School Name: Millstream

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Catherine Lamarche clamarche@sd62.bc.ca
Isabelle Dion idion@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: Clamarche@sd62.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: Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Differentiated instruction, Experiential learning, Flexible learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? To use vertical surfaces as a tool to increase student participation, motivation and efficiency during math class.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Students were not as engaged in problem solving and Math activities as we would like them to be. When in a team it was always the same students that spoke while others were not engaged. We also saw that they were a lot more comfortable with knowing exactly what to do with a lot of guidance (lack of independence).

Focus: More motivation from all students, even students that would be more shy or would not like to participate. More independence and thinking on their own.

Hunch: Students are used to having teachers that give a lot of hints instead of having them critically think to problem solve.

New Professional Learning: The book Building Thinking Classrooms was what we used. We also purchased vertical surfaces.

Taking Action: We used the strategies from the book: teams of 2 or 3; only one student with a marker that doesn’t talk, the others give ideas; random grouping, de-fronting the classroom, follow up after, teacher doesn’t help, they can go to other groups to be inspired, only use problems that are made to push their thinking abilities.

Checking: When I did use the vertical surfaces, there was a lot more engagement, and after a few times, they realized they had to rely on each other to figure out the answer. Students asked for Math to be used with vertical surfaces; they were all excited when we did use them. Next year, I will use them more often.

Reflections/Advice: I will be re-reading Building Thinking Classrooms and will try to set twice a week that will be used to this strategy. This will help me plan accordingly and push me to find the accurate questions best on what we are doing. I will spend a lot of time discussing ideal behaviours and routines, so it can be done more effectively. I will look into how to assess and guide them with taking notes.

School Name: Happy Valley

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Kareen Kimoto: kareenkimoto@hotmail.com
Megan Niessen: mniessen@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: kkimoto@sd62.bc.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 – Reading, Language Arts – Writing

Focus Addressed: Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Experiential learning, Growth mindset, Land, Nature or Place-based learning, Universal design for learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How early intervention of phonological skills can impact students’ story-telling skills and risk-taking in group work, using familiar nursery rhymes and stories as a foundation.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: As part of our scanning process, we noticed the students’ engagement and knowledge base as we worked with nursery rhymes and early phonological skills. The four key questions were used to identify the adults who support them at the school, how capable the students were at setting goals with some guidance, and how the students recognized their own learning and growth. All of these areas help the students build connections to their school community. The experiences that we found had the most effect on our students were the different home experiences they had before entering kindergarten. We hoped that our inquiry would help to provide experiences for all of our learners and close the gap in the skills the children were entering kindergarten with. We used the OECD principles of learning to guide our thoughts around the children knowing what they are doing and how they will show their learning while being social, interactive, inclusive, and having differentiated learning experiences. The First Peoples Principles of Learning guided our thinking to include outside elements while storytelling and focusing on stories which were local to our area and Indigenous Peoples. An element of our inquiry focused on oral-storytelling, an important aspect of local Indigenous culture.

Focus: We selected this area because we noticed less students were coming to kindergarten knowing nursery rhymes and how to ‘play with words’. The changes we were hoping to obtain with our learners were the development of skills in phonological awareness and building a repertoire of familiar nursery rhymes and stories as a foundation for their own story-telling experiences. We hoped this would build their confidence and risk-taking in all aspects of literacy and oral language.

Hunch: We wondered if introducing a learning journey with a focus on explicit instruction in skills and knowledge would strengthen the students’ skills, even if the students were not receiving the experiences at home.

New Professional Learning: The new areas we explored were the explicit instruction of phonological skills, the direct telling and experiences around nursery rhymes, and learning more about oral story-telling. Although we had done some work in this area previously, we looked deeper into the possible influences on our learners. We took advantage of professional development workshops, professional resources, and time to collaborate with colleagues.

Taking Action:

1 – We used the Heggerty pre-K program for direct instruction of phonological skill development.
2 – The Jolly Phonics program guided our phonemic development of letters and sounds.
3 – We used common nursery rhymes and familiar stories and songs to build our knowledge base and use as a jumping off point for story-telling.
4 – We provided materials (loose parts, felt board materials, peg dolls, etc.) for use during the retelling and story development.
5 – Teachers modelled how stories could be re-told and how stories are developed before having the students try the skills on their own or in small groups.
6 – Materials could be accessed during free-play opportunities.
7 – Expectations could be easily differentiated.
8 – As the year progressed, a recording component was introduced (writing and reading).
9 – Guidelines were developed for working with others and making sure that everyone was included in some way.

Checking: There was a definite improvement in the students’ willingness to engage and take risks. The students were better at rhyming and deleting/adding or changing parts of a word. More evidence will be available next year as the students begin more formal reading instruction. It will be interesting to see if the grade one teachers notice a difference in this group’s ability compared to other years. We did an assessment of phonological skills at the end of this year. We will use the same assessment next year, but earlier, to provide a baseline. Our learners seem to feel connected to the school community. They enjoyed working with each other and sharing their stories. They enjoyed sharing their stories with adults in the school community. They were confident when working with a Learning Support teacher in her assessment of phonological skills. The experiences seemed to build a sense of excitement around story and the sharing of stories.

Reflections/Advice: We learned the importance of explicit instruction in nursery rhymes and phonological skills. Skills gained by our students in these two areas influenced all areas of their literacy growth. We plan to continue using the same strategies, but starting earlier in the year. We are thinking of ways to add a greater element of social and emotional learning to the same experiences next year. Our advice to other schools would be to jump in and give the experiences a try. Your students will surprise you with what they are capable of!

School Name: Lakewood Elementary

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Kerry Arnot: karnot@sd62.bc.ca
Lisa Stuart: lstuart@sd62.bc.ca
Chelsea Marle: cmarle@sd62.bc.ca
Tiffany Adams: tadams@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: karnot@sd62.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

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

Curricular Areas Addressed: Applied Design, skills & Technology, Arts Education, Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Reading, Language Arts – Writing, Mathematics / Numeracy, Physical & Health Education, 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), Differentiated instruction, Experiential learning, First Peoples Principles of Learning, Flexible learning, Growth mindset, Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies, Indigenous pedagogy, Inquiry-based learning, Land, Nature or Place-based learning, Self-regulation, Social and emotional learning, Transitions

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? We investigated the gaps that could be filled in order for teachers to increase time spent on land-based, experiential learning activities for their students.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We paid attention to which teachers were taking the students outdoors to learn and which ones were hesitant. We listened to general comments made by teachers during meetings, etc., as to why or why not they were moving to experiential learning. We observed what teachers’ general knowledge of place was mainly in relation to flora, fauna and local Indigenous communities. We kept the following FPPOL’s in mind as we observed teacher’s comfort levels with taking kids outdoors and with their knowledge of place:

• Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).
• Learning involves generational roles and responsibilities.
• Learning recognizes the role of Indigenous knowledge.
• Learning involves patience and time.

We referred to the OECD’s while exploring our observations. It was particularly important to us to consider individual differences, the role of emotions in learning and student-centered learning during the scanning phase.

Focus: We have decided to focus on providing teachers with a resource to support them in either starting to use place-based, experiential learning (PBEL) as part of their teaching program or expanding their use of it if it is something they are already doing. We feel that PBEL is a powerful way to connect students to place, create compassionate and engaged learners, and provide an inclusive learning environment/style for all students. Our hope is to empower teachers to try, or to develop, their PBEL programs, while incorporating Indigenous knowledge authentically. The benefits will be passed directly on to students.

Hunch: It is our hunch that teachers are not feeling prepared to take on PBEL. Although there are many, many great resources available to guide teachers to take the learning outdoors and to incorporate the FPPOLs and Indigenous content, the time it takes to find these resources can be daunting and it takes time and energy that teachers may not have. Additional barriers might be that administrators may have reservations about teachers taking students off site, so teachers don’t feel supported; or there are few resources/materials/activities readily available for teachers to use outdoors; or additional adults to help supervise may not be available.

New Professional Learning: One of our team members did some professional development on Personal Inquiry provided by Kath Murdoch and NOIIE which was truly informative and practical. Another team member was inspired by all that she learned at the NOIIE symposium. All our team members have incorporated the First Peoples’ Principles of Learning into our teaching practices for several years now. Along the way, we have amassed many resources and contacts. As part of professional learning this year, we have been reviewing these resources to find ones that best fit our plans to create professional learning opportunities for our colleagues. This will be ongoing.

Taking Action: Taking action will be our main focus in the 2022-2023 school year. We will need to finish gathering data from our colleagues and students via “The Four Questions” and some further scanning. Next steps will include choosing a format for our professional learning resource and selecting the topics we want to cover. We have brainstormed a good list of possible formats and topics, so the task will be to select a format that we are all comfortable with and to whittle down the list of topics so that it is manageable for us and impactful for our intended audience. Once we have decided on a format, we can hopefully connect with local experts to assist and guide us, which is quite exciting.

Checking: Not yet at this stage.

Reflections/Advice: Our inquiry is ongoing at this point, but so far we have learned that an authentic and easy to use resource or professional development series may help fill the gaps and remove barriers that are preventing teachers from taking part in PBEL.

School Name: Curriculum Transformation Team

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Lisa Marshall: LiMarshall@sd62.bc.ca, Shelby Pollitt: shpollitt@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Name/Email: Lisa Marshall/limarshall@sd62.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

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

Curricular Areas Addressed:

• Other: Multiple curricular areas, as determined by staffs at each school

Focus Addressed:

• Other: District-wide school-based data-driven inquiry

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How might a district-wide school-based approach to meaningful evidence gathering and responsive instruction through an inquiry lens move learning forward for students?

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Using the Spirals of Inquiry framework, each school in the District was provided with access to funding and opportunities to participate in a year-long facilitated school-based collaborative inquiry that targeted school-specific approaches to improve student learning and outcomes, with an emphasis on responsive instruction and intervention. Interested staff members at each school were gathered for a full morning facilitated initial meeting. Participation varied by school, with some being a select few of interested participants, and others taking a school-wide approach.

At the initial meeting, staffs were guided through active learning, consisting of sharing on vertical surfaces, gallery walks, collaborative discussions and individual reflection to scan their learners and identify what they were noticing, what themes/aspects were in common with their colleagues, and what observations were rising to the top.

Focus: Staffs then shared, discussed, and considered what they were noticing, and what was resonating for their learners within each individual school community. We encouraged them to “have the courage to slow down and develop a deeper understanding of what is worth spending time on” (NOIIE, 2017), before choosing what they might address that would positively impact student learning. Inquiry questions varied widely and reflected the individual school communities and climates.

The following are a sampling of inquiry questions from participating schools across the district:
1) Once we’ve gathered data regarding phonics and phonological awareness, how might responsive instruction progress our students’ word-level reading and writing skills (and their confidence as readers)?
2) Within our French Immersion school, if we implement daily morning meetings (in English), how will our students’ emotional resilience be impacted? How might a school wide program foster student Social Emotional Literacy to improve engagement in learning?
3) How might we use existing supports and data to further develop students’ foundational literacy skills while continuing to foster students’ self-regulation and self-efficacy?
4) If we explicitly teach students strategies for independence in their learning, will they become more independent learners – team members have left, and no desire to continue.
5) If we focus on implementing place-based kits with a mindfulness component, does student well-being and engagement increase?
6) If we implement targeted writing strategies and explicit teaching of continuum criteria, will student achievement in writing increase?
7) How might strategic, responsive writing instruction create confident and engaged writers who use a growth mindset?
8) How might beginning our day with choice-based play and purposeful child-adult connections influence student self-regulation for the remainder of the day?
9) How might collaborative assessment and planning time, along with purposeful teaching of the six traits, improve student writing?
10) How does daily small-group reading of levelled books, both online and print, impact student growth in their reading levels and ability?
11) How might a school-based approach to meaningful evidence gathering and responsive instruction move learning forward for our students?
12) How can we create a framework across our school to support growth in student writing?
13) If we intentionally and explicitly use instructional strategies to build self-reliance and self-confidence in learning, will we see a change in academic progress?

Hunch: Once an initial inquiry question had been developed, staffs were encouraged to gather initial data to see how the results might inform their hunches, using curriculum-based measures, surveys, and anecdotal observations. More release time was provided so that they might prepare their preliminary data-gathering, and collaboratively examine and reflect on the results. Each staff determined what might best support them as they determined how they might best target what had been observed in the initial data-gathering. Professional learning and/or resources were provided to help inform and guide their practice as they moved forward.

New Professional Learning: Each staffs chose professional learning that corresponded to their particular focus of inquiry, which often we, as District Coordinators, either provided or suggested directions where the learning may be accessed.

Taking Action: Staffs then implemented the approach(es) agreed-upon by the group. Coordinators (and district specialists) checked in with groups to see how the work was proceeding, and whether they wanted any further information/resources/support to implement their plan(s).

Checking: In May, schools then prepared post-assessments (with facilitated discussions and release time), to determine whether their approaches and strategies had been successful, and in what ways. They also examined the factors that might have impeded growth or change, and looked at next steps for the coming school year.

Reflections/Advice: Facilitating a district-wide school-based inquiry was extremely impactful. Staff commented over and over what a gift it was to be able to slow down, reflect on their individual school contexts, and experiment with ways to scaffold student learning for their unique contexts.

Uptake varied from school to school. Some schools chose to take their funding and hire a semi-regular TTOC to provide support/release for teachers, or extra small-group work with students; others chose to not engage at all. Some schools began the process, but through the many setbacks dealt by COVID, opted to not continue the work.

All groups that engaged appreciated the opportunities for facilitated self- and group-reflection, as well as facilitated access to resources and district specialists (for example, meeting with the District Principal for Safe and Health Schools when tackling an SEL concern).

Of our 27 schools K-12 (including our alternate school campuses), only five chose to not engage at all. Overall, we consider this initiative to have been extremely successful. It offered dividends in ways that were not initially expected such as stronger communication and relational bonds between Coordinators, district and school staffs, and the distributed effect as information was shared laterally between colleagues in schools.

School Name: École John Stubbs Middle School

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Nicole Wallace: nwallace@sd62.bc.ca, Samantha Ogrodnik: sogrodnik@sd62.bc.ca, Colleen Maquiling: cmaquiling@sd62.bc.ca, Jennifer Gibson: jgibson@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Name/Email: Nicole Wallace/nwallace@sd62.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

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

Curricular Areas Addressed:

• Language Arts – Literacy
• Language Arts – Reading

Focus Addressed:

• Differentiated instruction
• Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our focus was to explore whether interacting with audiobooks (in French) improve student attitudes towards and engagement in reading, and to create inclusive reading classrooms by providing alternative modes of reading.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We have noticed fewer school library visits by middle school students and fewer books signed out by middle school students. A number of teachers at our school have asked their students if they thought of themselves as readers, and a minimal number of students self-identified as readers. We have also heard anecdotal comments by teachers about attitudes towards reading during in class silent reading time, and anecdotal comments by students about how they spend their time outside of school and what their activities of choice are. We also noticed that there are students at our school who struggle with reading (decoding) and therefore disengage and become frustrated. We believe these students want to be reading like their peers but often become shut down, resulting in a decrease of their confidence. These students are capable of comprehension at a higher level than they can decode, so it is important to remember to ask yourself: what is the goal of the activity – decoding or a shared reading experience?

Focus: We selected this area because through research we have learned that reading for pleasure is incredibly important for students. In 2002 the OECD published a report called “Reading for Change”, which showed that “student engagement in reading matters more than student socio-economic background in predicting reading proficiency.” We also believe that you need to see yourself as a reader and identify as a reader, otherwise you will not engage in reading. However, many students struggle to engage with reading print books for a variety of reasons. By providing alternative options such as eBooks and audiobooks, we were hoping to help more students see themselves as readers and therefore more willingly engage in reading.

Hunch: Traditionally we have stayed with print books for all students when engaging in reading for pleasure and literacy instruction at school, switching to lower level books, graphic novels and magazines for students with print difficulties. However, we do not believe that this is inclusive or best serves all of our students. When students struggle with a novel, they tend to shut down and stop seeing themselves as readers. As they get older, many students want to read the same books as their peers, rather than a lower level alternative. Outside of school there are many different ways that people read, including audiobooks. Research shows that students are generally able to comprehend a story at two grade levels higher than they are able to decode. By providing multiple access points for reading through differentiated instruction, we are able to allow more students to engage in reading.

New Professional Learning: Through research we explored the areas of reading for pleasure, the use of audiobooks with students, and how audiobooks can be used to support literacy instruction. “Sound Learning”, a subcommittee of the Audio Publishers Association, provided a wealth of knowledge. There have also been a number of articles written by teachers and teacher-librarians in education-related publications, which were very helpful to our learning. Finally, to support our colleagues in opening their minds to the possibility of using audiobooks with students, we presented our learning and our audiobook database at a staff meeting and encouraged each staff member to sign out and try an audiobook. The goal was for them to put themselves in the role of the student and (hopefully) see the benefits for themselves.

Taking Action: First, we signed up for a school Overdrive account to be able to purchase book requests for students and teachers. By using Overdrive we could also have the students access the public library collections, which greatly increased the number of audiobooks available to them. Next we purchased 16 Amazon Fire tablets — these are the most basic tablets that met our needs of being able to access the internet. We also purchased 30 audiobooks for students — 22 in French and 8 in English. We worked with classroom teachers from grades 4-8 to introduce the tablets and how to access and use audiobooks (including how to adjust the speed and flag passages), making them available for students to engage in reading for pleasure and/or use during literature circles. Students who participated completed both a pre and post survey to indicate their feelings and thoughts about reading and if they had tried audiobooks before. The tablets and audiobooks have been used in four different classrooms, all with successful results.

Checking: Students who participated completed both a pre and post survey to indicate their feelings and thoughts about reading and if they had tried audiobooks before. The tablets and audiobooks have been used in four different classrooms, all with successful results. The participating teachers were also asked reflections about how they felt it went in their classrooms and what they observed. Prior to trying audiobooks, most students reported that they had not tried them before because they didn’t have access or didn’t know about them. After using audiobooks, most students reported that listening to audiobooks helped them to better understand the story. All students who participated reported that they prefer audiobooks to “regular” books. Teachers reported seeing students finish books who would never normally finish a book. They noticed that it was most effective to also have a physical book in the student’s hands while they were listening, but it was not unusable without one. Teachers noticed that although there were growing pains, students became more efficient in their use of audiobooks over time. Teachers felt that if we had modeled the use of tablets/audiobooks for literature circle groups of non-readers that there would have been faster and easier start up. Finally, the participating teachers felt that overall the experience was a success with students who identify as non-readers finishing books, and looking forward to participating in weekly literature circle meetings.

We agree that the project was successful as a pilot program. Our goal was to open up the world of reading to students and increase their willingness to engage in reading. We also wanted to improve student attitudes towards literacy in order to help our students become lifelong readers. Over the course of the year this project also grew from primarily being about reading for pleasure and into a question of equity and inclusion. We believe that Hi/Lo books and graphic novels have a place in literacy instruction; however, if the goal is to have students engage in a shared reading experience with their peers, we are able to eliminate barriers by providing access to audiobooks.

We believe that we were able to make a difference for many of our participating students in the areas of the four key questions that matter. Students were able to see that we believe in them and that we were trying to help them develop the skills to become readers, not simply requiring that they read books. We want all of our students to identify as readers now, using any modality, so that they can bring these skills into adulthood with them.

Reflections/Advice: First, I would encourage any schools interested in our work to give it a try in their own schools! We have seen the difference it can make for students who think they will never finish a book only to find out that the audiobook is only 3 hours long! This project made reading seem more manageable and less like a chore for many of our students who identify as non-readers.

Next year we plan to continue promoting alternative modes of reading for the whole school community. We want to normalize that reading doesn’t have to be done with a paper book in your hands. We plan to pursue further grants and other avenues for funding to continue growing our audiobook collection and increase the number of tablets available. We would like to be able to increase our capacity for student participation. Finally, we plan to work with teachers to identify and remove barriers to student interest in listening to French audiobooks. We saw the majority of use with our English audiobooks, and would like to work with students to increase use of the French audiobooks.

Some advice we would offer to other schools is to persevere. Be prepared to invest time to learn and listen to audiobooks yourselves so that you can help students. There will be hiccups and technological glitches, but it is worth it for the students in the end. Also, ensure you have the tablets locked down! We thought we did, but the students found a way to get games on the tablets. Our goal was for it not to become a classroom management issue for teachers. We wanted this to help students, not be something to get them in trouble.

School Name: Sangster Elementary

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Raelene Lund rlund@sd62.bc.ca, Kathy Henderson khenderson@sd62.bc.ca, Michelle Moore mmoore@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Name/Email: Georgette Walker/gwalker@sd62.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

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

Curricular Areas Addressed:

• Other: Social emotional regulation/competencies

Focus Addressed:

• Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving)
• Differentiated instruction
• Experiential learning
• Flexible learning
• Growth mindset
• Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies
• Self-regulation
• Social and emotional learning
• STEM / STEAM
• Transitions

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? The impact of purposeful, choice-based play on student self-regulation.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We conducted individual surveys with all students in a grade 2/3 and grade 3/4 class, that were taking part in the inquiry project. A pre-survey was conducted in December and a post-survey was completed in June. We also collected some observational data and met as a team to discuss our findings.

The data revealed that there was a noted increase in the number of children who were able to name two adults at our school who believed in their future success and demonstrated that belief at school. The team noted that students had increased their connections, sense of belonging and developed stronger relationships with adults in the school over the course of the inquiry.
Learners were at the centre of our inquiry project, as our goal was to start off each day with time for social connection. Classroom teachers were responsive to the needs of their learners and implemented the use of play to start off the days routine in different ways, but the overall results were that students were more settled and regulated.

Focus: We selected play and its effect on social emotional learning, as we noticed throughout the grades similar observations: students coming to school dysregulated and anxious, and experiencing challenges transitioning to their day at school.
Our hope was that by beginning the day with choice play and personalized connections with students, that they would be emotionally-regulated and ready for the day.

Hunch: Our school day is structured on a standardized bell schedule and our needs as teachers to jump right in to curriculum, rather than allowing students time and space to land and be regulated and emotionally ready for learning, was not working.

New Professional Learning:

• developed planning sheet for the purpose of engaging students in provocations for play that would engage students in learning through play
• resources about play and the effect on SEL: read Professional resources – “Choice Time” book by Renee Dinnerstein
• ongoing professional discussions as a team throughout the year: sharing ideas
• being explicit in our choices and being thoughtful to our students needs (students guiding us)… observing and reflecting and tweaking based on our specific groups of children

Taking Action:

• soft starts to begin the day across the grade levels (K-4)
• when this was applied it ended up looking different in each classroom: from more structured choice/play, to provocations with free play options (related to curricular outcomes that were intentionally play-based), story workshop, outdoor play time, free choice play, and ADST challenges that were play-based

Checking:

• Yes, we noticed a decrease in office referrals.
• There was an increase in the number of students who were starting the day in tears or having difficulties regulating throughout the day.
• There were more opportunities to connect with students individually and build connections (allows them time to share their personal news).
• The responsive changes we made did have the desired outcome and we were satisfied with our results.
• As noted above, we used a pre- and post- survey and observational data to guide our inquiry and provide evidence.
• Our students’ responses on the post survey demonstrate a wider variety of answers with specific examples/details.

Reflections/Advice: It reinforced for us the importance of providing time and space for students to land at school and to set aside time to connect with the adults in the room and with each other; this allowed them to be regulated and ready for the day (with the intention on the adult/teachers part to make personal connections, fill buckets and set them up for a day of success).

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Peter Jakab: pjakab@ds62.bc.ca, Sam Watkins: swatkins@sd62.bc.ca, Thom Constable: thconstable@sd62.bc.ca, Tabitha Chester: tchester@sd62.bc.ca, Stefan Vasilakopoulos: svasilakopoulos@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: pjakab@sd62.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

Grade Levels: Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Area(s): Science

Focus Addressed: Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Inquiry-based learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How can we further develop students’ sense of social awareness and responsibility (core competency) through the science curriculum?

Scanning: We created a survey to gather information from students about social issues they cared about and would prompt them to take action. We noticed that they had difficulties articulating how they could take action and have a sense of agency to effect change. We drew upon the OECD principle of “Understand that emotions are central to learning”.

Focus: In previous years we have noticed that when we’ve taught different topics in the science curriculum that lend themselves to social awareness/action, there hasn’t been the engagement around social awareness and responsibility that we had anticipated. We hoped we could find a way to bridge the gap from passive learner to active participant. We wanted to build on the core competency of social responsibility in relation to the big idea in earth sciences, and in particular climate change. Ultimately, we wanted to foster student’s engagement in social issues and see themselves as capable of making a positive impact in the world.

Hunch: A hunch we have, is it could be how we are teaching the topics, and the opportunity for students to engage in social awareness and responsibility core competency.

New Professional Learning: We delved deeper into the science curricular competencies and examined where social awareness and responsibility lived in the curriculum. We used resources such as https://www.footprintcalculator.org/ and other online sites to learn more about ways to make the big ideas of this topic more personal to our students. We also conferenced with our district curriculum coordinator to draw on her expertise on how other schools had personalized the learning for their students.

Taking Action: We used resources such as https://www.footprintcalculator.org/ in combination with personal data collection, to take ownership of the issue of climate change. We then broadened the scope from the individual to society at large, to tackle issues of politics, economic and social justice. Potential topics include: plastics, carbon taxes, factory farming, and corporate pollution. We then had students apply their learning and test out new insights as they work through the open-ended “Green-Island” project, to design a more environmentally conscious society.

Checking: We noticed that the activities prompted students to think more about their own lives. The students demonstrated a curiosity about what sustainability would really take. In redoing our initial survey, our findings indicate that students saw the pressing nature of climate change with an increased sense of agency in addressing the issue.

Reflections/Advice: It was important to find a way to make it personal, especially at the middle school years. We really want to try to incorporate more technology to differentiate the ways that students could demonstrate their learning.

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Jenna Hobbs jhobbs@sd62.bc.ca
Lenna Talman ltalman@sd62.bc.ca
Gord Johnson gjohnson@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: jhobbs@sd62.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

Grade Levels: Primary (K-3)

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

Focus Addressed: Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Experiential learning, First Peoples Principles of Learning, Inquiry-based learning, STEM / STEAM, Universal design for learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How can children use oral language during story workshop to incorporate Aboriginal Ways of Knowing?

Scanning: We noticed that our early primary students lacked an in-depth understanding of the core competencies and we wanted to give them opportunities for learning about the core competencies while incorporating the Aboriginal Ways of Knowing and Being. We decided to use the 6 cedars as our primary resource. We challenged our students to make deeper connections with the animals and their strengths by having them create stories incorporating one or more of the animals and that animal’s strengths. We think that opportunities for students to create stories about the 6 cedar animals will deepen their understanding of these animals’ strengths and help them to identify and grow these strengths in their own lives.

We noticed that our students were very engaged in the creative process involved in story workshop. Students were able to create and share meaningful stories based on the strength of an animal from the 6 cedars. Their stories demonstrated an understanding of the core competencies and the Aboriginal ways of knowing.

We focused on 3 Aboriginal ways of knowing when planning this learning experience.

“Learning is connected to land, culture, and spirit.” – We wanted our students to connect to the spirit of an animal through their own personal experiences. We also incorporated outside lessons and activities to focus on this.

“Important teachings emerge through stories.” – Students created their own oral stories to teach about their animal’s strengths.

“The deepest learning takes place through lived experience. It requires exploring our identities, learning from our mistakes, and having gratitude for our gifts.” – We wanted our students to have the personal experience of creating their own story, and the freedom to change their story throughout the process. We also wanted our students to appreciate their own stories and others’ stories through sharing, and to recognize how their own personal strengths are connected to those animals.

Focus: We wanted our students to have a deeper personal connection and better understanding of the First Peoples Principles of Learning, the Ways of Knowing and Being, and the Core Competencies. We decided to use The Six Cedars to help our students connect to and understand the core competencies. In addition to the above, we wanted our learners to fully experience the First Peoples Principles of Learning and work on literacy skills at the same time.

Hunch: We think that opportunities for students to create stories about the 6 cedar animals will deepen their understanding of these animals’ strengths and help them to identify and grow these strengths in their own lives.

New Professional Learning: The 6 cedars was a new resource for us. We liked how students were able to see the core competencies within an animal. It became easier for them to understand the core competencies and generate novel examples of the core competencies at work in their own stories. We feel that since “The deepest learning takes place through lived experience”, this learning will stay with students and have a deeper meaning.

We shared our learning with other colleagues through meeting regularly and sharing strategies that worked. We connected with other teachers at a distance through emails and Google Slides.

Taking Action:
Strategies:

• Scanning and seeing a lack of understanding of the core competencies in early primary students.
• Developing a focus that helps our students develop literacy skills while incorporating the Aboriginal Ways of Knowing and Being.
• Deciding on resources and materials to use (books, videos, websites, loose parts materials, animal figurines, and 6 Cedars).
• Meeting regularly to share our progress, strategies that were working in our classrooms, and examples of student work.
• Deciding to focus on one 6 Cedars animal at a time.
• Providing lots of opportunities to share their stories and learn from each other.

Checking: Our students were able to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the core competencies and the Aboriginal Ways of Knowing and Being through their stories. We ended up focusing on one of the 6 Cedar animals (beaver), and next year would like to give students the opportunity to learn more in-depth about the other 6 Cedar animals to be able to create other stories highlighting their strengths. We feel like we have created a good model that we can follow next year.

Reflections/Advice:

• Student engagement is high when there is a lot of choice
• Opportunities to share stories helped students appreciate their own and others’ stories and the messages in them
• Through the grant money we were able to purchase specific items to help facilitate this learning opportunity

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Dana Savage: dsavage@sd62.bc.ca, Kat Abell: kabell@sd62.bc.ca, Andrea Millen: amillen@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: nwallace@sd62.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

Grade Levels: Intermediate (4-7), Secondary (8-12)

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

Focus Addressed: Differentiated instruction, 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? Investigating what impact access to audiobooks and/or eBooks could have on the engagement and interest in reading for “reluctant readers”.

Scanning: We noticed that there are many students at our school who struggle with reading and therefore disengage and become frustrated. Sometimes these students will read graphic novels, but those can be at too high of a reading level as well; we believe these students want to be reading like their peers, but often become shut down and their confidence decreases.

Focus: We wanted to explore accessible books to see if we could make a difference for these students and make our library collection more inclusive for all styles of readers. We believe that this project had, and continues to have, the potential to impact students across all grade levels, abilities and target languages (English and French Immersion programs) in our school. We believe this could transform non-readers into readers, opening up more doors.

Hunch: We do not have a large collection of accessible, high interest books at the school for students who are not reading at grade level. Without providing students multiple access points for reading, students become complacent and disengaged.

New Professional Learning: We completed research on audiobooks in the curriculum and audiobook access for adolescents, to confirm our suspicions about the difference accessible reading materials could make. We also completed research into different technologies to choose the best option for our needs and our students. Finally, we completed research into the best sources of audiobooks and eBooks for students – for example, overdrive accounts through the school district and using the public library’s catalogue.

Taking Action:
– We explored options for accessible books (Overdrive – Libby/VIRL & Sora/school, CELA) to see if we can make a difference for these students and make our library collection more inclusive for all styles of readers. We are currently having students access books through Libby and their public library card. Most students listened to audiobooks, however, a couple of students read eBooks. These students said they like reading on their phones, which isn’t allowed at school, and were looking for a similar experience.
– We explored tablet/eReader options to find the cheapest option that would provide the basic functionality we needed. We chose to buy Amazon Fire Tablets. They have a parental password and are locked down to only the following apps: Libby, Sora, Dolphin Easy Reader.
– Once the tablets (10) were purchased, we worked with target students to either bring their library card to school or to get signed up for a public library card. We considered using the tablets to help students engage in literature circles; however, we ended up implementing the tablets for independent/choice reading.
– We signed up for a school Overdrive account to be able to purchase book requests for students (still in progress).
– Our Teacher-Librarian regularly promoted listening to audiobooks and teamed up with the local youth public librarian to promote audiobooks and Libby. A campaign was launched in the school to recognize and celebrate all ways of reading, by asking staff and students to identify as a reader and share a quote about what makes them a reader.
– Our Teacher-Librarian spent time with each student who signed up for a tablet to teach them how to log into the Libby app and search for/borrow books.
– Students completed an initial questionnaire to indicate their feelings and thoughts about reading and if they had tried reading audiobooks or eBooks before.
– Our Teacher-Librarian regularly checked in with students using tablets to see how it was going and to help with problem solving/technical support.
– As of May 11, 2021 all 10 tablets were in use in 4 English classrooms.
Grade 6 – 1
Grade 7 – 8
Grade 8 – 1
– On May 18, 2021 participating students and their teachers were asked for reactions, reflections and opinions about the experience.

Checking: Our goal was to open up the world of reading to students, increase their engagement and improve their attitudes towards literacy. We feel as though we met this goal for a small group of students and that this pilot project was successful, despite the limitations and challenges we experienced.

The school and the staff as a whole were very supportive of this project. We didn’t encounter any pushback about students listening to audiobooks instead of reading print books during literacy. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback from student participants and from their classroom teachers. Every student reported an increase in enjoyment of reading at school and wants to continue using the tablet to access audiobooks and eBooks. One student said they will be downloading the Libby app on their phone so that they can continue reading at home. Given that we experienced challenges in implementation and we had to change the culture of traditional understandings of what reading is, we are very pleased with the progress we were able to make.

For one class in particular where 6 tablets were in use, there was a complete culture shift in general attitudes towards reading for all students.
Quotes from student participants:
“It makes it easier to get a story done.” (listening)
“I like being able to change the speed” of the narrator “if it was too fast or too slow for me.”
“I like reading eBooks better than reading paper books.”
“Chapter books are easier when I listen because when I read a paper book I might miss a sentence.”
“This is awesome! I don’t have to read anymore!”
“Audiobooks are really fun, I like them!”
Quotes from Classroom Teacher reflections:
“It’s been magical!”
“Their motivation is higher. They have become excited to read and aren’t fighting the teacher to get started anymore.”
“They feel like they are getting away with something, so even on their worst audiobook listening day they seem more engaged than before.”
“I feel like the best thing is that it is helping to connect their digital world with their school world.” (This has directly affected this student’s willingness to engage with reading in the classroom.)
Student “was a little overwhelmed by the length of the book at first, but would independently ask to listen once they got comfortable.”
Two students would “stop what they were doing and ask to read” during independent work blocks. (This was a new behaviour for both students.)
Student “seemed more engaged in reading, became quicker to start reading, and seemed to want to read more and for longer.”
Student “is more willing to read because he enjoys being able to multitask” for example doodling while listening.

Reflections/Advice: We learned that making reading accessible to students works and can make a big difference for readers of all levels. However, just as with reading paper books, we need all staff to support and be a champion of the project as that can make all the difference. We plan to continue to grow this project by adding more tablets and beginning to purchase audiobooks for the school so that we ensure students are getting the books that they want to read. We also plan to continue promoting audiobooks and normalizing listening to audiobooks for staff and students. Finally we plan to collaborate with the French Immersion teachers to identify and remove barriers to student interest and participation.

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Tammy Bennet: tbennet@sd62.bc.ca
Cathy Morrison: cmorrison@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: ksegato@sd62.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

Grade Levels: Primary (K-3)

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

Focus Addressed: Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Differentiated instruction, Social and emotional learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How can the structure of Story Workshop help our students view themselves as active creators of their own stories?

Scanning: This year we noticed several things about our group of learners. One is that they often come to school full of stories to tell but when the time comes to write, they struggle to find ideas. When we asked them “Who tells stories,” they didn’t include themselves. They don’t seem to view themselves as writers and storytellers. Another thing we noticed, possibly because of remote learning last spring, is that their abilities are greatly varied and many are not anywhere near the academic level common at this time of year. We want all our students to feel capable, have a sense of purpose, and view themselves as part of the community of storytellers and writers.

Focus: We noticed with remote learning last spring, their abilities are greatly varied and many are not anywhere near the academic level common at this time of year. We want all of our students to feel capable, have a sense of purpose, and view themselves as part of the community of storytellers and writers.​

Hunch: Covid isolated us from each other, and disrupted the flow of interaction and community of learners. There was less time to teach because of the disruption to service. Parents were so stressed at home that there was not a lot of home support for literacy. We also found the students were stressed as everything was so new. Their skill sets were also not at the point we thought they would be because of the disruption to learning last March.

New Professional Learning: The children were incredibly enthusiastic. Enthusiasm for writing was ignited as the floodgates of their imaginations opened. We went and observed SW in other classrooms, seeing how it can be done in different ways.
We used resources such as Story Making – The Maker Movement Approach to Literacy for Early Learners, the new Opal School book Story Workshop, Foxy and Friends, and Adrienne Gear’s new book – Powerful Writing Structures. We also met during lunchtime once a week ​to review, discuss, share and encourage.

Taking Action: We brainstormed materials to collect for our students. What did we have? What did we need?​
We considered how our current Covid-19 safety protocols would effect how we managed shared materials.​
We explored different ideas of how children would capture their stories. What writing materials did we need? ​
​Then we developed a plan of how to introduce the process of Story Workshop to our students.​
We worked with the Covid guidelines.
One strategy we found useful was to go and visit a SW session in another classroom. Connecting with colleagues who have already been trying SW was an invaluable resource.

Checking: By using their natural inclinations to play, we found it easier to develop and draw out their imagination and risk taking. No one was saying “I don’t know what to write?” or “I don’t know what to do?”
The children now view themselves as storytellers. They were excited to share their stories and support each other in the story writing process.

Reflections/Advice: With the possibility of continued Covid restrictions next year, we will continue to work together as a team to expand authentic learning opportunities which are also safe for our young writers.​ As our experience from this year grows, we feel more confident in digging deeper with a variety of different activities, such as: using mentor texts, providing provocations and creating student sharing opportunities with greater authenticity.​ We plan to continue to share, connect and support each other through lunchtime planning sessions. This will be times that we can share ideas, brainstorm solutions to challenges, and continue to encourage each other along this learning process.​ We are now guiding our students towards different ways of telling their stories.