Beaver Creek Elementary 22-23
OUR CONTEXT
Beaver Creek is located on the unceded and shared traditional territory of Katzie, Kwantlen, Semihamoo and other Coast Salish Peoples, who have been custodians of this land from time immemorial.
Reading Stars at Beaver Creek
The love of reading is a big theme here at Beaver Creek. Students are encouraged to read everyday and we all take time to talk about the value of reading.
"I think reading is really important because when you come from a different country and you don’t know how to read, when you grab a book you can see it, or know how to say it." - Grade 7 Student
“Use developmentally appropriate reading, listening, and viewing strategies to make meaning.” - English Language Arts - Curricular Competencies
"Reading is essential because you need it almost everywhere. This is true that many of us don’t really enjoy reading and don’t feel like giving much time to it, but reading can be done in many ways; you can go read a newspaper and gain more information of what is going on in our country or the world; you can read some good novels maybe read the ones that are funny, because the books you enjoy take you to a whole new world of imagination which helps you develop your creativity skills. Reading can be fun when you read with a small group or class because while you can share a lot, your thoughts, your predictions, which can make reading more interesting. We come to conclusion that reading is important and if you don’t like or enjoy reading, make it fun and interesting!" - Grade 7 Student
One of the ways that we are celebrating a love of reading this year, is through our Reading Stars. Each month we host ed an Ice Cream Party for all the students that committed to read for 20 minutes for at least 25 nights of the month. Each Star in the pictures below, represent a student's dedication to reading and highlights how much reading is happening for us at Beaver Creek.
November's Reading Stars
In February, the Stars keep adding up!
In March the reading celebrations continue!
As our reading challenge comes to an end, the stars keep growing.
“Beaver Creek means a lot of things to me. First it means to me is learning like all the subjects, and spending lot’s of time with friends and enjoying. And the most important thing is READING because Beaver Creek is all about reading.” - Grade 3 Student
OUR LEARNERS
Our learners are at the heart of our work around reading at Beaver Creek Elementary. As a staff, we inspire our students to read every day. We encourage students to find books that are interesting and on topic areas that they care about. When students are reading in the classroom they are given opportunities to connect with each other and the world around them.
Connecting and engaging with others - "Student engage in informal and structured conversations in which they listen, contribute, develop understanding and relationships, and learn to consider diverse perspectives." - BC Curriculum - Core Competency - Communication
Building off the work from the previous year, the student cohort of grade 3s have continued to engage in a wide variety of reading activities. Looking more closely at how our learners are doing revealed some exciting and interesting evidence.
English Language Arts - Curricular Competencies – “Read fluently at grade level.”
When we take a close look at our cohort's reading data from last year and this year, we see a couple things.
- 2021/2022 - 52% of students meeting or exceeding grade level reading expectations
- 2022/2023 - 57% of students meeting or exceeding grade level reading expectations.
What we can see is that we have more readers meeting grade level expectations. Last year, we had 52% of our cohort group reading at or above grade level. This year, we have 57% reading at or above grade level. This is a moment to celebrate and build from as we consider what to do next.
“Beaver Creek means a place to spend time with friends. Beaver Creek is a place to learn new things everyday. Beaver Creek means in my heart is a lovely place to learn and have fun.” - Grade 3 Student
What do we know about our learners?
- They are connected to each other.
- They see themselves in a positive light.
- They try their best.
"I am smart, creative, nice, resilient, scared, shy, different, proud, nervous, unique, generous." - Grade 3 Student
"I am unique and kind from helping others and how I look inside myself." - Grade 3 Student
"Beaver Creek means learning to me because everyday we learn something new in math, language arts, art, and in every other subject..." - Grade 3 student
The students here are inspired to learn and come to school everyday expecting to be the best versions of themselves.
OUR FOCUS
At Beaver Creek Elementary our goal is to foster a love of reading, to bring about an inclusive environment that recognizes the diversity and beauty of reading. Reading can look different over the course of the day and when we experience reading in different ways we are given opportunities to strengthen and deepen our understanding.
What does reading mean to us here at Beaver Creek?
“To me, it means learning new things. Basically, it is learning.” - Grade 3 Student
"Everything we learn helps us to develop skills." - Big Ideas - Career Education
How do we create an environment that brings about a love of reading?
We find books that matter to kids and that they want to read.
"Reading is fun... when I read I usually read fantasy or mystery books." - Grade 7 Student
We have a whole section in our library dedicate to authentic Indigenous resources and stories.
As part of an informal survey, we found the vast majority of students (43 of our 63 grade students) use our school library the most to access books that interest them. On average, 24 students use the Surrey Public Library and 28 have plenty to read at home.
"Reading is essential because you need it almost everywhere. This is true that many of us don't really enjoy reading and don't feel like giving much time to it, but reading can be down in many ways; you can read a newspaper and gain more information of what is going in in our country or the world; you can read some good novels, maybe read ones that are funny, because the books you enjoy take you to a whole new world of imagination." - Grade 7 Student
We commit to bringing in a wide variety of novels and picture books that reflect our diverse community and showcase characters and stories from around the world.
"Exploring stories and other texts helps us to understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world." - Big Ideas - English Language Arts 7
"If I am reading I don’t care if it is a noisy place because when I read a book that’s my favourite, or interesting, I just be so engrossed that I don’t mind if someone is talking or not. " - Grade 7 Student
OUR NEXT STEPS
Being a Good Reader
Being a good reader is beyond simply being able to read the words on a page. Being a good reader means we can take what is in front of us and communicate it to others, share ideas, write down our thoughts and connections. As our cohort group makes the transition to intermediate, thoughts about reading evolve.
What does it mean to be a good reader? What does good reading look like? Sound like? Our next steps at Beaver Creek are guided by our students and the successes we have seen and also the areas that could use further development.
To explore this question we will be digging deeply into two focus areas. The first area being cross-curricular opportunities.
What are some of the other areas of the curriculum that connect to reading?
“Connect mathematical concepts to each other and to other areas and personal interests.” - Curricular Competencies - Math
“Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyse ideas; and communicate findings and decisions.” - Curricular Competencies - Socials
“Learning is a lifelong enterprise.” - Big Ideas - Career Education
Our BC Curriculum is filled with moments and statements like the ones above. The opportunities to bring reading into other subject areas is everywhere. Connections to other curricular areas allows students, as they transition from primary (Kindergarten to Grade 3) to intermediate (Grade 4 to Grade 7), to progress from “Learning to Read” to “Reading to Learn.”
The second area is based on informed and flexible assessment practices.
What kind of assessment strategy, guideline or criteria can we create to provide direct evidence of our student's reading?
As a staff we have collaboratively created new tools that meets the specific needs of our learners and their grade levels.
I Can Statements (Proficient Readers Can) - Grade 3/4
- I can use phonics, word structure, and context clues to read the words.
- I can make logical predictions.
- I can reread and skim text for details.
- I can describe main characters, settings, and events from the story.
- I can retell the events in the correct order.
- I can answer questions from the text accurately.
- I can make connections to myself and others when reading a story.
- I can draw pictures with supporting details after reading the story.
- I can ask relevant questions based on what I am reading.
- I can give my opinion and support it with reasons from the text.
- I can locate the main idea and details from the text.
- I can read the text features (e.g. heading, illustrations, diagrams, charts, table of contents, glossary, index etc.)
- I can find the intended meaning of the text.
Sample Rubrics - Grade 3/4
These rich and collaboratively created assessment tools will evolve over time. They also offer opportunities for further collaboration and give us all a clear picture of where we are going next with our work around literacy and reading in the years to come.
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.
