Goldstone Park Elementary 23/24

OUR CONTEXT

The staff, students, and parents have worked hard to build a positive, connected and engaged school environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging.

Our motto is "Everyone is Welcome in our Galaxy".

Staff and students have positive interpersonal relationships and a strong sense of belonging.
There is high student and staff engagement and connectedness. Collaboration and professional learning are important to staff.
There is a strong foundation of social and emotional learning.

At Goldstone Park we value…

COMMUNITY – belonging – helping others – family – friendship – happiness – humour – peace

We care about and contribute to the well-being of our community. We strive to make Goldstone Park a happy, peaceful place where all our students, staff, and families belong.

INCLUSION  -attachment, acceptance, involvement, empathy

We promote and encourage inclusion through the use of  the UDL framework. We respect strengths and stretches and provide students with the tools they need to be successful.

LEADERSHIP – integrity – authenticity – honesty – responsibility – loyalty – accountability

We have the courage to do the right thing. We are honest. We are accountable for our actions. We treat others the way we would like to be treated. We are all responsible for all our students.

TEAMWORK – collaboration – involvement – positive relationships and communication – respect

We support each other. We trust each other. We respect each other. We value everyone’s ideas and we enjoy working together for the benefit of all. We communicate our ideas in a positive, respectful way.

LEARNING – creativity – growth – excellence – knowledge – personal development – success

We try our best. We are committed to continuous improvement; we recognize all experiences as important learning opportunities. We are innovative and we welcome new ideas and creative thinking.

OUR LEARNERS

We asked our teachers the following;

1. What has captured your attention? And what is the difference you are trying to make for your learners?
2. What evidence are you using to inform your understanding about the degree to which learning has taken place?
3. What do you know about your indigenous learners in relation to this goal?

These are some of their responses:

1. What has captured your attention?

  • Little motivation to write- often hearing “What should we write about?”
  • No emphasis on using writing outside of the school environment
  • Little practice outside of school
  • Hesitant to sound out words
  • Reluctant to try
  • Many good ideas but no structure and lack of organization
  • We noticed that in the primary grades,  students were reluctant to write. 
  • Many had not had any preschool experience nor seemed to have much experience with writing prior to coming into school.
  • We have noticed that in our community teachers and the school are highly respected. However, school is school and work is done in many cases at school only.
  • We have noticed:
    • Eager to share their ideas and connections orally.
    • Enthusiastic to collaborate with and learn from their peers.
    • Reliant on using familiar vocabulary and simple sentence structures in their writing.

And what is the difference you are trying to make for your learners?

•Trying different writing styles through different lenses and genres.

•Trying out Making Books in the classroom, as professional development taking a 3 part session pro D on Making Books with Matt Glover and trying different suggestions

•Creating making books using different Genres- Fiction- free write in stories, and Non-fiction- How to Books, All About research books.

•Comparing our own written books to real text. Noticing what authors do and nurturing where students are at and giving them goals to work on during one on one conferences.

• Continue developing their positive personal and cultural identities through interactions with their peers.

• Build their confidence as writers to develop stories that are clear and interesting to their readers.

Developing their style

2. What evidence are you using to inform your understanding about the degree to which learning has taken place?

•Students give a sample of writing every term. Students are marked based on the “Quick Scale” with teacher understanding that the rubric is usually describing student achievement for for “March-April”.

•Students practice writing every day. When finished writing, students are expected to conference with the teacher every write. This is where we go through the writing together and creating Writing Goals. These are stored at the back of their journals so students can reference these goals before they begin every write.

•Students are practicing “Making Books” every Friday. What started as an every Friday practice, students are now wanting to create books during “Free Play” time. Students also conferring with teacher during the writing process.

When we compare writing samples across time, we notice learners incorporating more interesting vocabulary, similes, and transition words to engage the reader.

Student self-reflections-We invited students to draw, write, or use a combination to represent all the pieces of who they are. We revisited these reflections at the end of the inquiry process to showcase how our thinking has evolved and reflect on “Aha! This is who we really are!”

3. What do you know about your indigenous learners in relation to this goal?

Seems to have a lack in motivation for writing. Enjoys orally storytelling more than writing. Understanding how to support this process while keeping the motivation to share ideas.

There is little home support, therefore it is important for the student to be clear in what their learning goals are for themselves and what they need to work on independently.

*The Who Am I?  inquiry offered our learners many opportunities to share about their cultural heritage and personal interests. " D" was an active participant in our explorations of identity when given the opportunity to reflect on his learning orally. He enjoyed sharing his ideas with his classmates and added more detailed, descriptive language to his reflections as the unit progressed. "D" continues to work with one-on-one support to increase the amount of his written input and to experiment with new vocabulary. With little home support, we strive to provide opportunities for "D" to reflect on his learning orally and to engage in more challenging literacy activities with the support of an intermediate buddy.

Not huge progress  - maybe tries to spell on her own a bit more and sentence structure is a bit more defined. 

 Late for school most days and doesn’t read at home. 

Her confidence is a bit higher than the beginning of the year. 


OUR FOCUS

 Our focus was to continue to develop and use instructional strategies designed with a recognition that learning is influenced by: social and cultural context, background knowledge and understanding, and individual needs, interests and passions. 

Every child matters and has a right to show their success …. our role is to ensure that every child has the opportunity to be successful.

Every child needs to be noticed and nurtured (notice, name what you see, and then nurture) so that they are celebrated for their success.

Looking at student writing across the grade levels-K-7 samples include all types of learners at various stages in their written expression abilities.

We focused on instructional strategies that could allow for students to:

  •  use language to identify, create, and share ideas, feelings, and goals
  •  develop new ideas or build on or combine ideas to create new things
  •   collaborate and develop their ideas through cooperation
  •   communicate their observations, explain their ideas, and reflect on their personal experiences
  •  recognize strengths and use strategies to focus and accomplish goals

Samples from each of the cohorts:

 Kindergarten:                                                                        

 Explanation of Growth

In kindergarten, we begin the year by supporting children in learning how to make a picture that tells a story. We prompt their language as they tell us about their picture. "L" has always had so much to share with us, with great background knowledge and experiences, as well as drawing skills. In Term 2, she began to label her drawings with beginning and ending sounds. For example, for “roof” she would write, “RF”. Recently, this has expanded to writing full sentences. In the picture above, "L" wrote, “Mommy duck finds ducklings in the water.”




Proficiencies

Emerging

Developing

Proficient

Extending

Kindergarten  

2

5

11


Grade 1

3

4

14


Grade 2

3

5

11

2

Grade 3

3

8

9

1

Grade 4

3

9

17


Grade 5

2

6

20


Grade 678111
Grade 72818



OUR NEXT STEPS

We will continue with our "next steps" focus for another year as these opportunities are relevant across all curricular areas.

  • Increasing opportunities for students to regularly engage in peer and self evaluation
  • Increasing opportunities for students to demonstrate their thinking in a variety of modes
  • Increasing opportunities for students to become proficient in the types of thinking they can use to develop their own understanding by asking questions, identifying puzzles, increasing wonder,
  • Build on and evolve explanations, interpretations, and theories based on growing knowledge and understanding.
  • Continue to make connections, comparisons, and contrasts between and among concepts - including connections across disciplines as well as to one's own prior knowledge.
  • Continue to examine issues, ideas, and events from different perspectives and alternative points of view in order to discern bias, develop balanced views, and build empathy for others.
  • Continue to incorporate the First People's Principles of Learning into all areas of learning.

Along with continuing to provide students these opportunities, we want to engage parents by putting on evening workshops on the "how to" work with their child at home. (How to Read with you Child. How to use math games to reinforce concepts at home. How to incorporate writing into activities at home)


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.

Surrey Schools
14033 - 92 Avenue Surrey,
British Columbia V3V 0B7
604-596-7733