NOII & AESN November 2013 Newsletter
NOII
& AESN News
We hope that by now
you are well into another great year of inquiry and learning. Keep reading below for news about 2013
– 2014 NOII/AESN opportunities, as well as regional happenings across the
province – and links around the world.
Please contact us if you have
questions about participating in the Network and staying connected.
SAVE THE DATE – Spring
Symposium May 2-3, 2014 Hilton Hotel Richmond
Stories of Change – Picture of Possibility: Innovative Leadership BC
and Beyond
Planning is now well underway for
the spring symposium and we will have additional details out soon about key
features of the program. Richard Wagamese (author of Ragged Company and Indian Horse
among other works) will be one of our feature speakers, as will David Istance,
the lead researcher on the OECD study of Innovative Learning Environments and
Chris Kennedy Superintendent of Schools in West Vancouver. We will also be
welcoming school teams from Southwest Sydney (New South Wales) who have been
working with Spirals of Inquiry and are looking for closer connections with BC
schools. Lots more to share – just make sure that you hold the dates for what will be a great event and opportunity to come together to
showcase the transformative work taking place across BC.
NOII/AESN Fall Regional Meetings
Regional meetings are
looking different in different parts of the province this year – and in the words
of a famous Prince George network team – “it’s all good.” The spirit and sense
of connections across the networks are sustained through both face-to-face
meetings and on-line connections. What is key is that we always find ways to
learn from each other as quickly as possible and to deepen the professional
relationships across roles and across districts in support of our learners.
Here is what’s been happening in a few regions:
The northwest region
held their opening meeting at the Crest Hotel (one of our favourite spots!) in
Prince Rupert on October 11. Teams from Coast Mountains, Bulkley Valley,
Nisga’a and Prince Rupert were there in full force, and the region was honoured
to host Dr. Kim
Schonert-Reichl. Christine Franes commented: “We were so fortunate and so grateful that we had Dr. Kimberly
Schonert-Reichl join our meeting and share with us the valuable information
around social and emotional learning for our students. We engaged in her
presentation in the morning part of the meeting, and in the afternoon we worked
on networking and discussing our inquiry projects, and Kim also supported
groups in involving social and emotional learning components in their
inquiries.” Sounds like a great day in the Northwest.
In
the Lower Mainland close to 100 educators converged on EagleQuest Golf Course
in Surrey on the afternoon of October 22. Schools from as far away as Boston
Bar and Lillooet joined teams from Delta, Richmond, Vancouver, Burnaby,
Langley, Surrey, West Vancouver, Sea to Sky and Coquitlam to begin to share
resources and ideas. We are grateful to the Surrey School District – in
particular Joanne Chrona – for hosting this first meeting. We are looking
forward to the February 11 meeting in Delta and the May 13 meeting in Richmond.
And, on
November 6, the Mid-Island teams met at VIU. Teams from Cowichan
to Port Alberni exchanged ideas and also learned more about ways in which they
could participate in Healthy School Inquiries. HSN leader Lynn Brown explained
the HSN inquiries will show diversity in areas of healthy relationship
building, sustainable inquiry learning with a focus on community partnerships
in physical activity and fitness. All participants appreciated the chance to hear about the various grant
opportunities available through HSN. It was really helpful to have Daniel
Naiman over to show the new healthy schools website and share the new options
for participation in HSN inquiry. In Lynn’s words “Good time had by all.”
Innovative Learning Environments and Seven Key
Learning Principles
As many of you know,
Linda and Judy have been active members of the OECD international research
study on Innovative
Learning Environments, and this year, British Columbia has been identified
as one of five international learning labs along with New Zealand, South
Africa, Peru, and French Belgium. This is an exciting opportunity for all of us
in BC as we are working to bring coherence across the various provincial
initiatives with a focused emphasis on inquiry and leadership development as
key to system transformation.
The seven key
learning principles identified in the 2010 OECD publication The
Nature of Learning are providing an important framework for
strengthening learning - and more personalized forms of learning - in settings
around the world. We are encouraging schools to consider exploring these
contemporary learning principles through your NOII inquiry this year. Please
check out the Inquiry
Guide and Inquiry
Question Template. You will see that the Inquiry Guide outlines seven key
learning principles that should be used to inform your inquiry. These are
clearly described in the Practitioner
Guide to The Nature of Learning.
AESN – Connecting to the Enhancement Agreement
The focus on developing teacher,
support staff and principal commitment to realizing the goals of the district
Enhancement Agreements through team inquiry remains a key priority within AESN.
With the support of the Ministry of Education and through the sales of Spirals of Inquiry, there will be
recognition grants available to schools focusing their inquiries on deepening
Aboriginal knowledge and understanding for all students –and improving student
outcomes – as identified in the local district Enhancement Agreements. If your school is interested in this
opportunity, please see this
template for submitting the inquiry question by November 30th,
2013.
AESN Student Level Inquiries and AESN Focus on Transitions
The response to the opportunity
for schools to focus their inquiries on individual
student level inquiries or on transitions
has been really positive. Click on
the links for a list of the schools involved and their questions. We are very
grateful to the Vancouver Foundation for supporting the individual student
inquiry initiative and the Irving Barber Learning Centre for encouraging
schools, especially those in rural areas to focus on the issue of transitions
for Aboriginal learners. Schools in both of these initiatives have received
their start up-grant and we look forward to learning a great deal from both
these groups of schools over this year. Debbie Koehn is supporting the schools
involved in the student level inquiries and is developing a resource that will
be invaluable for teachers looking for concrete ways to involve students in
exploring areas of deep personal interest. Stay tuned for the release of this
resource!
NEW Website
We are planning to
launch a new NOII/AESN website in the coming weeks, with easy to access
information, links to stories and videos, etc. More information coming soon! In the meantime, if you have ideas to share about how you
currently access information via the website and how to increase
user-friendliness, please click here
to contact us.
School
Stories
Randerson Ridge Elementary
Participates in Reconciliation Canada
We know that many
Network schools participated in some of the events related to Reconciliation Canada in September.
As Judy commented on the NOII Blog after participating in the Reconciliation
Walk in Vancouver, “I was reminded of how much we have to learn as Canadians
about our shared history - and how important it is that within our schools that
all our learners have a chance to learn, explore and experiences Indigenous
ways of knowing.” Teachers at
Randerson Ridge Elementary in Nanaimo did just that, using the Truth and
Reconciliation events as a special opportunity to deepen and extend the
knowledge of their learners. To
see just how impactful this experience was, click
here to read how one Grade 7 student from Mary Lynn Epps class at Randerson
Ridge responded.
Be the Change Conference
We are proud to
share that Network member Doug David, teacher at Puntledge Park School in the
Comox Valley, was invited to attend the Be
the Change Conference in Ahmedabad, Gujarat from Sept. 24th –
Oct. 1st this year. The
conference was part of the Design
for Change global movement, designed to give children an
opportunity to express their own ideas for a better world and put them into
action.
The Elder Project – Update
Last June we featured
some of the schools and districts around BC that have been involved in the Elder Project with poet Wendy Morton. Rocky Mountain School District (SD #6)
is proud to be launching their own book of poetry after all three of their
secondary schools collaborated through the Elder Project during the 2012 – 2013
school year. Wendy Morton visited
with students and Elders at Selkirk Secondary, Golden Secondary and David
Thompson Secondary, listening and learning from Elders and assisting students
in crafting poetry from their stories.
Network Leader Angela Stott, who spearheaded the SD #6 initiative,
commented that “Elders
who shared their stories offered a window to deeper understanding of their
experiences growing up in Canada as Aboriginal persons. The poems in this book
are powerful and telling. They are part of our cultural quilt.” With the
support of grant funds from the New Horizons for Seniors Intergenerational
Project, SD # 6 was able to host Wendy Morton on October 7th – 9th
to launch the extraordinary book in all three school communities (Kimberly,
Golden, Invermere). For more
information, contact Angela Stott.
Because of the updates to the
website, the case studies from 2012-2013 have yet to be posted on the website
for everyone to
access. We’ll let you know as soon
as they are available. BUT, to tempt you with snippets from the many powerful
stories that you can anticipate reading, we’ve included excerpts from two case
studies below. Happy reading – and thank you to the inquiry teams at Pleasant
Valley (SD 68) and William Konkin (SD 91) for sharing their smart and
thoughtful work.
2012-13
AESN CASE STUDY - Pleasant Valley Elementary School - SD68 Nanaimo -Ladysmith
“Where Eagles Fly & Students Soar”
Question/Focus
Will the presence of traditional
Aboriginal culture, language, and perspectives in the whole school setting
increase Aboriginal awareness amongst all students?
Will the teacher collaboration
focused on explicit learning strategies increase the academic performance of
Aboriginal learners?
Scanning
Our project originated with recognizing a
school wide need to be more actively inclusive with new Aboriginal students and
families coming from a nearby elementary school, which closed. We noticed that these families were not
as visibly present in our building or consistently participating in school
activities. We also noted that many of our Aboriginal students were amongst our
most vulnerable academic learners, specifically in literacy.
Focus
We have developed a school wide culture of
multi-age clan groups that meet regularly to learn about Canadian Aboriginal
culture, language, and historical significance. Our clan groups are connected to the Eagle, Bear, Wolf and
Whale & tied to the traits of belonging, generosity, independence &
mastery. This year we focused on
Northern Inuit cultural awareness.
We also have developed, through teacher collaboration, writing rubrics
and student exemplars to assess, teach and monitor writing development with all
students. This year we used these tools and met to discuss successful teaching
strategies, assessment for learning strategies, and make any improvements on
our school wide rubrics/assessment document.
Hunch
Over the past three years, as a staff we
realized that we did not all have the background information to teach our
students about Canadian Aboriginal history, perspectives, and present day
matters. We had an increase to 13%
Aboriginal students in our school and we were not seeing pride in their
cultural background. Our other
students did not have this cultural awareness either. Teachers were reporting that many Aboriginal students had
poor attendance and were reluctant readers and writers.
New Professional Learning
We organized professional development
learning for our staff on Northern Inuit culture, both historically and
today. We searched out and bought
literature and art resources. We
invited guest speakers and sought expert advice through our school district
Aboriginal Team. As a staff we
continued to meet collaboratively to discuss literacy needs in the school.
Taking Action
Throughout the school year the Clan groups
met to learn about and experience the Northern Inuit cultural history and
present day way of life. We immersed the whole school for the first week in
September in mini-workshops and activities to introduce this Aboriginal
cultural perspective. We had monthly meetings with the Clan groups to further
explore and reinforce this learning.
In May, we had a celebration, which started with Northern Games in the
gym and then a gallery walk. All students walked around the school to see
learning projects completed by every student.
The majority of our classrooms had bi-weekly
lessons on our local Aboriginal language with Elder Jerry Brown. He
also provided drumming lessons to groups. For our literacy focus, all
primary teachers were committed to small guided reading groups and used the PM
Benchmark assessment. All teachers
also followed the school developed writing rubrics and used the student
exemplars for assessment and to teach next steps. They completed two school
writes as well. Intermediate teachers used DART assessment for reading
comprehension.
Checking
We were focusing this year on having students use student rubrics, and
writing strategies with a connection to Aboriginal stories and writings. We have included data from DART, and
the School Wide Writes, for our Aboriginal learners:
NY
|
A
|
M
|
E
|
|||||
%
|
#
|
%
|
#
|
%
|
#
|
%
|
#
|
|
DART
Fall
|
31%
|
4
|
54%
|
7
|
15%
|
2
|
0%
|
0
|
DART
Spring
|
21%
|
4
|
47%
|
9
|
32%
|
6
|
0%
|
0
|
Write
Fall
|
29%
|
9
|
42%
|
13
|
29%
|
9
|
0%
|
0
|
Write
Spring
|
16%
|
5
|
28%
|
9
|
47%
|
15
|
9%
|
3
|
We are creating ways to connect with parents, and increase their
presence at our school. We will
continue to look at ways to record participation & increase belonging in
our school community.
Reflections/Advice
Students were keen to learn about the North of Canada. We witnessed new learning and interest
in the peoples, animals, and lifestyle of the Inuit. Our celebration of learning was fascinating as each class
project was unique, and some classes did individual student projects. They all
represented learning and success with our project.
We have had a small group of teacher leaders
meet to organize Clan activities and focus. As we have made the Clan groups a part of our accepted
school culture for three years, it is time to pass more responsibility to the
whole staff. We have students that
represent all three groups of Aboriginal cultures so have committed to learning
about the third group – Métis – next school year. There is a small group of Aboriginal students whose
attendance is still poor. As a
result, academic progress is compromised.
We would like to find a way to reach these families more effectively.
A school wide focus on Aboriginal cultural
pride and acceptance is possible.
We aim for our students to learn acceptance and understanding for all
cultures.
2012-2013 AESN Case Study
William Konkin Elementary School
Inquiry Team Members: Colleen West,
Marian Mills, Erin Thiessen, Patty Bursey, Dave Beck, Lorraine McFarland,
Melissa Evans, Paula Laurie
AEEA Goal Area: Improve literacy for all Aboriginal
learners.
Question/Focus
We will focus on improving the quality of
oral expression among our students.
How
will structured opportunities to engage in A/B partner talk improve oral
language and affect reading fluency and comprehension as measured by the oral
language and reading performance standards?
Scanning
We noticed that...
· students
often use gestures rather than speaking.
· many
students show a paucity of vocabulary.
· in both
oral and written responses, students often use one-word or short-phrase
responses without elaboration. Many rarely use complete sentences.
· reading
fluency and comprehension are weak.
· descriptive
language is weak for our many ESD students.
· most of
our students are unable to sustain academic conversations.
· students
demonstrate poor listening skills.
· in the
face of challenges, students exhibit resilience and perseverance.
Focus
We are focusing on improving the quality of
oral expression among our students. We consider this important because the
ability to articulate ideas orally is foundational to effective relationships
with others, to written expression, and to the ability to express understanding
in reading and the content areas.
Hunch
What is leading to this situation for our
learners?
· Lack of
modeling, exposure, practice and opportunities for extended conversations.
· Lack of
understanding of criteria for being a good reader or about quality of oral
conversation and oral and written responses.
· Little
consistency regarding explicit teaching of strategies/criteria.
· Cultural: English is the second language of many
of our students. Their English is
strewn with dialect variations from their own Carrier language.
· We
wonder if the use of purposeful structured partner talk will improve oral
expression and have a collateral impact on reading fluency and comprehension.
New
Professional Learning
We formed a book study group within our
Literacy Meetings using the book Knee to Knee, Eye to Eye: Circling in on
Comprehension as a means of meeting the following goals:
· Study
resources related to criteria setting and learning intentions.
· Study
resources related to A/B partners
· Study
how to co-construct criteria with students.
· Learn and
try strategies and questions to use for purposeful structured talk.
· Establish
a group for discussing our learning and sharing ideas and classroom
experiences/observations with each other.
Taking
Action
1.
Proposal committee met to clarify: What would we like to do? Why is it important? What might it look like?
2.
Made proposal to staff to get participant
commitment to the project.
3.
Workload issues expressed by colleagues, and limits
to meeting/collaboration time, led us to using a portion of our monthly
literacy meetings for discussion and book study related to partner talk rather
than create a new set of meeting times.
4.
Since we started our project in January, we
realized that professional learning about partner talk would comprise a large
part of our focus for this year and we would need to continue our project next
year to really go deep enough changing our practice in our classrooms and make
a difference for kids.
5.
Each participant committed to participating in the
book study and to trying partner talk strategies with their students. At our
literacy meetings we have reported back to each other about the partner talk
and oral language activities that we were trying and how it was going.
Checking
Teachers have been using partner-talk
experiences to construct partner-talk criteria within their classrooms. They
report that they needed more time to refine their criteria and move beyond the
basics (knee to knee, eye contact, turn taking, on topic) and develop skills
that would improve the quality of partner talk (prompting, questioning,
clarifying, elaborating, piggybacking, connecting, extending). Teachers
reported that students were becoming more comfortable conversing with their
partners and were able to sustain conversations on topic for longer periods. Most
still require directions from the teacher about which questions/prompts to use
to illicit responses from their partners. Teachers felt that students need more
time and practice before progress in oral language skills will be measurable on
their criteria and performance standard rubrics.
Sources
for Baseline Evidence
Kindergarten Assessment, PM Benchmarks, DART
Monitoring
Impact
We looked at Kindergarten Assessment, PM
Benchmarks, DART assessments as well as teacher informal observations and
anecdotal reports of change noticed over the course of the inquiry so far. (See
chart showing results from some assessments)
Did we
make a difference? Some teacher
reflections:
“The
students have become much more comfortable speaking with their partners or to
the larger class/group.”
“I have
experienced many less “I don’t knows” and many more valuable conversations.”
“The
students are now able to both describe their own thoughts and discuss what
others have shared.”
“Partner talk is providing an
opportunity for all children to speak and listen to each other and voice their
ideas and understanding instead of just those who volunteer or are called
upon.”
“We
have learned that partner talk is a very effective tool for enhancing students’
language and vocabulary development, their enjoyment and understanding of
materials, and show their creative and critical thinking skills.”
“Now that they are comfortable sharing their thoughts with
partners I see that I need to show them how certain questions they can use may
help them to prompt their partner to provide more details and extend/elaborate
on their initial responses which still tend to be brief.”
Reflections/Advice
· In
order to be successful, many of our students required support to develop schema
and background understandings prior to engaging in partner talk.
· When
effective conversation skills are explicitly modeled and practiced students
improve in their ability to express ideas, listen to others, and participate
effectively in undirected academic conversations.
· Formative
feedback and student reflection on their conversations is helpful for
developing conversations skills.
· Partner
talk facilitates relationship and community building within the classroom.
· It
takes time, modeling, and practice with formative feedback and reflection to
develop partner and conversation skills. Next year, we will start in September
in order to provide our students with sufficient opportunity to practice and
develop those skills.
· To
increase conversation skills, we plan to utilize partner talk activities in all
subject areas.
· As we
move forward into next year, we want to establish better ways of measuring
student progress. We would like to use our classroom partner-talk rubrics to
pull-out/develop a set of common criteria/descriptors that we could track
across all classes in order to provide us with progress monitoring data more
specifically focused directly on the oral language/partner talk skills. We are
interested in how progress in oral language skills may impact other areas such
as reading and writing. It is our hunch that we may be able to see
corresponding improvements in comprehension and written expression among those
students who show improvements in oral language / partner talk skills.
Thanks very much to all of you for joining
with us and with colleagues from across BC and the Yukon in pursuit of the
three key network goals:
EVERY learner
crossing the stage with dignity, purpose and options.
ALL learners
leaving our settings more curious than when they arrive.
ALL learners with
an understanding and respect for Aboriginal perspectives.
Judy Halbert
& Linda Kaser
Networks
of Inquiry and Innovation
Aboriginal
Enhancement Schools Network
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