The Canadian Reader is a classroom-ready current events resource for students in grades 3 and up. This publication combines current Canadian events and issues with geography to expand students’ knowledge of Canada while enhancing their ability to read and understand informational text.
Published eight times during the school year (Sept to May), each issue focuses on one of six key reading comprehension strategies – making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, summarizing, and synthesizing/transforming – and includes:
- three news stories, written at a level students can understand;
- detailed literacy-based lesson plans, including ready-to-use graphic organizers and criteria for assessment;
- a map assignment featuring a region of Canada highlighted in one of the articles;
- Did You Know? – a non-fiction comic strip featuring background information related to one of the news stories, accompanied by a lesson plan and supporting material.
The password for The Canadian Reader can be found on the ‘Subscriptions’ site in the Learning Commons Search Portal.
Log in at the subscribers link: The Canadian Reader then scroll down to the latest issue. You will have the option to download a Word document or a .pdf file of the issue you choose. When you choose the link, a box will open up asking you for the password found on the ‘Subscriptions’ page in the Learning Commons Search Portal.
NOTE:
- Be sure to save the file to your computer so you can access past issues without needing a password.
- Eight issues are produced each year and are sent out monthly. (no issue in January, June, or summer.)
For really good current affairs resources, go to the Subscriber’s Page. Near the top of the page, before the pictures of the various news magazines, you will see a yellow box, “Student Resource Links”.
This will take you to a page which says, “Links contained in current issues of The Canadian Reader and What in the World? (Levels 1 and 2) are posted below. To access links from previous issues, click on the appropriate link in the box to the right.” On the left side of this page are many links to further information about the articles you found in the news magazine. The links to Canadian Reader articles are at the top; scroll down to find the links to What in the World articles below. This is a great resource for current affairs! (E.g. the site may offer “Before Reading” suggestions, “Extension” for added teaching ideas, “Internet Connections” for more information about the same story and related topics, “After Reading”.)
Students do not have to log in to access the information on this page; it is available to everyone.
Adapting the Content
If you choose to download the Word document of The Canadian Reader, you can adapt or adjust the content as you choose, including changing the wording of the questions to suit your students’ needs.
Teacher Resources
For the extra teacher resources that are available in LesPlan, please go to LesPlan Resources. (You do not have to log in to access these.) There you will find:
- Activities (“Find someone who…” to familiarize students with key people in Canada)
- Assessment Rubrics (Criteria and marking rubric for assessing assignments of maps and paragraphs)
- Assignments (Assignments to familiarize students with different aspects of Canada and current events)
- Graphic Organizers (blank graphic organizers: everything from Big Ideas to Venn Diagrams)
- Templates (e.g. “Find Someone Who…” template)
Using with the Modernized BC Curriculum
From LesPlan we learn: “The new system provides teachers with more time and flexibility to explore topics in-depth with students. Our resource spends 1000 words on a topic, but the critical thinking questions, extended learning questions, and multiple links to additional resources allow for deep exploration. Many teachers allow their students to choose one of the stories and go deep from there–to become mini experts who then teach the class.
“All 6 of the core competencies (communication, creative thinking, critical thinking, positive personal and cultural identity, personal awareness and responsibility, and social responsibility) are well served by current events resources–especially ones that often feature social justice stories.”
Save the PDF File in Your Computer
We strongly recommend that you save the PDF file to your hard drive before you open and print.
The document is in a PDF format and you need Adobe Reader to open it. This software allows you to view and print PDF files on all major computer platforms. If you do not have this free program, you can download it from Adobe at: Adobe Downloads.
Copyright and Licence
These materials are protected by copyright. Subscribers may copy each issue for use by all students and teachers within one school. Subscribers must also ensure that the materials are not made available to anyone outside their school.
Troubleshooting Suggestions
PS: PDF file won’t print? Please click here to see Adobe’s troubleshooting suggestions.