Tools - From Our Authors

November 12–18 is Canadian History Week — the perfect time to engage with Canada, its history, and its present. If you're looking for ways to talk about Canada with your students, Larry says the best way is a picture book! Pick your favourite from this downloadable list to share in your class next week. And if you're looking for ideas on working with picture books in the classroom, check out Larry's Teaching Tough Topics and Better Reading Now.

Click here to download the booklist!

Do you worry about teaching the history and culture of Indigenous peoples in your classroom? Long-time education mentor Larry Swartz contends that the best way to address this, and other, tough topics is through picture books, fiction, and non-fiction selections. Offering a range of fiction and nonfiction resources, having discussions, and encouraging curiosity, inquiry, research, and reporting are all important. Get a great start with Larry's PowerPoint guide to FNMI children's literature and accompanying booklist! Both free to use in your classroom today. With this wealth of own voices to draw from, you can open the gates of understanding for students of any age.

Click here to download the PowerPoint, and here to download the booklist! If you need a copy of Teaching Tough Topics, check it out here.

Books as Bridges explores the many advantages of using "touchstone" books to consider key aspects of literacy, and create a common literacy experience between class and home. Author Jane Baskwill has created brand new, updated booklists of the best books to share with parents and families, covering everything from social-emotional skills, to creativity and imagination, to activity and play.

Click here to download the booklists, and find your next favourite read! If you need a copy of the book, check it out here.

How do we help students make sense of what is happening in the world? How can children’s literature help readers to understand racism, white privilege, and oppression? Larry Swartz has ideas, advice, and updated booklists to help you begin to open doors to an understanding of equity, tolerance, and belonging, based in his latest book, Teaching Tough Topics. The right book can start a meaningful conversation about social justice and diversity, starting with Black Lives Matter — and these booklists will help you find your perfect starting point.

Click here to download the package, and start the work today. If you need a copy of the book, check it out here.

Did you miss our recent workshop, Teachers Talking Together? Or did you attend, but want to be reminded of some of the fantastic ideas and strategies shared? You can now download Brenda Stein Dzaldov's full presentation on Inspiring Meaningful Learning and supportive lesson design! Check it out today to find out more about engaging students, building relationships, smooth transitions, and much more.

Are you wondering what Larry Swartz' Word by Word has to offer you and your students? Why not try an activity from the book, and see how your students become engaged with and excited about words and language!

Any discussion about words in the 21st century needs to highlight the use of text messaging or texting, an informal, efficient, and highly popular way of electronically communicating messages where brevity is expected and accepted. Youth and adults alike use text messages for personal, family, business, and social purposes and it has become an accepted part of many cultures. New forms of interaction that were not possible before are now made possible with the advent of text messaging. People can carry out conversations with others without the constraints of an expected reply within a short amount of time and without needing to set time aside to engage in conversation. Drawing attention to text messaging in the classroom can help students understand how this mode of communication is positive and helpful or negative and challenging to our understanding of words and how we communicate. Have students work alone or with a partner to complete the gr8 Texting Words test to check their knowledge of text messaging abbreviations.

Click here to download the gr8 Texting Words test.

While Word by Word is our Book of the Month, you can find the answers to the test on page 117!

Co-authors David Booth and Richard Coles discuss teaching and learning in today's classrooms. Hear their views on building a classroom community of engaged students, professional development and lifelong learning, and much more in this chatty sit-down. Find out more about their newest book, and start on your journey to becoming the best teacher you can be!

Click here to tune in to the conversation!

Stumped by the demands of social-emotional challenges? This helpful survey, adapted from Joey Mandel's Moment to Moment, takes you through five developmental domains, helping you identify each student's strengths and needs, and how you can best begin to help them.

Click here to download the survey.

Would you like your students to know more about Canadian Nobel Prize winner, Alice Munro? Download this lovely portrait and thoughtful biography, created by noted chronicler, Harry Black. Alice's story was written as a companion piece to the fascinating biographical exploration, Canada and the Nobel Prize. Within the pages of this beautifully illustrated and fascinating book, any student will find a story that intrigues and inspires among the lives of these accomplished and innovative Canadians.

Are you seaching for creative ways to make spelling and language study fun and interesting for your students? Check out these spelling and word play challenges from Doreen Scott-Dunne! These intriguing exercises are sure to make students think more carefully about the words they see and use (and spell!) every day.

Click here to download the "Spelling Memes" package.