Bear Creek Elementary 22-23
OUR CONTEXT
At Bear Creek Elementary, we promote interactive learning, mutual respect, responsibility for learning, and a sense of belonging. We pride ourselves on providing a welcoming school environment that embraces community involvement. Building leadership skills is a goal which is built into all our academic and social responsibility experiences. We continually work towards creating a culture that embraces the diversity of our students and an understanding of each student’s individual story.
It is important for us to provide support to our learners as it makes them feel safe, cared for, and allows them to thrive, both in and out of the classroom. We work in partnership with Community Schools providing opportunities for our students to participate in several different programs: ‘Girls in Action’, PAWS After-School Program, and Star Power. Empowering our students to make them feel that they have opportunities to positively impact their school and community is a focus. Our students from kindergarten to grade seven participated in our school wide musical 'Pirates'. Students in primary and intermediate grades have the opportunity to participate in Choir and Bhangra Dance Club. Students in the intermediate grades can participate in soccer, volleyball, basketball, badminton and track & field. Band is offered to our Grade 7 students who are interested in learning to play an instrument. Several of our classes at Bear Creek participate in Classroom Champions, a program designed to mentor the next generation of leaders by fostering a growth mindset. Classroom Champions is embedded in our school climate and empowers students to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
Our students are inclusive, welcoming, eager to learn, happy at school, inquisitive, imaginative, and energetic. In addition, our students display resiliency and perseverance, and are respectful and supportive of one another. Our students learn best through play, interactive and hands-on learning activities, and inquiry projects. Our learners are eager to share their learning and mentor their peers. Bear Creek students have a passion for literacy and love to read. We foster this passion with quality literature and resources that support learning in all curricular areas.
We take pride in our students’ strengths and their ability to support each other in achieving their personal and academic successes. At Bear Creek, our students strive to be compassionate, accountable, respectful, empathetic and safe.
OUR LEARNERS
OUR LEARNERS
The core competency of communication is embedded across all areas of learning in BC’s curriculum. It is central to supporting our learners develop their literacy skills as they collaborate, problem solve, share ideas, exchange information, and express individuality. Our students have made significant progress in developing literacy skills and continue to demonstrate growth.
Our learners use personal experience and knowledge to connect to text and make meaning. They can share what makes them unique through words and images, and use digital media for sharing online.
Our Grade 3 learners made a collaborative book showcasing foods that represent them. We explored a non-fiction picturebook that features food as a way to express identity and honour culture. All learners identified a food that expresses their identity and honours their culture. They presented these connections in pages to be compiled in a shared ebook. In the process, our learners explored a variety of text features, revised and edited, worked together, and proudly contributed to the school and wider communities.
https://read.bookcreator.com/cg4seNN1RXDtJ8UYLEyPNpMaBAta4uv_BhJUMAvUt-4/eHaEhTWQTY-eXaOu71BKaA
Our learners use design thinking to complete tasks which require multiple tools and technologies and develop communication skills to share their learning. The students were able to collaborate, problem solve, share ideas, exchange information, and express individuality when completing the task. The students learned to reflect on the processes and evaluate their ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a group, including their ability to share their learning.
Students in grade six and seven were tasked with designing a “user friendly” fictitious application that promotes healthy living (e.g. exercise, nutrition, water). In partners, they created a plan based on the co-created criteria generated with the class. Students used a powerpoint presentation to share their final product, along with completing a set of reflection questions.
Our learners collaborate, communicate, and think critically & reflectively. The students develop the skills to communicate a design process and a business plan . Our learners are able to demonstrate the role of entrepreneurship in designing and making products.
Our students enthusiastically participated in an educational program that helped develop their entrepreneurial and marketing mindset. They worked together to create a business plan, design a product, and complete market research prior to our school’s Entrepreneur Fair. Students earned money and donated a portion of their profits to a local charity. Afterwards, students shared with others their reflections on what worked well, and what they would try differently in the future. Overall, they had fun gaining real-life career experiences by exploring the world of business!
Our learners develop various communication skills when participating in musical learning opportunities. They learn to communicate effectively using strategies and skills intentionally. Our learners developed an understanding that strong communication skills provide a bridge between peoples’ learning, their personal and social identity, and the world in which they interact.
Students performed in a school-wide musical production to learn about expression through drama and music. Our classes discussed the musical elements of a strong performance including vocal health and tone, dynamics, accents, rhythmic syncopation, togetherness and expression. The students learned that communicating and expressing oneself involves the ability to impart and exchange information, experiences, and ideas. The students explored different communication forms and strategies. By creating these strategic plans, students were able to prepare and perform recognizing that this learning is often part of the performance experience.
OUR FOCUS
Each and every day, among the variety of learning experiences presented to our learners, there is a focus on thinking, reading, writing, and communication in all curricular areas. The goal is to build strong literacy foundations that are fundamental for students’ participation in today’s world.
In the classroom, student participate in learning opportunities that are purposeful and intentionally designed. These learning experiences are relevant, meaningful, and support students in achieving their goals. Our Student Learning Plan documents the learning journey of four cohorts of students from kindergarten to grade seven at Bear Creek Elementary in developing literacy skills. Our learning cohorts focused on the Curricular Big Idea, “Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and the world”. The First Peoples Principle of Learning, 'Learning is embedded in memory, history and story', was encapsulated in our learning experiences.
Our students’ learning goals include:
- Developing students' ability to use personal experiences, and knowledge to connect to stories and other texts to make meaning.
- Developing students' ability to make meaningful connections text to self, text to text and text to the world
- Developing students' ability to make sense of what they are reading by asking questions, making inferences, and creating mental images to comprehend text
In primary, our learners participated in variety of strategies to develop meaningful connections to characters' experiences in stories. The learners would demonstrate their connections orally, in drawings, and in written work.
- Small group and whole class story time which included discussions focusing on story/picture walks using vocabulary to help identify and name feelings, big ideas, character perspective and problem solving
- Questioning strategies - thought provoking questions which help build connections to personal stories
- Literacy centres focused on pre-reading and pre-writing skills
- Strategies which support students to make connections from text to self, text to text and text to the world. Students will be given opportunities to the draw/write their connections and explain their thinking.
Strategies were used to build background knowledge. Students were exposing to a variety of literacy resources including videos:
Students are watching a video in which students are sharing about their fears.
Students brainstormed everything they know about fears with their group members.
Students were exposed to a variety of books about the same topic, During the read aloud the teacher talked through the connections she made, and students shared what they were thinking. The students brainstormed everything they knew about fears with group members.
Our intermediate learners participated in variety of learning experiences in which strategies were introduced to guide the students to make deeper connections to literacy by connecting reading, songs, and poetry to their own experiences. other text and the world around them.
Our second intermediate cohort was exposed to a variety of sources to encourage students to make connections. The class started with two short films, then a non-fiction article about a topic that is relevant to them, and lastly, a fictional story. The student were introduced to a set of guiding questions to help the students construct meaningful connections. There was a focus on recognizing and identifying the role of personal, social and cultural contexts, values and perspectives in texts.
OUR NEXT STEPS
Evidence of our students’ learning demonstrates that our literacy focus is positively impacting our four cohorts of learners. Evidence of our learners' progress was gathered using a proficiency scale and anecdotal data. Teachers from all four cohorts indicated that the learners demonstrated growth in relation to our literacy goals:
With our early primary cohort, the teacher's professional opinion reported that many of the students were in the Emerging to Developing range in their ability to make text to self connections during the initial assessment. In the final assessment, the classroom teachers reported that the most of the primary learners demonstrated growth and were in the Developing to Proficient range . This data was gathered through observations, anecdotal notes, and one to one conversations. These learners were able utilize their learning to create their own stories using manipulatives in Story Workshop. Our learners were able to create their own stories which were personal and meaningful. The students' stories about their own family members, experiences they have had, and places they had travelled . Our learners demonstrated a sense of pride completing the stories about family members, experiences they have had and then sharing with the class.
One Student's Story
This one primary learner in September did not speak to his teacher and demonstrated little emotion. By April, this student had formed a strong connection to his teacher and would converse with her daily which was a big change from beginning of the school year. The student smiles, seems less frightened, participates more in group activities, and eager to share his stories with the whole class. Academically, letter formations are more defined, his pictures are more detailed, he is able to copy words from the word wall. His stories have a beginning and an end and he is able to follow a story structure. He has also started to include family members and friends into his stories. His overall confidence has grown in all aspects of school life.
In another primary cohort, growth in the students' ability to make text to self connections and text to text connections. was demonstrated. The students were able to make connections between their own experiences and the stories they were reading. Students demonstrated the ability to focus on specific details in their own lives when making connections to the characters in the stories. The evidence demonstrates that students progressed from Emerging to both Developing and Proficient.
Proficiency Scale October 2022 Initial Assessment April 2023 Final Assessment Emerging . 72% 22% Developing 28% 56% Proficient 0% 22%
A Second's Student's Story
Our teachers reported that the students enjoyed the intentional exposure to a variety of books, videos, and newspaper articles about topics that they were interested in or had a connection to. It was also noted that students demonstrated a significant improvement in the student’s ability to make text-to-self connections and text-to-text connections. They were able to think about moments that happened to them and stories that they were reminded of. Students started to understand the importance of being specific when making a connection and trying to focus on one story or one moment in their life.
The data for our intermediate learners demonstrated that through introducing and practicing reading strategies focusing on making connections and inferring, the students have gradually improved in their ability to make connections: text to self, text to text and text to the world. Although the progress is not dramatic, fewer students are falling in the emerging range and more students are proficient.
Another Student's Voice
In October this student demonstrated 'Developing' ability to make text to self connections.
In the second assessment, this student was able to make connections to the character in the story and provide specific details to support the connection. This same student could not complete this task independently in September. This progress can be attributed to the direct and explicit instruction focusing on making connection to text, videos, poems and songs.
In our second intermediate cohort, the students explored a variety of sources to encourage text to self, text to text and text to the world connections. The students started with two short films, then a non-fiction article about a topic that is relevant to them, and lastly, a fictional story..
The second assessment demonstrated tremendous growth in the students' ability to make text to self connections. There was a 25% increase in the students in the proficient range. The students were able to express in detail their personal connections to the short film in writing.
The teacher reported that students were most proficient in their text-to-self connections. Students often struggled the most in their text-to-text connections. Based on teacher knowledge and observations, many students were not reading in their free time, so they had challenges making connections to other texts. Moreover, texts presented in class were often in different subject areas, so it could be difficult for students to make connections across curricular content (though not impossible!). Students were better able to make text-to-world connections in comparison to text to text.
Moving Forward
At Bear Creek Elementary we are proud of the great progress our students have made in learning to make connections which included text to self, text to text and text to the world. Based on evidence of students’ progress in relation to our learning goals, our next steps will include:
Continuing to embrace the science of reading and actively using instructional strategies to expose students to real-world events that are happening in their community. Provide opportunities to make explicit examples of text to self, text to text and text to world connections in our daily lives and the 'First Peoples Principles of Learning'.
Going deeper by reading a variety of genres to help students learn text structures and language that students can transfer to their own writing.
Exploring more reading strategies throughout the year in connection with their own identity. Understanding the text is the first step, and then actually being able to connect to themselves meaningfully in the next step.
Continuing to explore the connections between reading and writing. When students read, they should feel that understanding the text is their most important job, and when they write, they will know they are in charge of creating a connection with their readers.
Surrey Schools
Formed in 1906, the Surrey School District currently has the largest student enrolment in British Columbia and is one of the few growing districts in the province. It is governed by a publicly elected board of seven trustees.
The district serves the cities of Surrey and White Rock and the rural area of Barnston Island.
