A.J. McLellan Elementary

Our learners at A.J. McLellan Elementary engage in a variety of learning encompassing communicating, reading, writing, and social emotional learning each day.  

A focus on strong communication and social emotional development is at the heart of what we do at A.J. McLellan because we understand the ability to speak, write, express, and think in a way that lets our students communicate effectively and think critically about our world and their lives is key to our student’s success as they move through their schooling and on into their adult life. 

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is about members of the school community acquiring and applying the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to:

• understand and manage emotions
• set and achieve positive goals
• feel and show empathy for others
• establish and maintain positive relationships, and
• make responsible decisions.

~ The Casel 5 Framework 

Developing strong social and emotional capacities allows students to be ready and able to learn. These components are integral to the Core Competencies, including communication, and are woven throughout the curricular areas.

At A.J. McLellan, we are working towards establishing an environment where all students feel a sense of belonging and safety through the development of:

• Safe and caring communities
• Positive personal identities
• Explicit SEL skills
• Communication skills

Learning Goals:

• We will use language and texts to express and explore our personal, communal, and cultural identities
• We can interact appropriately and respectfully to understand each other by working together. This can be done in partners, groups, debates, literature circles or other ways. We demonstrate empathy as we listen, agree or disagree, and build on each other’s ideas

Students across all grade have learning opportunities aimed at  increasing the communication and social and emotional literacy success rates.  

Cohort

Our learning cohort focus in 2021/2022 has been our grade seven group of learners. This diverse group of learners has experienced a wide range of educational experiences in the past three years. They have experienced online learning, a Blended Learning program where some students learned online in the mornings and came to the school in the afternoons, and learning in person with restrictions in place to keep them safe. They are eager to be with one another and to participate in all school activities that come their way. They are hungry for these experiences and ecstatic to have these opportunities. They are learning how to interact with each other and treat each other with respect in all areas of their interactions - face to face and online. Navigating social media, digital citizenship, and personal identity is complicated and skills based. It is not inherent how to navigate complex social and personal domains - our students are learning these skills. 

Positive Personal Identity

AJ. McLellan learners are establishing a positive personal identity by exploring what makes them each unique individuals. They are able to use personal impromptu reflections to both celebrate their own identities and demonstrate an understanding that every person has qualities to be celebrated. In this Grade 7 class, students have spent the year exploring their identities as outlined in Adrienne Gear's Powerful Understanding. As they explore their traits through the use of picture books, class discussions, and activities, they begin to gain an understanding of all the unique qualities that make them who they are. 

"My name connects to my identity because I love soccer and you play soccer on a field and my name means 'field' so I think my name connects to my identity by what I like to do. Another thing is that my middle name is the same as Amira's so it shows that Amira is a part of my identity because we have grown up together." ~ Taran B.

"Your identity will tell you what's best for letting your feelings out (and not in a bad way). In conclusion, feelings show who you are, even the negative feelings"  ~ Chloe M.

"In order to manage your feelings, you need to stop letting the emotions control you. Calming yourself own when you feel angry or too giddy can help stop you from doing irrational things. Breathing exercises, communicating with friends and family, seeking professional help, and just taking a moment to pause and relax can all help in putting a leash around your feelings and emotions." ~ Rishabh G.

Relationship Skills

Our students are learning how to use oral language to maintain positive relationships by demonstrate appreciation, celebrating successes, airing concerns and problem solving through regular meetings with their classroom communities. Communication skills and formats are vital to this learning. 

Here students are participating in their weekly Circle Meeting. In particular, this is the ‘thank-you’ circle where students acknowledge and express gratitude  to peers who have had a positive effect on them throughout the preceding week.

We will use language and texts to express and explore our personal, communal, and cultural identities

Through the lens of Adrienne Gear's Power Understanding, students showed growth in literacy skills. 

Our grade seven cohort began September 2021 with 13% of students demonstrating emerging literacy skills and 87% demonstrating on track literacy skills for their age. As of May 2022, no students were emerging. 75% of students were on track in their literacy skills and 25% were now demonstrating literacy skills that exceed grade level expectations.

As a diverse group of learners, we will continue to prioritize literacy skills including oral language, written, and reading to increase our ability to communicate. We will practice understanding how the use of language contributes to our identity, environment, and community. We believe in providing students with learning opportunities relating to their interests and abilities. In our classrooms and other learning environments we will provide holistic literacy opportunities such as:  

1. Supporting the Big Idea 'Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world', students will continue to explore their identities using Adrienne Gear's Power Understanding as a lens with which to use to uncover.
   The book states:

In these challenging times, teaching children to think critically and reflectively AND be compassionate, responsible and caring citizens at the same time is a tall order. Powerful Understanding explores effective ways to build social emotional skills and help students make connections, question what they read, and reflect on their learning as they develop into stronger readers and learners. Strategic and critical thinking strategies revolve around core anchor books that help integrate thinking into everything you teach—from social responsibility, to immigration, to life cycles. This highly readable book includes a wealth of classroom examples and extensive hands-on activities designed to help students to think more deeply, learn more widely, and develop a more powerful understanding of what it means to be a responsible and compassionate person.

We plan to expand the use of these strategies to other grade groups in the school. We will provide support and resources so learners are able to have rich instruction combining Social and Emotional Learning and Literacy. 

We will also continue using the following literacy methods that foster communication skills, student connection and Social and Emotional awareness:

• SEL shared reading books  
• Word Mapping 
• Story Workshop'
• Daily Literacy routines
• Readers' Theatre
• Literacy centres
• An exploration of the science of reading

2. Loose parts and story workshop provide a safe, secure, interactive and creative environment for all our learners (primary and intermediate) to develop literacy and social skills. It provides students with an authentic experience to imagine, play, write, edit, revise, publish and share their stories. Story workshop also provides opportunities for students to experience instruction to model and focus on vocabulary, literacy elements, oral language, writing skills and focus on a variety of different literacy skills through mini lessons to support a balanced literacy program. We are excited to continue to embark on our Story Workshop journey as we continue to invite all members of our classroom communities to build creative and meaningful stories- real and imagined through the use of open-ended rich materials.
How to:

• Provide in-service and professional development for staff and explore mini lesson possibilities to foster a balanced literacy program      
• Continue to support early literacy interventions to help build and develop strong literacy foundations for our students    
• Continue to integrate First Peoples in our story workshop lessons             
• Continue to grow our shared materials on our story workshop cart to provide a variety of engaging opportunities for our learners                      
• Continue to focus on integrating and weaving social emotional learning into literacy based activities                          
• Continue to look at ways to collaborate and team teach (LST support, Library Collaboration, grade groupings)                     
• Provide opportunities for students to share their stories during assemblies  
• Provide opportunities for parents to view documentation through in school visits and digital portfolios                     
• Showcase story workshop on gallery walls to share learning with school community
• Continue to source rich storybooks to support story workshop sessions             
• Look into and further integrate the use of technology and apps for documentation (Book Creator, shadow puppet, etc) 
• Ask Helping Teachers in to model using Loose Parts to demonstrate deep understanding of self and curricular content areas in Social Studies and Science in intermediate grades. 

We can interact appropriately and respectfully to understand each other by working together. This can be done in partners, groups, debates, or literature circles. We demonstrate empathy as we listen, agree or disagree, and build on each other’s ideas

Our learners have great capacity and increasing resiliency. Through the focus of literacy, our learners demonstrated growth in perseverance, relationship skills, and social awareness. These important Social Emotional Learning skills are embedded in the BC Curriculum through the Core Competencies and weave themselves through each curricular area. Growth in the area of Social Emotional learning helps our learners grow in the areas of reading, writing, and communicating. Our focus on reading, writing, and communicating through a lens of Social Emotional Learning is positively impacting our learners.  

Long-term self regulation requires adapting present behaviour to achieve a goal in the future e.g., "If something isn't going according to my plan, I change my actions to try and reach my goal."

Short-term self regulation is about impulse control. It requires adapting behaviour or emotions to meet an immediate goal. e.g., "I can calm myself down when I am excited or upset."

As of the fall of 2021, Intermediate students at A.J. McLellan score slightly higher than district averages in the Medium range of long-term self regulation. In short-term self regulation, students score significantly higher in the low range. 

We will be collecting this data again this coming fall and expect to see growth in these areas due to the focused learning that has taken place in the 2021/2022 school year.

Below are examples of ways teachers foster Social Emotional Learning in their classrooms, and how they will continue to keep SEL at the core of their instruction.

1. Self Awareness 

• Mind-Body Connection 
• Zones of Regulation 
• Mindset 
• Self Perception

2. Social Awareness

• Sharing circles: Being mindful of one’s place in the group, connecting with others
• Gratitude circle
• Compliment circle
• Social Justice/Reformation 
• Equity and Diversity through Literacy
• Perspective taking 
• Diversity Club

3. Responsible Decision Making 

• Restorative Justice
• Problem solving strategies 

4. Relationship Skills

• School Wide Events
• Classroom Collaboration 
• Trusted Adults
• Gratitude expression
• Building Healthy Relationships

5. Self Management

• Soft Start: morning circle, mindful strategies, gradual entry activities 
• Brain Break: brain gym 
• Zones of Regulation 
• Goal Setting 
• Sustaining Healthy Boundaries
• Creating calm spaces for students