Learning Opportunities

This interactive session will feature hands-on tasks, strategies, collaborative conversations and online resources that can support junior high students with increasing literacy demands. We will discuss how to help students make sense of what they read, enhance their vocabulary, help them to decode word problems, read scientific texts, and use graphic organizers to guide their thinking.

We will look at ways to structure our classes for meaningful social interaction in order to master concepts, generate possible solutions, provide peer feedback and think critically about key ideas. When we, as teachers, make a few purposeful instructional shifts and are cognizant of the literacy demands we are asking of students (whether it is reading a short story, crafting an essay analyzing the actions of Louis Riel, identifying the operation required in word problems, or synthesizing an article about desalinization), student literacy skills can blossom.

Imagine junior high classrooms where students are highly engaged, have less challenges with reading and writing, can focus on mastering the content, feel supported, enjoy coming to class and approach tasks more confidently.

Target Audience

Grades 7-12 Teachers