Ministry of Education Mandatory Topic: Literacy
Educational Assistants
Educational Assistants will be participating in a variety of professional learning opportunities, including Behaviour Management Systems certification/recertification, Proactive Behaviour Management training, Emergent Literacy training, Mental Health and Well-Being training, and Multi-Disciplinary training with Speech-Language Pathologists and Social Workers. These opportunities will be specific to individual and site needs.
Kindergarten Teachers and Early Childhood Educators – Full Day
This professional learning day will focus on supporting and building educator capacity in the area of effective early reading instruction in Kindergarten. For half the day, educator teams will explore a variety of literacy resources and materials (e.g., Effective Early Reading Instruction, A teacher’s guide – Ministry of Education; phonological and phonemic awareness lessons; Sound Walls lessons) and review practical and effective strategies to support student learning with a focus on early reading and evidence-based systematic and explicit reading instruction. The other half of the day, educator teams will participate in an in-person district professional learning session offered by the TVDSB Early Years Portfolio and Speech and Language Services. In this session, educators will have an opportunity to learn more about the Language continua from the revised Language curriculum, oral language development, and other resources to support effective early reading instruction in Kindergarten.
Elementary Teachers – Full Day
This professional learning day will focus on supporting and building educator capacity in the area of effective early reading instruction and the implementation of the revised Language, Grade 1-8 curriculum. School teams will explore grade level curriculum expectations and supporting documents/materials (e.g., understanding the context; key changes; assessment and evaluation; and new continua for the revised Language curriculum) and review practical and effective strategies to support student learning with a focus on early reading and evidence-based systematic and explicit reading instruction. Grades 1 to 3 educators will work together in grade-levels or as a division to explore TVDSB and Ministry of Education resources (e.g., professional learning modules; videos; and online resources) to support the implementation of the revised Language curriculum. Grade 4-8 educators will participate in a virtual live session, “Teaching Language Foundations for Reading and Writing” offered by the TVDSB Literacy Portfolio to support changes in literacy instruction. This in-person professional learning will be facilitated by the school administration.
Secondary Teachers – Full Day
This professional learning day will focus on supporting and building educator capacity in the area of effective literacy instruction to improve literacy outcomes for students. Specifically, school teams will explore how to embed and improve disciplinary literacy strategies across the Secondary curriculum. Subject departments will engage in learning to support rich literacy instruction within their curriculum area (e.g., targeted vocabulary instruction; supporting students to read and understand complex text; and combining writing instruction with reading in the subject area) and how to access TVDSB and Ministry of Education resources to support effective literacy practices across the curriculum. This in-person professional learning will be facilitated by the school administration.
