ONlit’s Releasing Writers Terry Fox Unit pairs the evidence-based Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) framework with Terry Fox’s legacy to build capable, independent writers. By leveraging explicit instruction, structured mnemonics, and self-monitoring strategies, this unit turns overwhelming writing tasks into achievable steps.
Before students can write, they need to feel connected—both to the content and to each other. Mrs. Seguin’s grade 4s and Mme. McCarrel’s grade 3s kicked off their term 1 writing by reading Terry Fox and Me and exploring the ONLit mentor text to build deep background knowledge about Terry’s legacy.
To make the writing cycle approachable, the grade 4s got their bodies moving! Students danced and sang to the "POW" (Plan, Organize, Write), (POR en Français) jingle, establishing a joyful and motivating shared experience.
Once their energy was focused, they used ONlit’s GIST Statement Chart to summarize the mentor texts while simultaneously learning about the syntax of compound sentences.
In a Releasing Writer’s cycle, students move from organizing their thoughts to constructing clear, structured paragraphs.
Collaboratively, the class uses ONLit’s colour-coded exemplars and the TIDE-L framework, to examine non-examples alongside complete, high-level exemplars to gain a concrete roadmap for their own writing, followed by planning and writing their own paragraphs.
True achievement happens when students take ownership of their learning. Using the ONLit TIDE-L writing page, students plan and draft their responses before transitioning into self-reflection.
Equipped with a thinkSRSD TIDE-L Self-Assessment Checklist, students take on the role of editor. They use their highlighters to analyze their work before setting a personal writing goal:
Did I include a green Topic sentence?
Are my Ideas yellow and Details orange?
Did I connect ideas using words like "but"?
Be sure to check out ONLit’s Releasing Writers resources to explore these fantastic tools for your own classroom! Reach out to your DSB1 Learning Coach today to get started and bring these high-impact literacy scaffolds to your students.
