I. General Information
School Name: Alberni District Secondary School
School District: SD#70 Pacific Rim
Inquiry Team Members: Tasha Gallagher: tgallagher@sd70.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: janderson1@sd70.bc.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)
Curricular Areas Addressed:
Focus Addressed: Literacy, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Self-regulation
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Over the last few years, we have noticed that our Grade 8 students struggle to be engaged and curious learners. Our broad focus always seems to spiral back to the theme of engagement. With engagement in mind, we are hoping to create more opportunities for authentic audiences within our Humanities 8 classrooms.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: Last year during our spiral, we focused on providing collaborative learning opportunities. To culminate this learning, we spontaneously hosted a celebration of learning. Students were asked to highlight an artifact that showcased their Grade 8 growth and learning. They also presented their final Social Studies projects. They were encouraged to invite important people to attend this event. Not only were we blown away by the attendance but quickly noticed that when students are asked to share their learning to important individuals, they surprise us and rise to the challenge. During our scan, we took the time to center our planning around the OECD and FPPL and we quickly realized that our students this year needed similar learning opportunities that would value and recognize the work they were doing in the classroom.
At the beginning of our inquiry, through the use of a Google survey, we asked our students some of the 4 key questions. When students were asked if they could name an adult who believed in their success, 72% answered yes. The next question that we asked was: What are you learning and why is this important? Most learners could identify what they were learning about, however they could not explain the importance.
We observed how our students engaged with different learning scenarios and realized that the more collaborative and individualized learning is, the more engaged they are. Further, when students could hold each other accountable for learning, there was more engagement.
Focus: We wanted to help our students create and demonstrate their learning in ways that were meaningful to them. Giving them the opportunity to create work for someone other than their teacher allows more authentic representation of their learning. Building on last years’ collaborative opportunities led us to realize the need for intentional, personalized purpose in learning.
Hunch:
1. Many Grade 8 classes teach in isolation and there is little opportunity for Grade 8’s to showcase their learning.
2. Attendance in our school is very intermittent, and we needed more access points for learners with a celebratory finish line.
3. When we had offered previous experiences to explore content and showcase learning to an authentic audience, our students were more curious and eager to engage.
4. When previously offering student choice in learning, there was more accountability and student agency.
5. When students are proud of their work, they are more inclined to attend and engage in learning.
New Professional Learning: When we went to the 2025 Symposium Rebecca Winthrop introduced us to her book The Disengaged Teen. A powerful quote that stood out to us: “Adolescents are hardwired to explore and grow, and learning is mainly how they do this. But a shocking majority of teens are disengaged from school, simultaneously bored and overwhelmed” (Anderson & Winthrop, 2025). The four modes of learning: Resister, Passenger, Achiever, Explorer, have stuck with us and have been a pivotal point of learning. They taught us that understanding our students’ learning modes helps us to create learning opportunities where they are in explorer mode.
Taking Action: Here is a short highlight of the activities that we co-created with our learners:
Vikings
– We planned for our students to collaborate and explore Viking content
– Strategies we used: Hook for learning, jigsaw experts, mind mapping, gallery walk and individual learning display
Renaissance Book Experts
– Students picked a book of interest to explore the Renaissance time period
– Groups became experts on the book, and then created their own worksheets for their classmates
Celebration of Learning Showcase
– Final Grade 8 Learning Showcase in the library
– Presenting their final Social Studies project, and a Grade 8 learning artifact
Checking: Some of our learning experiences didn’t go as planned, which highlighted the importance of knowing our learner’s maturity and capacity. Bonus: we were able to learn and grow ourselves! Having our students showcase their year-end projects and major learning for their grade 8 school year highlighted the significance of giving our students an opportunity to be celebrated. Families were overjoyed to come in and witness student learning. This event was well attended and the feedback from staff was overwhelming. We now know that it is essential to celebrate our learners in meaningful and authentic ways.
Reflections/Advice: Through the spiral of inquiry, we learned the power of collaborating with other educators. We learned that even if one activity worked well with one group of students, it isn’t always possible to duplicate with another group. We learned that getting to know a group of learners and individualizing learning is essential to sparking curiosity and enhancing engagement. Having opportunities to connect with family and community helps instill pride in student learning and engagement.