I. General Information
School Name: Nakusp Elementary
School District: SD#10 Arrow Lakes
Inquiry Team Members:
Jenna Alstad: jenna.alstad@sd10.bc.ca
Patti Zeleznik: patti.zeleznik@sd10.bc.ca
Tim Van Brummelen: tim.vanbrummelen@sd10.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: megan.martin@sd10.bc.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, Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Reading, Language Arts – Writing
Focus Addressed: Differentiated instruction, Flexible learning, Formative assessment, Growth mindset, Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies, Self-regulation, Social and emotional learning, Universal design for learning
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? We looked at a diverse group of 2/3 students with a range of reading abilities from pre-K to middle of grade 3.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: We observed a variety of student reading abilities and queried that due to a lack of practice and home engagement, many students were struggling with literacy skills at their appropriate grade level. We also saw that many students were struggling with completing literacy tasks that were not differentiated. We also conducted a formal reading assessment which supported our observations. We then created small differentiated structured environments to support their specific literacy needs.
Focus: Many students were unable to read and write at their appropriate grade level.
Hunch:
– When lessons are not differentiated, students below grade level could not engage with the material.
– We noticed a lack of home participation, such as not doing home reading or catching up on missed work.
– We had attendance concerns.
New Professional Learning: We continue to look at different literacy programs that support different literacy skills such as phonemic awareness, orthographic mapping, fluency pyramids, comprehension, inferences, and writing in complete sentences.
We met to collaborate every week to check-in, reflect, plan, and re-evaluate our practices to meet group and specific students’ needs. We also shared new findings and resources. We attended POPEY workshops and Allison Ryans (Primary Pond) webinars.
Taking Action: Through formative and summative assessments, we took the students and placed them into 4 different learning groups based on their skills and work habits. We had groups ranging from kindergarten to above grade 3 with different access points to their learning.
Checking: We met weekly to collaborate and discuss students’ reading performance and make decisions to move a child when the group they were in was no longer meeting their needs (progress monitoring). Our groups were ever-evolving and we saw progress for everyone.
Reflections/Advice:
– We plan to continue with this model next year.
– We would advise other schools to have a set literacy time that’s across the primary grades. Have enough adults to break the students into smaller groups and to support collaboration time.
– You need a universal screener to create a baseline (K-2 screener, the DRA and Sounds to Spelling Phonetic Screener).