Implementation Support
Welcome to the Pearson Canada Implementation Support Website. Here you’ll find everything you need to receive, unpack, organize, and get started using your new resources.
Literacy Success
Join our Implementation Support Office Hours to get the most out of your new literacy resources! Whether you're using or have recently acquired our materials, we're here to assist you. If you have any questions or need clarification on how to effectively utilize our resources, this is your chance to speak directly with a Pearson representative.
Our Office Hours sessions are designed for our valued literacy customers to learn more about the resources they have invested in and achieve the greatest possible impact using them. If you have a specific question, book a personal 15 minute session with our Implementation Manager below. Please be sure to mention the specific resources you would like support with.
Literacy Success Foundations Implementation Support
Implementation Office Hours
Video
An Overview of Literacy Success Foundations (11 minutes)
FAQs
Purchasing
Each year, students will vary in terms of skills and abilities. Having all three kits allows teachers to support their students regardless of their needs.
The kits are designed for small-group instruction for struggling readers in grades 4 and up within the larger classroom. These kits are specifically intended for students who are not yet proficient in phonics or word-level reading. They can also be used with the entire class. For example, a teacher might use the phonics part of the card for small-group instruction, but they may use the comprehension part with the entire class.
The kits are designed for grades 4 and up, including high school. This is a needs-based resource, so there is no specific grade level on each kit. The page 2 decodable texts are not written for a specific grade level. The page 3 texts are written for a grades 4-5 level but are appropriate in terms of content and design for students in middle grades and also high school.
While these kits were not designed for below grade 4, a few districts feel that the kits could be used for review in grade 3 before students enter the junior grades where the curriculum no longer requires phonics instruction. Although the page 3 reading passages are written at a grade 4 to 5 reading level, these districts feel the kits can still be used in grade 3, since the passages are intended for shared reading. It is not recommended that these kits be used below grade 3.
Getting Started
If you have previewed the scope and sequence for each kit and aren’t sure which kit is appropriate for your students, view the pre-assessment tab for more guidance.
The scope and sequences provide the phoneme/grapheme focus for each kit.
The pre-assessments will assist in determining students’ phonic knowledge. These documents can be found on each kit’s Teacher Companion website in the “Using This Resource” tab under “Additional Resources.” It can also be found on the pre-assessment tab.
No! If you have used another phonics assessment or screener, you can use those results to determine which kit is most appropriate for your students. Compare the assessment results to the LSF scope and sequence and use your judgment.
For example, if your students do not have mastery of the grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) taught in Kit A, they would benefit from the lessons in Kit A. If they have mastery or near-mastery of the GPCs in Kit A, but struggle with long vowel combinations, begin with Kit B.
Scoring information is included in the pre-assessments. More information about interpreting the results can be found on pages 42–43 of the Teacher’s Guide.
Throughout the country, specific outcomes for phonics instruction are found in curricular documents for primary classrooms. In most provinces and territories, there are no outcomes for phonics in grades 4 and up. Literacy Success Foundations is designed to assist teachers in supporting students beyond the primary grades who need explicit phonics instruction—foundational outcomes from earlier curricula.
More information can be found on the Teacher Companion Website in the “Using This Resource” tab.
Research and Efficacy
Several key resources were consulted during the creation of the Literacy Success Foundations scope and sequence, including
- Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties and Equipped for Reading Success: A Comprehensive Step-by-Step Program for Developing Phonemic Awareness and Fluent Word Recognition by David Kilpatrick (2015; 2016)
- Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers by Louisa Cook Moats (2020)
- Literacy Intervention in the Middle Grades: Word Learning, Comprehension, and Strategy Instruction, Grades 4–8 by Kevin Flanigan and Latisha Hayes (2023)
- Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf (2007)
- Teaching Phonics & Word Study in the Intermediate Grades by Wiley Blevins (2023)
Many of these resources also guided decisions about lesson content and structure. The scope and sequence of other popular resources for primary teachers, such as “Suggested Scope & Sequence for Teaching Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences” from the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI, 2022), were also considered.
See pages 10–13 of the Teacher’s Guide for more on the Scope and Sequence.
This series was tested pre-publication by ten Canadian educators with a range of grades and students. Testing is currently ongoing. Information about this testing process and the results will be available in Summer 2026.
To ensure that this series aligns with Science of Reading research, Pearson Canada hired Deborah McCallum, currently working on a doctorate focused on the science of reading, as the Senior Series Advisor. Deborah reviewed all teacher and student content to ensure it aligned with the Science of Reading. She and Senior Author Karen Filewych consulted many key resources during the creation of the Literacy Success Foundations scope and sequence, including the following:
- Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties and Equipped for Reading Success: A Comprehensive Step-by-Step Program for Developing Phonemic Awareness and Fluent Word Recognition by David Kilpatrick (2015; 2016)
- Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers by Louisa Cook Moats (2020)
- Literacy Intervention in the Middle Grades: Word Learning, Comprehension, and Strategy Instruction, Grades 4–8 by Kevin Flanigan and Latisha Hayes (2023)
- Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf (2007)
- Teaching Phonics & Word Study in the Intermediate Grades by Wiley Blevins (2023)
Many of these resources also guided decisions about the lesson content and structure. The scope and sequence of other popular resources for primary teachers—such as “Suggested Scope & Sequence for Teaching Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences” from the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI 2022)— were also considered.
Authors and Content Development
The Senior Author of this series is Karen Filewych. Her bio can be found here. Many of the page 3 reading passages were written by other Canadian authors. Their bios can be found here for Kits A, B, and C.
In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (2015) Calls to Action, each Literacy Success Foundations kit includes at least four student cards with reading passages written by a First Nations, Inuit, or Métis author from across the country on a topic of their choice. All three Indigenous groups are represented in each kit. Pearson recognizes the importance of the following saying of the Indigenous consultants who have advised us: “Nothing about us without us.” All reading passages about Indigenous communities and cultures are written by First Nations, Inuit, or Métis authors and reflect Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing. All student cards and lessons have been read by at least one First Nations, Inuit, or Métis reviewer to ensure accurate, authentic, and appropriate content.
All three kits were reviewed by a Series Senior Advisor, an Efficacy Consultant, a Reading Level Reviewer, an Indigenous Content Reviewer, a STEM Reviewer, an Equity Consultant, numerous Pedagogical Reviewers, and Classroom Efficacy Testers. The full list of reviewers and testers can be found on page iv of each Teacher’s Guide. When necessary, a subject matter expert also reviewed the content.
All content in this resource has received an independent EDI review. Pearson’s policy is to value the individual perspectives of every author, and we work diligently to ensure that all authors feel respected and honoured throughout the editorial process. We also recognize the increasing diversity of students in schools and believe this is an asset to learning environments and experiences. We have been intentional in working toward equity and inclusion for all learners. This resource strives to
- reflect diverse cultural understandings and values
- address biases and assumptions
- offer diversity in perspectives and lived experiences.
Implementation Office Hours
Literacy Success Assessment Implementation Support
Videos
What's in a LSA Kit? (8 minutes)
Virtual learning LSA Webinar (21 minutes)
Receiving and Unpacking
Before you get into the kit, take a few minutes to make sure you received all of the components!
Receiving checklist and unpacking instructions
FAQs
General Information
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.
- This resource is for students in Grades 7 to 10 reading at grade levels ranging from Grade 1 to Grade 10.
LSA provides appropriate—but different—entry points for reading and writing with a variety of reading passages to accommodate a range of student abilities.
- There is not a separate kit for each grade, but rather one kit that accommodates all students across Grades 7-10.
- “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.
LSA is aligned with provincial curricula, providing insights into student achievement in reading comprehension, metacognition, critical thinking, and persuasive writing.
The data provided from LSA can be used as a starting point for the explicit teaching of literacy skills in all disciplines.
There are no plans to develop a French kit at this time.
- 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.
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 assessments options in LSA?
- Assess readers and writers within a whole-class or small-group setting.
- Conduct a guided assessment with individual students.
- Acquire in-depth information about the learning needs of striving readers.
- See page 6 of the Teacher’s Guide for more information.
- 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.
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.