I. General Information
School Name: Horse Lake Elementary
School District: SD#27 Cariboo-Chilcotin
Inquiry Team Members: Lisa Pugh and Vanessa Rehbein
Inquiry Team Contact Email: lisa.pugh@sd27.bc.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: Numeracy & Literacy Project
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)
Curricular Areas Addressed:
Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Literacy, Land, Nature or Place-based learning
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? To increase student engagement and sense of belonging through combining hands-on, outdoor, land-based learning and literacy/stories related to that learning.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: We noticed through scanning (observations, student work, and questioning) that students were not as engaged with learning about the plants and their properties for ceremony, medicine, technology and food as we originally thought. We had hands-on field trips and worked with plants in our garden, but the engagement (motivation and desire to learn and participate) was less than anticipated. We decided to add stories both contemporary and traditional to the pedagogy (oral and in print) with the thought that stories would increase connections to the learning. The F.P.P.L. states that “learning is embedded in memory, history, and story” and with this in mind we began our inquiry with this questions: “Will the use of stories increase student engagement related to outdoor, land-based Indigenous plant learning?”
Focus: A sense of belonging is key to student success (for all students Indigenous and non-Indigenous) and engagement goes hand in hand with belonging. You have to feel like you belong to engage and if you hear and see relevant stories related to your life, culture and experiences then you might be more interested in learning.
Hunch: We have been adopting hands-on, outdoor land/water-based curriculum and pedagogy for the past four years and have seen increased engagement and a sense of belonging, but this fall we noticed less engagement with the plants.
New Professional Learning: We explored new literacy resources in text, from students and from online and book oral recordings. We found the texts that involved stories of harvesting and collecting, as well as Indigenous plant recipes for teas and medicines, got the most interest from students. We had times when we would turn off all the lights and lay down and listen to Elder told oral stories from CD’s and from books.
Taking Action:
– Student to student partner and group reading of Indigenous texts
– Teacher-led read-alouds of stories
– Online and CD oral stories
– Personal stories told by students, EA’s and teachers related to plants and on-land experiences
Checking: We saw students engaged in listening and reading Indigenous stories about plants and the land, and we observed students with a high level of engagement related to telling their own stories about land/plant-based experiences. Some students talked about recipes they wanted to make related to plant books we had looked at. This was satisfying and made us believe we were on the right track infusing Indigenous literacy with our science-based curriculum.
Reflections/Advice: We learned that wholistic learning is more engaging than learning about one particular thing. For example, Indigenous plant identification and uses needs to be approached through hands-on experiences, but also it should be married with text and oral story literacy-based learning to engage learners more fully.