I. General Information
School Name: W.L. McLeod Elementary
School District: SD#91 Nechako Lakes
Inquiry Team Members: Libby Hart: lhart@sd91.bc.ca, Erin Baker: ebaker@sd91.bc.ca, Lori Gridley: lgridley@sd91.bc.ca, Kirsten Funk: kandersonfunk@sd91.bc.ca, Donna Good: dgood@sd91.bc.ca, Korrie Mueller: kmueller@sd91.bc.ca, Lyne Gauthier: lgauthier@sd91.bc.ca, Susie Blattner: blattners@sd91.bc.ca, Olivia Obonsawin: oobonsawin@sd91.bc.ca, Amy Forsyth: aforsyth@sd91.bc.ca, Dan Nickel: dnickel@sd91.bc.ca, Michelle Miller-Gauthier: mmgauthier@sd91.bc.ca, Lena Miller: lmiller@sd91.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: lgridley@sd91.bc.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Mathematics / Numeracy
Focus Addressed: Numeracy, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Other: Experiential learning, flexible learning, growth mindset, inclusion/inclusive instructional strategies, universal design for learning, Indigenous learners K-3
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Developing a deeper and broader understanding of number sense from K-3 with a focus on improving numeracy outcomes for Indigenous learners.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: Our scanning this year involved fewer formal assessments and more reflective practice in our collaboration group. We noticed that we were not getting the results that we had anticipated and had a hunch that we needed to refocus. We felt that our interventions were starting too late and the gap for the younger students was getting wider. We also discovered that we were focusing too much on particular students who had extreme learning differences and not having the time or strategies to fill gaps for other learners.
Focus: Decolonizing learning practices, including non-traditional pedagogies, will result in strengthening learners’ number sense, positive attitude and self-efficacy about numeracy.
We wanted to strengthen the connection between numeracy concepts and the world around us and for students to develop a growth mindset and a positive attitude towards numbers – Indigenizing and Decolonizing along the way. We wanted to do this as a group – sharing ideas and resources, following a cross-school schedule, and collaborating.
Hunch: Our practice was too focused on a small group of students who needed intensive intervention rather than a larger population of students who were emerging at their grade level.
New Professional Learning:
• PLC time involved teachers researching new assessment practices, discussing strategies and philosophy, and scope and sequence for essential skills.
• District numeracy support teacher brought in and taught games and resources. Participated in SNAP lessons and story workshop with a numeracy focus in classrooms.
• Staff members attended the NOIIE Symposium, viewed NOIIE learning bursts, participated in the SD91 NOIIE learning celebration, and participated in the NOIIE numeracy/literacy network meetings.
• Time embedded into the schedule for numeracy teacher-lead and blitz lead collaboration.
• The NOIIE symposium highlighted our unique whole staff approach to inquiry.
Taking Action:
• The numeracy blitz intervention
• Playing numeracy games
• Use of counting collections in primary classrooms
• Taking our learning outside for experiential and place-based learning
• Meaningful real-life numeracy experiences
• School-wide scheduled focus on patterns and number sense
• Started math pen pals with other classrooms in the district
• Numeracy assessment (subitizing, counting dots) as a trial for feedback
Checking:
Data Collection:
• Each class did a pre- and post-assessment for and of learning for “ways to make 5/10”
• Revisited real life numeracy in primary classrooms
• Regularly reviewed Leaps and Bounds data (assess, intervene, assess) and critically reflected on the questions themselves
• At each TLT, we checked in with teachers to see how the focus was progressing and any challenges that had come up
- We changed our year-end assessment to focus on kindergarten students rather than grade one students, aligning with our plan to start interventions with grade ones in the fall
- We also reflected on the assessment itself and decided to adjust the questions based on student progression during the one-on-one conferences. We created a flowchart to adjust the questions based on student success with each learning outcome.
- End of year kindergarten patterning assessment – 30 students
- Identifying and describing a pattern: 19/30 students will require some extra support. This means 12/30 or 40% were successful. Some students who require extra help are very close to meeting expectations. It wouldn’t take very long for them to be successful.
- Putting this into perspective of the last three years, the grade one students were as follows…
2022-23 (30%) successful
2023-24 (49%) successful
2024-25 (59%) successful - All students were emerging+ or successful on extending patterns and creating patterns
- Translating patterns: Only 12/30 students require some extra help. Some students have a difficult time making a similar pattern to the one shown to them, by using different colours, shapes, sounds, or actions. No data from previous years on this.
Reflections/Advice: This was a year of much reflection on the value of our previous approach and our method of tracking data. We did not get the success we had hoped for and needed a more K-3 vision of where we are, where we want to be, how we are going to get there, and how we know that we have arrived.
We realized that even though we are in year four, we haven’t yet established a culture of numeracy, nor have we been able to track the impact in the intermediate classes yet. There is a lot of work left to do.