I. General Information
School Name: Lochside Elementary
School District: SD#63 Saanich
Inquiry Team Members: Jenni Erickson: jerickson@saanichschools.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: sarahmiller@saanichschools.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: Numeracy & Literacy Project
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Literacy
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? The focus of our inquiry was to build literacy skills through storytelling and storymaking; developing oral and written language through local Indigenous stories, SENĆOŦEN language learning, and place-based storymaking.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: During the scanning phase, we noticed that students entering Grade One were eager to participate in storytelling activities, responding to stories with personal connections and an eagerness to share from their own experiences. We also noticed that time spent learning outdoors seemed to have a positive effect on students’ regulation and focus and we are eager to incorporate this type of learning into our practice. We wondered how hearing and retelling Indigenous stories that are connected to land we live on would support students in developing oral storytelling and communication skills, and how their connection to the knowledge and language of the W̱SÁNEĆ People (SENĆOŦEN) would develop as this learning takes place. We incorporated First Peoples Principles by recognizing that “learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.” We attempted to ground students’ literacy learning in the stories of the land, building connections between their learning and the history of the place in which they live and learn.
Focus: This year we continued to focus on connecting literacy activities with traditional Indigenous stories and knowledge as a means to support literacy development of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners. We wanted to continue our focus on story-telling, while honouring local stories. We chose three W̱SÁNEĆ stories that were valued as important and that we were given permission to share. We shared these stories with our students and revisited them in different ways throughout the year. We hoped to ground literacy learning in the history, oral-storytelling traditions, and Indigenous language (SENĆOŦEN) of the W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples.
Hunch: This year, we wondered how repeated opportunities to engage with Indigenous stories in different ways might support student learning. We had a hunch that focusing on just a few stories would help students gain a deeper understanding of the stories, and the connection between stories and place. In the past, we would often share a story once and then move on. This year, we were eager to provide different ways for students to engage with the stories, including oral retelling, play, art, and writing. We were also eager to explore opportunities to integrate W̱SÁNEĆ language learning into literacy activities. We had a hunch that even learning a few words or phrases could help deepen students’ understanding of Indigenous culture and language.
New Professional Learning:
– Worked with Sheralyn MacRae, the District Indigenous Program Coordinator; Jenica Moore, District Early Learning Leader; and the Indigenous Education department to access Indigenous stories and learning resources.
– Focused on our own professional learning of Indigenous stories with a focus on becoming proficient in oral storytelling.
– Focused on learning SENĆOŦEN words and phrases from each story.
– Attended Network of Inquiry and Indigenous Education (NOIIE) Learning Bursts throughout the year.
– Attended the 2024 NOIIE Symposium: ‘Connection + Community: People, Practices, Promises’. Had the chance to learn from presenters and network with other educators.
– Shared ongoing work focused on outdoor learning, nature journals, and storymaking with COPACS as a way to answer questions and listen to feedback.
Taking Action:
– Practiced re-telling W̱SÁNEĆ stories with a focus on incorporating SENĆOŦEN language. Our focus was on learning these stories by heart, so that we did not need to read them from a book.
– Connected with the district SENĆOŦEN teacher in order to build our knowledge of the SENĆOŦEN language.
– Shared place-based and Indigenous stories with our students each month connected to changing seasons, special places in our community, learning topics, etc.
– Supported learners in developing oral and written language through local Indigenous stories, SENĆOŦEN language learning, and place-based storymaking.
– Developed ‘story cards’ for local Indigenous stories featuring images, text, and SENĆOŦEN language.
– Began developing a rubric for oral language that could be used to measure student learning and success.
– Shared ongoing learning with fellow educators through the NOIIE Learning Burst and the 2024 Symposium.
Checking: Our main objective was to strengthen literacy skills through our focus on oral language skills and local W̱SÁNEĆ stories. Part of the evidence we used was our District Literacy Assessment which showed significant improvement in all areas of literacy over the course of the year. Anecdotally, the students demonstrated a deeper understanding of the stories and incorporated them into their own retellings and play. It was a joy to see these stories become a part of their shared background knowledge, and to witness the ways in which they would connect these stories to their own lives and experiences of place.
In the future, we would like to further develop our oral language rubric in order to better understand and assess oral language abilities and the way in which it supports reading and writing proficiencies.
With repeated opportunities to engage with just a few stories, students were able to go deeper into their understanding and questioning of the stories. Their understanding of what they were learning and why it was important was deeper and richer than it had been in the past. We were able to observe this through the strength of their oral retellings and the ways in which they embedded the stories into their own play.
Picture Descriptions: Photo of the student and camas bed is a re-telling of the W̱SÁNEĆ story, “The Sisters Who Married Stars,” in student’s nature journal (left), play mat and story toys are a playful invitation for story re-telling (middle), and Basket of fir-cones are re-telling props for the Coast Salish story “Little Mouse and the Great Fire” (right)
Reflections/Advice: We hope to continue with this work, deepening our own understanding and knowledge of W̱SÁNEĆ stories and the SENĆOŦEN language. We will continue to seek out connections with W̱SÁNEĆ knowledge keepers to continue this learning.
We would like to continue to build up resources to support storytelling including story cards, play-based materials, and retelling tools and strategies. Next steps will be to collaborate with our school teacher-librarian and other district staff in order to share our learning journey.
Our advice to other schools with a similar interest is to start small and build a strong understanding of your area of focus. Do not feel that you have to begin and end your inquiry in one year. Being able to travel around the spiral of inquiry multiple times, going deeper into our own learning and understanding, has been incredibly powerful. Take your time and grow your understanding alongside your students and with the support of your learning community.