School Name: Wiltse Elementary

School District: SD#67 Okanagan Skaha

Inquiry Team Members: Ashley Aoki (aaoki@sd67.bc.ca)

Inquiry Team Contact Email: aaoki@sd67.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

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

Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Writing, Science, Social Studies

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), First Peoples Principles of Learning, Land, Nature or Place-based learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Identifying ways to deepen my students contextual understanding of the local Indigenous Peoples ways of knowing and being while also strengthening their skills as writers.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: During the scanning process, I asked the paraprofessionals in the space (CEA’s) to support me by interviewing students. This allowed me to collect data from the students in a succinct way as a classroom teacher. Scanning alongside the paraprofessionals allowed us to have conversations about the themes we were seeing emerge, and it was also reaffirming for them to hear students validate how supported they feel by the CEAs.

We did follow the FPPL, learning takes patience and time, as the scanning process wasn’t something we wanted to rush. We allowed their to be space and time for students to establish themselves in the classroom space (about 3-5 weeks) before scanning them.

Focus: We had chosen to focus our attention on writing and how to continue embedding Indigenous ways of knowing and being into our learning practice. We chose this as those were areas that were not highlighted as frequently during the students one-on-one conversations during the scanning process.

Hunch: Something that I was ‘hunching’ about was the depth of understanding my students had as it related to Indigenous ways of knowing and being. I also was wondering how I could continue supporting my students as writers so they were less focused on the mechanics of writing (spelling and grammar) and more the overall process of writing.

New Professional Learning: After reading through several case studies, I chose to borrow the writing template created by Beach Grove Elementary. The design was simple and effective. My students had a very clear idea of what they needed to include in their brainstorming pages before they transitioned to the draft. I also leaned on the self-regulation learning cycle created by the Delta School District in partnership with Dr. Schnellert and Dr. Perry. My students and I regularly spoke about the various tenets of self-regulated learning – environment, learning intention, goal, etc. I was also shown an incredible local Indigenous plant/tree resource that I continued exploring with my students. This built my capacity and understanding of the knowledge within the lands I live on and also supported me in guiding my students. We also leaned on the resource, “How To Teach Nature Journaling” by John Muir Laws.

Taking Action: As a team, we implemented the strategic action cycle at the beginning of the school year. This allowed students to have agency over their learning and also guidelines for what self-regulation does look like. We also used the template from Beach Grove Elementary to support them with their writing in the classroom. To further and enrich their learning we began nature journaling on the land. The combination of these learning strategies boosted my students self-confidence and revealed the places my students need further support. We spoke a lot about the benefits of receiving feedback and leaned on Ron Berger’s work to continue sharpening our skills.

Checking: Several of my students made significant growth this year in the areas of writing and deepening their understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing and being. I not only received feedback from several students, I also heard feedback from parents who commented about their child’s progress this year, how much they love to write, or that their child is inviting them to now pause on the land to smell the ponderosa pine or look at a flower in bloom.

Reflections/Advice: If I could share any advice for those who are interested in this inquiry or something similar, I would say that it wasn’t one learning resource that shifted everything for my students. It was a threading of multiple excellent professional resources that shifted things. I can not stress, as well, how important it is to scan and how valuable it is to have the paraprofessionals in the space involved in the process.

School Name: Trout Creek Elementary

School District: SD#67 Okanagan Skaha

Inquiry Team Members: Ashley Aoki: aaoki@sd67.bc.ca, Dustin Hyde: dhyde@sd67.bc.ca, Al Beckingham: abeckingham@sd67.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: aaoki@sd67.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: Arts Education, Language Arts – Oral Language, Science

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), First Peoples Principles of Learning, Indigenous pedagogy, Inquiry-based learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Supporting Elementary Educators to continue instructing from an Indigenous pedagogical frame in thoughtful, respectful, responsible ways.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Our team used the Network of Inquiry and Indigenous Education “School Tours” framework. In order to complete the scan, we had a small group of educators (11) attend an after-school learning session to lay the foundation for a successful “learning rounds” experience and collect information about what our groups strengths were and what they wanted to see to address their professional stretch points. The scanning process was completed by asking the educators the questions from the framework through an online platform, NearPod. This gave us, as facilitators, an opportunity to see where our groups reported areas of strengths were, have a clearer idea of where their stretch points might be, and discover what they wanted to observe during the learning rounds.

Focus: At the beginning of each year, data is collected from educators in the district about what they are looking for in the area of professional development. Based on the data, Indigenous Education was identified as a high priority for educators. While several professional development sessions were offered during our PD Days, we felt that providing educators the “learning rounds” opportunity to engage, observe, and reflect as a group would continue to build capacity for those who participated – and their colleagues at their school sites.

Hunch: Our concern was that educators were still hesitant to instruct from an Indigenous Pedagogical Lens.

As we looked through the data, we did notice that there continued to be feelings of hesitancy when instructing through an Indigenous Pedagogical Lens. Some of the educators had several years of experience in the field, and some were in their first contract. Some were looking for a place to begin when integrating Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being into their instructional practice, and some folks were looking for ways to continue enriching their instructional practices with other creative ideas. Folks did share that they did feel personally connected to the territory in which we lived on, which gave us (as facilitators) an excellent shared beginning point.

New Professional Learning: We chose to create “Learning Rounds: Indigenous Pedagogy”. We used the “School Tours” framework from the Network to support our learning rounds. Our design was created so that educators were asked to engage in an after-school learning session, observe (release morning) in one of the facilitators (Ashley Aoki) classrooms, and connect and reflect (release morning) as a group at one of our learning sites in the district.

Taking Action: Based on the data/feedback we were provided, we chose to structure our observation session so that educators could see:
– How the First Peoples Principles of Learning can be woven intentionally into daily instruction.
– How talking circles can be led using the local Syilx Peoples’ protocols
– How to use the inquiry process to create projects that are cross-curricular and designed for ALL learners’ success

Checking: During our final session we gathered as a group and shared feedback about what differences were made for our group (individually and as a collective).

Seeing the First Peoples Principles of Learning as individual magnetized statements on the whiteboard was noted as a simple way to make them more accessible. Educators could see how they can be moved to different parts of the whiteboard when they naturally or intentionally (or both) emerge in the learning. For example, in Math, one common statement is “Learning takes patience and time”, which could be centered on the whiteboard and referenced to.

We completed movement breaks taken from the document “Linking Indigenous Cultural Sports and Activities to Physical Literacy” and educators mentioned they were able to apply this practice in their classroom the next day.

A number of the educators were curious about how they could also design a project for their students that accurately reflects their name and cultural identity after hearing students in the observation classroom reflect on their name and cultural identity project, and how it connected to learning about the impacts of settlement in this country.

One educator noted that the classroom environment visually reflected Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being and wondered how they could shift their learning space, too, to reflect the natural world.

Educators were inspired by the students as they listened to the way students were learning about the traditional ecological knowledge that exists in this territory, and watched as the students carefully designed an art project to reflect one of the plants they photographed on the land.

Photo description: Trout Creek Elementary, local Indigenous Plant Art (final project), photo taken by Ashley Aoki (click image to enlarge)

Students in the observation class also shared about a recent experience that they had where they interviewed an Indigenous (Cree) author after listening to his chapter book. The experience invited the educators to consider ways they could use texts authored by BIPOC peoples to continue amplifying their voices in their contexts.

Reflections/Advice: This particular process certainly was noted as one that supported the educators who participated in the learning rounds. One educator mentioned that the “learning rounds” framework is one to be continued in the following years. Our professional development sessions took place during the spring, and we are reflecting on how impactful it could be to complete “learning rounds” again in the fall as well as the spring. This is something worth considering for the future.