École Jessie Lee
OUR CONTEXT
Community is the heart of École Jessie Lee!
We are located in South Surrey on the traditional shared territory of the Semiahmoo First Nations. Our school is nestled in a beautiful neighbourhood surrounded by nature, blocks from the ocean and yet so close to urban comforts. Our approximately 400 students come from diverse backgrounds that make up our collaborative school community. We even have two late French Immersion classes. Our parent group, teachers and support staff all work together to contribute to a warm, welcoming place of belonging for all.
Jessie Lee was built in 1974 and named after Jessie Lee who was a teacher at both Ray Shepard and White Rock Elementary before she served on the city council for several years supporting her community. This community mindset lives on at our school.
École Jessie Lee is a learning community striving to be lifelong learners, curious about the world around us and caring with others. Our teachers are engaged learners themselves, participating in numerous professional inquiry activities like Literacy team, Indigenous Ways of Learning and Physical and Social Emotional Well-Being learning groups. Our staff are deeply connected to the community in many ways. Some of our teachers actually have their own childhood pictures on the wall as former students! Our staff are active in supporting the wellbeing of our families with clothing drives, Christmas hampers and our breakfast program in the Den. What is apparent is that the staff feel very connected to this place and to our students.
Our dedicated parent group is active in bringing joy to our school by helping us create a school garden, organizing Spring Fairs, supporting school wide events like our Spring Sprint and of course, our student’s favourite -Hot Lunch!
OUR LEARNERS
We know a strong foundation in literacy is needed for all kids to thrive in our ever changing world. Our students love to engage with the Library Learning Commons, and find joy in reading in small groups in class. Reading everyday is a priority at Jessie Lee.
Our learning plan is supported in the BIG IDEAS of English Language Arts:
Language and story can be a source of creativity and joy.
Everyone has a unique story to share.
Curiosity and wonder lead us to new discoveries about ourselves and the world around us.
Jessie Lee learners can demonstrate:
- enjoyment and engagement in literacy activities
- a strong command of decoding and reading comprehension
- communication through oral language, sharing their learning about literacy
Jessie Lee learners focus on curricular competencies:
- I can read fluently at grade level
I can use developmentally appropriate reading, listening, and viewing strategies to make meaning
I can use developmentally appropriate reading, listening, and viewing strategies to make meaning
I can use foundational concepts of print, oral, and visual texts
These students read everyday!
Some chose to read with the teacher:
Some students choose to read a graphic novel on their own:
Some students choose to read to a special friend:
Reading is joyful!
OUR FOCUS
Jessie Lee Students are Focused on Literacy!
At Jessie Lee, reading is an important school goal that is a fundamental skill across all grades and all subject areas. Literacy is the ability to understand, critically analyze, and create a variety of forms of communication, including oral, written, visual, digital, and multimedia, in order to accomplish one’s goals. It is the ability to read, write, speak, and think in a way that lets us communicate effectively and engage with the world around us.
What are the Jessie Lee Learning Goals?
- Students will demonstrate growth in the ability to decode texts with accuracy
- Students will demonstrate growth in the ability to demonstrate comprehension and communicate ideas about what they have read orally and/or in writing
Our Cohort
We looked closely at a primary class this year to gather evidence of success, ensure access to quality levelled texts, analyze our current practice and reflect on best strategies.
Our teachers began reflecting on their knowledge of the science of reading. They discussed and developed a scope and sequence related to reading tasks. They engaged in a deep dive into foundational skills of reading, including phonemic awareness through the Heggerty resources.
Some additional key literacy activities in this class were:
- word families
- word walls
- guided reading groups,
- student created stories
- readers theatre activities
- daily read aloud
- daily read to self, daily read to a buddy ( multiple opportunities for eyes on text each day)
OUR NEXT STEPS
Our students make progress!
All students demonstrate growth when given access to meaningful reading experiences and good quality levelled texts. All members of our cohort demonstrated improved reading accuracy and comprehension, as indicated in our end of year school wide reading assessment data (using Fountas and Pinnell BenchMark Assessment System). More than half of this cohort is reading at or above grade level. We looked more deeply at the group within this cohort that were working towards grade level reading. It was exciting to note that there were significant gains within our "at promise" students. Every student gained at least three reading levels! This sample of "at promise" students demonstrated improvement, as indicated in the table below:
| Students "At Promise" within the Cohort: | Fall 2021 Assessment | Spring 2022 Assessment | Number of reading levels gained |
| Student 1 | Emerging | Proficient | 13 |
| Student 2 | Emerging | Developing | 5 |
| Student 3 | Emerging/Developing | Developing | 3 |
| Student 4 | Developing | Proficient | 5 |
| Student 5 | Emerging | Emerging | 3 |
| Student 6 | Emerging | Emerging | 3 |
| Student 7 | Emerging | Developing | 7 |
| Student 8 | Emerging | Developing | 10 |
In this video, you can hear the joy and confidence of a student fluently reading text at grade level. When asked about their feelings about reading, they said:
I love summer reading club at the library. You can get a medal! I am excited to go to the library this summer. Did you know I'm reading Harry Potter with my mom?
This student can now read fluently!
Moving Forward
We will to continue to provide access to meaningful literacy instruction and quality resources. We want to go deeper into developing reading comprehension strategies, which we recognize is an area for growth for our learners. We are all excited to explore the impact of our literacy focus on our cohort over time.
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.
