FAQs

General Information

What is LSA?

This Canadian assessment resource allows Grades 7–10 students to learn more about themselves as readers and writers, and for teachers to gain an understanding of their students’ reading and writing skills.
The questions focus on reading comprehension and persuasive writing skills.
LSA can help teachers adapt and plan for literacy instruction that is tailored to meet students’ needs.
It can be implemented as a whole class/group or individually as needed.
LSA contains 24 reading passages with reading levels from Grade 1 to Grade 10 and content appropriate for intermediate and secondary students.

Is there a different assessment kit for each grade level?

Is there Indigenous content?

Yes, there are two reading passages that focus on Indigenous content. Both are written by Barbara Filion, a member of the Innu-Montagnais Nation:

“Meet Autumn Peltier” highlights the accomplishments of the young Anishinaabe activist.
“Indigenous Languages: Why They Matter for All” focuses on the importance of Indigenous languages and the threat of their disappearance.

How does LSA connect to provincial curriculum outcomes?

Will a similar kit be developed in French?

Are there any tips for viewing or projecting digital versions of the reading passages?

Please ensure that you are viewing and projecting in full-screen mode (click on the icon at the top right corner).
If you need to enlarge the text, set the view to “Continuous” rather than “Magazine,” which is the default setting.
If possible, dim the classroom lights for improved visibility of the screen.

Assessment Options and Support

How often should the reading passages be used for assessment within a school year?

Plan to administer the first assessment early in the year or semester, after you have observed your students’ reading and writing in class for at least two weeks.
The second assessment may occur once students have had opportunities to learn (through teacher instruction), practise, and apply various strategies.
See pages 1–2 of the Teacher’s Guide for a suggested schedule for administering the assessment during the school year. Pages 24–27 of the Teacher’s Guide outline how to implement whole class/group assessment.

How do teachers decide which reading passage to choose for students? Is there a guide, or is it just based on previous classroom data?

Teachers can use the following strategies to choose appropriate reading texts and writing tasks for students.

Use the first two weeks of class time to observe students as they experience introductory reading and writing tasks. This is a vital part of the assessment process and will help you match students to appropriate reading passages and writing tasks.
Refer to the results of previous school, district, or provincial tests.
Review student records, including comments or grades from previous teachers and in individual education plans.
Consult with support or resource teachers.
Listen to students read out loud on a one-to-one basis (see Appendix D, page 183, of the Teacher’s Guide).
Administer The Graded Word List (The San Diego Quick Assessment) if you are unsure of students’ reading levels (see Appendix C, pages 179–183, of the Teacher’s Guide).

See the Teacher’s Guide for more information.

How long does it take to administer the assessment?

Budget for 60–75 minutes to administer the reading assessment for the whole class/group. If this assessment is being administered individually, it may take a shorter amount of time.
If you are unsure of a student’s reading level and need to administer The Graded Word List (The San Diego Quick Assessment) first, allow for 3–5 minutes per student.
For the writing assessment, which should be administered after the reading assessment, plan for a separate 60–75-minute block of time.
See pages 24–27 of the Teacher’s Guide for more information on implementing whole class/group assessment.

What are the assessment options in LSA?

What support is there for the teacher when assessing students' responses? What can be done to reduce variability (subjectivity) in the marking/scoring of the assessments?

Answer keys for each reading passage are provided in the Teacher’s Guide (pages 31–150) and on the Companion Website for support.
We suggest setting up a school or departmental team (depending on the implementation model) to select student exemplars and to build up a bank (see page 176 of the Teacher’s Guide for suggested implementation models for administering the assessment grade-wide).
When going through the student response sheets, work with a partner for moderated marking, ensuring discussion happens often.
See pages 25–27 of the Teacher’s Guide for more information.

Does LSA include post-assessment activities or lessons?

The Teacher’s Guide includes charts that isolate each of the reading and writing skills, and offers a range of instructional strategies and teaching points that can be explicitly taught to support student learning (see Section III: Next Steps for Improving Students’ Reading and Writing Achievement, starting on page 164).

Research and Background Information

Who determined the grade level for each student reading passage, and what tools did they use?

The reading levellers on this series are Barbara Boate and Deborah Kekewich. These experienced educators level the reading passages independently at first, and then meet to discuss and reach a consensus.

Below is a list of the scales* they choose from:

Automated Readability Index
Bormuth Readability Index
Coleman-Liau Index
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
Flesch Reading Ease
The Literacy Continuum
Fry Graph
Gunning Fog Index
Lexile Density
Lexile Score
Linsear Write Readability Formula
New Dale-Chall Readability Formula
Powers-Sumner-Kearl Readability Formula
SMOG Index
Spache Readability Formula

*Not all scales are used for each reading passage. Additionally, not all scales used may be listed here.

There are many factors that go into defining a grade level, and Barbara and Deb do not rely solely on these scales. They also consider

Words— familiarity, frequency, syllable count, transitional words, word choice, context, parts of speech
Sentence length and complexity
Text and print features
Genre, content, and support from illustrations, charts, and photos, etc.

Some passages were levelled multiple times to achieve an accurate reading level.

What research was used in the development of LSA?

Provincial and territorial curricula documents clearly illustrate that the primary purpose of assessment must be to improve student learning.
LSA provides the opportunity for both teachers and students to use the assessment feedback to adjust their performances (Wiliam, 2018; Cooper, 2022).
The Teacher’s Guide equips teachers with descriptive feedback related to the strategies that proficient readers use to construct meaning (Fisher and Frey, 2019; Tovani, 2021).
LSA enables teachers to provide descriptive feedback about the strategies that proficient readers use, and lists best practices for instruction in writing (Gallagher and Kittle, 2018; Stockman 2021).
LSA was developed with Dr. Sharon Jeroski, based on her research in British Columbia.

How was LSA classroom tested?

LSA was tested in 13 Toronto District School Board schools with 15 different Grade 9 English classes.
A team of literacy consultants analyzed the student responses.
This analysis resulted in the revision of some of the reading and writing prompts, and examples were added to the Answer Keys.
Surveys revealed that the students enjoyed the reading passages, worked diligently on the response sheets, and used the rubrics to guide their responses.

Does LSA have any connection to the Science of Reading (as it relates to reading comprehension)?

The Science of Reading includes the following components: phonemic awareness and phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. LSA allows teachers to assess students’ comprehension skills. In order to read the passages and respond to the questions, students will likely have the appropriate phonics, fluency, and vocabulary skills to read the passage. The Science of Reading and LSA overlap and can impact learning in Grades 7–10 in the following ways:

The importance of summarization to develop greater reading comprehension skills.

The use of self-monitoring and metacognitive skills to detect breakdowns in reading comprehension.

The use of interesting, age-appropriate, grade -level passages to engage students.

The importance of using high-level critical thinking questions to elicit inferential reading of a passage.

The importance of using writing prompts that are connected to the reading and that engage students to draw on personal experience to write persuasively.

What is The Graded Word List (The San Diego Quick Assessment)?

This tool's main purpose is to help teachers determine the grade level at which a student reads. It can then be a guide in determining grade-level reading materials for students.
The Graded Word List is a word identification tool used to determine the level of a student’s known words. It also notes strategies the student uses to pronounce unfamiliar or unknown words.
The test is a one-on-one task that takes only 3–5 minutes to administer.
See Appendix C, pages 179–183, of the Teacher’s Guide for detailed instructions on administering the test, along with The Graded Word List. The Graded Word list was updated by our Canadian series advisor to reflect current vocabulary while maintaining the integrity of the original word list.

LSA and other Assessment Resources

What are the key differences between LSA and the Ontario Comprehension Assessment (OCA)?

The OCA had grade-specific kits, but LSA consists of one kit that contains reading passages for Grades 7–10. At one kit versus five, LSA offers great value!
LSA contains reading passages at additional grade levels (Grades 1–3), so there is a span of reading levels from Grades 1-10.
Literacy Success Assessment contains new and updated reading passages to align more with current issues and interests.
The LSA has an added persuasive writing assessment.
Some content in the LSA Teacher’s Guide has been updated since the OCA and supports current thinking.

Literacy Success Assessment