Honouring learning as a continuous process rather than a series of separate events, teachers design opportunities for students to develop an understanding of learning processes and to reflect on their learning journeys. The mindset shift to communicating student learning creates the conditions for personalized portfolios of learning that activate student voice, inform teacher practice, and engage parents in their child’s learning. Ultimately, transforming reporting to communicating student learning shifts the ownership from teachers to a shared ownership among students, parents and teachers. The Four Elements of Learning Documentation aim to provide parents a “window” into student learning through:
Authentic Evidence – Showing growth over time in what the learner KNOWS, can DO, and what they understand;
Quality Assessment – Information that informs both learning and teaching, shifting ownership to SHARED OWNERSHIP between learner, teacher, and parent;
Learning Standards – Evidence demonstrates growth in relation to the Learning Standards of B.C.’s Curriculum; and
Voice – Learning is deepened with the presence of STUDENT, TEACHER, and PARENT voice.
As you navigate through the resource, please note the PURPLE LIGHTBULB ICON that when clicked, connects you to “Behind the Scenes Thinking” – interviews of teachers sharing their thoughts, challenges, and insights related to the documentation.
Student Self-Reflection: Ideas36 Presentation at "Sparking Today's Learner"
Activity Details
Students in the IDEAS36 group were asked to create and present an “IGNITE” session about their project on sharing student voice at Surrey School’s Sparking Today’s Learner dinner on February 22, 2017. Students worked collaboratively with each other and with District staff, both digitally and in person, to prepare. This process resulted in a presentation that was extremely well received by all in attendance.
March 9, 2017
Secondary Student
As a self-aware, open-minded learner, I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to speak on the behalf of many Surrey School students and share what we, as a collective, believe can "Spark Today's Learner." Throughout the brainstorming and planning portion, Aaina, Gurkeet, and I had decided to talk about the key points and data that was retrieved from an Interview Matrix that we conducted with our IDEAS 36 group. This interview was conducted to learn what engages us, what disengages us, what prevents our good education system from becoming great, and how schools can be restructured to increase student engagement levels. To share our results and opinions with many teachers was a fantastic opportunity to have our student voices be heard and provide teachers with inspiration to spark the learners of today. As I reflect on our presentation, I believe that we were effective in conveying our message through realistic feedback, statistical data, personal perspectives, as well as motivational quotes and resonating words. Personally, I feel that our ideas and messages were useful for teachers to gain a deeper understanding on the minds of students today. What we shared with the audience was constructive feedback for their growth as teachers, and our collective growth as people that are a part of the education system. Another strength was our way of orally conveying our message because we spoke with sincerity and a passion for learning. However, personally, I feel that during my parts of the presentation, I may have spoken at too slow of a pace due to my unfamiliarity with a microphone that projected my voice that loudly. For future improvement, I can always practice more because practice will definitely allow for me to further improve my oral presentation skills. Another strength of our presentation was the PowerPoint slideshow that we put together because I think the pictures and slides were very suitable to each topic and provided teachers with a visual that connected our ideas and added visual appeal. Overall, I believe that our presentation was well put-together and our words had provided teachers with a new paradigm while also providing them with information on what they can do as our mentors to help us spark our inner fires from within. Moving forward, I will focus on my core competencies and on the areas that I have been working on improving. I also wish to share my experience with teachers at my own school so that all the teachers at my school can also see student perspective and think of ways to spark the passion for learning at our school. As I received much positive feedback from teachers in the audience at the Sparking Today's Learner Dinner Series Event, I am inspired to be a voice of tomorrow and share my student voice at my school. To get the most out of my learning experience, I can be the change that I wish to see in our education system; it all starts with a vision.
February 25, 2016
20 Views
Physics 11 Final Project: Rube Goldberg
Activity Details
Background: Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist (New York Post) that became famous for drawing very complicated machines that performed very simple tasks. A typical Rube Goldberg device could not perform a job as straightforward as turning on a faucet without the assistance of pulleys, fulcrums, mousetraps, cables, and gears. By the time the cartoonist retired, the term “Rube Goldbergian” had been enshrined in the language to describe anything characterized by excess complexity. Every time something in the Universe moves, heats, cools, or explodes, some form of energy is transferred from one piece of matter to another. Since there are many different forms of energy, there are also a large number of ways to transfer it. This is the principle of Physics behind the Rube-Goldberg contraptions. This project is designed to let you demonstrate your understandings of those transfers by creating some of your own.
Objective: To build a machine that uses a golf ball to a) pop a balloon b) ring a bell or c) turn on music
Documents
Rube Goldberg planning diagram.
Detailed diagram of our device with explanation of energy transformations and types of simple machines or devices that were used.
ASSESSMENT: EXTENDING
Artifact Source: Alyssa Becker, Surrey Schools
March 1, 2017
Secondary Student
Do you feel this project helped you develop your communication and collaboration skills? I definitely think this project helped build up my communication and collaboration skills, I would even say that the whole project relied on communication and collaboration. You get these creative and innovative ideas that come to your mind when building something such as the Rube Goldberg machine and it's how you explain your idea to the group and integrate it into the project that makes it work in the first place. It was interesting to work as a group because how we started working on our project was that we all brainstormed our own ideas and kind of jus mashed them together in hopes that something would work. We would often see something like how my domino/string/ball combination could combine with Akheil's scissor to string idea while it previously connected with Fayaz's crossbow to pop the balloon; it was a lot of communication and collaboration to get our ideas to mesh together easily and there were definitely disagreements at times of what should stay and what should go in the project but overall a lot of compromise and teamwork went into building the project and I definitely enjoyed the process.
March 1, 2017
Secondary Student
How did this project help you develop your problem solving skills, and learn to think more critically? After 123 tries, I definitely can tell there was a difference in my problem solving skills and analysis of a situation. For every single failure we had, we would look at the situation and ask ourselves " What went wrong?", "What can we do to fix the situation?", and "Can we replace the part of the machine or scrap the idea for the sake of the project?". Critical thinking means evaluating the situation and using all the information you have to make a judgment. Often times we had to make a judgment call on whether or not to keep a part of a project, to fix an idea, or to move around a part of a project to make it work. I feel this project was beneficial in a sense that it didn't just help build up my idea of physics alone, it helped build up my critical thinking skills that are way more crucial to the "real world".
March 1, 2017
Secondary Student
Did you find working within the criteria helped you to think more creatively? or did you find them more of a hindrance? There were definitely both some pros and cons when using the criteria to build our Rube Goldberg machine. Our group had a lot of ideas to try and kill time and helped with our creative process. Other requirements such as not allowing to stall for me than 5 seconds, while fair, also made it so some of our other ideas would not be allowed. Often times when we were testing, something would get stuck just a little too long and we'd have to scrap or revise the idea. Overall, the criteria was very fair and while we gained ideas on how to make our Rube Goldberg because of the criteria, we also lost some; a bit of give and take I would say.
March 1, 2017
Secondary Student
What would you do differently if you were to approach this project again? I think the reason we went up to 123 attempts is because when we would test our device, we would test it as a whole circuit. Often times when one part worked, another would stop. This was getting very frustrating as sometimes we would have the same contraption fail over a dozen times and when it finally worked, a different contraption would malfunction. For example, the box and arrow wouldn't pop the balloon a lot or the scissors wouldn't properly cut the string when the book fell on it a couple times. If we were to approach this again, one of the pieces we would fix is fine-tuning each individual contraption until it had a 100% success rate. Sure it was fun seeing what went wrong and learning from our mistakes, but it would have been much more rewarding and saved us time to build more contraptions had we had everything working 99.9% of the time. Another thing, while we didn't have too much control over, was supplies. I think we would have been a lot more creative in our contraptions had we had a higher abundance of supplies. Stuff like digging through my entire house on the first day of the project or each member pitching in 5-10$ and making a trip to the dollar store to buy a lot of stuff would have been a lot more helpful in seeing what was available. When we first started the project, we kind of just thought of ideas randomly and then seeing if we had the supplies for it or not. If we did this again, our main priority would be gathering a lot of supplies first.
March 2, 2017
Surrey Educators
Excellent! Please see your assessment rubric above.
December 14, 2016
29 Views
Escaping Fort McMurray’s Fire
Activity Details
Background On May 1, 2016, a wildfire began southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta. On May 3, it swept through the community, destroying approximately 2,400 homes and buildings and forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Albertan history. It continued to spread across northern Alberta and into Saskatchewan,[consuming forested areas and impacting Athabasca oil sands operations until mid-June when rain helped firefighters to hold the fire. It may become the costliest disaster in Canadian history. Your task…explain the impact of the fire on the community, create a survival plan to escape the fire, and analyze some of the complex issues of evacuating a massive number of residents. Before you can work on a rich task you first need to demonstrate a minimum proficiency level in your basic knowledge of math content. In this case, the content I am looking for is decimals, percentages and proportions. You will write an open-ended learning standards test and I will conference with you after to give you feedback and what you need to work on . Once ready, you will start the rich task (above) Learning Standards:
I can engage in problem-solving experiences that are connected to place, story, and cultural practices that are relevant to the community
I can demonstrate and use my understanding of mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), decimals, percents, ratios, and area to solve problems
Documents
My Self-Assessment of Core Competencies
My calculations
My calculations
Artifact Source: Tinh Ngo, Surrey Schools
TEACHER FEEDBACK:
MEETING EXPECTATIONS - Overall great job on the assignment.
Your thought and calculation process were very well laid out. One improvement I would suggest is to make more clear assumptions about question 5. How many lanes were there? Is there a gap between each car? Overall great work on demonstrating knowledge of content.
In terms of communication, your feedback was very detailed. I like the fact that you related your childhood memories. I agree with you in that you need to slow down and talk to yourself about different steps in solving the problems.
You provide great insight on how a forest fire can impact so many different aspects of a community. What are some other things that you can do to help the victims of this tragedy?
December 15, 2016
Secondary Student
WHAT I DID WELL: I think I am in between proficient and exemplary because I understand how to do this and most importantly, how it helps you on an everyday basis. This teaches you how to be smart with your money. When I was younger and I would go to the grocery store with my parents my dad would always know what's cheaper to buy between two items. I always wondered how he does it and now I know. I can figure out problems like buying the cheaper item by myself.
December 15, 2016
Secondary Student
AREAS TO FOCUS ON: When a question get long I get confused on what to do first and in what order. That usually results in my asking someone for help. I get confused very easily. Another think I need to improve on is putting a fraction in lowest terms faster. It might take me a while but I eventually get it, especially when they are big uncommon numbers.
December 16, 2016
Secondary Student
HOW WILL I GET THERE? To fix my confusion I simply just have to read the question carefully and slower. Read it carefully and explain to myself what to do as I read. Think about what I'm going to do step by step before I start. And for putting fractions into lowest terms, I think I'm going to have to know my multiplication chart better. I want to start improving ASAP and I think it will take me a couple weeks to improve to be the best I can.
May 27, 2017
21 Views
Dance 9 - Final Portfolio Assessment
Activity Details
Each dancer’s journey is unique. Depending on your level and your individual strengths and challenges, progress and improvement will look different for everyone. While it is important not to compare yourself to others, it is essential to able to recognize the investment you have made to improving your skills and to identify your areas of growth accurately. Please read the following instructions carefully and complete your Dance Portfolio honestly.
INSTRUCTIONS
Each page is dedicated to one of the four curricular competencies of our dance curriculum. Complete Reflection Questions and Self-Assessments as instructed on each page. For the reflection questions, you are welcome to answer in the space provided OR you may choose one of the following formats: video response, audio response, or typed-document (Microsoft Word files ending in .doc or .docx).
Collect all video/photo evidence from your own devices and/or the Class Google Drive Folder. Upload them to the appropriate FreshGrade Activity.Complete the Dance Work Habits / Professionalism Rubric. Upload a photo of the completed document to the appropriate Fresh Grade Activity.
Complete the last page of the booklet and specify your proposed Final Letter Grade for the course. Upload a photo of the completed document to the appropriate Fresh Grade Activity.
And That’s it! You are done! Congratulations on a successful dance season!
Student Self-Reflection: Our Story, Our Future - Voices from Indigenous Youth in Surrey
Activity Details
Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity on display. Students worked collaboratively with peers and industry experts to tell their story of life as an Aboriginal learner. Core Competencies:
I can work with others to achieve a common goal; I can take on roles and responsibilities in a group.
I understand that my identity is made up of many interconnected aspects (such as life experiences, family history, heritage, peer groups).
I can describe my attributes, characteristics, skills, and strengths.
Students then reflected on their experience, what it meant to them, what strengths it demonstrated in them, and next steps in their learning and development.
Documents
March 31, 2017
Secondary Student
I think my favourite part was I walked into the little recording session, like the little area in the preschool that we had set up. And I was not so excited about it's because when we are all talking about it everyone was like super talented and I was like, "I'm nothing compared to you people." I went in and I sang a little bit and all I heard from the other room was people going "What was that?!" And I'm like, "That was me I'm sorry." And they're like, "Don't apologize don't you ever apologize." So now I'm a lot more confident with my singing.
March 31, 2017
Secondary Student
I am Métis. Other than that, I really haven't dove into it. This project has definitely helped me. I wore a Métis belt. I learned how to tie it ... I don't know a lot about my history, my backstory, but I want to figure it out.
April 4, 2017
Secondary Student
Check out my video reflection above!
February 22, 2017
8 Views
Student Self-Reflection: My presentation at "Sparking Today's Learner"
Activity Details
Students from across the Surrey School District were asked to create and present an “IGNITE” session at Surrey School’s Sparking Today’s Learner dinner on February 22, 2017. Students worked collaboratively with peers, teachers, and with District staff, both digitally and in person, to prepare a presentation about a significant learning experience.
One of Jae’s goals as a writer this year has been to develop his communication skills by sharing information about topics that are important to him. In this piece, Jae uses structures and elements of story to deepen his awareness of self, family, and community. We have been working on brainstorming important turning points in his life experiences.
By recounting these experiences as a student and as a budding entrepreneur, Jae is deepening his understanding of identity (and its interconnected nature) and increasing his confidence in communicating what is important to him. In this piece, Jae explored various structures of story using a variety of literary elements such as imagery, point-of-view, and tone. By plotting his story, Jae was able to engage his audience and explain how his evolving values affect the choices in his life. Bravo, Jae!
February 23, 2017
Secondary Student
It was great to collaborate with my English teacher, Ms. Elliot, the entire time which was really awesome as I got to learn a lot about speech writing and the process of writing speeches as well as developing a connection with my teacher. This process of writing my speech made me really think about my life and my past experiences and how that shapes who I am now and my current morals. It connected with my identity because, through this process, I realized how much I value education and our school system and what could be done to make it better for me, my peers and future generations. I now feel like I have a sort of "moral obligation" to make some sort of change for other youth and I now feel a lot more motivated to do so. I think I did pretty good job delivering my speech how I practiced it and getting the reactions that I was hoping for. After giving my speech, the whole process was incredibly memorable and I loved every part of it. I'd probably like to get better at giving speeches and feeling more comfortable doing them. (And memorizing them!) Something like this totally comes with practice. I'm not sure how I would practice, but if any more opportunities come my way to give speeches (if ever), I will for sure take them and then spend more time prepping and practicing for the delivery so that I can get better and better because of how much I loved doing this. Collaborating with my teacher was really helpful so in the future, I would definitely reach out to people I trust for their feedback. This opportunity made me find a new thing I love to do and I hope I get more chances in the future to do this sort of thing because it was so much fun and incredible.
Learning Experiences: In Math 9, students have developed several competencies to help them become good mathematicians. This include the ability to
i) apply proper mathematical procedures;
ii) communicate and represent thinking using visual diagrams;
iii) make connections amongst different math concepts; and
iv) use reasoning skills to solve real-life problems.
This year, we have developed these skills by learning about rational numbers, exponents, polynomials, geometry, patterns, solving equations, and inequalities. Our students have also learned how to use self-assessment strategies to monitor and guide their own learning.
Documents
Artifact Source: Sharon Lau, Surrey Schools
November 28, 2016
Secondary Student
One topic I demonstrate a good understanding... The one thing that I really understood well was the polynomial course, especially the multiplying and dividing part of polynomials. I am good at grouping like terms and applying the strategies and rules for the questions. Since I was young I always did my times tables and that really helped me out to memorize my multiplication and division on the spot. I also think that memorizing my time tables helped me on the long run because it helped me with exponents as well. When I was studying for the test I focused a lot on the word problems side and less on the polynomials because I was struggling a lot with connecting and reflecting. Polynomials is my strong suit in this course of math because I'm good at the reasoning and analysis of the polynomials word problems. I should've studied till 2 in the morning reviewing and studying more on the polynomials, exponents and rationals.
November 28, 2016
Secondary Student
One topic I need to work on... The one thing that I still need to work on is surface area equations and word problems. I'm not very good at geometry. I find it hard to imagine the shape in my mind and find its attributes. I know the formulas on how to calculate surface areas for prisms, cylinders, triangles and cubes but I kind of get confused when some part of the shape is missing or you have to build it yourself. I did remember the part where I'm supposed to push the shape in or out to make it a whole but that got me overwhelmed during the test. That's not my strong suit. Even though I had a 3 page back and forth sheet it still didn't stick in my head. This taught me that I have to work ten times harder than other people to study for the tests which I will do without a doubt. I strongly believe that for next year I will study more and review to get the word problems on surface areas correct and get out the clues from the words. I knew that the surface area questions on the test was pretty easy but if I had more time or did that question first I would have been able to get it right becuase all I had to do was multiply by 2.
November 28, 2016
Secondary Student
Which of the following skills have you improved the most? Reflect and explain the strategies and methods you have used to help and make this improvement? ... Surprisingly from the following skills the place where I improved the most throughout this semester is connecting and reflecting word problems. I finally got the word problems on the test right. I have a hard time getting the clues out of the question and putting it in an equation but I have a solution for that. For the final exam the strategies and methods I used was that I made a study sheet and I reviewed all my past notes. I made a 3 page back and forth study sheet so I would not forget the rules, went online to the math links website and tested myself, went to the library to study, asked myself questions from the textbook and ran over my past notes again and again. Another method I used during my tests for word problems were to highlight the main subjects in the sentences for that I knew what was important and not. During the final exam I also brought my highlighters which helped me with the questions a lot. When I was preparing for the test I got so caught up with studying the word problems that I forgot about everything else which led me to getting some other questions wrong like polynomials but really I know I know them.
Honouring learning as a continuous process rather than a series of separate events, teachers design opportunities for students to develop an understanding of learning processes and to reflect on their learning journeys. The mindset shift to communicating student learning creates the conditions for personalized portfolios of learning that activate student voice, inform teacher practice, and engage parents in their child’s learning. Ultimately, transforming reporting to communicating student learning shifts the ownership from teachers to a shared ownership among students, parents and teachers. The Four Elements of Learning Documentation aim to provide parents a “window” into student learning through:
As you navigate through the resource, please note the PURPLE LIGHTBULB ICON that when clicked, connects you to “Behind the Scenes Thinking” – interviews of teachers sharing their thoughts, challenges, and insights related to the documentation.
Secondary Student
As a self-aware, open-minded learner, I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to speak on the behalf of many Surrey School students and share what we, as a collective, believe can "Spark Today's Learner." Throughout the brainstorming and planning portion, Aaina, Gurkeet, and I had decided to talk about the key points and data that was retrieved from an Interview Matrix that we conducted with our IDEAS 36 group. This interview was conducted to learn what engages us, what disengages us, what prevents our good education system from becoming great, and how schools can be restructured to increase student engagement levels. To share our results and opinions with many teachers was a fantastic opportunity to have our student voices be heard and provide teachers with inspiration to spark the learners of today. As I reflect on our presentation, I believe that we were effective in conveying our message through realistic feedback, statistical data, personal perspectives, as well as motivational quotes and resonating words. Personally, I feel that our ideas and messages were useful for teachers to gain a deeper understanding on the minds of students today. What we shared with the audience was constructive feedback for their growth as teachers, and our collective growth as people that are a part of the education system. Another strength was our way of orally conveying our message because we spoke with sincerity and a passion for learning. However, personally, I feel that during my parts of the presentation, I may have spoken at too slow of a pace due to my unfamiliarity with a microphone that projected my voice that loudly. For future improvement, I can always practice more because practice will definitely allow for me to further improve my oral presentation skills. Another strength of our presentation was the PowerPoint slideshow that we put together because I think the pictures and slides were very suitable to each topic and provided teachers with a visual that connected our ideas and added visual appeal. Overall, I believe that our presentation was well put-together and our words had provided teachers with a new paradigm while also providing them with information on what they can do as our mentors to help us spark our inner fires from within. Moving forward, I will focus on my core competencies and on the areas that I have been working on improving. I also wish to share my experience with teachers at my own school so that all the teachers at my school can also see student perspective and think of ways to spark the passion for learning at our school. As I received much positive feedback from teachers in the audience at the Sparking Today's Learner Dinner Series Event, I am inspired to be a voice of tomorrow and share my student voice at my school. To get the most out of my learning experience, I can be the change that I wish to see in our education system; it all starts with a vision.