What is Literacy?
Traditionally, literacy has been understood as the ability to read and write. While these are foundational elements, today literacy is recognized as a multifaceted set of skills that enable individuals to process, understand, and communicate information effectively. The Government of Saskatchewan defines literacy as the set of knowledge, skills, practices, and behaviours that allow us to interact with one another and navigate our world.
In a Structured Literacy framework, literacy emphasizes explicit, systematic instruction in the foundational components of language, including phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. This approach equips individuals with the tools to decode and encode language while fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Literacy extends beyond academics—it is a key to employment, higher wages, improved social and health outcomes, and meaningful participation in society. From the moment we wake up until we go to sleep, literacy enables us to interpret, analyze, and engage with the world around us, providing the foundation for lifelong learning and success.
Literacy with Young Children
A child’s literacy journey begins at birth, as early interactions with language and communication lay the foundation for future learning. Literacy development is supported by families, caregivers, and communities, who play a vital role in nurturing these skills. In a Structured Literacy framework, early experiences focus on building phonological awareness, oral language skills, and an understanding of how language works, providing a strong foundation for reading and writing.
Examples of early literacy experiences include:
- An infant smiling or crying to communicate their needs, fostering early communication and language awareness.
- A toddler forming their first words, building connections between sounds and meaning.
- A young child interpreting symbols, such as recognizing letters, numbers, or familiar logos, which develops early print awareness.
- A preschooler singing a song, enhancing phonological awareness, rhythm, and vocabulary.
- A parent and child laughing over a story, encouraging comprehension, engagement, and a love for reading.
By supporting children’s early language and literacy skills in structured, intentional ways, we create a strong foundation for their lifelong learning and success.
Literacy with School-Age Children
As children enter the school system, the development of reading and writing skills becomes a central focus, with explicit and systematic instruction in foundational literacy components such as phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. A Structured Literacy framework ensures that children are equipped with the skills necessary to decode, encode, and understand a wide variety of texts.
Students engage in learning opportunities that expose them to different forms of text—both print and digital—integrating words, visuals, and graphics.
In this stage, students begin to:
- Learn the rules of language, including grammar, syntax, and word structures.
- Acquire, evaluate, and ethically use information, fostering critical thinking.
Construct meaning from a variety of texts through intentional comprehension strategies. - Communicate effectively in oral and written forms, developing precision and clarity.
As students progress through the school system, they refine these foundational skills and expand their ability to navigate increasingly complex texts and technologies. With access to vast amounts of information in print and online, literacy instruction now includes teaching students to be critical and ethical consumers of information. They learn to discern credibility, recognize bias, and interact responsibly with global audiences.
Where Does Literacy Instruction Take Place?
Each subject has unique literacy demands. For example:
- Science requires students to interpret data, analyze graphs, and use precise scientific vocabulary.
- History involves evaluating primary and secondary sources, understanding timelines, and constructing well-supported arguments.
- Math includes reading word problems, interpreting symbols, and communicating solutions clearly.
Teachers in every subject help students learn how to:
- Read and interpret different types of text.
- Write and express ideas in subject-specific formats.
- Use content-specific vocabulary effectively.
Beyond the classroom, literacy is part of everyday life. We use literacy when we:
- Have conversations and share ideas
- Read maps, recipes, manuals, advertisements, or websites.
- Analyze media and interpret the vast amounts of information around us.
- Write poems, reports, emails, blogs, or social media posts.
Literacy opens doors to understanding the world, connecting with others, and thriving in an information-rich society. It’s a lifelong skill that empowers us every day.
K-12 Aim and Goals of English Language Arts
The K-12 aim of the Saskatchewan English language arts curricula is to help students understand and appreciate language, and to use it confidently and competently in a variety of situations for learning, communication, work, life, and personal satisfaction.
The K-12 goals are broad statements identifying what students are expected to know and be able to do upon completion of study in a particular subject (e.g., English language arts).
The K-12 goals of the Saskatchewan English language arts curricula are to:
- Comprehend and Respond (CR)
- Compose and Create (CC)
- Assess and Reflect (AR)
You can access the Saskatchewan Curriculum Documents for all grade levels and subject areas by clicking here.
Time Allotments
- GradesTime Allotment
- Grades 1-5560 minutes per week
- Grade 6510 minutes per week or 100 minutes each day
- Grades 7-9300 minutes per week or 60 minutes each day
Types of Units to be Taught Grades 1-9
- Type of UnitNumber of Units per Year
- Multi-Genre Thematic3 (minumum)
- Multi-Genre Inquiry and/or Interdisciplinary1 (minimum)
- Author or Genre Study1 (minimum)
Suggested Units/Modules of Study for ELA 10-12
ELA A10
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The Challenges of LifeThe Mysteries of life
ELA B10
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Equity and EthicsThe World Around and Within Us
ELA A20
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Starting Out – Beginning and BecomingMoving Forward – Establishing and Realizing
ELA A30
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Unit 1 – Canadian Perspectives: Distinct and RichUnit 2 – Canadian Landscapes: Diverse and Dynamic
ELA B30
- Unit 1 – The Search for SelfUnit 2 – The Social Experience
An Effective Language Arts Program
- Develop strong decoding and encoding skills through explicit instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and vocabulary.
- Build comprehension skills by learning strategies for understanding and analyzing various types of texts.
- Connect their learning to real-world experiences in meaningful and authentic ways.
- Become self-directed, strategic, and collaborative learners prepared to navigate personal, social, work, and global challenges.
Clear learning objectives: A detailed map of what students are expected to know and do, outlined in specific outcomes and indicators.
Aligned assessments: Powerful and aligned assessment tools that measure student progress toward these outcomes.
Evidence-based instruction: Effective teaching methods, explicit instructional strategies, and consistent classroom routines tailored to meet the outcomes.
The curriculum serves as the foundation for instructional planning, providing:
- A clear philosophy and framework for English language arts instruction.
- Knowledge and skills (factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive) that students are expected to master at each grade level.
- Guidance for identifying the evidence needed to assess student progress.
- Support for designing or selecting assessment tools to monitor and report student learning effectively.
Through this structured approach, teachers can create a purposeful and dynamic learning environment that equips students with the literacy skills they need for lifelong success while encouraging them to be socially responsible and actively engaged in their communities.
ELA Assessments
The Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST)
Grade Level: K-2
Testing Time: 4-8 minutes
The PAST is best used with students as part of a whole class screening in K-2 or a formal reading assessment. A unique feature of the PAST is that students receive corrective feedback for every incorrect item. The PAST correlates powerfully with reading but is not a normed test. To access the PAST test and instructions, click the link below:
CORE Vocabulary Screening Assessment
Grade Level: Grades 1-8
Testing Time: 10-20 minutes
The CORE Vocabulary Screening measures how well students know the meaning of grade-level words they read silently. The task involves reading a word in a box and choosing which of the three answer choices means about the same as the word in the box. It is a pure measure of reading vocabulary in that there is no need to comprehend text in order to complete the task and there is no context to provide clues to the meaning of the word. To access the assessment and instructions click the link below:
CORE Reading Maze Comprehension Test
Grade Level: Grades 2-10
Testing Time: 3 minutes
A maze reading assessment is a task that measures how well students understand text they read silently. The maze task differs from traditional comprehension in that it is based completely on the text. After the first sentence, every seventh word in the passage is replaced with the correct word and two distracters. Students choose the word from among the three choices that fits best with the rest of the passage. To access the assessment and instructions click the link below:
The Really Great Reading Diagnostic Decoding Surveys
Grade Level: K-12
The Diagnostic Decoding Surveys enable one-on-one assessment of phonics skills for struggling readers from Kindergarten through adulthood. The surveys are efficient and easy to administer. For emerging readers or students with decoding weaknesses, the surveys can be used to identify which skills have already been mastered and which are weak. To access the assessments and instructions click the links below:
Phonological Awareness Survey
Grade Level: Emergent Readers
The Phonological Awareness Survey consists of two separate surveys that assess students’ phonological and phonemic awareness skills:
- Phonological Awareness Survey
- Phonemic Awareness Survey
The Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness Surveys assess a student’s ability to hear, identify, blend, segment, and manipulate the sound units of English, including larger units (syllables, onset/rime) and smaller units (phonemes or sounds). To access the assessment and instructions click on the link below:
Acadience Reading
Grade Level: K-9
Testing Time: 5-11 minutes
Acadience Reading (formerly known as DIBELS) is a set of procedures and measures designed to assess the development of foundational literacy skills. These quick, one-minute fluency measures help identify students at risk for reading difficulties and monitor progress in acquiring critical early literacy and reading skills from kindergarten through eighth grade.
The assessments focus on the following foundational literacy skills:
- Letter Naming Fluency (LNF): Recognizing and naming uppercase and lowercase letters quickly and accurately.
- Phonemic Awareness (Phonemic Segmentation Fluency – PSF): Identifying and manipulating individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.
- Phonics (Nonsense Word Fluency – NWF): Decoding and blending letter sounds to read phonetically regular nonsense words.
- High-Frequency Word Recognition (Word Reading Fluency – WRF): Reading high-frequency and irregular words accurately and fluently.
- Reading Fluency (Oral Reading Fluency – ORF): Reading passages aloud with accuracy, speed, and appropriate expression.
- Reading Comprehension (Maze): Understanding and constructing meaning from text through a timed, multiple-choice cloze activity.
For access to the assessments and instructions, visit the official Acadience Reading website:
Quick Phonics Screener (QPS)
Grade Level: K-12
Testing Time: 5-10 minutes
The Quick Phonics Screener (QPS) is a diagnostic assessment designed to evaluate students’ phonics knowledge and decoding skills. It identifies specific areas of strength and weakness, enabling educators to target instruction for students who struggle with phonics and decoding. The assessment is quick, easy to administer, and provides valuable insights for intervention and progress monitoring.
The QPS assesses the following foundational literacy skills:
- Letter-Sound Knowledge: Recognizing the sounds associated with individual letters and letter combinations.
- Phonemic Decoding: Blending individual sounds to read simple and complex words.
- CVC Words: Reading consonant-vowel-consonant words accurately.
- Blends and Digraphs: Decoding words with initial and final consonant blends and digraphs (e.g., bl, st, sh, ch).
- Vowel Patterns: Reading words with long vowels, vowel teams, and r-controlled vowels.
- Multisyllabic Words: Breaking down and reading multisyllabic words with accuracy.
- Sight Words: Recognizing high-frequency irregular words that cannot be easily decoded.
The QPS helps teachers pinpoint specific phonics skills that need to be developed, making it a valuable tool for individualized instruction and intervention planning.
For more information and access to the Quick Phonics Screener materials, visit:
