Discipline: Literacy
Copyright: 2026
Grade(s): 4 and above
Delivery Method: Print & Digital
Imprint: Pearson Canada
Designed for grades 4 and up students who are not yet proficient in phonics and word-level reading, Literacy Success Foundations (LSF) empowers teachers by providing explicit support for teaching reading skills from phonics to fluency to comprehension. The topics and design will engage and support older students with foundational skills.
Why is LSF Needed?
- Many students in grades 4 and above are not proficient readers because they have not learned foundational word-level reading skills. And yet, the curriculum in most provinces and territories does not include phonics instruction beyond grade 3.
- Teachers in upper elementary or intermediate grade levels often share that they do not have the background knowledge or experience to confidently teach foundational reading skills. LSF is designed to empower all teachers by providing explicit lessons and a comprehensive teacher's guide.
- The lessons reteach foundational phonics to students in a small-group setting within the larger class.
- Students will have regular opportunities to read age-appropriate decodable text written intentionally to connect to the phonics instruction.
- The topics and design will engage and support older students with foundational skills.
Aligns with Current Research
- Targets foundational phonics skills following a research-informed scope and sequence.
- The scope and sequence was developed with the target audience and small-group instruction in mind, strategically grouping grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) for efficient instruction and learning.
Provides Support for Phonics Instruction and Beyond
- Integrates phonics with morphology and orthography to build fluency, ensuring a comprehensive approach to word-level reading.
- Extends beyond phonics to enhance meaning-making through vocabulary development, knowledge building, and oral language skills, fostering proficiency in reading comprehension.
Offers Teachers Explicit Support
- Provides explicit instructional support through structured and systematic lessons, along with a teacher’s guide containing key background knowledge.
- Suggestions included for differentiated instruction and ways to reinforce phonics throughout the school day.
Supports Students on Their Literacy Journey
- Accessible for learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds, supporting students at various language-proficiency levels.
- Offers an engaging and inclusive design that minimizes the stigma of extra support.
Emphasizes foundational skills over reading levels, ensuring strong literacy foundations for all.
How does Literacy Success Foundations support learners?
This resource supports students in grades 4 and above who are not yet proficient in phonics or word-level reading. The explicit lessons on foundational skills will help improve students’ decoding, fluency, and comprehension while reading, and their encoding when writing.
Gradual Release of Responsibility
Individual lessons (and each kit as a whole) model the gradual release of responsibility
Fluency
Fluency tips are provided throughout the resource
Vocabulary Development
Supports students in expanding their vocabulary through both direct instruction and exposure
Reading Passages
Each age-appropriate, engaging decodable passage is paired with a shared reading passage on a similar topic, so students can apply phonics learning and reading strategies in context
Targeted Phonics Focus
Improves word recognition and decoding skills through explicit phonics instruction aligned to a research-based scope and sequence
Comprehension and Reading Foundations
Addresses many strands of reading during each lesson and provides students with practice using comprehension strategies