Queen Elizabeth Secondary SD#36 Surrey

I. General Information

School Name: Queen Elizabeth Secondary

School District: SD#36 Surrey

Inquiry Team Members: Geralie Oba-Underwood: oba_g@surreyschools.ca, Helen Rogan: rogan_h@surreyschools.ca, Jeevan Dhami: Dhami_j@surreyschools.ca, Angie Baumgartner: baumgartner_a@surreyschools.ca, Aimee Oulette: oulette_a@surreyschools.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: oba_g@surreyschools.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Writing, Social Studies

Focus Addressed: Core competencies (for example, thinking, communication, personal and social)

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? For 2025–2026, we aim to empower Humanities 8 students to develop their voice through purposeful writing and speaking, while fostering critical thinking and personal connection to content.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Over the past two years, Queen Elizabeth Secondary has prioritized literacy development, particularly in reading comprehension, written expression, and oral communication. Students have shown growth when given structured opportunities to share ideas, collaborate, and reflect. However, many still struggle with organizing complex thoughts, using evidence effectively, and adapting communication for different audiences. Humanities 8 students are at a formative stage in developing these skills, and targeted support can accelerate their growth.

Focus: This focus continues the trajectory set by Queen Elizabeth Secondary’s previous inquiries by moving from foundational literacy (2023–2024), to cross-curricular communication (2024–2025), to student-driven expression and critical thinking (2025–2026). It allows educators to better understand how students evolve as communicators and thinkers, and how instructional practices can adapt to meet their needs

Hunch: Students benefit from inclusive and scaffolded literacy instruction, but may lack consistent opportunities to connect personally with content and express their ideas in meaningful ways. Embedding literacy strategies into Humanities through inquiry, reflection, and dialogue can bridge this gap and promote deeper learning.

New Professional Learning: Literacy Instruction Resources to Support Inquiry
• Grand Conversations (2nd Edition) – Faye Brownlie
• When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do – Kylene Beers
• The Vocabulary Playbook: Learning Words That Matter – Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

Last year, Humanities 8 students demonstrated noticeable improvement in showing respect to their classmates during conversations; however, many were still speaking “past” one another. Only the most confident proficient/extending learners were consistently engaging with the content of their peers’ contributions. To support stronger dialogue, direct instruction and practice of specific conversational skills were introduced this year.

For each attempt, the class was organized into five small groups based on interest or topic to encourage meaningful engagement. Before the first discussion, the class received instruction on open and supportive body language, followed by role-play and tableau activities illustrating body language that signals openness versus body language that does not. Students enjoyed exaggerating “perfect” and “terrible” examples, and the shared laughter helped establish a positive tone for collaborative conversation.

After the first attempt, students received general whole-class feedback (“here’s what was noticed…”). Prior to the second attempt, students were reminded of these observations and then taught two targeted discussion skills:

• Adding to or building on another student’s contribution. A flowchart outlining effective response options was created on the whiteboard. As a class, students generated statements, and various response types were modelled using the flowchart. Students then practiced making statements and building on one another’s ideas in pairs.
• One branch of the flowchart focused on respectful disagreement. Using sentence stems, the class explored ways to express differing viewpoints while remaining open and supportive. Students practiced these approaches in pairs as well.

What will we do differently?
We will implement the following strategies:

• Use student-led inquiry projects to encourage authentic writing and speaking tasks.
• Integrate graphic organizers, sentence frames, and exemplars to support written structure and clarity.
• Facilitate peer feedback and self-assessment to build metacognitive awareness and collaborative skills.
• Provide formative assessment opportunities using rubrics aligned with core and curricular competencies.
• Embed critical thinking routines to help students analyze perspectives and construct reasoned arguments.

Core Competencies Focus

• Communication:
  • Connect and engage with others (to share and develop ideas)
  • Explain/recount and reflect on experiences and accomplishments
•  Thinking:
  • Generate ideas and build on the ideas of others
  • Reflect on thinking and processes
•  Personal and Social:
  • Positive personal and cultural identity
  • Social awareness and responsibility

Curricular Competencies (Humanities 8)

• Use writing and oral language to communicate ideas, arguments, and information for a specific audience and purpose
• Recognize and identify different perspectives and evidence in texts
• Make reasoned ethical judgments about events, decisions, or actions
• Assess the significance of people, places, events, or developments

Taking Action:

We will:

• Share findings with staff to inform cross-curricular literacy practices
• Adjust instructional strategies based on student feedback and performance
• Continue professional development in formative assessment, inquiry-based learning, and literacy scaffolding

Strengths

• Continued explicit instruction supported stable student performance across discussion attempts.
• One student demonstrated growth, moving from developing to proficient.
• Students showed willingness to engage in peer reflection and provide positive feedback.
• Group reflection increased participation and awareness of discussion behaviours.

Challenges

• Students had difficulty providing specific, constructive peer feedback, tending toward kind but vague comments.
• Peer feedback did not lead to expected growth for students in the emerging range; one student showed regression.
• Reduced presence of strong discussion models (due to absences) may have impacted overall discussion quality.
• It remains unclear whether group feedback supported engagement for all learners or affected motivation for some students.

Overall Observations Comparison of Student Performance:

December 2025 vs. May 2026

Checking:

We will collect evidence through:

• Student writing samples and oral presentations
• Self-assessments and reflections
• Peer feedback forms
• Teacher observations and rubrics

Conclusion

Classroom evidence shows that while students are increasingly willing to participate in discussion, many require explicit instruction to communicate ideas clearly, critically, and constructively. Targeted modelling of academic language, discussion skills, and differentiated access to texts will support more equitable participation. Emphasizing purposeful speaking, listening, and writing will help students develop confidence, critical thinking, and meaningful connections to content.

Reflections/Advice:

Next steps: Continued explicit instruction in discrete conversational skills outside of discussion practice, increased use of differentiated text sets to address varied background knowledge, and integration of literacy screening data to guide targeted interventions.

2026–2027 Actions
• Baseline discussion in September
• Mini lessons on probing questions, summarizing, and connecting ideas
• Structured routines: “Say–Summarize–Connect,” paired practice, small group discussions
• Feedback cycles: whole class + light individual feedback
• Three discussion attempts tracked with a consistent proficiency scale

Success Indicators
• More students demonstrating Proficient/Extending levels
• Students independently using target skills
• Increased confidence and participation
• Evidence of deeper thinking and collaborative meaning making