École Sunrise Ridge 23-24
OUR CONTEXT
École Sunrise Ridge is located on the beautiful traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Katzie, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo and other Coast Salish Peoples. The sun rises up each morning behind our school where we work, play and learn. 
Click on the video below to learn more about our school:
OUR LEARNERS
When our learners walk through our doors at Sunrise Ridge, our educators meet each student at their current reading level. We identify the individual skills needed to help improve reading and comprehension.
Literacy is foundational to all learning, and defined as being the ability to read, write, speak, and listen effectively within a range of age appropriate skills and abilities.
The BC curriculum supports our learners as our learners develop their reading skills. We understand that this is best accomplished when students work collaboratively with peers, educators, and parents.
~ Photos show samples of reading during school assemblies, shared reading in class and morning announcements
Our learners are able to demonstrate Phonemic and phonological awareness skills:
In this video, a student is receiving small group phonemic awareness instruction and is learning through hands on and oral engagement.
Reading in our Early French Immersion Program
At the beginning of the year in the Late French Immersion program there is a large focus on choral reading (echoing the teacher) for good pronunciations with awareness of French phonics and liaisons.
We use reading strategies such as:
• 'friend words' that are the same spelling and meaning in French and English,
• pictures and context clues
• technology to hear French stories to model after, such as Jelis and Scratch Jr Apps.
• Stop Motion to create oral presentations of student’s reading and comprehension.
This video is a sample of students practicing their choral reading in French.
OUR FOCUS
Our learners have opportunities to engage in meaningful literacy activities every day at Sunrise Ridge. Our overall focus is to continue to build strong literacy foundations that are fundamental for students’ participation in our world today. By identifying the learning goals in reading, educators will be able to plan instructional strategies that meet the individual needs of each learner.
At Sunrise Ridge our goals related to reading are:
Our early primary cohort will identify and improve phonemic and phonological awareness skills
• Phonemic awareness is a specific aspect of a learner’s phonological awareness: a child’s ability to segment spoken words into phonemes (e.g., c / a / t) and to blend phonemes into words indicates a developing phonemic awareness.
• Phonological awareness involves the abilities to hear and create rhyming words, segment the flow of speech into separate words, and hear syllables as “chunks” in spoken words.”
2) Our grades 2 through 6 cohort will improve student reading and comprehension skills before, during and after reading
It is demonstrated through evidence provided by our cohort of students and reflected throughout the school that our reading focus is beginning to positively impact our learners.
This video is a sample of one of our early primary readers.
Analysis:
We have noticed some improvement in reading skills since June 2023. 60% of our learners were meeting reading comprehension skills as compared to 67% in 2024, where there was an increase of 7% . While this is a notable improvement, we would like to continue to focus on improving reading skills next year.
Our data further indicates that a slightly higher percentage of our Primary learners in grades 2-3 are proficient or extending in their reading skills compared to our Intermediate learners.
Our early Primary Cohort were tested on their Phonemic Awareness skills:
Our Early Primary cohort participate in many fun language building activities every day that help improve their phonemic awareness skills. The chart below is a sample of 9 sections that our early learners were tested on:
1 - Initial Phoneme Isolation
2 – Final Phoneme isolation
3 - 2 Phoneme Segmentation
4 - 3 Phoneme Segmentation
5 - Medial (Vowel)Phoneme Isolation
6 - Phoneme Segmentation
7 - 2 Phoneme Blending
8 - 3 Phoneme Blending
9 - 4 Phoneme Blending
Our overall results showed that 62% of our early primary learners in Kindergarten and Grade 1 are proficient in their understanding of Phonemes.
Here's what our students are saying about reading:
"I like reading because I can imagine that I am inside the story"
" I read inside my head first and when I come to a word I don't know I sit it out loud and I use my finger to keep track of where I am reading"
"I like to reading because I can learn a lot of things".
"If I don't understand I G-U-M it out or look it up on an I-pad".
" You can't give up when you are reading"
" I try to sound words out, look for vowel patters on the sound wall, picture in my mind what I am reading like imagination"
"I use tools that we have used"
This year I had a goal to read chapter books and I've done it!"
"I look for little words inside big words, sound out, look at pictures, flip the vowel sound"
Goal: "to get really good at reading and read faster and be able to pronounce every word"
OUR NEXT STEPS
As a staff, we will continue to work on our identified reading goals. For our beginning readers, we will continue to implement direct phonemic awareness lessons which are the key building blocks to become a successful reader. We will also continue to teach reading comprehension skills before, during and after reading.
Our reading assessment results helped us identify that extra supports, resources and strategies need to be put in place to support our growing number of English Language Learners. We will continue to work on our reading goals and focus on supporting new English Language Learners, and students who are emerging or developing their reading skills. We will continue to work collaboratively with our Classroom Teachers and Learning Support Staff to identify and address gaps in student reading skills.
Our end goal is to help all of our students become proficient readers and develop a life-long joy for reading.
" Because Reading is one of the joys of life, and once you begin you can't stop, and you've got so many stories to look forward to." ~ Benedict Cumberbatch
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.
