.

Motivation for Literacy: Classroom Mailbox (Pre-K - Gr. 1) - This feature and the associated writing process incorporates many sources of motivation, from interesting materials to writing with a social purpose. The opportunity to engage in "adult" activities is also motivating for children, and the use of stickers for stamps and the process of "mail delivery" help to create a semblance of authenticity. I would appoint a special helper each week on "mail delivery" to increase student…

Classroom Mailbox // Pre K - Grade 1 // Motivation for Literacy // Writing Processes & Strategies // Text Structures & Genres // Writing Conventions

WRITING PROCESSES & STRATEGIES: Pocket Research (Gr. 2-4) - This is a useful strategy for teaching researching and organizing information as part of the writing process. It is scaffolded so that children in Stage 2 can manage these complex processes, which will help them work toward reading and writing to learn in the junior grades. The skills are developed in a way that they can be sustained once the scaffolding (i.e. use of pockets) is removed or replaced by graphic organizers.

[ WRITING PROCESSES & STRATEGIES ] Pocket Research: Help children understand the various stages of the research process and help them organize information

Reading Comprehension Strategies: Think Alouds (Gr. 1-6) - A number of reading comprehension strategies appear regularly in literacy texts and resources, but often with an emphasis on teaching them to emerging readers who are learning them for the first time. This recipe frames these strategies in a way better suited to junior level students, who need to learn to apply them in more sophisticated ways, to more advanced texts.

This recipe for a Think Aloud models to children how to use explicit comprehension strategies. This is a great way to show students exactly how a strategy is meant to be used, as simply telling them about it may not be effective.

Knowledge Building: Schema Folder (Gr. 3-6) – Having students use folders to organize their notes on distinct topics is meaningful if using one's "schema" has been taught as a reading comprehension strategy. The folders are an application of the reading strategy, drawing a connection between reading and knowledge-building. They also teach students the value of taking notes as they read because the tools and structure are simple and conducive to later organizing and using one’s notes.

Knowledge Building: Schema Folder (Gr. 3-6) – Having students use folders to organize their notes on distinct topics is meaningful if using one's "schema" has been taught as a reading comprehension strategy. The folders are an application of the reading strategy, drawing a connection between reading and knowledge-building. They also teach students the value of taking notes as they read because the tools and structure are simple and conducive to later organizing and using one’s notes.

Motivation for Literacy: Student Made Books (Gr. 2-4) - Celebrating students' work is an effective way to motivate literacy, and the publishing process is important to any writing program. Creating class books can support both these objectives, and also be designed to reinforce curriculum concepts (e.g. parts of speech). Creatively structured books keeps the writing process novel and interesting, and students' interest in each other's work will motivate reading as well.

--> This AMAZING virtual tour features many visual arts and literacy integration activities - it's just so inspiring to see how creative literacy can be!

WRITING PROCESSES & STRATEGIES: Wonder Box (Gr. 1-6) - This tool can prompt creative, narrative writing. Students require both the explicit instruction on how to write a narrative, as well as the guided practice in doing it. The expectations help students practice incorporating the features of a narrative. The unusual photos promote creativity, and (in turn) motivation. They also allow students to focus on the writing process.

INSTRUCTION: "Wonder Box" is an creative lesson idea on how to spark the imagination of young writers using unpredictable writing prompts. Applicable for a Stage (and beyond) writers. This is great for encouraging creative writing, even poetry.

Assessment: Writing Assessment Tools (Gr. 2-4) - This recipe outlines concrete steps for assessing student, as well as a unique diagnostic writing assessment. Having students write about their writing goals provides a writing sample, and motivates students to write by giving them control over their goal-setting and helping them clarify their goals for themselves. This activity is child-centred, helping the teacher get to know each child as well as his/her writing ability.

Here are some writing assessment tools to track children writing at all levels

Classroom Tips: Executive Functions Superheroes (Gr. 1-4) - This set of creative characters would make great allies for classroom management, while teaching students transferable knowledge and skills for executive functioning. The program puts a positive and exciting spin on behaviour management, empowering all students to self-regulate their behaviour, including behaviourally challenging students.

Classroom Tips: Executive Functions Superheroes (Gr. 1-4) - This set of creative characters would make great allies for classroom management, while teaching students transferable knowledge and skills for executive functioning. The program puts a positive and exciting spin on behaviour management, empowering all students to self-regulate their behaviour, including behaviourally challenging students.