Three Canadian teachers (an English language first grade teacher, a French immersion first grade teacher, and a grade four/five teacher of students with special needs) used an action research framework and a multidimensional model of teaching to study and expand their literacy strategies and watch the effects on their students. The model they used, the Picture Word Inductive Model, was designed as a major component of language arts curricula for primary level beginning readers and older beginning or early-stage readers. Based on several lines of research on instructional strategies and promoting growth in reading and writing, the model contains various tools to help teachers study students' progress as they come into literacy. The model structures cycles of inquiry by students, generally 2-6 weeks long, with the pace and specific lesson content determined by the teacher's daily diagnosis of student performance. Students begin by describing a picture, then receive a set of word cards. Students classify words, discuss captions on photographs, generate titles and sentences, receive new vocabulary words, classify sentences, and generate paragraphs, always moving at their own pace. The teachers found that students made substantial gains in vocabulary, reading skills, and reading comprehension. (SM)