Principal (Terry Jung); Teacher Facilitators (Brenda Kawasaki, Jill Omichinski); Teaching Staff (Alex Andison, Donna Lee, Rhona Pederson, Karolyn Toews, Sonya Moman-Parker, Elise Davenport & Claudia Zamprogno)
School Context /
Inquiry Question / How do we improve the performance of our students’literacy pillars, more specifically, the aspect of comprehension?
Rationale
(Why are we doing this?)
(Please refer to school data) / -The school based data (PM Benchmarks & Vernon) collected for the 2015/2016 school year indicates the following percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations in the area of reading comprehension:
Kindergarten: 96% with letters & 83% with sounds; Grade 1: 40%; Grade 2: 56%; Grade 3: 56%; Grade 4: 55%; Grade 5: 65%
Assessment tools used in each grade are as follows: PM Benchmarks in grades 1 to 3 & Vernon in grades 3 to 5.
Strategies / Leadership/Teamwork / Professional Learning and/or Resources
Identifying essential learning outcomes/reviewing new BC curriculum. / Principal and Teacher Facilitators to support collaboration meeting times for all staff. / Resources: Adrienne Gear’s “Reading Power”; Janet Mort’s
“Joyful Literacy Interventions”
Literacy Inter
Developing and establishing common formative assessments at each grade level. / All teaching staff to collaboratively develop formative assessments. / Resources: Comprehension Tool Kit; Reading 44; CARS/STARS; Performance Standards
Monthly staff meetings dedicated to staff collaboration,
Monthly collaboration time during instructional hours. / All teaching staff to collaboratively identify essential learning outcomes. / Resources: BC Performance Standards; PM Benchmark; Vernon; BC Ed Plan
LSS/ELL co-teaching and in-class support for at risk-students. / LSS/ELL teacher and support staff to provide in-class supports. / Common school-wide reading assessments (Sept. & June); Ongoing classroom formative assessments
Common learning times in daily schedule to implement RTI. / Principal & Teacher Facilitators to develop common learning schedule with staff feedback; staff to implement. / Mentoring/co-teaching/modeling/instructional rounds
Cross-grade instructional co-teaching strategies (3 groups with two teacher pairs in each). / All staff collaborating and participating in cross-grade instructional co-teaching strategies. / Professional Learning: Assessment, BC Ed Plan, reading strategies, 80 minutes of daily uninterrupted LA time
Progress and Impact (How do you know?)
Moving forward, staff will be encouraged to delve deeper and think critically about the following questions:
- What exactly do we expect all students to learn?
- How will we know if and when they’ve learned it?
- How will we respond when some students don’t learn?
- How will we respond when some students have already learned? -(DuFour, DuFour, Eaker Many, 2006)
Connections to the District Strategic Plan
• Excellence in teaching
• Excellence in leadership
• Flexibility & access to programs / services
• Ethical & innovative use of technology
• Parental & community engagement / • Excellence in teaching
Teachers are working continuously to build expertise and capacity through attending workshops on reading (Adrienne Gear) and RTI, developing essential core outcomes through IBLT dialogue, and using common assessment tools to validate student achievement and screen students requiring intervention.
• Excellence in leadership
Teachers will attend monthly collaborative meetings to further investigate strategies needed to improve teaching and learning of reading comprehension. These meetings will be facilitated by both principal and teacher leaders.
• Flexibility & access to programs / services
Teachers will be using multiple sources and forms of data to analyze student learning processes and identify areas of difficulty for re-teaching and intervention. Students in need will be grouped for re-teaching of essential outcomes and will be assessed regularly for exit from intervention group. Tier 1 interventions are classroom instructional based with support from LSS/ELL teacher. Tier 2 interventions may include in class or small group pull out for re-teaching purposes. This will be provided by the LSS/ELL teacher and/or the classroom teacher, with support from EAs. Other interventions may include the L & A Centre.
• Ethical & innovative use of technology
Our staff recognizes that in order to have long-term impact on student reading achievement, we will need to maintain and reinforce reading improvement as our goal. Current trends and 21st Century learning skills indicate that students need to develop and use critical thinking skills as they are reading. We will intentionally and skillfully utilize technology to enhance student performance. This could include the use of iPads, computers, personal devices for multiple reading strands (fiction, non-fiction, information etc.
• Parental & community engagement
Teachers will track and encourage the use of home reading programs to facilitate the home-school connection with reading. Parents will be encouraged to volunteer in classrooms to promote small reading group and discussion periods under the supervision of the classroom teacher. Information sessions for parents to promote best reading practices.
Connections to the Elementary Operational Plan
• Excellence in Teaching: Comprehensive Early
Learning Plan.
• Excellence in Leadership: 3 Competencies,
Balanced Assessment RTI and Student Engagement.
•Programs that support Social and Emotional
Learning.
•Parental and Community Engagement in Schools.
• Learning Environments: Outdoor Learning, Nature K.
• Improved Instruction for diverse learners (ELL).
• Safe School Procedures, Practices, Interventions. / • Excellence in Teaching: Comprehensive Early Learning Plan.
Balanced Literacy instructional strategies will be used including: Letterland, Talking Tables, Guided Reading, Common Language (What good readers do/look like/think like etc.)
• Excellence in Leadership: 3 Competencies, Balanced Assessment, RTI and Student Engagement.
Balanced assessment: frequent formative assessments will be used to guide teaching instructional practices; classroom and common agreed upon assessments focusing on reading comprehension (specific to grade level)
RTI: As mentioned above, students will be tracked and will receive necessary small group intervention in a timely and consistent manner. This may include in class and/or pull out support.
Student Engagement: through voice and choice of quality, grade appropriate literature, students will naturally be engaged in their reading and the enjoyment thereof.
• Parental and Community Engagement in Schools.
Parents are important and vital stakeholders in our learning community. They will be encouraged to both read at school with children and participate in the home-reading program. In addition, we plan to offer informational sessions on best practice to support to your young reader at home. Also, we plan to have a school wide reading afternoon, inviting prominent members of our community to read with children.
• Learning Environments:
Our school offers an incredible sunny library full of quality literature for elementary students. There are two common areas in the school that are utilized daily for guided reading groups and small group work activities.
• Improved Instruction for diverse learners (ELL/LSS).
Co-teaching model is encouraged. A variety of instructional strategies to address ELL/LSS students will be shared and modeled during monthly collaborative meetings.
• Safe School Procedures, Practices, Interventions.
All of our students are supported for any need that arises. This includes response team, CYCW, counselor, SLP, and other various agencies (CYMH, MCFD etc). We believe in a team supported model for our students safety and health.
Connections to the Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement.
• Increase student pride
• Increase reading scores
• Increase sense of belonging
• Increase graduation rates /
- Increase Student Pride
- Increase Reading Scores
- Increase Sense of Belonging