School Name: Lochside Elementary

School District: SD#63 Saanich

Inquiry Team Members: Jenni Erickson: jerickson@saanichschools.ca,
Sarah Miller: sarahmiller@saanichschools.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: jerickson@saanichschools.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Writing, Science

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), First Peoples Principles of Learning, Land, Nature or Place-based learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Exploring the connection between literacy development and nature-based learning experiences involving place-based Indigenous knowledge, storytelling, and learning through the natural environment.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: During the scanning phase, we noticed that students entering Grade One had a strong base of storytelling through story workshop sessions in Kindergarten. We also noticed how most literacy instruction and exploration happened in the indoor environment. We wondered how building opportunities for storytelling in the outdoor environment, while connecting this to Indigenous land-based stories, might engage and support learners in their literacy development, oral language skills, understanding of Indigenous culture, and connection to the natural world. We used the four key questions to gather more information about this hunch. We discovered that most students felt connected to adults in the school, however, they did not always have a clear idea of what they were learning and why it was important. We incorporated First Peoples Principles of learning by forming strong relationships with each student so that we could connect to each student, hear their stories, and truly understand where they were at in their academic and social-emotional learning. We also noticed that experiential learning had a positive impact on engagement and motivation and wanted to incorporate this into all stages of the inquiry.

Focus: This year we focused on how opportunities to connect literacy activities with Indigenous knowledge, storytelling, and learning in the natural environment could support the literacy development of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners. We both have a passion for outdoor, place-based learning and over the past few years we have attempted to connect this with Indigenous knowledge and stories about the land. Our school resides on the traditional territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples, and we have been so grateful to be able to focus our learning on building connections to this place with our students. We were curious about how we could use this as a platform to engage students and intentionally connect it with oral and written literacy development.

Hunch: Our school does not have a large population of Indigenous students and, as such, we receive a proportionally smaller amount of support for Indigenous education. Indigenous education is largely left to the discretion of each classroom teacher. We had a hunch that Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing were not being introduced as readily at our school, as they were at other schools in the district. The connection between Indigenous knowledge, environmental stewardship and literacy learning seemed to be an important focus for introducing all students, and especially Indigenous students, to Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing.

New Professional Learning:

• Attending the NOIIE Symposium in April, 2023
• Learning about other Spirals of Inquiry Projects, and the inquiries and focus areas of other students and teachers was very inspiring.
• Expanding our own familiarity, understanding, and library of Indigenous stories and land-based knowledge and stories. We are learning and teaching on the traditional territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples, and began looking for local stories shared by W̱SÁNEĆ teachers and knowledge keepers, and extending to other Coast Salish stories and teachings as well.
• Learning from local W̱SÁNEĆ storyteller, Toby Joseph though school visits.
• Accessing Strong Nations Publishing, we were able to bring local and non-local Indigenous stories and non-fiction books into our classrooms, read them, and share them with our students during outdoor learning experiences.
• Working with our District’s Indigenous Education department, we extended our learning and resources with focused Indigenous Education collections (ex. ‘storytelling with puppets’ and ‘ethnobotany’).

Taking Action:

• Expanding our library of books and oral storytelling resources has been a very helpful and enriching process for our professional development. Listening, reading, and learning Indigenous stories has helped us become more confident and capable in retelling and sharing these stories with our students.
• Continuing to engage in repeated visits to the natural outdoor environment surrounding our school has continued to shift and change this year, as our own understanding of Indigenous stories and knowledge has grown. As we have listened and learned about W̱SÁNEĆ and other Indigenous place-based stories, we have been able to connect this knowledge with our outdoor learning program.
• Increasing our resources and knowledge of local Indigenous stories has helped us support our colleagues through meaningful conversations and access to these shared materials. For Indigenous Peoples Day, we were able to collaborate with other classes and teachers to provide sessions connecting outdoor learning, Indigenous stories, and knowledge of native species in the nature area called, ‘Beyond the Fence’.   

Picture descriptions: Students engaging with the local environment, practicing SENĆOŦEN plant names and drawing plant characteristics, and responding to Indigenous stories and knowledge in their nature journals.

Checking: One of the strongest outcomes from this inquiry was an increased knowledge and understanding of Indigenous stories for both ourselves and our students. Students were consistently engaged and motivated by the local stories, and inspired to create their own stories afterwards. Their understanding of story structure and the purpose of oral legends increased. We saw this through their retellings of the stories, their own storytelling, as well as in their written recordings of stories. This also connected to an increased understanding and knowledge of the natural world through lessons learned through the stories. The lessons and knowledge found within the Indigenous stories were often repeated afterwards by the children. We would both like to continue with this work as we are just getting started in our own understanding and knowledge of local stories. We see the power and motivation these stories hold, and we would like to continue using them as a strong cultural connection and inspiration for all students, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

After asking students the four questions at the end of the year, we saw tremendous growth and richness when answering the question, “what are you learning and why is it important?” The profound tradition of Indigenous storytelling seemed to elevate the importance of the students’ own stories. At the end of the year, they could easily identify why their stories, and their learning, were important.

Reflections/Advice: A big takeaway from this inquiry is that we, as educators, need to do the hard work of educating ourselves on Indigenous history and culture, and seek out respectful ways to share and incorporate Indigenous knowledge into our teachings. We cannot expect all of this to be done by the Indigenous community. We hope to continue educating ourselves on Indigenous history, culture, and specifically, local land-based stories. We also hope to expand our knowledge of the SENĆOŦEN language, so that we can incorporate this into our classroom program as well.

When learning outdoors, we found the deep-rooted connections between Indigenous knowledge, nature, and story to be highly engaging and motivating for students. We would encourage other educators to find similar opportunities to explore their local environment and to connect this learning with Indigenous knowledge. Our advice to other schools would be to look for opportunities to build your own knowledge. At the same time, contact your district and local Indigenous community (through proper protocols) to slowly and respectfully build connections.

School Name: William Konkin Elementary

School District: SD#91 Nechako Lakes

Inquiry Team Members: Karie Evans: kevans@sd91.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: kevans@sd91.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Reading

Focus Addressed: Differentiated instruction, Formative assessment

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Increasing literacy skills for intermediate-aged Indigenous learners who were two or more years below grade level.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We paid attention to the voices of the learners and then started to collect data. Learners were discouraged. Teachers were unsure how to address the range of abilities in the classroom, especially given the post-Covid learning gaps.

Focus: We were hoping to close gaps so that learners did not feel discouraged and could learn with their peers or access learning experiences that made them feel successful.

Hunch: Everyone in the same class is doing the same tasks.

New Professional Learning:

• People with knowledge to share
• Words Their Way
• PM Benchmarks
• Systematic Sequential Phonics
• Games

Taking Action:

• Collected data
• Made literacy groups to respond
• Checked in on learner progress every few weeks
• Made adjustments

Checking: We made differences for everyone. Some students were identified for school-based teams. Even students who continued to have poor attendance made more progress.

Reflections/Advice: This is a long-term project. We need to support learners with learning gaps and absences as it has always been an issue in this school, even prior to Covid; we need a way for them to feel successful and not always “behind”.

School Name: Southlands Elementary

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members: Alexandra De Montigny: ademontigny@vsb.bc.ca
Wendy Phung: wphung@vsb.bc.ca
Sarah McKendy: smckendy@vsb.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: mpaxton@vsb.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Reading

Focus Addressed: First Peoples Principles of Learning, Indigenous pedagogy, Social and emotional learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our focus this year was on helping students, particularly Indigenous students, improve their reading skills and identity as a reader.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: When we asked students if there are adults in the building who believe in them and know they will be a success in life, they consistently listed more than two. When asked what they were learning, the majority said, “Math” with a few answering “body science.” When further probing questions were asked, many could not identify the relevance of the learning or their next steps. During empathy interviews, we noticed that students who were reading below grade level, also had low self-esteem. Assessment data showed that 52% of students K – 7 were reading below grade level and 92% of Indigenous students were reading below grade level. As an inquiry team. We looked at all of the nine First Peoples Principles of Learning, but especially “Learning involves patience and time” and “Learning requires exploration of one’s identity.”

Focus: We decided to focus on individual students to see if our support and 1:1 reading coach approach would be impactful. We were hoping to help students gain confidence and see themselves as readers.

Hunch: Our hunch was that as students progressed through the grades and fundamental literacy skills were missed or left undeveloped, students’ self-awareness of their own lagging skills increased. Many of the students have strong compensatory skills, such as listening, speaking, avoiding, and “fake reading” really hefty books. We built on one team member’s experience with Changing Results For Young Readers, in which primary teachers focused their attention on one or two learners, and those students’ reading skills improved.

New Professional Learning: The professional learning we undertook was around building relationships with students. We read “From Behaving to Belonging” by Causton and Macleod, Reclaiming Youth at Risk, by Bendtro, Brokenleg and Van Bockern. We also reviewed different approaches to literacy such as Reading Power (Gear), Fluency (Rasinski) and Reading 44 (SD44).

Taking Action: Each member of the team chose a student to work with, someone not in their class. During daily independent reading time, the adult worked 1:1 with their student. Improvements were celebrated with the classroom teacher and the principal. One student even went to his grade 3 teacher to proudly read to her. Student attendance and attitude improved noticeably for some students, and for some, peer to peer aggression decreased.

Checking: The results of our actions proved to us that reading is a relationship. We also learned that just a few minutes a day of 1:1 coaching can make a big difference. The three teachers involved in this inquiry project also saw the benefit of the literacy groups structure that the primary classes were involved in and are committed to a similar approach in the fall of 2023.

Reflections/Advice: Our advice to other schools is to start small, focusing on one student at a time. Next year we plan to continue with the 1:1 coaching, but with more students if possible, and also create some Reading Buddy partnerships with peer coaches.

School Name: Babine Elementary Secondary School

School District: SD#91 Nechako Lakes

Inquiry Team Members: Deb Koehn – dkoehn@sd91.bc.ca
Roberta Toth – rtoth@sd91.bc.ca
Michelle Miller Gauthier@sd91.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: dkoehn@sd91.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7), Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Applied Design, skills & Technology, Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Reading, Mathematics / Numeracy

Focus Addressed: Community-based learning, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Formative assessment, Growth mindset, Indigenous pedagogy, Land, Nature or Place-based learning, Social and emotional learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? We hoped that playful learning experiences, based on core competency learning and understanding would help motivate and engage our students and move them beyond an ‘indifferent attitude’ and improve mindsets, and academic achievement in literacy and numeracy.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We started our scanning process with our students, community members and caregivers, by asking them to participate in co-designing the learning experiences. We listened carefully, and whenever there was a suggestion or collaborative learning available we entered with open hearts and open minds. We modeled listening and putting words into actions. We entered into many discussions with our students, and came to common understandings about what the learning experience had been in this community, and what it could be. We committed together to change what it meant to be a learner in this building.

Focus: We wanted authentic learning experiences, based on place, and the space we occupied. We wanted our learners to feel a strong sense of belonging, as well as identity. We hoped that these would contribute to an understanding of personal strength as a learner. Focusing on core competencies would allow us to recognize each learners’ strengths, while building our learners’ trust in us. We wanted to enter into academic learning and prove to learners what they could do for themselves. We hoped learners would learn how to learn.

Hunch: Learners were only using a number of workbooks in each program – there had been no direct instruction based on assessed individual learning needs. Learners were not experiencing success and were feeling frustrated. Community members could not understand why neglect was happening to their students during this time of realizing TRC regulations. Learners could not identify their strengths, and felt their learning experience was a challenge. Elders in the community felt it was a continuing cycle of neglect.

New Professional Learning: We looked into formative assessment practices, and started focusing on ensuring learning intentions, criteria and feedback were aligned so students knew how to help themselves as learners. We focused on core competencies and celebrated each child’s strengths and gifts – moving to competency-based assessment and celebrating strengths. We joined CPSN – Canadian Playful Schools Network, attended workshops and did lots of reading about playful classrooms. We used The Playful Classroom by Drearybury and Jones to help us design ways to enter into each and every learning experience in playful, fun-filled ways that would entice our students, rather than push them away.

Taking Action: We designed fun, playful ways to introduce as many learning experiences and concepts as possible. We created students to co-design or design their own learning activities that would demonstrate learning and provide evidence of learning.
We purchased the book titles our students wanted to read, and created a borrowing library in the center of the school – the school did not have a library previously. We had community members in the school, leading the learning as frequently as possible.
We moved as much learning outside, onto our lakeshore and into the forest so that students could use the natural environment as their learning environment. We looked at our actions frequently and evaluated how it was going, through our lens, the community’s lens and the students’ lens. We asked for evaluations from all members of our learning community, so that we had constant feedback on how we were doing – not looking for praise, but looking for ways to show, with evidence, that we were trying to change the learning environment.

Checking: We did ask the questions again, and again – as a measure of whether we were making a difference. We acknowledged that the students could name two adults who cared from the very first day we started, but what changed for us was the students’ responses to what they were learning – it moved from nothing, to students asking questions, designing learning opportunities and becoming more understanding of the importance of being a learner. Our students expressed pride in their accomplishments, and could describe their learning processes with an improved understanding of why they were learning.

Reflections/Advice: Take the time to sustain the changes you want to make – learning takes time for educators, students and community. Be very clear about the processes and strategies being emphasized with students’ caregivers, and let them know – frequently – of successes and challenges. Open the doors of the classroom – take down the walls, allow for purposeless play and purposeful play. Play frequently with the learners – listen to their stories – and enter the world of make-believe alongside them. Dress up in bright colors, dye your hair purple, dance to music, and demonstrate how fun creates a learning environment. If we can’t take risks, we can’t expect students to take risks.

School Name: Babine Elementary Secondary School

School District: SD#91 Nechako Lakes

Inquiry Team Members: Deb Koehn: dkoehn@sd91.bc.ca
Roberta Toth: rtoth@sd91.bc.ca
Michelle Miller-Gauthier: mmillergauthier@sd91.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: dkoehn@gmail.com

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7), Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Applied Design, skills & Technology, Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Reading, Language Arts – Writing, Mathematics / Numeracy

Focus Addressed: Community-based learning, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Experiential learning, Growth mindset, Social and emotional learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? We hoped that a playful approach for learning would help all our students, but particularly our Indigenous students, adopt a more positive mindset and move students from an expressed indifference in learning to engaged learning.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Students were able to identify which adults supported their learning and ways that their actions demonstrated this – students related many occasions of one to one conversations, including adults asking ways that they can help the students move forward.

Students were unable to express any specific ways that they were learning in school – all learning related questions solicited shrugged shoulders, refusal to participate and a general disinterest in school learning. When asked about learning in the community, students stated a dislike of contributing to community wellness, but were able to tell stories of learning to chop firewood, or ways to prepare salmon from the harvest. They were unable to relate any community-based learning to school-based learning.

When asked how they were doing with their learning – almost 100% of students responded with “I don’t know and I don’t care”…or simply refused to participate in conversations. The ‘where to next’ questions elicited a number of responses most of which referred to just preferring not to be at the school, or participate in learning. A tough crowd!

Focus: We hoped that we could engage our students in playful, imaginative and creative learning activities that would develop the core competencies of critical and creative thinking, positive communication skills and help students develop personal/social skill sets that would develop more positive experiences with learning. We hoped playful activities would engage and motivate our students to enter into literacy and numeracy experiences and learning with a more open mind. We wanted our students to learn how to be learners.

Hunch: Our hunch was that our students had only experienced learning through workbooks such as Jump Math or red, blue or green phonics decoding books. There was no school library and a very limited source of literature in each classroom. Students literally spent five hours a day, sitting in desks, for year after year in the same series. Conversations and dialogues between students and adults were minimal.

New Professional Learning: We attended the CPSN (Canadian Playful Schools Network) workshops, read The Playful Classroom by Jones & Dearybury, attended literacy and numeracy workshops and worked hard to develop experience-based, hands-on learning activities for every lesson. We changed our classroom structures to make them as ‘home-like’ as possible – and removed frameworks such as time commitments – learning took as long as the learning lasted. We spent a lot of time outdoors, no matter the temperature. We became very familiar with our place as a learning space. We incorporated our Indigenous community into our planning – reaching out frequently to ask questions or ask for support. And our students taught us, and humbled us, as we grew to understand the complexity of their daily lives – and tried to embed strategies and skills that could be applied not just cross-curricular, but across learning spaces.

Taking Action: We focused on developing a love of literacy. We read to our students a lot. Our grade 7 – 12 class chose only to read Indigenous authors this year. They each read Van Kamp, Boulley, Wagamese, Gray-Smith, Kimmerer, as well as others. They unpacked similarities and disparities between their lives and the lives they explored in fiction. Our younger students benefited from the library we created (courtesy of our Indigo Chapters grant) and loved being exposed to non-fiction books. They poured over the new books and developed an interest in reading independently. In mathematics we moved to a games-based, hands-on manipulative approach to all concepts. Students learned vocabulary that helped them explain their thinking as they applied strategies – in many content areas students were astonished when they shared evidence of their learning. They began to put the missing pieces of the puzzle together – rather than depending on rote learning – and learned why specific strategies worked.

Checking: It was not enough – it is hard to undo many years of learned behaviours. This is a multi-year learning challenge for all staff members. We did see improvements – our Early Years assessment tool (EYE) showed growth in students. PM Benchmark scores improved (some students jumped 10-12 levels, while some students moved a level or two) and students identified understandings that they were missing in math; they could show with manipulatives how to solve questions that they depended on a calculator to solve previously. Our SNAP math assessment tool was completed with greater understanding and reflected improved vocabulary and strategy use.

Reflections/Advice: We definitely underestimated the power of play, and the role that play has for each of us. Play allowed for imaginative and creative thinking to be the way of learning. Playful learning built confidence in staff and students and allowed our staff to address significant needs in a positive manner. Play is holistic; it involves emotions, brains and our physical being to be engaged, as well as our senses of belonging. We will continue to explore the role of play in our learning journey. It has made an enormous difference in the overall well-being of our learning community.

School Name: Bayview Elementary

School District: SD#68 Nanaimo-Ladysmith

Inquiry Team Members: Sarah Pike: sarah.pike@sd68.bc.ca
Lisa Blanchuras: lisa.blanchuras@sd68.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: angie.hanley@sd68.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Reading

Focus Addressed: Flexible learning, Other: Game based learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How will gamifying literacy practices enhance student abilities to engage with, and grow phonemic awareness and phonics skills?

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Expanding on our learning from the 2021/2022 school year, the team at Bayview engaged in the scanning phase and when that information was compared with our baseline literacy data, collected in the fall, we determined that the majority of students find themselves within the “early reader” category of the Foundational Skills for Reading continuum. Skills such as: phonemic awareness, early decoding, and listening comprehension are the foundational building blocks needed to establish growth as a learner and a lifelong love of literacy.

Focus: Through hands-on and online literacy games to ensure joyful experiences, we hoped to maximize student learning. Many of our students see themselves as technologically proficient, and we would love to blur the boundaries of literacy and gaming to help students see themselves in their learning.

Hunch: Traditional models of teaching such as whole group instruction and paper-based practice activities, were not working for our learners. Our learners have many social-emotional and self-regulation needs, so our teaching practices need to focus on highly engaging strategies to hook our learners and keep them on-task.

New Professional Learning: Teachers paired online and hands-on games to their phonological awareness/phonics scope and sequence that they were using. They learned to use our district reading screening data to zone in on skills that our students were missing.

Taking Action: We used a school-wide reading program called Reading Eggs that had built in games. During literacy stations, games were used in place of traditional paper and pencil activities, to focus on the phonics skill being targeted. We also did a week-long, school-wide literacy blitz. Students rotated through 10 stations with games that focused on a variety of literacy skills.

Checking: The classrooms that committed to both Reading Eggs and targeted games during their literacy stations showed the greatest gains in students engagement, focus and reading skills. We used our reading skills assessment as evidence, as well as anecdotal stories. The week-long literacy blitz really inspired some teachers to use games in their classrooms on a regular basis.

Reflections/Advice: We learned that the way to reach some of our most reluctant learners is to make learning fun through game-based activities. Teachers are motivated to work more games into their literacy practices. Many already used games during their math teaching blocks, and now see the benefit of using games for targeting phonological awareness and phonic skills too.

School Name: Zeballos Elementary Secondary School.

School District: SD#84 Vancouver Island West

Inquiry Team Members: Heather Goodall hgoodall@viw.sd84.bc.ca
Paige Fisher paige.fisher@viu.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: hgoodall@viw.sd84.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Writing

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Differentiated instruction, Social and emotional learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our focus is to use Story Workshop strategies and the haahuupaa philosophy (teaching with kindness/Indigenous way of knowing) to inspire joy and confidence in writing.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Through district-wide assessment of writing, we noticed that students were reluctant to write and found it challenging to generate ideas to write about. We had a group of teachers and students who were interested in learning more about Story Workshop as a process to support learners as writers. We saw a lot of potential in weaving Story Workshop by exploring local ways of knowing and connections to community. As the FPPL indicates, “Learning is embedded in memory, history and story.” We drew on that understanding to build joy and engagement with the writing processes.

Focus: Students need to have opportunities to explore ways to create stories before they are asked to write or record their stories. We hoped the students, if given a chance to play, would create stories that they could share orally and in written form.

Hunch: The practice has been for students to write in their journals to reflect on real life experiences. Our hunch is that the students need more scaffolding before they are asked to write. They need inspiration to help generate ideas.

New Professional Learning: We had a professional learning series running with the book “Story Workshop: New Possibilities for Young Writers” (Susan Harris-Mackay). We wove some of this learning into demonstration lessons in the classrooms. There were co-planning opportunities for teachers. We also facilitated collaborative opportunities with our Delta colleagues.

Taking Action: During the winter and spring terms, we implemented Story Worksop every other week. We began planning using the framework: Preparations, Provocation, Invitation, Story Creation, Story Sharing, Reflections (from the Book by Mackay). As we progressed over time, we changed to the framework: Inspire Create Share (Delta SD).

An example of one workshop:

• Inspire: Story used Fox by Margret Wild
• Create: How can you tell a story about friendship between animals?
• Share: Created books with photos of their stories
• We took pictures of their stories as they shared the stories orally, and then the students created books by writing text to go with their pictures. Having the pictures printed right away helped the students remember their story, so they could write it the following day. We used a photocopier to print coloured pictures.

Another example:

• Inspire: Book “Heart in the Bottle” by Oliver Jeffers
• Create: Show a way to protect your heart. They were each given a small polished stone to represent their heart, along with materials to build something to protect their heart. During the process there was much talk about why we need to protect our heart and how we can let our heart free from the protection.
• Share: Each student shared ways, and why, they protect their heart, as well as how and why they let their heart free.

Over the course of the year, we collected story workshop materials. We have created a designated place to store the materials in the school.

Checking: The students’ enthusiasm for Story Workshop was obvious. The learners asked for story work frequently. The volume of writing increased from one sentence stories to multi sentence stories. At the beginning of the year, most writing centred around life experiences such as “Last night I watched TV.” At the end of the year, students’ stories had a deeper and expanded meaning, such as “I am protecting my heart so nobody can hurt it. I can play with my heart.”

We also noticed students needed less prompts to write in their journal. The student engagement with Story Workshop in the grade 3-5 class was significant. Initially, 50% of the class would typically engage in writing. We have 100% participation in Story Workshop with this class. Unexpectedly, we had a high school student who had been disengaged with school, wander down to the class and join in our story workshop learning. We also noticed a community of learners started to grow as the students shared their stories with each other. The students demonstrated a sense of community by sharing materials and showing interest in each other’s work.

Reflections/Advice: Next year, we plan to continue using Story Workshop in all of our schools. The ripple effect of playful learning has inspired some schools to incorporate more play into all aspects of learning. For example, In Captain Meares School, in Tahsis, we created a room for “Playful Inquiry” where we have embedded the Inspire, Create, Share model for learning in all aspects of the K-5 curriculum.

The sense of joy was evident in building stories through exploration with Story Workshop materials. Writing became less of a “must do” and more of a “want to do.” The next professional book I plan to read is Unearthing Joy – A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Teaching and Learning, by Gholdy Muhammad. I am curious how this new learning will connect to the “Playful Inquiry” we are weaving into classrooms.

School Name: Horse Lake Elementary

School District: SD#27 Cariboo-Chilcotin

Inquiry Team Members: Lisa Pugh: lisa.pugh@sd27.bc.ca
Joe Archie: joseph.archie@canimlakeband.com
Ida Scarpelli: principal@canimlakeband.com
Andrea Silani: andrea.siliani@canimlakeband.com

Inquiry Team Contact Email: lisa.pugh@sd27.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Applied Design, skills & Technology, Arts Education, Language Arts – Oral Language, Mathematics / Numeracy, Physical & Health Education, Social Studies

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Community-based learning, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Experiential learning, First Peoples Principles of Learning, Indigenous pedagogy, Inquiry-based learning, Land, Nature or Place-based learning, STEM / STEAM

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? To apply numeracy skills, creative/critical thinking, and problem solving through the experience of carving a Secwepemc Cottonwood dugout canoe to see if we can increase student motivation, sense of belonging, and engagement with numeracy.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Learners gave varied responses to “Where are they going?” with their numeracy. Many kids had specific ideas about what they needed to focus on in math; for example, in fractions or geometry, some students said they needed to focus on that because they wanted to get into carpentry or they felt it was important for their future. The students who responded “Not Great” to “How are you doing?” with numeracy, as expected, were below grade level and they were open about their struggles with math. Students that replied very positively to how they were doing, were indeed doing well, as seen by their class/provincial assessments. Students were honest and self aware of their feelings and actions related to numeracy in terms of reflecting achievements, but they also gave their opinions not just about scores and grades, but about how easy or hard it was for them to solve problems and work through numeracy applications.

The “Where to next?” question was again targeting particular areas like algebra and geometry, which happened to be upcoming areas that we had not visited yet. They also know that algebra ramps up more in grade 7, so I think they were thinking that it is an area where they must go. Some said really specific things like “BEDMAS”, others were a little more general, like “Geometry”. Some students gave answers to how they would improve their numeracy skills like “practice more” or “do my homework”, while others wanted to challenge themselves and try harder problems. Others said things like “attend school more” or “IDK”. Knowing how to improve was not easily articulated.

In terms of naming two adults who believe they can be a success in life, out of 23 grade 7 students, there were 3 that didn’t think there were any adults in the building that believed in them, which was disheartening; however, this survey was done in October, so those attitudes of two of the three did change over the course of the year. One student, in particular, worked very closely and clandestinely with an EA on basic skills, connected and attached to that EA and myself, and after eight months finally began to trust that we had their back.

The First Peoples Principles of Learning tenets that I thought about when deciding what to do with the information I was given from these four scanning questions were:
– Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focussed on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).
– Learning ultimately supports the well being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors.
– Learning involves recognizing the consequences of one’s actions.
– Learning involves generational roles and responsibilities.
– Learning recognizes the role of Indigenous knowledge.
– Learning is embedded in memory, history and story.
– Learning involves patience and time.
– Learning requires exploration of one’s identity.

The scanning told us we needed to foster students’ sense of belonging at school, to foster their skills and feelings of mastery in numeracy, and to increase their understanding of why and how one finds their passion and engagement with learning. Passion and intrinsic motivation are often found when we can see ourselves, our interests, our family, community, and land/area in what we are learning because those things are relevant to our lives. We needed a project that reflected the local community, that utilized traditional Indigenous knowledge, and that allowed students to try out numeracy skills that were real-world and applicable to their reality. Our everyday math curriculum certainly didn’t reflect the FPPL, but our project sure did!

Focus: The scanning told us we needed to foster students’ sense of belonging at school, to foster their skills and feelings of mastery in numeracy, and to increase their understanding of why and how one finds their passion and engagement with learning. Passion and intrinsic motivation are often found when we can see ourselves, our interests, our family, community, and land/area in what we are learning because those things are relevant to our lives. We needed a project that reflected the local community, that utilized traditional Indigenous knowledge, and that allowed students to try out numeracy skills that were real-world and applicable to their reality. The changes for our learners that we hoped for, were for students to work in a hands-on experiential way to learn about circumference: apply pi, calculate the area of a circle and the area of a cylinder, and be able to do it with a real 3D object – a massive 3D log. They had purpose to their learning and a legacy that they were aware would occur. They knew that they were creating something, something big to a lot of people in the local community and beyond. They were aware that they would be the ones testing this canoe and that their measurements mattered because we would use those measurements to make decisions about where to carve and how to carve. The proper functioning of the canoe, like the ability to steer it and ride in it smoothly, started with the math. This carving process required us all to recognize the role of Indigenous knowledge; to use patience and time; to look to Elders’ memories, history, and story; to develop a sense of place; to involve family and community; and to respect and relate to the land, spirits and ancestors.

Hunch:

• Horse Lake mathematics curriculum involves paper, Youtube, Smartboards, textbooks, whiteboards, manipulatives, collaborations and problem solving, but it doesn’t involve creating large scale legacy projects that build relationships to the land community and Indigenous knowledge.
• Often kids are just going through the motions of learning, but not actually learning. To learn really deeply and engage on a level that touches the heart, we wanted to do something that required a thematic multi-disciplinary use of numeracy with a local cultural purpose, that again gave purpose to the learning.

New Professional Learning:

• We sought out Elders and knowledge-keepers to make sure that we were on the right track. Brenda Celesta, an Indigenous teacher in SD73 (Kamloops), had done this project a few time before and she was very helpful with advice and recommendations about the process and how to incorporate math into it.
• We sought the advice of Dr. Christine Younghusband, who really drove home the point that our assessments didn’t have to be rigorous pre-test/post-test style proof of learning. She explained that we could decolonize our assessments to look at how our kids improved not only in their numeracy skills related to circumference and measurement through observation, but also in their feelings and attitudes towards numeracy through discussion. I agreed that if we are to truly embrace Indigenous ways of knowing and being and Indigenous pedagogy, we need to also think about Indigenous assessment. How do we know we have learned something? Through our impact on the community and our feelings and our words about our learning, not just through a test score.

Taking Action:

• We held a few meetings to figure out funding, who would do what, and source tools and materials.
• We had students look at pi, circumference and area of a cylinder in their regular text book, and with the usual pedagogy of Smartboard, whiteboards, Youtube, etc.
• Then we went outside and practised what we learned with the log by measuring in both inches and centimetres, as many kids and family members work in inches (including our knowledge-keeper). After taking measurements and recording them, we used chalk lines and started carving. Knowledge-keepers, Elders, and family members of students all became involved.
• We also visited each other’s canoes to carve and make friendships. We used some power tools to finish the ends and cut off weight, students were well aware that we needed to get as much weight off the canoe as possible so that it would float, and we talked about design and how the hull should look as well as the stern and bow shapes. We listened to Elder stories and ate together, and in the end we all gathered together at a local lake to test the canoes. We had a large ceremony and blessed the canoes (again). We had an RCMP skipper the kids, as they tried out their creations. In the end, I gifted our canoe to our knowledge-keeper, Joe Archie, which was a very hard thing to do, but also a very traditional thing to do. Joe said the Horse Lake canoe will go into a new Sewepemc museum being built at the 108 Mile, while Eliza Archie’s canoe will be hung from the rafters in the school.

Photo descriptions: (Top) Canoe carving day. (Bottom) Canoe testing day with the two canoes.

Checking: This project was more than a numeracy project; this project was a once in a lifetime opportunity to connect, to learn, and to leave a legacy in our hearts and our minds. Kids will not forget what a diameter is or that you need that to find the distance around the outside of the circle. We talked so much about the 31 inch diameter and how massive our log was, and how the top of the log had a different diameter than the bottom because trees are bigger at the bottom. We all seemed to transition to inches and feet naturally, which is real world math in a nutshell! Did students learn math and increase engagement in numeracy and develop a sense of belonging–oh yes, this project bound us together and created friendships between a band school and a mostly non-Indigenous rural public school. Learners know that adults care about them (more than two), and adults from different schools and communities as well. The answers to “where are you going with your learning” were basically about how math is useful for building and creating and making things, and that it does have a purpose in life and meaning to people as a tool to do and create cool things.

Reflections/Advice: I learned that I must use experiential, relevant, real-world examples with my curriculum; we as humans need to touch, smell, hear and see things to make sense of them, no matter how complex. I learned that reaching out to local Indigenous knowledge-keepers, and creating those connections, can be such a powerful learning experience for both non-Indigenous and Indigenous learners. I learned that I don’t have to prove learning with a test, I can prove learning with anecdotal responses and how one feels about their learning. I would recommend this project, but give yourself more time. Time was the most important thing we needed during this whole process. We realized that a few months is crazy short for this project, and one needs at least six months to do this without feeling rushed, like we felt.

School Name: Courtenay Elementary School

School District: SD#71 Comox Valley

Inquiry Team Members: Heidi Jungwirth: Heidi.jungwirth@sd71.bc.ca, Alison Walkley: Alison.walkely@sd71.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: heidi.jungwirth@sd71.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Mathematics / Numeracy

Focus Addressed: Differentiated instruction, First Peoples Principles of Learning, Growth mindset, Indigenous pedagogy, Self-regulation

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our inquiry evolved from focusing on math anxiety in the first year, to focusing on growth mindset in mathematics in the second year.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Before you start reading the details of our inquiry, I will explain how we have written it up. Most of the writing comes from my (Heidi, intermediate teacher) perspective. In a few places, Alison (primary teacher) has added her thoughts. Since it might get confusing to know who is talking, I have put either (primary) or (intermediate) in brackets so that you can know whose perspective you are reading.

From our work in the first year, we knew that the children were doing much better. Using the 4 key questions on an ongoing basis develops a climate of retrospection and inquiry in your classroom. This opens up the possibility of non-judgmental conversations about how a child is really doing. When a teacher and a student can sit beside each other and work on a challenge together, it creates a culture of collaboration and shared joy. Interestingly, when we changed our pedagogy to an inquiry-based model, the students took the lead. Differentiation came naturally, as students felt safe in challenging themselves and each other. Students wanted to learn and took joy in (finally) closing the gaps in knowledge that they had struggled with for so long. Our learning journey in mathematics became our story.

Focus: In year 1, this inquiry came about because of my (intermediate teacher) frustration with the lack of math learning going on in my classroom and my inability to do anything about the math anxiety that was prevalent amongst my students. I sought the collaboration of a colleague (primary teacher) who was knowledgeable about math pedagogy. Together we worked on figuring out the reasons that this was happening.

In year 2, we wanted to go deeper and figure out why we had been so successful in the first year, so that we could permanently make changes to our math programs. Sometimes you can be successful and not really know why. It is only by taking the time to reflect and have conversations that you can understand the reasons for the positive changes that have taken place. When we understood why the journey had been so successful, we were able to build on what we had learned in the first year.

Hunch: We had more than a few hunches about why students were flailing in mathematics. A societal norm of believing “I’m just not good at math” was probably the most prevalent. How many people have you encountered that have this belief? Maybe you have it yourself. What we realized in our second year is that the prevalent attitude (perhaps even societal attitude) about mathematics was very fixed. You either were smart at math or not. You either found math easy or you struggled. There was no way to climb out of the pit when you didn’t understand what was going on, so you had better just give up. This alone could explain why so many people just give up.

Until I began this inquiry, I relied a lot on the spiral nature of the mathematics curriculum. If students didn’t understand a concept, then it didn’t really matter because they would review in the next grade. Maybe they would catch on then. In the meantime we needed to move on because there was a lot of material to cover. No wonder there were tears.

My main frustration through all these years of struggling with teaching math was that I knew that students didn’t understand what we were doing, but I didn’t have tools to figure out where their learning deficits lay. I didn’t know what they didn’t know and I didn’t have a way to figure it out.

Having Alison as my inquiry partner was invaluable because she had already figured a bunch of this out. She is an avid reader of research and was familiar with the advances in math pedagogy. She was able to guide me through my frustration and shared ways that she had created an attitude of curiosity towards learning math in her class.

New Professional Learning: The inquiry built on the learning that we had done in the previous year. We continued to use the”First Steps in Mathematics” assessments and learning activities. We continued using the SNAP Assessments (from SD 33). We explored the use of Pedagogical Documentation in Math, which turned our mathematics learning into a story. We explored First People’s Principles of Learning and sought out ways to apply this to mathematics. We partnered with our Indigenous Education department and had a number of “Indigenous Explorations” as part of our math curriculum. We read some professional books and ordered many more! The two books we have found the most helpful so far are: “Mathematical Mindsets” by Jo Boaler and “Teaching Student Centered Mathematics” by John Van de Walle et al.

Less expected and most exciting was the professional learning that we embarked on together to create materials that we couldn’t find. Based on the professional reading we were doing and the assessments we were using, Alison and I created a number of curricular and hands-on materials for the students to use. We used these with our students and revised them as needed.

Taking Action: The most significant action I took (intermediate) this year was putting aside the expected pace and depth of math learning (work quickly through a large number of concepts which only gives time to learn algorithms and develop tricks to get the right answers) and focusing instead on correcting the learning deficits that my students had. I realized that I could use tools (SNAP Assessment, First Steps) to pinpoint what they didn’t know and provide remediation. Time needed to be taken, so that the students could deeply learn.

I think I can confidently say that if a student (early intermediate) is struggling with mathematics, they need remediation in their understanding of number (number sense). It’s a lot like expecting students to read and understand text when they don’t know their phonics. They might struggle along and figure out some things, but there is no deep understanding and no ability to take learning to a higher level. I think that this just might be the cause of math anxiety.

In this inquiry, we were able to find assessments and activities through SNAP and First Steps, but things really took off when we had the confidence to develop our own materials. Alison (primary) had been doing this for years and she used this expertise to expand her materials into the intermediate curriculum. She created a series of booklets based on the SNAP assessment to give students daily practice in working with numbers. I (intermediate) used these for the second half of the school year and the progress that the children made was incredible.

Once again following Alison’s lead, I learned how to create “Class Books” about my class’ math learning. Alison’s class book was so popular, she had to make a second copy so that the children didn’t have to wait so long before they could have another turn. In both classes, the class books were read every day during read-to-self time. This not only turned their math learning into a story, it also (unknowingly to them) provided reinforcement of their math learning.

Alison and I worked together to create a math journal that was used as the main “math book” for the year. We used the math journals for both standard curricular work and for math explorations. Students looked forward to challenging themselves with their math learning, and it was inspiring to see their confidence grow as they worked in their journals.

Once we figured out what the students didn’t know, we were able to create hands-on learning materials for students to use to support their learning. We also created remediation activities that were done with an educational assistant.

This is what Alison (primary) wrote:
Early in the year I  used First Steps to assess my students’ understanding of counting principles and subitizing. I used these assessments to inform my teaching around these concepts and to provide individualized support to students who needed it.  These assessments allowed me to identify the specific skills or concepts my students needed help with. By addressing these needs early in the year, we were able to come together as a group and make fantastic progress as a class. In the spring my students did the SNAP assessment. They were excited to show what they could do…every student felt confident!

Photo descriptions: (top) student work on fractions in their math journal, (middle) student work doing remediation about number sense, (bottom) a group of students doing work in their math journal about multiplication.

Checking: Before I share this story with you, I think that it is important for you to know that Alison had been teaching math this way for years. Her role in this inquiry (in many ways) was to be a mentor and provocateur. Math learning in her class (primary) has been refined through this inquiry; math learning in my class (intermediate) has undergone a seismic shift.

I can best illustrate the change in my (intermediate) students by giving some examples of what I am seeing. Keep in mind how things used to be in math class. Students would cry. Students would sneak out of class. There was all sorts of negative behaviour. I described teaching math as a nightmare.

This year, students skip down the hallway, spontaneously singing “I love math”. Students beg to stay in at recess and work in their math journals. We have discussions about complex math topics. The math books I purchased for our class library are always being read. Students play math games during free choice time. Math is consistently chosen as a favourite subject (and this is by students who I would consider as struggling).

It is also important to show growth through the use of assessments. At the end of the year, I re-assessed my students using both a SNAP assessment and a First Steps assessment. In my class (intermediate) there was improvement in every student. The most improvement came from the students who struggled the most. In one case, a student went from not being able to name a number (1 234 is one two three four) to being able to name numbers in the ten thousands (12 345 is twelve thousand three hundred forty-five).

In Alison’s (primary) class, students are doing math work way beyond what would be expected at their grade level. There has been a discussion about the differences/similarities between infinity and negative infinity.

Here is what Alison (primary) wrote:

One student who did not yet have one to one correspondence and could only count to 10 at the beginning of the year went on to work with numbers to one hundred. Perhaps more importantly, she moved from needing help to contributing ideas in our class math talks. She often told me how much she loved math and would generate a whole page of math in her journal in the morning.

In the second half of the year, students started the day working in their math journals. They used this time to record their own math ideas, often making patterns in their work. We also spent time sharing these ideas as a class and students were inspired by one another’s work. One student remarked, “I love patterns!” There was a chorus of me too from the nearby students. I love the beauty of numbers, especially the patterns. I’m glad my students got to feel this too.

Our class math books grew to two volumes this year. Documenting our learning in our class math books literally made our learning visible. Students were able to see the connections between the hands on materials and the mathematical numbers and symbols we use to communicate math ideas. They learned to read math and to see how math can be represented in materials, pictures, words, and numbers. Students poured over these books during free time and at read to self. They also enjoyed taking them home to share with their families. These books made a significant impact on student learning.

Reflections/Advice: Alison and I have been working on this inquiry for two years now, and for a lot of the time I (intermediate) was struggling. I described it as swimming around in the mud. Changing the way I taught math was really hard. I made changes before I really understood what I was doing. I trusted Alison and was grateful for her mentorship and expertise, but a lot of the time I really didn’t know what I was doing.

It was part way through the second year that things began to get clear. I had established routines. The materials that we had developed were successful. The students were loving math class.

It was late in the year, when Alison and I were discussing our inquiry that I had one of those moments when everything becomes clear. I realized that this whole inquiry was about changing mindset.

I wrote earlier about changing my mindset as a teacher. Through this inquiry, I realized that math anxiety was caused by the students having a fixed mindset about learning math. It makes sense. If a student doesn’t have a working understanding and confidence about number, then it must seem like math is impossible to learn.

By using math assessments to pinpoint where the deficits lay in the students’ math learning, we were able to use tools and remediation to change those misunderstandings. The students can now see that numbers make sense. I believe that this has been the reason for the dramatic shift in the students’ attitude and accomplishment in math learning.

Here is what Alison (primary) wrote:

This year I felt more confident using hands on materials, math journals, math talks, and our class books. I can see how these elements weave together to support students in developing competencies in math … and how they can support students in coming together in a community where all students feel confident as mathematicians.

Advice:

The second part of this section is called advice, so here it goes: If you are struggling with teaching math (or anything, really) it takes courage to seek out the answers to why things are not going well. It took me years to get to the point where I was willing to tackle the challenge of math anxiety, and I still can’t believe the change I have seen in my students, or how quickly it has come about. I had to lean into the discomfort of changing the way I was doing things.

I sought out the help and mentorship of someone who was doing things well. I spent more than a year “swimming around in the mud” before things became clear. In the end, I had to trust my inquiry partner, Alison, and I had to trust in the process of inquiry.

Interestingly, both Alison and I have seen the benefit of working with an inquiry partner that teaches at a different grade level. For Alison, (primary) it was beneficial to see where the children were headed with her learning, and it helped her to see the reasons for what she was doing. For me (intermediate) it was beneficial to learn about the pedagogy of early learning.

Most importantly, perhaps, there was safety in learning with a teacher who wasn’t working at the same grade level. There is sometimes the temptation to compare how your class is doing against the other class when you are working with a same grade teacher. Working with a teacher from a different grade level removes this challenge.