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 Focus (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.

School Name: Horse Lake Elementary

School District: SD#27 Cariboo-Chilcotin

Inquiry Team Members: lisa.pugh@sd27.bc.ca, margaret.ramsay@sd27.bc.ca

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: Applied Design, skills & Technology, Arts Education, Mathematics / Numeracy, Science, 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? Can we utilize the hands-on, inquiry based, experiential Indigenous pedagogy of hide processing to increase student engagement in science and numeracy?

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We looked at students’ engagement with basic measurements of area and perimeter, and their understanding of chemical processes and chemistry applications like acids and bases. Student’s were not excited about doing calculations with area and some struggled with relating to the concept of square cm. We asked students if they had adults that they felt believed in them, as well as if they knew what they were learning and why. This was to get at these ideas of general lack of excitement and being fuzzy on the concepts of cm2. In general, they didn’t value the learning and felt their learning lacked a connection to the real world. Many couldn’t see why or how they would use this learning in the future.

Focus: Numeracy and science are so important. At the grade 7 level, the basics become platforms for further spiralled learning in chemistry and mathematics in high school. Relating concept of area in cm2 to real world examples could help to concretely formulate that in students’ minds. Chemistry with acids and bases are in everyday life and relating that to cultural practices like hide tanning and processing further brings community, culture and relevancy to learning.

Hunch: We always need to make learning more experiential and hands-on, and numeracy is not often that way in grade 7.

New Professional Learning: We did not know how to brain tan a hide. We all had done lots of raw hide, but not brain tanning which is a much more difficult process. Relating cm2 to hide tanning was conquered in a unique way by incorporating the widely held Indigenous knowledge that one animal’s brain will be enough to cover their own hide. This idea of how much brain matter do you need in cm2 to cover a particular area became an important real world hands-on piece of knowledge. The idea of having to neutralize hides soaked in an alkaline solution (lime) by adding vinegar (acid) so that the hide doesn’t get ruined, became a part of the chemistry learning. Looking at pH levels of different solutions we made and the amount of lime added to solution, were also pieces of learning for me and the kids.

Taking Action: We bit off more than we could chew, so to speak. Trying to process 8 mule deer hides and half a moose hide. The de-fleshing process took two weeks and kids were starting to buy-out a bit. It is hard work–which relates to the F.P.P.O.L. tenet that “Learning takes patience and time” and that “Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place)”. We worked through much of the hides and decided to just stretch and make rawhide out of four of the hides instead of brain tanning them. The concept of area still applied not with spreading brains but with how much area of the hide can we get from stretching it out on a frame? The ones where we used the brain tanning process, we did with egg, pork, fat and water. The tan took a bit, but not as much as using real brains which are rich in lectins that break down the hide. The kids loved the rough stretching and breaking the membrane part and we used a steel cable between two trees to work the hide, as well as kids pulling it in all directions. We didn’t smoke the hides as we ran out of time and we were so beat from working every day for a month. It was still a very memorable experience and all will never forget it!

Checking: Kids like to learn with their hearts and hands, then their minds, so I believe they now really comprehend acids and bases and how they neutralize each other. They had to problem solve area and how much final hide we would have in cm2, so that was real world and applicable to their lives. The students’ ideas of area were all baselined from 2D paper assessments, so when we worked in 3D with an irregular shape and applied square cm to it we had to fit half and quarter cm’s into the mix to get full coverage of the real area of a hide. When we chatted again about their feelings regarding the four questions, they were much more enthusiastic about their numeracy and science learning, and how it could be applied in their future learning.

Picture description: Horse Lake elementary photos of students and Canim Lake knowledge keeper, Adrian Archie, de-fleshing and stretching on frames and using ulu’s on fleshing poles.

Reflections/Advice: I learned to only do a few hides at a time and have students not working on hides do another activity beside the group, like soapstone carving, while others are working. It gives kids a break from the work and you don’t have the stress of having to do 9 hides and keep them from spoiling and making sure they are all at the right stages, especially when it came to weekends and having to stop the process until Monday. Hides kept well in the cold spring temperatures, but if it was warmer we would have had some spoil – we were lucky. Also, we started out with gloves and wearing garbage bags to protect our clothing but we ended up with bare hands and not bothered by the smell or flesh by the end; it was very natural. As for learning, it is always special to see hands-on experiential project-based learning come to life with an Indigenous lens. I feel very privileged to be a part of these types of projects. After we smudged, an eagle flew over our heads. I’ve never seen an eagle fly over our school before in the twelve years I’ve been at that school. Next, we will continue to offer this type of pedagogy to our learners.

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 District: SD#27 Cariboo-Chilcotin

Inquiry Team Members: Holly Zurak: holly.zurak@sd27.bc.ca, Kaarina Fichtner: kaarina.fichtner@sd27.bc.ca, Lacey Nasuszny: lacey.nasuszny@sd27.bc.ca, Naomi Miller: naomi.miller@sd27.bc.ca, Todd Routtu: todd.routtu@sd27.bc.ca, Kari Johnson: kari.johnson@sd27.bc.ca, Leona William: leona.william@sd27.bc.ca, Melissa Therrien: melissa.therrien@sd27.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: allison.bos@sd27.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

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

Curricular Area(s): Mathematics / Numeracy

Focus Addressed: Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving)

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? To what extent will using the “Thinking Classrooms” best practices increase thinking habits in students at École Nesika?

Scanning: At École Nesika Elementary, the school goals of improving literacy and numeracy outcomes for students in all grade levels, will be directly impacted by an increase in thinking skills and a decrease in “studenting” habits. We know learning takes patience and time, and with low marks on the FSA tests. These practices will align with Visible Learning strategies for teaching and learning that are already in use. These “best practices” are best for all students, inclusively.

Focus: In support of School District 27 goals, “The change and transformation are really not about curriculum. It is actually about how we engage students in learning.”

By building school (staff) wide capacity with a team approach to support continuous improvement in practice, we can encourage the shift to best practice. Using “Thinking Classrooms” research — evidence-based “best practices” for numeracy — to better our practices, we were hoping to create a community of thinkers.

Hunch: Our hunch was that if we tried something different, student engagement would go up with the novelty of something new. We know that engagement leads to thinking and learning, and if we could get students involved with open-ended problem solving, we could engage them in other aspects of academics as well.

New Professional Learning: Teachers participated in Peter Liljedahl’s Pro-D days, to learn how to implement the “Thinking Classroom” in their rooms. His book Building Thinking Classrooms was invaluable in helping guide us. Teachers also visited other classrooms to observe.

Taking Action: Implementation ranged from some classrooms only creating random groups, to some using “Thinking Classrooms” in every subject area, not just math. All teachers involved used random groups instead of teacher created groups. All teachers found this worked extremely well, as after the first few times random groups were chosen, students had no problem working with any other student in the class as they were used to it. Students reported there was less stress with random groups because they didn’t have to make a choice of who to work with, and everyone was guaranteed to have a partner. They also knew they had to complete a task, and because the groups were completely random and changed often, students could work with anyone for a short period of time.
The other major component of the Thinking Classroom was standing while using vertical, non-permanent surfaces. Students were more apt to take risks and chances when there was no permanent record of their work, and it is easy to erase. Students were also thinking more because they were standing up instead of sitting at their desk. This enabled students who need to move in order to think, more leeway with their movements.

Checking: Students were interviewed to get feedback on their “Thinking Classroom” experience, as well as the 4 questions. When students were asked in the beginning what they were learning, most of their answers were along the lines of “math” or “multiplication,” and were very vague. When asked again at the end of the year, they were clearly able to articulate their task and what was expected of them. One student answered the question, “Where are you going with your learning?” with “There is no end to learning. You have to keep working until the end of class because if you think you have the answer, there is another part to the task, so you have to keep thinking and learning.”

Reflections/Advice: Next year, we plan to continue with this inquiry and expand it to language arts and social studies as well. We also plan to delve deeper into assessment, and implement the independent student accountability portion of Thinking Classrooms. I would highly recommend anyone who is wanting to have a classroom of thinkers to implement this researched-based practice into their classroom.

School District: SD#27 Cariboo-Chilcotin

Inquiry Team Members: marianne.okrainetz@sd27.bc.ca, Marianne Okrainetz
tracy.walton@sd27.bc.ca, Tracy Walton
brian.davidson@sd27.bc.ca, Brian Davidson

Inquiry Team Contact Email: marianne.okrainetz@sd27.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

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

Curricular Area(s): Language Arts – Literacy, Mathematics / Numeracy

Focus Addressed: Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Differentiated instruction, Flexible learning, Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies, Self-regulation

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How will targeted instruction (‘I can statements’, setting learning goals, small group work, etc.) increase students’ literacy and numeracy achievement?

Scanning: When looking at our literacy and numeracy data and our students’ ways of being (non risk-taking and overly dependent on support – “I can’t”), we recognized the need to support the development of our students’ literacy and numeracy in different ways than we’ve done in the past.

Focus: We wanted to develop confidence/independence in our students, leading to increased literacy and numeracy skills.

Hunch: Teachers and EAs try to solve problems and ‘help’ kids before kids work to solve problems themselves. Kids are not routinely encouraged to try or think first, and not consistently so.

New Professional Learning: We participated as a group in a District book study for Visible Learning (Hattie). We attended Peter Liljedahl’s workshops on ‘Thinking Classroom’ (vertical learning). We participated in a learning series with Leyton Schnellert on inclusive practices. We applied some of the techniques, routines, and practices we learned from these sessions into our daily work with students.

Taking Action: We created and used “I Can” statements in two classrooms – through gradual release model. We utilized small group instruction in literacy and numeracy lessons very intentionally. We used evidence of student learning to drive instructional decisions.

Checking: DART/EPRA and School-wide writes (literacy) and Island Numeracy Assessment/Vernon Screener (Gr 1):
Baseline – lots of tears, ‘I can’ts’, opting out/shutting down, seeking adult help (for answers).
Our Spring assessments: Students generally showed strong improvement in reading and numeracy assessments as compared to other years, despite more absences during second term (because of COVID). We noticed that while students were completing the Spring assessments, their attitudes, confidence, and independence improved significantly. Overall, students are more self-reliant and less dependent on adults for answers. Students are applying the structure/language/skills of independence in other areas of their lives.

Reflections/Advice: In all three of our classrooms we applied these strategies and structures more consciously in our reading instruction, but less so with our writing instruction; we noticed that student writing did not improve to the same extent as our reading results. This is leading us to decide to apply these strategies more holistically, across the curriculum. It was helpful for our learning to focus on one curriculum area, and now we see the benefits and want to apply it more broadly.

COVID notes: we had very poor attendance during 2nd term – as a result, several students who were here benefitted from more individual and small group instruction; students who were absent had learning/intentional teaching interrupted.

One structural outcome that has resulted from our school-wide professional learning opportunities this year is connected to the value teachers find in collaboration. There have been ample professional conversations, school-wide, related to our learning through different learning-focused projects offered by our District. Our principal has been able to work out a prep schedule (and job postings) that enables teachers to have a grade level partner to collaborate with during common preps.

School District: SD#27 Cariboo-Chilcotin

Inquiry Team Members: Marilee Andres: marilee.andres@sd27.bc.ca, Melinda MacKinnon: melinda.mackinnon@sd27.bc.ca, Jeannette Gobolos: jeannette.gobolos@sd27.bc.ca, John Harding: jonathan.harding@sd27.bc.ca, Andrew Riegl: andrew.riegl@sd27.bc.ca, Michael Cebuliak: michael.cebuliak@sd27.bc.ca, Lisa Hamel: lisa.hamel@sd27.bc.ca, Craig Munroe: craig.monroe@sd27.bc.ca, Gail Gardner: gail.gardner@sd27.bc.ca, Jacqui Ferguson: jacqueline.ferguson@sd27.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: shannon.rerie@sd27.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

Grade Levels: Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Area(s): Not applicable

Focus Addressed: Differentiated instruction, Experiential learning, Flexible learning, Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies, Social and emotional learning, Universal design for learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Will our efforts to build more meaningful staff-student relationships contribute to improved student attendance and ultimately performance?

Scanning: For the scanning phase, we conducted a couple of surveys to start. We surveyed the staff about what they were seeing with the students and what they felt should be a priority for our year. Then I pulled four of the student-related questions and sent out surveys to 7 random classes of very diverse learners, to ask what they felt about their learning experience. There were definitely some similarities. For example, the students ranked the question “Can you name 2 adults in the school who believe you will be successful” as a very high level of concern for them, as did the teachers.

Focus: After the scanning, discussions with admin and the PLC coordinator lead to determining that the questions under the heading “Sense of Belonging” seemed to fall most within the concerns of both our students and our staff. This foundational block seemed to be missing and was of high concern to both our students and our staff. The students often did not feel they were operating in an environment that fostered their learning, and the staff were questioning the school culture and environment as creating a sense of belonging for themselves or their students.

Hunch: Based on scanning and post discussions, our hunch is that our school has been through significant changes this year, and is continuing to grow from the initial change of becoming a 10-12 campus of the high school. Teachers have thrown themselves in to surviving the changes, and as a staff we have struggled to come together in a positive way to foster positive change. We sense that teachers often feel that they are just getting their heads around new curriculum, new principals and new superintendents… and then things change again.

New Professional Learning: This year we attempted to run two simultaneous PLC groups. The first one was to be focused on developing respectful relationships and connections in the building — between administration, teachers, support staff and students. As such, we attempted to seek out strategies, articles, and resources that will help to foster and develop healthy and positive relationships at all levels in a school. The second group was focused on the classroom environment and ensuring that all learners are successful. For this inquiry, the group found resources, successful models, and strategies that will help to foster an environment that allows for the success of all our diverse learners. One key resource was the Facebook group created by Shannon Schinkel, called “Beyond report cards”, which allowed for a reframing of what evaluation of the core competencies would look like.

Taking Action: As we began, our team did some individual preliminary research and investigations into what has worked in other areas and other schools in both BC and elsewhere. Also, teachers were given a list of items to try on their own to improve school culture — things such as: Greet students at the door, make a positive phone call home, talk to the students about how they were feeling, etc. These suggestions were drawn on through group conversations.

Checking: Respectful Relationships Inquiry: A few actions were taken through staff meetings to help teachers address positive actions they could be taking. At one meeting, they were given a list of actions that they could take to their own practice; for example, greeting students at the door, phoning home with a positive comment, and speaking to the students about what their feelings are. Teachers were able to notice positive things in the school when they felt reaffirmed and positive, themselves. Also during a staff meeting, teachers were given cards with positive comments gathered from the leadership students. All teachers brightened and felt affirmed in their sense of belonging. After that they were asked to reflect on what we see in students and what truly makes a great student. One teacher said, “Students whom we often view as our “top” students, are often not necessarily our top academic achievers, but rather, those who are all-around positive citizens. We need to acknowledge that these individuals really model the behaviours that contribute to positive culture.” Another teacher commented, “I went with greeting students at the classroom door each block. I enjoy having reminders of best practice in staff meetings, and I found it helped affirm some of the things I was doing and gave me ideas of other things I could look into.” In general, through discussions at staff meetings and having staff reflect on actions they were taking, there was a feeling that the climate of the school, and their classroom, had become more positive and that had increased their attendance and their own sense of belonging in the building. Another teacher took on the suggestion of getting to know a couple of specific students who were maybe looking to be drifting — they commented that they ended up making their own personal goal of getting to know 5 students identified in some way as being disconnected. By the end of semester one, these students were actively seeking this teacher out to check in on themselves.

Learning Environment Inquiry: Within the classroom, several teachers noticed changes in student mindset when learners were afforded more ownership over their work and ways to demonstrate learning. For example, in one classroom, the teacher redesigned several assignments to allow students some freedom in how to show they had learned the intended outcomes.  After each assignment students were asked to reflect on how the flexibility had changed their perspective of their knowledge on the topic, on the teacher, and on the class in general.  Students were reluctant to acknowledge any change after the first assignment; however, they did notice that they were less stressed knowing they had flexibility over how to present their knowledge.  The second assignment afforded more flexibility as rubrics were introduced, and students created one for self-assessment.  Student reflections on this assignment were much more detailed; students felt they were better equipped to achieve a higher mark, which made their engagement in the topic and the lessons greater.  During COVID online learning, they have gained even more control over their own work and assignments, and many of the learners who often seemed to struggle in our classrooms have stepped up and are more engaged than ever.

Reflections/Advice: Throughout the process, teachers were continually asked to reflect on the positive aspects of the school, their classroom, the students, and the adults in the building, including themselves. When asked how they felt this had gone, many said that it helped to reframe their thoughts and that they actually started to look for the positive things, people, and actions that would occur during the day. At first they did this because they were asked to, but then they started to do this on their own. One teacher reported that it really helped them to remember to model positive behaviour in the classroom, and to speak to them about what they were seeing in the school and any changes of positivity they were noticing — not keeping the learning hidden from them. Due to COVID, the group was unable to meet after March 2020. Through email communications though, the platform, style, and learning environments have all become more flexible, more personalized, and have been significantly adapted. Because of these changes, it seems that student engagement in many of our harder to reach learners has increased dramatically, due to attempts to reach students and keep them connected to their school and teacher while online. More assignments are being tailored to allow for diversity in showing learning outcomes, so that students who all have ranging capabilities at home, are still able to succeed in this new school reality. Moving forward, it would be interesting to see whether adapting a hybrid model of what we were doing and what we are doing now, would continue to increase student success, engagement, and connections within the classes. It would be worth collecting student reflections about what supported their learning and engagement during the Spring, and what did not.  Hopefully, we can learn from students and apply this to future planning/lesson design.

School District: SD#27 Cariboo-Chilcotin

Inquiry Team Members: Holly Zurak: holly.zurak@sd27.bc.ca
Tess Riley
Michelle Roberts

Inquiry Team Contact Email: holly.zurak@sd27.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

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

Curricular Area(s): Applied Design, skills & Technology, Arts Education, Career Education, Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Reading, Language Arts – Writing, Mathematics / Numeracy, Physical & Health Education, Science, Social Studies

Focus Addressed: Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Differentiated instruction, Flexible learning, Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies, Inquiry-based learning, Universal design for learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Cultivating a school-wide culture of thinking, and increasing student initiative/ownership of learning.

Scanning: Using the Circle of Courage, staff members continued to work collaboratively to ask ourselves, “How are our learners doing in these areas?” We are proud of the inquiry work we began two years ago, and our scanning conversation indicated agreement to “continue the work”.

At our school, teachers have continued to undertake learning around Visible Learning and Cultures of Thinking. To teach collaboratively and school-wide can be challenging and requires deep and collaborative planning, as well as flexible and student-centered teaching.

We continued the work from last year around: planning for “Innovative and Inquiry-Based Learning” in several ways:
– Students in grades K-7 are engaged in an hour-long Inquiry block daily, with Holly & Tess as lead teachers. During Inquiry we taught the processes of Social Studies and Science using the inquiry cycle with students. Topics include big content ideas.
– Guided math, with a focus on taking math outdoors
– Exploratory work in early primary math using “loose parts”
– Student voice and choice using platforms like Flipgrid to do assignments like reader’s responses (Book Talks), parent-teacher-student conferences, and French language learning
– Weekly ADST-focused afternoon, with stations and challenges
– Outdoor place-based education (WILD TIME) twice a week

Students and staff were responsive to these innovative and collaborative ways of teaching and learning. Scanning showed that based on these examples of changes of practice and learning, students and staff alike were ready to take Next Steps in our learning.

Focus: We met as a staff to discuss our PLC inquiry. After sharing our observations, reviewing support plans, and using the four questions, we looked for foundational pieces that we could continue to build upon. We decided that a renewed and deeper focus on teaching visible learning and thinking strategies, would build on our good results from last year and provide common language for future growth. In this school year, our school has implemented the ongoing communicating of student learning through Fresh Grade in place of traditional report cards. Focusing on deepening the initiative of our students in/for and of their learning, was an exciting next step for our inquiry team.

A student will demonstrate initiative of their learning when that student:
• acts upon new ideas and opportunities for learning;
• demonstrates a willingness to take risks;
• demonstrates curiosity and interest in learning;
• approaches new tasks with a positive attitude;
• assesses and reflects critically on her/his strengths, needs and interests;
• identifies learning opportunities, choices, and strategies to meet personal needs and achieve
goals;
• and perseveres when facing challenges

Hunch: We needed to look at how we support the independence of our learners, so they can develop ownership of their learning and consistently demonstrate and begin to document their thinking/learning. Doing this in a coordinated and intentional way would continue to support learners’ growth towards independence.

We made the assumption that students were already thinking about their learning, but that a heightened focus on getting them to notice and name their learning and growth will improve their development as learners.

New Professional Learning: We continued to use these key resources to support our learning and planning:
– ‘Cultures of Thinking’ by Ron Ritchhart
– ‘Visible Learning’ by John Hattie
– Successful Learner Traits
– POPFASD ‘8 Magic Keys’ for inclusive learning
– ‘Powerful Understanding’ by Adrienne Gear
New professional learning from:
– ‘Assessing Critical Competencies’ by Tom Schimmer
– ‘A Guide to Documenting Learning: Making Thinking Visible, Meaningful, Shareable and Amplified’ by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano & Janet A. Hale
– Fresh Grade online seminars and working with collaborative teachers in our school district

Taking Action:
Actions:
• Continually adjusted flexible learning environments (physically) to support diverse learning needs
• Continued to provide literacy choices (Daily 5)
• Guided math framework — getting kids thinking and talking about their thinking in Math
• Inquiry Hour (Grades 3-7) for the processes (and big ideas) in SS & Science
• Provided structured opportunities for independence in classroom and school routines
• Integrated technology such as Read & Write, as appropriate, to encourage independence
• Explicitly taught Ritchhart’s ‘Thinking Routines’
• Encouraged parent involvement action (communication and aligning language/expectations) via Fresh Grade portfolios for each student
• Celebrated the Learner Traits (HOW students think/learn) through celebration assemblies (monthly) and at the year-end awards assembly.
• Curated student assessment data in individual binders as evidence of deep and ongoing learning continuum

New actions taken:
• Involved students in the selection of artifacts of, for, and as learning
• Captured student learning in a shareable format
• Met to discuss our learning around documenting OF/FOR/AS learning
• Communicated student learning in an ongoing manner through Fresh Grade
• Used Microsoft Teams to share as a PLC group

Checking: During the 2019-2020 school year, in-class learning was interrupted for several months due to a pandemic — COVID-19. Few students visited school infrequently until the end of May, when approximately 18/30 students returned 3 days/week for the remainder of the school year.

While students were away from school in mid-March-end of May; students were encouraged to engage with remote learning. Remote learning at Big Lake Elementary took on a blended delivery approach; partially online and primarily paper-based. Weekly work packages were delivered by our school bus driver and an EA. Teachers connected with their students weekly via telephone for learning appointments.

How has the work on the BRLP influenced student learning and school improvement?

What sets Big Lake apart, is its inclusive school culture and laser focus on engaging student thinking and curiosity. The learning that has been taken on by the staff at Big Lake Elementary over the past three years to incorporate student thinking and increase the visibility and communication of student achievement and success, has been impactful. We see the difference because the greater community embrace the changes as well, and are supportive and vocal about the success. Student achievement is increasing, as students work towards increasing ownership of their learning.

Evidence that you can point to that would support the idea that ownership of learning has increased:

Ownership of learning increased through the year, and was heightened during remote learning. While each family approached the remote learning through different lens’ – we noticed an increase in student engagement with many students during their learning appointments on the phone, and online.

The content of parent contributions has been rich this spring, as parents dove into online forms of communication with teachers. Parents had more time and an increased awareness of where their child(ren) are at with their learning.

We notice that increasingly, students have moved towards reflection language that is more sophisticated and less simple (“That was fun”). Students are talking about their learning, their mistakes, and their growth.

Students demonstrated learning by increasingly learning to use the devices and self-select artifacts themselves, and then publishing those artifacts on Facebook and Fresh Grade. In fact, we had one family join in on this learning who didn’t previously engage with social media at all.

What are students doing now that they wouldn’t have done before, that shows they ‘own their learning’:

A byproduct of remote learning is that many of our families engaged with the Fresh Grade Student app to upload artifacts of learning. We hadn’t yet explored the app use with students, so during this time of remote learning was a good time for families to engage with it together. Many families also took video and photos of students demonstrating their learning. These were new habits that many families hadn’t tried before. We used a Facebook group called “Big Lake Keeps Learning”.

Ways in which their growth has been enhanced/accelerated because of the school culture:

We created a Facebook group called “Big Lake Keeps Learning”, where families were encouraged to upload evidence of learning to the group. Students and families could engage with each others’ artifacts of learning, give praise and feedback, and also ask clarifying questions and build relationships. This “learning together… apart” opportunity was enhanced by the rich existing collaborative school culture. We now have parents and families online that previously weren’t.

Reflections/Advice: What is important we now realize we don’t want to lose? What have learners and their families shown us? What about our relationships with colleagues?

– Close relationships with students and families made learning at home for our students accessible and possible. Checking in with, and supporting families, would have been extremely challenging if we hadn’t already established school-family relationships and the easiest mode of contact with them.
– I felt very thankful that I was at the Big Lake school throughout this pandemic. The small school setting and the great staff made the experience not overly difficult.
– Relationships with families need to be genuine, thoughtful, and nurtured. Professional and well-kept, maintained.
– We need to keep creating, building, feeding and maintaining those relationships.
– Some of the positives for me during this time have been getting the opportunity to get to know everyone better. I truly am thankful for the amazing group of ladies I worked with this year. I also got on Facebook!!! And, I loved seeing all the kids and their work during this time.
– One last thing that I enjoyed was the exercising/walking and yoga together. I would love to keep that up next year somehow.

Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently when the students were in front of you? What have we learned about what is critical learning at each grade level/in each subject?

– It felt like the ‘slide’ of their learning was worse for some students, and it made me wonder about the effects of trauma and stress from the pandemic for our students and their learning. This process reinforced that relationships and grace were, and are, the most important part about being a teacher. If students and their families trust you and feel connected, it is much easier to have a conversation, support, and guide, as needed. It highlighted that the school is more than a place of education and is crucial for some families well beings, as well.
– More outdoors, more math outdoors. Tried this and enjoyed it very much. Critical learning in Math is asking open-ended questions — analyzing, revisiting, risk taking, exploring, inquiring.
– I want to remember the importance of questioning to deepen learning and to make kids want to know more, understand more, to go further. Communication is more about listening then talking. We need to ensure that we are listening to kids about their stories and help them to manage and speak with intent in mind.
– The importance of intrinsic learning, the want and need to learn. The capacity to want to learn, to get to learn, to make learning your priority and passion. We could shed that we have always taught TO kids. We now need to be guiders and suppliers of opportunity, working alongside students. To teach is to give kids a sense of wonder.
– We worked really hard at continuing to express the importance of core and critical competencies. We asked students to show us their thinking, their curiosity, their care and compassion. These pieces of curriculum matter the most.
– I really noticed that the most engaging parts of learning that we set up for students all year long, and especially through remote learning, were hands-on projects and project-based learning. Using physical materials, technology, building challenges, outdoor science, and nature activities, were the most appealing for students and they gave their best learning energy towards those.

School District: SD#27 Cariboo-Chilcotin

Inquiry Team Members: Carol Anne Dikur: carolanne.dikur@sd27.bc.ca
Tamara Smith: tamara.smith@sd27.bc.ca
Sharon Allan: sharon.allan@sd27.bc.ca
Janet Sandberg: jan.sandberg@sd27.bc.ca
Chris Armstrong: chris.armstrong@sd27.bc.ca
Steve Dickens: stephen.dickens@sd27.bc.ca
Rae Perry: rae.perry@sd27.bc.ca
Corinna Knapton: corinna.knaptonbonin@sd27.bc.ca
Ali McKnight: alicia.mcknight@sd27.bc.ca
Rebecca Johnson: rebecca.johnson@sd27.bc.ca
Erin Scholefield: erin.scholefield@sd27.bc.ca
Tanis Stewart: tanis.stewart@sd27.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: carolanne.dikur@sd27.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

Grade Levels: Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Area(s): Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Reading, Language Arts – Writing

Focus Addressed: Differentiated instruction, Formative assessment

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How will having consistent, collaborative, and intentional expectations accelerate students development in literacy?

Scanning: Over the first two months of school, teachers were asked to gather any data from the students that they have in their class this year. They were scanning 3 areas: literacy needs, numeracy needs, and social emotional needs. The data gathered ranged from assessments, anecdotal notes, conversations with students and with former teachers of the students. This helped them gain a better understanding of the students strengths and areas of growth.

Literacy Needs:
– Low reading levels
– Wide variety of skills of students
– 6 Grade 6 students reading at a grade 2/3 level
– Huge need for oral support
– Need ways to keep bright/capable students engaged and pushed
– Written output is low
– Stamina is short
– How do we include students with low reading levels in the regular classroom?
– How do we support these kids at the varied reading levels?

Focus: Our intermediate staff is wanting to be more consistent across all classrooms and grades and have a shared understanding of skill development in literacy. We feel that by being more consistent and intentional, and by having a better understanding of where we want our students to get to by the end of the year, we will be better able to target instruction and monitor student learning.

Hunch:
– Teachers may have different expectations of skill levels and target levels for their students
– Teachers may not have a clear understanding of the needs of their students and how to support them to build on their skill
– Teachers may not be using the assessments of their students to drive their instruction
– Teachers may not be intentional enough about the specific skills they are trying to teach
– Teachers may not be analyzing student work enough to know what needs to be taught
– Teachers may not be targeting instruction to the needs of the learners
– Students may not have a clear understanding of the learning targets
– Students may not understand good quality work samples compared to poor quality work samples
– Students may not be given enough practice or Guided Instruction on specific skills
– Students may be going into a new grade without the essential skills needed to be successful

New Professional Learning:
– We analyzed the BC Curriculum Guide
– We analyzed the Performance Standards
– We analyzed other school districts who have created a similar Literacy Continuum (Delta)

– Balanced Literacy approach teaching (Didn’t get to this yet)
– Need to look at different assessments that will help us gather the right type of information to help support the learning of the essential skills. (Didn’t get to this yet)

Taking Action:
– Each teacher made a list of specific skills in Literacy — reading, writing, speaking, and listening — that they feel are important, specific to the grade that they teach for both the beginning and end of the year targets. They also used the BC Curriculum guide and the Performance Standards to help guide their decisions.
– Each teacher then worked with common grade teachers to discuss their lists of essential skills and decided on ONE common list for that grade. Then they continued to work with teachers from the grade lower and then the grade higher to make sure that their lists were the same and that they supported the target skills.
– (Please see attached chart to see list of Essential Skills!)

1) Create a list of Essential Skills of students for the beginning of the year and then the end of the year. (Where we currently are in our inquiry process)
2) Aline assessments to help us gather the information we need to support the essential skills
3) Analyze the assessments and plan for instruction to help support growth/change
4) Structure our daily/weekly/monthly plans to ensure that we are teaching towards these goals
5) Monitor and assess daily/weekly to see if what we are teaching is making an impact
6) Adjust teaching and supports if we are not seeing improvements or change

With having our Essential Skills in mind: (Questions to challenge teachers thinking)
How am I going to find out what skills my students already understand and what they need to learn next?
How will I intentionally decide what needs to be taught?
How am I going to be clear with what my target skill of learning will be?
How will I make sure I am teaching in the most effective way?
How will I involve my students in being transparent about what skills need to be taught?
How will I check and track students learning of the Essential Skills?

Listed below are areas we have not yet done:
– We are going to look at “best practice” teaching around literacy
– We are going to look at ways to use student assessment to make decisions about teaching targets

Checking:
– Students would have a clear understanding of the skills needed
– Teachers would have a clear and shared understanding of students’ skill levels
– Teachers would have a clear understanding of where their students are at on the Literacy Continuum
– From teacher to teacher within the school, we would all have a common understanding of the Literacy Continuum
– Teachers would have a better understanding of if their plan of instruction was going to meet the needs, and support the learning, of the Essential Skills.
– Teachers would have a better understanding of the assessments that are needed to help give them the right information on what their students are competent in doing, and what they still need to learn
– Teachers would see the benefits in using assessments to drive their instruction and be more willing to do more assessments to see what the teacher’s impact is on student learning.

This inquiry is a long process of change over time. I feel like we are only at the beginning of this process. We have a lot still to do to see if these changes will have an impact on the outcome of student ability. This years inquiry was a process of getting ALL the intermediate teachers, as well as non-enrolling staff such as LST and PREP teachers, together to think deeply about the Essential Skills of students at different grades along a continuum. We are satisfied with our progress so far, with creating a document that meets the needs of the learners in our school. We had ALL intermediate teachers involved in creating this document, so I feel like the understanding and the buy in will be greater.

Reflections/Advice: From participating in this inquiry, we were able to work with all the intermediate teachers, as well as non-enrolling staff, to create a Literacy Continuum of skills from the beginning of grade 3 to the end of grade 6. We used multiple resources to help guide our professional decisions in choosing what essential skills are expected for each grade. I think that this process was powerful for the teachers, and helped teachers to work together to have a common understanding about different expectations to have for their students.

From going through this process, I feel like we have only just begun to change our thinking about essential skills. I feel like this process will allow us to think differently about assessment and how we can use it to drive our instruction based on the skills and abilities of our students. I believe that by focusing on the essential skills of the literacy continuum, it will cause us to reevaluate what we are teaching and why we are teaching specific things. By confirming that what we are teaching is supporting the development of these essential skills, allows us to not spend so much time on other things that may not have as much of an importance.

Our group of intermediate teachers have completed the first part of the inquiry process — creating the Literacy Continuum. We now have to move on to the next steps of aligning our literacy assessments and planning for instruction based on the assessments. We would like to continue with this inquiry next year to see the impact on teaching practices, and most importantly the impact on student achievement.

In summary, based on what we learned this year, we believe that all schools should have a literacy continuum and have a clear understanding of the essential skills of a learner at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. When you have a clear understanding of where you want to get your students to by the end of the year, it is much easier to check along the way. This helps us to be more intentional about what we choose to teach. By doing this, it allows us to assess along the way to ensure YOU, the teacher, are doing everything you can to help support that child to improve over the school year, if not reach the targeted goals set out for them.

School District: SD#27 Cariboo-Chilcotin

Inquiry Team Members: Kristi Pecor: kristi.pecor@sd27.bc.ca, Ty Lytton: ty.lytton@sd27.bc.ca, Lisa Pugh: lisa.pugh@sd27.bc.ca, Jillian Eyer: jillian.eyer@sd27.bc.ca, Mike Davidson: michael.davidson@sd27.bc.ca, Margaret Ramsay: margaret.ramsay@sd27.bc.ca, John Foote: johnw.foote@sd27.bc.ca, Leslie Dickson: leslie.dickson@sd27.bc.ca, Marissa Ball: marissa.ball@sd27.bc.ca, Kyra Hopson: kyra.hopson@sd27.bc.ca and Marie Matwick: marie.matwick@sd27.bc.ca.

Inquiry Team Contact Email: kristi.pecor@sd27.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

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

Curricular Area(s): Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Writing, Mathematics / Numeracy, Science, Social Studies

Focus Addressed: Formative assessment, Growth mindset

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our school chose to focus on student ownership of learning/growth mindset and assessment for learning practices.

Scanning: At the beginning of this year we used the ‘Scanning with the Circle of Courage’ scanning tool (provided by the administration of our district), and the most concern was around independence & student ownership of learning.

Focus: We decided that the best way to approach increasing students’ level of independence and responsibility was to focus on student ownership of learning/assessment for learning and growth mindset.

Hunch: Some students are being promoted to a higher grade when they have not mastered the previous grade and/or subject. It is challenging for these students to be responsible since they have not achieved a level of mastery or expertise that allows them to be independent in their current grade.

New Professional Learning: There are many books and videos about Growth Mindset that we hoped to investigate – the Train Ugly video series, The Growth Mindset Coach & Playbook, and Mindsets in the Classroom. A few teachers looked at one or two of these books; however, with the onset of Covid-19, most teachers ended up focusing their learning on how to teach students remotely.

Some teachers looked at the book “Empower” by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani to help promote student ownership of learning. We also investigated a variety of Assessment for Learning practices, such as “Make your own AFL books” and “Assessment for Learning Tools”.

Taking Action: This topic is large so we provided time for teachers to help narrow down the direction they would like to focus on so it would be most beneficial for their learners. Teachers explored assumptions about why some students are not owning their learning and are lacking independence and responsibility. We spent time exploring resources as well as available options so that teachers could make an informed decision around where they want to put their effort in order to obtain the results they would like to see in students.

Primary teachers decided to use red/yellow/green and/or check/x cards to have students self-assess their learning during class. The use of these cards provided the teachers with a quick and easy check of understanding of the students and taught the students how to self-assess their understanding. It helped the students think more about their thinking.

One class had been using hand signals to indicate their level of understanding during a lesson, so it was an easy transition for them to use the coloured cards. Their teacher would use the cards after teaching a lesson so students could indicate whether they understood it or not. The teacher also used them during independent work time. The students would put a card on their desk to indicate “I am good”, “I sort of get it”, or “I’m stuck and need help”. The students were quite accurate at the beginning with their choice of cards and became more accurate as the year progressed.

Another class used the check/x cards for students to take ownership over listening to, and following, directions given by the teacher. If the students used the check side of the card then they had to retell directions to another student, making them accountable for their choice. Students learned that they needed to pay attention to the teacher and be honest about the self-assessment of their level of understanding.

Intermediate teachers decided to focus on increasing student ownership of learning by involving them more in their learning – input into assessment criteria, choice of topics, questions, presentations, etc.

Teachers found that some of the changes were impactful for the students, but that others were not. Some students were more successful with an increase in choice, and others were a bit lost by not having direction provided by the teacher. Many students continued to ignore criteria for projects, even after being involved in the creation of the criteria. However, peer and self-editing and assessments worked well, and students took more ownership over projects when this was done.

Checking: If our inquiry was successful, students’ level of engagement would have increased. They would have become more responsible and independent learners. Students would use assessment to increase their learning regularly.

Teachers gave students a survey based on what they were implementing in their classroom at the beginning of the year. The plan was to survey the students again at the end of the school year, but, of course, we were not able to do this since most of the students did not return after Spring Break. Instead we used teacher observations as a basis for impact assessment in the ‘Checking Summary’ to follow.

With the global pandemic this year it is very difficult to draw any concrete conclusions about the impact our inquiry had on the students this year. The teachers felt that some of the changes they implemented in the classrooms worked very well, some did not. But, without being able to continue the changes in practice throughout an entire year, it is impossible to say whether, after more practice, the other areas would have worked as well. We will explore whether providing more time and/or practice, or implementing other supports, would help students to be more successful with an increase of choice and independence expectations. Without being able survey the students at the end of the year it is difficult to assess how they felt about the changes that were made.

Many teachers found that the changes they implemented in their classroom this year were working well for the time the students were in school, and they will continue using them next year. Some students were impacted by the changes and took more ownership over their learning. Hopefully the impact can be even greater next year if students are in class full time for the entire year.

Reflections/Advice: Teachers will continue to use assessment for learning practices in their classrooms. Some of the ideas that were implemented this year were successful and teachers will continue to use them with their students. In summary, based on what we learned this year we would recommend that others, if they do not already do so, involve students in their learning by seeking input into assessment criteria, choice of topics, presentations, etc. We would also recommend using check/x cards so students, especially at the primary level, can easily display their level of understanding of directions or an assignment.