cultivate_literacy

Are you looking to deepen your understanding of benchmark reading assessments required by the Ontario Ministry of Education? Want to learn how to connect assessment data with effective Science of Reading literacy instruction?

Join Aline Ableson (OCT, Orton-Gillingham Associate Practitioners) and Miranda Ableson (Speech-Language Pathologist) as we examin benchmark assessments and their application to institution.

🗓️ Date: Monday July 21, 2025
📍 Location: Zoom
⏰ Time: 9:00 -10:00 am
💲 Cost: $25

✅ Fill out the form below.

📩 Not able to make Monday’s session? Fill out the form below and we will notify you of our next session.

Have questions? Message or

Are you looking to deepen your understanding of benchmark reading assessments required by the Ontario Ministry of Education? Want to learn how to connect assessment data with effective Science of Reading literacy instruction?

Join Aline Ableson (OCT, Orton-Gillingham Associate Practitioners) and Miranda Ableson (Speech-Language Pathologist) as we examin benchmark assessments and their application to institution.

🗓️ Date: Monday July 21, 2025
📍 Location: Zoom
⏰ Time: 9:00 -10:00 am
💲 Cost: $25

✅ Fill out the form below.

📩 Not able to make Monday’s session? Fill out the form below and we will notify you of our next session.

Have questions? cultivate_literacy or Miranda Christine



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I am working on a new project and looking for parents' input. All who complete the survey below will receive a free resource.

Feel free to share the survey!

Reading and Spelling Workshops Do you have a child who struggles with reading and spelling? Would you like to learn how to help your child develop lifelong literacy skills? Literacy is my passion, and I'm seeking input on the support parents need. As an Orton-Gillingham Associate Practitioner, I work one-on-one with children to d...

It is unfortunate that many teachers' colleges do not provide comprehensive science-based reading instruction for aspiring teachers. This leaves teachers unprepared to effectively teach reading to their students. Without a strong foundation in this subject, educators do not fully understand the complexities of reading development.

Teachers poor in foundational language knowledge struggle to identify and address students’ reading difficulties. This results in students falling behind in their reading skills. Students with poor reading skills miss out on important opportunities for academic and personal growth.

Teachers' colleges MUST change. Prioritizing science-based reading instruction will ensure that educators are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to support their students’ reading success.

What was your teacher training like?

Do you feel like it prepared you to adequately teach reading?

The letter S has two sounds: the "voiced" and the "unvoiced" sound. The unvoiced sound of the letter S is the most common, and it's the one we use when a word begins with S, such as "sky" or "student". This sound is produced by the hissing sound air makes when it passes through a narrow opening in the mouth. The "voiced" sound of the letter S is less common and is pronounced when the letter S is between two vowel sounds, like in the word "dessert". In this case, the S is more like a "z" sound, and it's produced by vibrating the vocal cords while making the hissing sound. Understanding the difference between these two sounds of the letter S is important for correct pronunciation and spelling in English.

Please pray for this young girl, for safety and for those looking for her.

Police searching for 11-year-old who disappeared from St. Kateri Heavy police presence searching for Grade 6 student last seen at St. Kateri Outdoor Learning Centre; 'We continue to pray for the safe arrival of the missing student'

Oooo happy mail from ! I've been eagerly anticipating this package. I can't wait to open it. Any guess about what's inside? It's very exciting!!!!👀

❤️books

These two pictures are of some fun we had with letters today!

The second picture is of a St Patrick’s Day activity booklet my youngest brought home. One of the activities was a word scramble. He was having a hard time “unscrambling” the words, so we did a little scaffolding❤️ Out came the Bananagram tiles!

Once he could physically manipulate the letters he quickly came up with the mystery words. This is a perfect example of how scaffolding helps students with weak executive functions. These kids are clever and capable, they just need alternative ways to manipulate the information. Alternative ways of presenting information levels the playing field.

The first picture is of me experimenting with how to further the Bananagrams as a tool for learning. A little Scotch tape and you have ready made vowel team's, digraphs and r-controlled vowels!

Have you used Bananagrams in your reading instruction? Drop a comment to tell me how else you would use Bananagrams.

🍌

I am fearful.

There is a lot of buzz about science of reading and it’s causing confusion.

I've seen word walls referred to as sound walls.

I've see books labelled as decodable that have no accompanying scope or sequence.

I've seen TPT resources that claim to be “science of reading aligned”, when they are glaringly balanced literacy based.

A few key words and a smattering of knowledge do not make instruction or programs effective.

What SOR misinterpretations have you come across?

What advice do you have for teachers new to SOR?

Only a small percentage of English words are truly irregular. I put “sight words” in quotations because there are many interpretations of what is regarded as a “sight word”.

The definition here is a word that must be memorized in order to be read😉

Comment below which words you think need to be memorized. Be sure to check back later this week for the answer 🤓

Are you still getting/giving weekly lists of random words for children to memorize?

Whole word, whole language and balanced literacy proponents encourage the memorization of words. Memorizing words does not help children read or spell. There is no scientific backing to the practice of memorizing words.

When kids memorize a word, they can spell/read one word. If we teach orthographic mapping of phoneme/grapheme patterns, children can spell and read hundreds of words.