Our teachers always value professional learning time, as it allows them to dive into research, collaborate with experts, and enhance their teaching practices to better support student learning. This past Friday, our teaching teams met with Miriam Ramzy and Michelle Bence from Layers of Literacy.  We are in our third year of a partnership with Layers of Literacy (sponsored by our Evergreen School Council).  Year one focused on the layers of reading development and year two was focused on the layers of writing development.  This year we are focused on strengthening the foundation of literacy for students in grades K-5 by creating a cohesive, developmental progression of text structures. Throughout the school year, each grade level will dive deeply into two or three specific text structures, exploring how they evolve across grade levels. This collaboration emphasizes the importance of aligning reading and writing instruction, along with connecting literacy skills to various disciplines. By explicitly teaching writing structures, students not only develop stronger writing abilities but also enhance their overall comprehension and critical thinking skills. Explicit instruction also provides for:

• Clarity and Consistency: It helps students understand how to organize their thoughts and ideas in a clear and logical manner, leading to more coherent writing.
• Building Skills: It provides a framework that students can follow, helping them develop essential writing skills that they can apply in different contexts.
• Efficiency: With a clear structure, students can focus more on content creation rather than struggling with how to organize their writing.
• Supports All Learners: Structured writing instruction benefits students with various learning styles, making writing more accessible, especially for those who struggle with organization.
• Improves Comprehension: A clear structure helps the reader follow the argument or narrative, improving comprehension and making the writing more effective.
• Promotes Higher-Order Thinking: By teaching specific structures (like compare and contrast, cause and effect, sequence), students can better organize complex ideas and engage in deeper thinking.
• Reduces Anxiety: Knowing the expected format can reduce writing anxiety, especially for learners who might feel overwhelmed by the open-ended nature of writing tasks.
• Facilitates Revision: Explicit structure provides a blueprint, making it easier for students to revise and improve their writing by focusing on one section at a time.

The teachers discussed strategies that worked well in the first cycle of teaching focused on the compare-and-contrast writing structure. One key takeaway was the effectiveness of sentence frames and teaching transition words to help guide students through the writing process.

The group also discussed the importance of feedback loops in strengthening student understanding. Teacher conferences, combined with peer-to-peer sharing, allowed students to refine their ideas and develop their writing with more depth. Teachers highlighted the benefits of group work, where students could share ideas and process information together, leading to more well-rounded compositions.

Michelle and Miriam introduced the idea of creating sentence strips and prompts while working with reluctant writers in small groups that they could take away and use when revisiting their ideas during independent work, reinforcing their learning. This process also helps students with different learning needs, particularly those who struggle with writing independently, to take more ownership of their work.  Small group work, particularly in writing, gives students the chance to collaborate and support each other, building confidence in their abilities.

Overall, the day served as a reminder of how strategic group work, clear scaffolding, and consistent feedback can transform student writing and thinking, setting them up for greater success in school and beyond.

Our teachers enjoyed being “the students” for the day as well.

Sincerely,

Angela

Angela McPhee

Principal

Evergreen School