The Student Pathways for Success literacy pillar focuses on providing opportunities for Thames Valley’s students to increase and sharpen their reading and writing ability. Literacy is a crucial component of every career pathway, so whether you are going to work in the construction industry or pursuing a retail destination, the literacy skills you gain in school will have a direct impact on your success in your future career.

Important Web Sites

http://www.eqao.com/Students/Secondary/10/10.aspx?
Lang=E&gr=10&Aud=Students&App=Students
The Grade 10 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test is a means of ensuring that students have acquired the essential reading and writing skills that apply to all subject areas in the provincial curriculum up to the end of Grade 9. All students in public and private schools who are working toward an Ontario Secondary School Diploma are required to write the OSSLT in Grade 10. Students who have been eligible to write the OSSLT at least twice and have been unsuccessful at least once are eligible to fulfill the requirement through the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC). Successful completion of the OSSLT or OSSLC is a graduation requirement. This site provides an overview of the test to help students prepare and be successful.

www.tvdsb.on.ca/secondaryprograms/Grade10Test.shtml
This Thames Valley site about the Grade 10 Secondary School Literacy Test provides up-to-date information for parents and students.

www.tvdsb.on.ca/secondaryresources/language.shtml
A Thames Valley site highlighting Language Arts and Literature Links covering everything from Shakespeare to grammar tips.

www.tvdsb.on.ca/secondaryresources/essays.shtml
A Thames Valley site that covers Essay Writing Tips for students focusing on researching, writing, and referencing essays.

www.tvdsb.on.ca/secondaryresources/libraryschoollist.shtml
A Thames Valley portal where students can access the database of all Secondary School Library Catalogues across the District.

www.tvdsb.ca/Research
Thames Valley’s Research and Reference Centre where students can access online encyclopedias and dictionaries, and find information through more than 30 reference links.

http://www.eqao.com/pdf_e/06/06P033e.pdf
The Annotated Sample Student Responses is intended to help students achieve success on the Grade 10 Secondary School Literacy Test. Responses for one reading selection and for the four writing tasks are included. All samples of student work are accompanied by comments that explain how scoring criteria were applied.

http://www.eqao.com/pdf_e/06/06P032e.pdf
The EQAO provides this document of Sample Questions and Answers to give students an idea of the expectations on the Grade 10 Secondary School Literacy Test.

www.eqao.com/pdf_e/04/04P011e.pdf
Successful Strategies for Improving Literacy is a helpful guide that underlines the importance of literacy skills across all subject areas. It has long been recognized that literacy is key to student success, and this site is geared towards helping all students succeed on the Grade 10 Literacy Test.

www.junketstudies.com/rulesofw/
This site provides information about the 11 Rules of Writing, a concise guide to some of the most commonly violated rules of writing, grammar, and punctuation. It is intended for all writers to help them learn and refine their writing skills. Students can explore each of the rules to see examples of its application, and use the references to find additional explanations and examples on the web or in print.

www.aolatschool.com/students
This site is hosted by AOL@School, and provides students in all grades a portal to access resources based on subject area, play educational games, and explore a series of helpful resources. The site also includes a specially-configured search engine that returns lists of pre-screened sites that have been selected by online education experts. The quality and coverage of this database are reviewed on a weekly basis, and hundreds of new web sites are added each month.