OSSLT Information
The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test is administered to all students in the province in March of their Grade 10 school year. Successful completion of the test is a graduation requirement. The test is composed of reading selections with multiple-choice and open-response items, writing prompts with multiple choice writing items. The test is administered in two 75 min blocks. All students now have access to additional time assistive technology including a screen reader, zooming, highlighting, underlining and annotating tools.
The table below summarizes the characteristics of students who do and do not meet provincial standard for literacy on the test.
Below Provincial Standard |
At or Above Provincial Standard |
| The student’s work is characterized by: | The student’s work is characterized by: |
|
Simplicity In ideas and sparse supporting details; in understanding and use of forms (e.g., personal essay, graphs and charts); and in vocabulary use |
Complexity Big ideas, details selected to support generalizations; broad vocabulary; connects purposes, audience, and form |
|
Repetition The small set of ideas selected from texts or chosen for writing are used repeatedly; narrow range of skill sets for choice of vocabulary and sentence structure; syntax is often drawn from oral language |
Variety Range of literacy and fluency skills; navigates and adopts different types of expression; produces own ideas; syntax is that of written language where appropriate; flexibility of expression |
|
Concreteness Focus on specifics of tasks; straight-forward purposes in reading or writing; heavy reliance on personal experience for evidence |
Abstraction Uses symbols and visualization in understanding and expression; transfers skills and prior knowledge to new situations |
For more information, or access to the OSSLT Practice Test, consider going to the EQAO website. Holy Trinity will communicate with families to ensure they are aware of the testing window, and opportunities provided to students to ensure they feel confident approaching the test.
