“Spirals of Inquiry for equity and quality”
Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser
Plan due to Superintendent: October 14, 2016 Presentation to Board of Education: To Be Determine
School Context:
Gordon Terrace has 262 students in 11 homerooms from Kindergarten to Grade 6. Among this population, 43 are Aboriginal and 32 have identified special needs. Among our 11 homerooms, we have 5 blended classroom environments including a K/1, 2 1/2 classes, 3/4, and a 4/5. Our school culture focuses on Core Virtues which lays the foundation for strength of character in our students. The Core Virtues lends themselves well to the core competencies of our curriculum: critical thinking, personal awareness and responsibility, positive personal and culture identity, social responsibility, and communication.
Inquiry Question:
Original Question: What can we do to promote and foster the growth of two school-wide goals under the umbrella of self-regulation?
Forms of the question:
What can we do to promote and foster the growth of two school-wide goals under the umbrella of self-regulation and student engagement?
Looking through a lens of self-regulation and student engagement, how can we foster growth in literacy, numeracy and overall academic performance?
According to Dr. Stuart Shanker (2013), self-regulation is the ability to manage your own energy states, emotions, behaviours and attention in ways that are socially acceptable and help to achieve positive goals, such as maintaining good relationships, learning and maintaining well-being. There are six elements optimal to self-regulation:
· The ability to know one is in a calm state
· When one is stressed, the ability to recognize what is causing that stress
· The ability to recognize stressors both within and outside the classroom
· The desire to deal with the stressors
· Thea ability to develop strategies for dealing with those stressors
· The ability to recover efficiently and effectively from dealing with stressors
Self-Regulation Model
Bruce Bearisto (2014)
“…when seeking to understand engagement it is best to focus on the students’ perspective in terms of the nature and degree of commitment they feel… to make a pledge or be committed to something; in this case, their own learning.” (page 1) Beairsto, B. Engagement in Learning: Finding the Depth Beyond Diligence. GTES is taking this approach to seek ways for students to fully engage in their learning in order to improve literacy, numeracy and overall academic and social emotional learning goals.
Our goal(s): we will be to:
· Foster a growth mindset
· Teach self-regulation to support students in owning their learning
· When needed be the co-regulator
· Improve reading and comprehension for all of our students
· Improve numeracy skills for all of our students.
· Embed technology/inquiry and PBL as tools for improving student engagement.
Scanning:
As a staff, we still feel there is still ongoing work to be done in the areas of reading and numeracy but that self-regulation continues to be an overarching component that will help lead to increased success in all students. We know that overall healthy, mental well-being and a calm open mind is vital for success therefore this is an area deserving greater attention and awareness.
What do we, as staff and community, know about our students – their successes and challenges?
· Student anxiety and other mental health issues are on the rise which results in more and more school-aged children facing challenges that are getting in the way of learning.
· Home support for a child’s learning success is difficult in this age of busy lifestyles. In some instances it is non-existent resulting in the entire learning process falling upon the school staff.
· When students experience the taste of success they become engaged, motivated and more willing to work at further improving skills.
Focusing:
What does our focus need to be?
What key areas of learning and instruction will we focus on?
1. We will strive to work on enhancing classroom environments that are calm, and inviting and put into practice strategies to help our students become settled, mindful and ultimately more open to learning.
2. We will continue to place an emphasis on increasing Reading skills, confidence & interest.
3. We will continue to work at increasing numeracy success, particularly focusing on students mastering required basic facts at grade level.
4. With the implementation of the renewed curriculum, we will utilize inquiry and PBL as pathways for engaging students in their learning.
Our driving questions:
1. By placing an increased emphasis on student engagement focusing on Self-Regulation and routinely practicing mindfulness can we increase overall student success both academically and socially?
2. What can we do further to improve reading skills for all students but particularly those who are “At Risk”?
3. What can we do to improve our students’ basic number sense? (basic facts and operations)
4. How can inquiry and PBL (including embedding technology to support these both) can impact literacy, numeracy and overall academic success? Do these also increase student engagement whereby supporting students in regulating their learning and emotions in a positive way.
Evidence/Data to support
· Fall, mid year and spring assessments. Results will inform our instructional practices. Spring assessments will confirm our impact and help us formulate future goals for the following school year.
· FSA’s are a snapshot of student learning and will provide us with feedback to inform our instruction.
· Anecdotal data from teachers
· Behavior referrals to the office will be an indicator of how students regulate and engage in their learning.
· Attendance records – absences will also be an indicator of student engagement and overall success.
Key Learnings:
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SD 5 Southeast Kootenay
2016-2019 School Growth Plan
Date: June 2, 16
Developing a Hunch: What is leading to this situation?
Why are our learners struggling in the area we have chosen to focus on?
There are many; some known and some unknown:
- Readiness; some children are just not there yet
- Complicated life circumstances
- Lack of life experiences
- Lack of time to support due to extra-curricular commitments & jobs
- Lack of ability to provide home support
- Lack of follow-through of lessons taught in school (reinforcement)
- Shortage of time for teachers to collaborate and plan
What has lead us to this hunch?
- Teacher observations
- Support staff feedback and observations
- Class-based assessments of reading and numeracy
- District assessment results
- Report card trends as well as FSA results
- Middle school feed-back regarding preparedness of our students when they transition (something we are hoping to receive more of)
School Based Assessment: Scholastic Three Minute Read & Vancouver Island Net results are available; additionally, classroom teachers utilize the power of insight and intuitive thinking based on professional opinions and observations
More of:
- Reading Coaches
- Sound connections
- Daily Five
- Free Choice Reading
- Literate Conversations: Lit Circles
- Guided reading
- Oral language K-6: talking tables to sharing opinions – promote oral discussion which will enhance student learning
- Numeracy groups
- Daily 3
- Math games
- Individualized instruction
- 6-week literacy rotations to target literacy needs in classrooms using our LIF Teacher
- Adrienne Gear
- PM Benchmarks
- Saavy Book Society – pairing technology with reading – access for all learners
- Kindergarten centers for learning: names, alphabet, fine motor, gross motor
- Inquiry and PBL to support engagement in learning
- Mind-up
- Reading power
- Newsela.com – individual reading choices
- Choices in learning
Less of:
1.
Do Differently:
1. Rotate support in 6 week chunks to truly target learning and growth
New Professional Learning: (Summarize new areas for professional learning and how you will go about designing new learning for yourself and your staff that will impact your learners.)
- Professional Development days where time and attention can be spent on Reading and Numeracy
- Book Club is becoming a contagious strategy that has spread from grade 6 all the way to grade 1 this year! It is the intent to see this momentum continue
- Staff meetings where time is provided for teachers to share and provide peer mentoring, and a share out of successful strategies being utilized in classrooms
- Professional Learning Rounds:
- a) some staff want to continue their investigation and focus for a third year on Mind Up strategies and implementation
- b) a number of staff have a desire to investigate the First People’s Principles and from this work look at books and stories that can be incorporated into day to day teaching
- Accessing our District Literacy Teacher for Professional Development, demonstration lessons, cooperative planning and joint teaching
- The ongoing purchasing of materials to support instruction in Numeracy and Reading
- Daily 5 CAFÉ – a number of staff have expressed interest in attending the workshop in Red Deer, Alberta and would like to implement strategies from this philosophy into classroom routines
- Accessing our District Teacher of Innovation and Technology for inquiry and PBL support
New areas of professional learning for our staff and admin; which is designed to address our area of focus. How will this learning impact our students?
As a staff we will continue to engage in conversations about progress and successes and look at what is working and where there are still areas needing attention; awareness and attention to improve success for our students will provide a feeling of success and accomplishment.
Taking Action: What will you do differently?
- Twelve staff members have spent a second year exploring the benefits and implementation of MindUp; new staff have come forward with an expressed interest in learning more about the use of MindUp and others are working to sustain practice in their classrooms; we are sharing core practice skills during announcements so that every class is getting a chance to practice some aspects of self-regulation
- The continued meetings with Middle and High school Math teachers will help drive the focus of ensuring basic math facts are practiced and internalized; and staff will continue to investigate how to further help kids experience success
- A portion of 3 Pro D days will be used to further share and explore resources for both Reading and Numeracy
- Conversations and professional sharing are resulting in classroom teachers attempting to incorporate more strategies into their classrooms
Checking: Have we made enough of a difference?
* By examining report card results at the end of each term, noting success & or trends will further guide & provide direction
* Results will also be indicated by:
Staff Observations (professional judgment)
FSA Results
Report Card Results
School-wide reading assessment twice this school year to compare fall and spring results
Communication Strategies: (How will you communicate your inquiry and your results to the school community?)
Pac will be updated throughout the year as well as updates on monthly newsletters to inform families of how we are doing with our work. It is important to share with our school community what learning not only looks like but the impacts these interventions make on student learning.
- Share with our students the goals for improvement via announcements and as classroom focus conversations
- Include information about our goals and strategies in the school newsletter and on the school website
- Update parents at PAC meetings & through newsletters
- Include Self-Regulation, Reading & Numeracy as topics of discussion at staff meetings and on professional development days where applicable
- As a staff, monitor and support the work being done to improve success in our students & share information with each other
How will we know what we are doing works and that we are making a difference with our students? What will we use as a baseline with students? What clear indicators do we have that show evidence of growth?
- Evidence will be extracted from the classroom, school, district and provincial
- data:
- *We will assess our students in the Fall (October 30) and Spring (May 19) using the Vancouver Island Net Numeracy test. (Grades 2-6)
- *Grade K – 1: Assessment will be teacher focused and reported data will be based upon anecdotal observations related to Guided Math Centers, *Number Sense, Attitude & Anxiety and Range of Ability based on the learning outcomes outlined in the IRP.
- *We will strive to increase school-wide reading success based on observable trends
- *All grade 6 students will read at grade level or above. (District Wide reading results)
- *All grade 3 students will read at grade leave or above. (District Wide reading results)
- *All grade 4 students will meet or exceed expectations. (FSA results)
- *Students will use the language of mindful thinking and demonstrate behaviour indicative of calm and thoughtful processing; controlled breathing, focused awareness
- *Student Safety data will indicate a decrease in anxiety from information gathered in 2013 and 2014
Connection to the District Goals: (How does this plan connect to our district vision?)
Improving achievement of all students – each and every student!
- To enable all students to graduate with purpose, options and hope by developing a sense of belonging in all students and enhancing the engagement in learning
- To develop literacy performance by purposefully engaging diverse learners in the process of reading to understand across all subject areas AND to improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes in numeracy
Our plan fully supports District Goals. It focusses on student engagement and literacy performance as well as numeracy and social emotional learning. Our plan offers a lot of personalization to our school community.
District & Parent Involvement: Goals will be shared and discussed with PAC members and parent input will be welcomed and encouraged.
Staff sharing occurs during staff meetings and during professional development days as well as through the Professional Learning Rounds
School Based Team meets weekly to align support services specifically for "at risk" students
Education Assistants meet weekly to connect and provide feedback for the entire school team