Ontario English curriculum on Education Perfect

Welcome to the new Ontario English Curriculum, grades 6-10.

Education Perfect’s first Ontario-specific English lessons were created for Ontario teachers, by Ontario teachers.

About Ontario English on EP

EP has partnered with some of Ontario’s authentic teachers and writers to bring a range of diverse voices to your classrooms! These lessons include Indigenous voices from Sarah Lewis, Peterborough's Inaugural Poet Laureate, and Daniel David Moses, a First Nations author, poet and playwright from Six Nations, Ontario, as well as local teachers and University students within Ontario.

After meeting with various teachers and school board leaders, it was clear to our team that teachers were interested in authentic, interactive and easily integrated lessons. Teachers wanted lessons available for all ranges of learners, including English Language Learners and struggling readers. We have provided this variety of lessons through our wide range of lessons and adaptabilities including the use of auditory and visual cues.

Curriculum Alignment

The new Ontario English lessons have been designed to cover the entire English language curriculum for grades 6-10. These lessons were written by Ontario-certified teachers, and students can expect to encounter relevant lessons and resources designed with their learning needs in mind.

Grade	Number of lessons
Grade 6	183
Grade 7	263
Grade 8	263
Grade 9	350
Grade 10	300

With the direction of the Ministry of Education, you can see the focus on mechanics of literacy with a separate section that includes materials that would support the Ontario Human Rights Commission initiative on The Right to Read.

This report encourages the return to the science behind reading, and the goal of these materials is to support this essential learning development.

What's available?

Each lesson has both practice and self assessment tools, and are aimed to suit any learning environment. Students can assess themselves in a simple way at both the beginning and end of each lesson to help them identify their own areas of growth. The learning goals and success criteria used in each lesson enable students to communicate why they feel they have progressed and what areas need improvement.

Also included is a tracking tool and an overall marking template to help synthesise these skills and guide both the students and the teacher through the process.

Each specific strand of the English curriculum has been fully completed to align with the specific and overall Ontario curriculum expectations.

What you'll find

The lessons you will find are contextual, interactive, clearly worded and scaffolded in the learning progression. Teachers will be able to collect data on student learning and will be able to assign lessons accordingly. Students will practise complementary skills such as punctuation, grammar, spelling and reading strategies so that they are able to utilize these essential skills in other lessons.

Analytics is a key feature of EP. They provide invaluable data and insight through a mix of interactive multi-choice questions, drag and drop activities, longer answers and more. Lessons are structured using Bloom's taxonomy, providing an extra layer of differentiation.

Strand	Number of lessons	Learning goals
Reading	613	This strand helps students learn to read with understanding, to read critically, to become familiar with various text forms and their characteristic elements, and to recognize the function and effects of various text features and stylistic devices. It helps students understand that reading is a process of constructing meaning and equips them with the strategies that good readers use to understand and appreciate what they read
Writing	475	A central goal of the writing strand is to promote students’ growth as confident writers and researchers who can communicate competently using a range of forms and styles to suit specific purposes and audiences and correctly applying the conventions of language –grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation. These conventions are best learned in the context of meaningful and creative writing activities that allow students to develop the ability to think and write clearly and effectively
Oral Communication	124	As students work towards achieving the expectations for this strand, they will improve their ability to explore and communicate ideas in both classroom and formal speaking situations.
Media Literacy	147	This strand focuses on helping students develop the skills required to understand, create, and critically interpret media texts. It examines how images (both moving and still), sound, and words are used, independently and in combination, to create meaning. It explores the use and significance of particular conventions and techniques in the media and considers the roles of the viewer and the producer in constructing meaning in media texts.
“Right to Read” lessons	82	This specialized folder is focused on students who need to hone their reading skills. It looks at word pronunciation and spelling. The goal is to build student word recognition, pronunciation and vocabulary.

Ontario English Curriculum Expectations

Using these lessons in the classroom:

EP is fully customisable. You can create and edit your own content for your local context and students. For example, you could assign an assessment on punctuation or word types from these lessons, swap out other poems, or adapt new lessons from the existing texts and content.
As part of your EP programme, assign your students one (or a series) of lessons as a Task each week covering one or a combination of skills.
If you have different abilities within your class, while you have teacher time with one group of students - assign independent lesson work to other groups of students in the class relevant to their level.
In class:
- If you have a group of students at a similar level, complete the EP lessons as a class on the projector together, then have students follow up on their individual devices. Some quiz questions in lessons can be completed as class games!
- Structure class time to have one lesson focused on a different skill each day of the week. Use the EP lessons as the focus for these lessons or as supporting activities.
- Use an EP lesson as a learning station in a series of station rotations or activities on a choice board.
Assign a Quiz or Diagnostic Test to determine the most appropriate starting level for students. Then, assign Recommended Tasks based on their results.
Once students have mastered a series of lessons, assign a Quiz based on these to assess their progress.
Complete some of the pre-reading activities in the lessons together as a class before students complete them independently.
Work through texts as a class with the text on a projector. Teachers can read through the text, or the students could take turns reading out loud. Then, work through the questions together as a class.

For any questions, please contact us.