École Simon Cunningham

Each and every day, among the variety of learning experiences presented to our learners, our team of educators focus on thinking, reading, writing, and communicating in all curricular areas. Our aim is to build strong literacy foundations that are fundamental for students' participation in today's world.

All teachers, across all grades, provide students with learning opportunities aimed at increasing the literacy success rates of our learners. To highlight and determine overall successes and gaps, we monitored the progress of two cohorts (grades 1/2 and 4/5/6) across different subject areas.

Our students' learning goals include: 

Curricular Competencies: English Language Arts - Grade 6

• Recognizing and identifying the role of personal, social, and cultural contexts, values, and perspectives in texts
• Using writing and design processes to plan, develop, and create engaging and meaningful literary and informational texts for a variety of purposes and audiences.
• Recognizing and appreciating the role of story, narrative, and oral tradition in expressing First Peoples perspectives, values, beliefs, and points of view.
• Recognizing how language constructs personal, social, and cultural identity.

Curricular Competencies: English Language Arts - Grade 2

• Use personal experience and knowledge to connect to stories and other texts to make meaning
• Show awareness of how story in First Peoples cultures connects people to family and community
• Exchange ideas and perspectives to build shared understanding

Writing

Grade 4/5 students personal land acknowledgments:

Grade 6 students personal land acknowledgments:

Speaking 

Each morning grade 1/2 French immersion students gather outside and participate in a sharing circle. Together, they acknowledge and recognize the land on which their school resides is the traditional and unceded territory of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo and other Coast Salish peoples.  

Here is an audio/video clip of their land acknowledgment - https://vimeo.com/724956672/a7c353f86e

Art

Grade 1/2 Students learned about the Indigenous artist, Michelle Stoney.  Using Michelle Stoney's drawing, Turtle Island, students embedded their drawings of their personal connection to the land.

Evidence of our student learning demonstrates that nearly 70% of learners believed that they do not participate in Indigenous celebrations or ongoing Indigenous programs at our school. As well, in conversations and discussions with students prior to the direct learning and teaching of the land acknowledgment, students expressed that they did not understand the purpose of the land acknowledgment and the definitions of specific words used in the land acknowledgment.

Our next steps include continuing to use place-based learning as a way to explore the BC curriculum, including the curricular competencies and the core competencies, with an emphasis in developing learners understanding and appreciation of Indigenous world views. When asked to communicate their students' progress, teachers indicated that all students demonstrated growth in their understanding of the land acknowledgment through oral and written communication, and art. 

Moving Forward

Based on evidence of students' progress in relation to our learning goals, our teachers plan to continue to develop students literacy skills and facilitate a deeper understanding of First Nations perspectives. We plan to increase opportunities for students to build connections between the land and themselves and for students to regularly use writing strategies and thinking routines that guide their thought processes and support them in developing deeper understanding of text (oral, print, visual, digital).