Teaching English Language Arts

Teaching Indigenous History & Culture (FNMI) / Indigenizing Instruction

Alberta Education and others are providing teachers with lesson plans to help bring First Nations, Métis and Inuit history and contributions to life in classrooms across the province.

Understanding and Finding Our Way – Decolonizing Canadian Education All Canadians are responsible for reconciliation. Teachers have a unique opportunity to contribute by advocating for change to eliminate inequity and racism. Understanding and Finding Our Way – Decolonizing Canadian Education is a powerful film that exposes education inequities within public education in Canada. It challenges viewers to help decolonize education so that all students can succeed. The film was produced by Dr. Verna St. Denis, an internationally renowned scholar in anti-racist education. It was directed by award-winning filmmaker Alison Duke following appropriate protocols and under the guidance of Elder Mary Lee. The 32-minute film is divided into three parts.

RLI’s Education Team has developed engaging lesson plans based on the Five Foundational Knowledge Themes.

Stories of Decolonization is a multi-film interview-based documentary project that shares personal stories in order to explore accessible understandings of colonialism and its continued impact on those living on the lands now called Canada. It also explores notions and actions of decolonization.

Library Resources

These library books are great resources on lesson planning, literacy and assessment for your English Language Arts class.

Linking Assessment to Reading Comprehension Instruction by Nora L. White; Nancy A. Anderson; Happy Carrico In Linking Assessment to Reading Comprehension Instruction  the authors use an engaging, four-part assessment framework to explain how to combine observation and other assessment techniques to link assessment to effective reading comprehension instruction.  Rubrics and an example of assessment analysis illustrate how to make the connection between assessment and instructional planning.  Twenty model literacy lessons, replete with authentic student artifacts, are used to illustrate how a careful assessment analyzes can lead teachers to differentiate literacy instruction to fit students' specific literacy needs. 

Diagnostic Literacy Assessments and Instructional Strategies by Stephanie L. McAndrews It is claimed that specific programmes do not improve reading and writing and that most impact is made by the decision making process of the literacy professionals who use assessment to drive language, reading and writing instruction. This book aims to help make literacy specialists and classroom teachers effective decision makers.

Developing Essential Literacy Skills by Robin Cohen The continuum of lessons presented in this book is based on a simple, effective premise which is to introduce and reinforce essential literacy skills starting in Kindergarten, then build on these skills in each successive year. The book includes plenty of modelling, scafolding, and guided practice to aid children during lessons.

Reading and Writing to Learn by Katherine Wiesolek Kuta Research indicates that writing and reading should be taught in tandem. This content-area resource puts "writing to learn" into practice across curricular areas. It shows teachers how to present strategies common to good readers to increase understanding of a text. Students are taught to predict and infer, visualize, connect, question, understand word meanings, organize, clarify/monitor, and evaluate/reflect. Grades 3-12

Teaching English by Design by Peter Smagorinsky The Teaching English by Design Instructor's Guide presents a flexible framework for an English Methods course. Its week-by-week suggestions for in- and out-of-class activities support students as they learn to design units for use in their first classrooms. Peter Smagorinsky, the leading scholar and researcher of his generation in the field of English education, shows English teachers how to turn every hour of classroom instruction into an authentic and powerful learning experience in his inspiring new book, Teaching English by Design. It's a wonderful book and represents a challenge to all of us to teach better than we usually do. -Sheridan Blau Author of The Literature Workshop Peter Smagorinsky, a highly respected figure in English Education, here offers new teachers principled and practical ways of authoring curriculum, even in traditional settings. -Randy Bomer Author of Time for Meaning Many books on English/language arts instruction describe the teaching of units, but how many of them actually show how to create the units, make them meaningful to students, and use them to support your curriculum from September to June? Teaching English by Design does it all. It helps avoid a fragmentary curriculum by providing the rationale and the process for not only teaching well but also for producing integrated units that encourage students to deepen their thinking across the school year. Teaching English by Design is two books in one: a primer for teaching secondary English and a comprehensive guide to creating and using four to six-week instructional units. Peter Smagorinsky shares important insight about students, how they learn, and what kinds of classrooms support their achievement in reading and writing. Then he uses those findings to open up the key ideas of unit design to every teacher. Smagorinsky's units are organized around key concepts in English, such as: reading strategies writing strategies genres periods, regions, and movements in literature themes the works of a significant author. From original idea to construction, to implementation and beyond, Smagorinsky's practical advice supports teachers in extending, connecting, and integrating their units to increase the cohesion and power of the curriculum. Incorporating curricular theory, educational psychology, and fourteen years of high school teaching experience, Peter Smagorinsky's advice is both theoretically sound and grounded in the daily realities of today's teacher. Complemented by a wealth of web-based illustrations, Teaching English by Design is the ideal resource for preservice teachers as well as those in the classroom who want to take charge of their curriculum and find new energy in it.

Writing Effective Lesson Plans by Peter Serdyukov; Mark Ryan Developed by two educators with experience in both elementary and secondary classrooms, Writing Effective Lesson Plans details a unique a step-by-step procedure designed to streamline the process of lesson planning and make teaching smoother and more efficient. Coined the "Five-Star Lesson Plan" by the authors, this model consists of five classic components: lesson description, goals and objectives, materials and tools, procedures, and reflective assessment and evaluation.  This workbook guides beginning and experienced teachers through each step to create lesson plans that best meet the needs of every student.  It also explores the inherent challenges to effective lesson planning, such as time efficiency, knowledge construction, skill development, involving the students' families, and implementing your plan.  With its mix of concise theory and hands-on activities, this book is a one-stop resource encouraging a deep and thoughtful approach to a skill that is often not sufficiently developed in teacher preparation programs.

English Teacher's Portfolio of Multicultural Activities by John E. Cowen 75 literature-based lessons with complete reproducible reading selections, including short stories, poetry, folklore, novel excerpts, & other genres written by talented authors of African, Asian, Latino, Native American, & European descent.

Promoting the Gift of Literacy by Rhea A. Ashmore Easy to use lesson plans that teachers and parents can plug right in to teach oral and written literacy lessons.This book provides functional, pragmatic activities for educators, future teachers, and parents to promote the gift of literacy to others. This book provides 100 detailed lesson plans for the domains of oral and written language, word recognition, comprehension, and strategic reading for narrative text as well as study skills and strategic reading for content area text. The 101st lesson is blank for further planning. The plans are designed for readers in three developmental steps: initial reading, transitional, and basic literacy. This book emphasizes literacy as a continuous process not dependent on age or grade level.For teachers of elementary through middle school reading.

100 Experiential Learning Activities for Social Studies, Literature, and the Arts, Grades 5-12 by Eugene F. Provenzo; Dan W. Butin; Anthony Angelini Facilitates student engagement through active learning and provides easy-to-use matrices linking McREL, NCTE, and NCSS standards to activities in history, economics, literature, and the arts.