OSSLT Overview Cardinal Carter CHS February 23rd, 2012

1. OSSLT OverviewCardinal Carter CHSFebruary 23rd, 2012 Jennifer Casa-Todd, Program Resource Teacher Cathie Furfaro, Literacy Consultant 7-12

2. PRAYER “Your words are what sustain me. They bring me great joy and are my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty.” (Jeremiah 15:16, NLT) • Let us Praise God for access to His Word through literacy. • Let us Pray for literate members of our Cardinal Carter community and the greater community so that we may feast on the Scriptures. • Let us pray for the teachers, administrators, and parents who help support our students as they seek to understand words and God’s Word. • We ask this through Christ our Lord, AMEN Cardinal Carter, pray for us.

3. Agenda • Principal’s Welcome • What is the OSSLT? • Results for 2011 • EQAO website • School-Wide Preparation • Literacy at Home

4. What is the OSSLT? • The OSSLT is a provincial test of the reading and writing skills students have acquired by the end of grade 9. • It is based on the literacy skills learned in The Ontario Curriculum across all subject areas.

5. Graduation Requirement • All students who are working toward an Ontario Secondary School Diploma are required to write the OSSLT in Grade 10. • Successful completion of the OSSLT or OSSLC is a graduation requirement.

6. Looking at the test…. Booklet 1 75 minutes 15 minute break Booklet 2 75 minutes Students write in their homerooms unless they are allowed accommodations or special provisions.

7. Reading Skills The test has multiple-choice and open response questions that focus on the reading skills required in school and in daily life: • understanding explicitly (directly) stated ideas and information; • understanding implicitly (indirectly) stated ideas and information and • making connections between information and ideas in a reading selection and personal knowledge and experience.

8. Reading Tasks • Informational Text • Graphic Text • Real-life Narrative • Dialogue • News Report The selections vary in length from a few paragraphs to a few pages.

9. Reading a Graphic Text 2011

10. Writing Skills The test has short-and-long-writing tasks, and multiple-choice questions that focus on the writing skills required in school and daily life: • developing the main idea with sufficient supporting details; • organizing information and ideas in a coherent manner; • using conventions (spelling, grammar, and punctuation) in a manner that does not distract from clear communication.

11. Writing Tasks Long Writing Tasks • News Report • A Series of Paragraphs expressing an Opinion Short Writing Tasks • Open response questions • Short Writing Task (summary) • Multiple Choice Writing Task

12. Writing a Short Response Explain why it is important to learn about other cultures. Use specific details to support your answer. 2009 What would be the ideal job for you? Give reasons to support your answer. 2010 What is the best advice you have ever given to someone? Use specific details to explain your answer 2011

13. Writing a Supported Opinion Piece Task: Write a minimum of three paragraphs expressing an opinion on the topic below. Develop your main idea with supporting details (proof, facts, examples, etc.). Audience: an adult who is interested in your opinion Length: The lined space provided for your written work indicates the approximate length of the writing expected. Topic: Are today’s famous people good role models for young people? 2009 2010 Topic: Are cell phones necessary in teenagers’ lives? 2011 Topic: Is participation in extracurricular activities an important part of secondary school life?

14. www.eqao.com

16. 2011 Results for Cardinal Carter160 of the 169 fully participating students were successful on the 2010 OSSLT 95% 88% 84%

17. Cardinal CarterLiteracy Plan for 2011-2012 • Literacy Committee reviewed OSSLT scores • A plan was developed to improve scores • “Literacy Strategies” were presented at Academic Council meetings such as: • Writing a News Report • Reading strategies • Metacognitive strategies

18. LITERACY PLAN • “Literacy Tuesdays” • February 28 • March 6 • March 20 • March 27- OSSLT Presentation for Students • OSSLT Information posted on school website

19. SPECIAL EDUCATION SUPPORT • Grade 10 Applied English (ENG2P1) • School & Board staff collaborated • Team teaching- to address specific types of questions on the OSSLT ex. Newspaper Report • Teacher trained in Assistive Technology • ENG2P1 tests & exams- similar format of OSSLT

20. SPECIAL EDUCATIONAccommodations • CR teacher examines the strengths & needs of each student to determine accommodations: • Small group setting • Preferential seating • Extra time • Periodic supervised breaks

21. SPECIAL EDUCATIONAccommodations • Assistive Technology • Vocalinks training • Board staff training • Practice tests • Scribing • Verbatim reading of the writing prompts and tasks • Verbatim scribing of responses • Match scribe with student according to familiarity

22. Literacy at Home

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24. Is this Literacy?

25. or this ?

26. Recent research has revealed that students, in the span of a typical semester, will generate approximately 42pages worth of work for all classes, whereas they will produce in excess of 500 pages in email and text messages. or this?

28. The ability to use language and images in rich and varied forms to read, write, listen, speak, view, represent, and think critically about ideas. It allows us to share information, to interact and to make meaning It connects individuals to communities It is essential for personal growth and active participation in a democratic society What is Literacy?

29. Newspapers Magazines Flyers Brochures Catalogues Manuals Games Recipes Maps Letters Computers You have the tools at home…

30. How can you support literacy at home? Keep it real!!! • model a love of reading • provide a print rich environment in the house (popular magazines, trade paperbacks, newspapers, comics motivational posters…)

31. Just read! …reading one comic book, news article, or magazine article a week would mean reading 100 000 words a year …in 38 of 41 studies, students who read regularly did as well or better in reading comprehension tests than students given traditional skill-based reading instruction.

32. Time spent reading correlates with development of  world knowledge.” (Moore, Beran, Birdyshaw and Rycik 1999) Achievement on standardized tests academic success Positive attitudes about reading

33. How can you support literacy at home? Keep it real!!! • Connect reading material, both fiction and non-fiction, to what’s going on in the world and to family stories • Discuss current events—share opinions, make predictions, evaluate actions • Watch films and tv shows together—make predictions, evaluate character actions, make judgements

34. How can you support literacy at home? Keep it real!!! • Plan events together—read flyers, pamphlets, and maps. Plan a party—brainstorm, compare websites • Plan dinner menus--select different recipes to read, compare different recipes and decide on the best one • Play games—Boggle, Scrabble, Balderdash, Game of Life, etc… help with vocabulary, inferencing, and interpreting

35. Students are never too old to benefit from their parents’ interest in them. PISA REPORT PISA= Programme for International Student Assessment

36. Resources www.eqao.com www.abc-canada.org http://www.literacymatters.org/parents/ index.htm http://www.canada.com/national/features/ raiseareader/index.html http://www/mb.literacy.ca/family/flresour/ contents.htm http://www.unesco.org http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=cardinal+carter&hl :&