Educator Resources

The power of poetry is at your fingertips with Adrienne Gear’s latest book!

Powerful Poetry celebrates the beauty, power and pleasure of poetry in the classroom. This highly readable book outlines the many benefits of integrating poetry into your literacy program, including building reading, writing and speaking skills, nurturing creativity and celebrating language. Powerful Poetry provides practical, enjoyable lessons for integrating poetry into your year-long literacy program and engaging ways to introduce poetic structure, language, tools and devices. Book lists introduce a wide range of wonderful poems and poets. Ideal for new and experienced teachers who are looking to bring the power of poetry into their classroom.

Additional Information
128 pages | 8.38" x 10.88" | Paperback 

This Teacher Lesson Plan accompanies the book Rencontre ta famille. Includes comprehension questions, group activities, wordsearch, colouring pages etc. Mother Earth, we come from her, we go to her, without her we wouldn't be here, she gives all of us life and because of her we are all one family. In many segments of Indigenous life we speak of Mother Earth, Father Sky, Grandfather Sun, and Grandmother Moon. Meet Your Family is a rhythmic poem that will enlighten readers on how to view these important figures and share a greater concept of seeing the world as our natural family.

Rencontre ta famille is presented in both French and Ojibway. An additional softcover book written in Ojibway with a phonetics guide is included inside this hardcover book.

Educator Information
This is the teacher lesson plan for Rencontre ta famille.

This teacher lesson plan is also available in English: Meet Your Family Teacher Lesson Plan

Additional Information
12 pages | 8.50" x 11.00"

This resource for educators makes social emotional learning fun and engaging with 24 ready-to-use lessons about phenomenal plants and astonishing animals.

Storytelling is a learning device used by humans for centuries, and for good reason: storytelling is one of the best ways to increase critical thinking skills and social emotional learning (SEL). Social Emotional Stories combines storytelling with thought-provoking lessons and activities to help elementary students improve their self-esteem, increase their engagement with school, and give them a sense of empowerment.

The book contains 24 individual lessons that include:

• An SEL objective with specific keywords like “inner strength,” “problem solving,” and “responsibility”
• An engaging story that focuses on a distinctive quality of either a plant (like the inner strength of bamboo) or an animal (like the courage of a pig)
• Multiple activities that are quick, easy, and require few supplies to help kids identify and dive deeper into the specific SEL concepts represented

Educators can use these lessons individually with students, in small groups, or with an entire class. The lessons are interdisciplinary and flexible, with only minimal prep time required, allowing educators to adapt them for their situation. Extensive digital content supports the lessons with reproducible forms and a full-color photo of each plant and animal.

Reviews
“Lewis introduces fascinating aspects of the natural world—its constructive and destructive power—to young students in a way that reaches beyond knowledge acquisition. She shows teachers how to build bridges to the inner worlds of children with analogical thinking, reflective questions, and thoughtful conversations that nourish not only their understanding but their agency. If you want to use learning as a way to develop your students’ character, intrinsic motivation, and an ethically grounded relationship with the world, this is the guide you need.”—Diane Stirling

“Barbara Lewis weaves factual information with down-to-earth, applicable activities and discussions to encourage students’ appreciation for nature, while building their power to observe and to understand people and their world as multidimensional. Throughout, Lewis is respectful of children’s capacity to discuss important issues and form their own opinions.”—Silvia Blitzer Golombek

“Another delightful book from Barbara Lewis, Social Emotional Stories is filled with fascinating depictions and insightful analogies to support character development. We recommend Barbara Lewis’s books to all the families who seek our services. Believing that children can make a difference, Lewis provides the inspiration for helping others, taking a stand against injustice, squelching rumors, and seeing beyond stereotypes. This book should be a staple in every school’s social-emotional learning curriculum.”—Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D., licensed psychologist, director of the Gifted Development Center

Educator Information
Recommended for grades 2 to 5.

Additional Information
176 pages | 8.50" x 11.00"

When students say that reading is boring, difficult or overwhelming, or they cannot find a good book, it is almost impossible to sell them on the idea that reading is fun and worthwhile. Sometimes Reading is Hard shows teachers how to develop the skills students need to be successful and how to cultivate passionate, lifelong readers. Classroom vignettes, promising practices and step-by-step activities illustrate how teachers can weave teaching the skills of reading, decoding, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency with real reasons to read. When students want to read and they enjoy it, their reading skills improve. With the right motivation, any student can become an enthusiastic reader.

Educator Information
Provides evidence and examples of the relationship between developing skills and becoming successful, capable readers.

Describes how to weave decoding, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency with the reasons that students want to read.

Additional Information
160 pages | 8.38" x 10.88" | Paperback

The A Girl Called Echo series tells the story of Métis teenager Echo Desjardins, who is struggling to adjust to a new school and a new home while in foster care. Readers follow Echo as she travels through time and experiences pivotal events from Métis history, gains new perspectives about where she came from, and imagines what the future might hold.

Written by Anishinaabe educator Reuben Boulette, the Teacher Guide for A Girl Called Echo includes

• lesson plans specific to each book in the A Girl Called Echo series
• original articles outlining the history of the Métis Nation and their fight for sovereignty
• in-depth reading activities that engage students’ critical thinking skills
• activities that introduce students to the critical study of graphic novels and sequential art

This teacher guide will engage students’ understanding of Métis history and culture and encourage reflection on the importance of learning Indigenous histories.

Educator Information
Recommended for grades 7 and 8.

Find the A Girl Called Echo Series HERE!

Additional Information
72 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Spiral Bound

Sugar Falls is a story of strength, family, and culture that shares the awe-inspiring resilience of Elder Betty Ross. Taken away to a residential school, Betsy is forced to endure abuse and indignity, but her father’s words give her the strength and determination to survive.

Written by Anishinaabe educator Christine M'Lot, the Teacher Guide for Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story offers a diverse menu of activities that support teachers in

• planning lessons throughout the reading process, including before, during, and after reading Sugar Falls
• creating dynamic learning experiences for their students, while maintaining a respectful and dignified approach to Indigenous topics
• enhancing students’ prior knowledge about the topics addressed in the book
• using trauma-informed practices to prepare students for sensitive topics
• identifying cross-curricular connections and opportunities to collaborate with teachers in other subject areas
• infusing Indigenous pedagogical practices, such as working with others, seeking holism in understanding, and learning through storytelling
• engaging students’ understanding and encouraging them to embrace differing worldviews
• facilitating activities for individual students, small groups, whole-class instruction and discussion, or even the whole school

Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story includes sensitive topics (e.g., abuse, trauma); therefore, it is most appropriate for grades 9–12. The activities in this guide are most appropriate for courses such as English Language Arts, Social Studies, History, Global or Contemporary Issues, as well as Current Topics in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Studies. They could be adapted for use at the university or college level.

Find the student resource here: Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story 

Additional Information
92 pages | 8.50" x 11.00"

The graphic novel, This Place: 150 Years Retold, includes a variety of historical and contemporary stories that highlight important moments in Indigenous and Canadian history.

Written by Anishinaabe educator Christine M'Lot, the Teacher Guide for This Place: 150 Years Retold offers 12 comprehensive lessons that support teachers in

• introducing students to the unique demographic, historical, and cultural legacy of Indigenous communities and exploring acts of sovereignty and resiliency
• using circle pedagogy to show the interconnectedness of ideas and topics, primarily in the form of the medicine wheel
• infusing Indigenous pedagogical practices, such as working with others, seeking holism in understanding, and learning through storytelling
• engaging students’ understanding and encouraging them to embrace differing worldviews
• NEW! Incorporating the This Place CBC podcast when studying the graphic novel

Educator Information
Lessons in this teacher guide are appropriate to Grades 9–12 English, Grade 11 Global Issues, and Grade 12 Current Topics in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Studies classes. They are also adaptable to relevant university or college courses.

Additional Information
160 Pages | 8.5" x 11" | Spiral Bound 

This Teacher Lesson Plan that accompanies the book, This Is What I've Been Told. Includes comprehension questions, group activities, wordsearch, colouring pages etc. It's been said when teachings are passed down from one generation to the next, good things can happen. Language is learned, knowledge is shared and culture is practiced. In this story of language preservation, author/illustrator and Anishnaabemowin language teacher Juliana Armstrong illuminates a number of Anishnaabemowin words along with their cultural connections, passed down from her Ojibway ancestors. Knowing our culture means knowing who we are. When we know who we are, we can walk in a good way.

Educator Information
This book shares Anishnaabemowin words, their cultural connections and their pronunciations with the help of phonetics. This teacher lesson plan includes comprehension questions, group activities, coloring pages and more.

What's Included:

– Brainstorming Activity

– Letter Writing

– Comprehension Questions

– Colouring

– Crossword Puzzle

– Word Search

The license allows the use of this lesson plan within a single school. It can be copied and shared within one school but is not to be shared beyond that.

This resource is available in French: C'est ce qu'on m'a dit Teacher Lesson Plan 

Additional Information
12 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | b&w illustrations 

Since the Renaissance, liberal education has as its core tradition a Eurocentric multidisciplinary humanism — the study of literature, art, philosophy and history — grounded in ancient Greek and Latin texts.

In what may be termed cognitive imperialism, the academy has largely ignored Aboriginal perspectives of humanity. In this volume, Mi'kmaw and non-Mi'kmaw scholars, teachers and educators posit an interdisciplinary approach to explicate and animate a Mi'kmaw Humanities.

Drawing on the metaphor of a basket as a multilayered metaphor for engaging postsecondary institutions, these essays reveal historical, educational, legal, philosophical, visual and economic frameworks to develop a knowledge protocol that can direct, transform and enrich conventional Humanities within the complex dynamics of territory, energy, stewardship, alterity and consciousness.

Additional Information
300 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

What’s the difference between teaching our students and our autistic students? Not much. This practical book argues that all students are unique. It focuses on integrating teaching autistic students into the teaching practice of the whole class. Based on extensive classroom experience, this highly readable book is full of anecdotes about engaged students growing in their learning. Lesson plans and checklists throughout the book help teachers get to know autistic students and help them with school work, emotional regulation, communication, socializing and staying safe. This timely book champions getting rid of labels so teachers can know every student as an individual.

Educator Information
Explores how to teach autistic students and improve the learning experience for all students.

Features anecdotes from real classrooms supported by relevant research.

Lesson plans and checklists throughout the book help implement strategies.

Additional Information
124 pages | 8.38" x 10.88" | Paperback

Properties of Energy from Hands-On Science: An Inquiry Approach completely aligns with BC’s New Curriculum for science. Grounded in the Know-Do-Understand model, First Peoples knowledge and perspectives, and student-driven scientific inquiry, this custom-written resource:

• emphasizes Core Competencies, so students engage in deeper and lifelong learning
• develops Curricular Competencies as students explore science through hands-on activities
• fosters a deep understanding of the Big Ideas in science

Using proven Hands-On features, Properties of Energy contains information and materials for both teachers and students including: Curricular Competencies correlation charts; background information on the science topics; complete, easy-to-follow lesson plans; reproducible student materials; and materials lists.

Innovative new elements have been developed specifically for the new curriculum:

• a multi-age approach
• a five-part instructional process—Engage, Explore, Expand, Embed, Enhance
• an emphasis on technology, sustainability, and personalized learning
• a fully developed assessment plan for summative, formative, and student self-assessment
• a focus on real-life Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies
• learning centres that focus on multiple intelligences and universal design for learning (UDL)
• place-based learning activities, Makerspaces, and Loose Parts

In Properties of Energy, students investigate properties of energy. Core Competencies and Curricular Competencies will be addressed while students explore the following Big Ideas:

• The motion of objects depends on their properties.
• Light and sound can be produced and their properties can be changed.
• Forces influence the motion of an object.

Educator & Series Information
This book is from the Hands-On Science: An Inquiry Approach (for BC) series. The new Hands-On Science comprehensive resources completely align with the redesigned Science Curriculum for British Columbia.

Recommended for use with students in grades 3 to 5.

Additional Information
200 pages | 8.50" x 11.00"

Properties of Matter from Hands-On Science for British Columbia completely aligns with BC’s New Curriculum for Science. Grounded in the Know-Do-Understand model, First Peoples knowledge and perspectives, and student-driven scientific inquiry, this custom-written resource:

• emphasizes Core Competencies, so students engage in deeper and lifelong learning
• develops Curricular Competencies through hands-on activities
• fosters a deep understanding of the Big Ideas in science

Using proven Hands-On features, Properties of Matter contains information and materials for both teachers and students including: Curricular Competencies correlation charts; background information on the science topics; complete, easy-to-follow lesson plans; reproducible student materials; and materials lists.

Innovative new elements have been developed specifically for the new curriculum:

• a multi-age approach
• an emphasis on technology, sustainability, and personalized learning
• a fully developed assessment plan for summative, formative, and student self-assessment
• a focus on real-life Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies
• learning centres that focus on multiple intelligences and universal design for learning (UDL)
• place-based learning activities and Makerspaces

Properties of Matter for Grades 3-5 addresses Core Competencies and Learning Standards while students
explore the following Big Ideas:

• All matter is made of particles.
• Matter has mass, takes up space, and can change phase.
• Solutions are homogeneous.

Educator Information
This book is from the Hands-On Science: An Inquiry Approach (for BC) series. The new Hands-On Science comprehensive resources completely align with the redesigned Science Curriculum for British Columbia.

Recommended for use with students in grades 3 to 5.

Additional Information
200 pages | 8.50" x 11.00"

The six essential steps for nurturing writers who have the will to write is the core of this practical book. Based on extensive classroom experience, the book explores how teachers can help students tap into their own life experiences, model the habits of a writer and make use of the tools of the trade. Strategies throughout the book show teachers how to create an environment that helps students see writing as a rewarding experience in and outside the classroom. Powerful real-life anecdotes and ready-to-use activities support this guide to developing classrooms full of thoughtful, passionate writers.

Educator Information
Key Features:

• Cultivating Writers is dedicated to fostering the WILL to write, unlike most other books that focus on skills.

• This book is based on effective classroom experience with lots of anecdotes and student examples.

• The authors show teachers how to encourage students to tap into their own life experiences.

• Both authors have worked with school boards in developing literacy documents and present routinely at American state reading conferences.

Additional Information
160 pages | 8.38" x 10.88"

A new model of Indigenous identity formation in Canadian postsecondary institutions

What role does postsecondary education play in the formation of Indigenous identity? Some argue that this impact must be negative, not only because postsecondary education draws students away from their communities, but also because of the Eurocentric worldviews that dominate most institutions. However, according to a ground-breaking study by Barbara Barnes and Cora Voyageur, the truth is much more nuanced and surprising.

During their research, Professors Barnes and Voyageur followed 60 Indigenous students from a variety of backgrounds at six postsecondary institutions in western Canada, and they present their findings here. They explore how the students’ experiences fit with conventional and Indigenous identity-formation theories, and they consider the impacts of colonization and the Indian Act.

Based on the experiences of the students, Barnes and Voyageur build an entirely new model of Indigenous identity formation in Canadian postsecondary institutions.

Additional Information
144 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

In 1867, Canada’s federal government became responsible for the education of Indigenous peoples: Status Indians and some Métis would attend schools on reserves; non-Status Indians and some Métis would attend provincial schools. The chapters in this collection – some reflective, some piercing, all of them insightful – show that this system set the stage for decades of broken promises and misguided experiments that are only now being rectified in the spirit of truth and reconciliation. The contributors individually explore what must change in order to work toward reconciliation; collectively, they reveal the possibilities and challenges associated with incorporating Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous teaching and healing practices into school courses and programs.

Reviews
"This book provides innovative reflections on long-standing issues in Indigenous education in Canada and suggests possible pathways to address the educational debt that Canada owes Indigenous peoples. I recommend it to educators, students, and administrators, to anyone interested in learning about the history of residential schools, and to all readers who are interested in reconciliation and decolonisation." — Valentina de Riso, Nottingham Trent University, British Journal of Canadian Studies

"There is no doubting the importance of the subject tackled by this edited collection... In eleven highly diverse chapters, plus a substantial introduction by editor Sheila Carr-Stewart, this collection seeks to shed light on the mechanisms of educational exclusion and sound out the prospects for a different kind of education in the future." — Mark Fettes, Simon Fraser University, University of Toronto Quarterly

"Readers who are new to the topic, such as practicing teachers who wish to enhance their responsiveness to Indigenous students or undergraduate history majors, will gain accessible historical and policy context, alongside complex and nuanced representations of the challenges that pervade Indigenous education today." — Heather E. McGregor, Historical Studies in Education

"Knowing the Past, Facing the Future is critical reading for those invested in Indigenous education, as all Canadians ought to be. By confronting colonialism and racism as they intersect with reconciliation, the contributors of this collected work address the role and responsibility of education in decolonizing a society. I recommend this book be read by all educators."— Margaret Kovach, author of Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts

"New and seasoned readers to Indigenous education in Canada will value how the authors tackle old issues in new ways, uncover challenges that have been ignored, and present innovative possibilities that learn from the past for a much better future."— Jo-ann Archibald (Q’um Q’um Xiiem), co-editor of Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology

"This must-read collection of essays provides needed historic reflections on treaties and Indigenous peoples’ aspirations for education, and much needed insight, support, and research to address the reconciliation agenda and correct the longstanding educational debt owed Indigenous peoples."— Marie Battiste, author of Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit

Educator Information
Contributors: Jonathan Anuik, Michael Cottrell, Karlee D. Fellner, Rosalind Hardie, Darryl Hunter, Harry Lafond, Solange Lalonde, Brooke Madden, Yvonne Poitras Pratt, Jane P. Preston, Larry Prochner, Noella Steinhauer

Additional Information
312 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback