Hazelgrove Elementary 23-24

OUR CONTEXT

Hazelgrove is an inclusive, dynamic school supporting our learners' academic, social, affective, and behavioural learning. Our classrooms support practices that keep students at the centre of their learning and influence the depth of student opportunities for growth. We know student success is designed through a broad array of skills, experiences, and outcomes across different domains, including social-emotional, creative and critical thinking; the ability to exchange information and ideas to understand and engage with the world around them; and developing students' positive personal and cultural identities and social responsibility.

We value a safe and caring school, restorative justice practices, the diverse strengths of our learners, and connections with each other and our wider school community. Parents and families play a critical role in student school experiences and helping to develop learning environments where children flourish.

Our school is located on the unceded, shared, traditional territories of the Katzie, Semiahmoo, Kwantlen and other Coast Salish peoples and our work weaves the First Peoples' Principles of Learning throughout.

We love to learn outside about this place we call home and take on stewardship to mitigate plastics and litter and deepen understanding with authentic, hands on, place-based learning.

We love to learn through play! Our youngest learners are provided opportunities to develop a sense of the world around them through play. Play provides opportunities for children to inquire, explore, interact, problem solve and connect what they already know with new knowledge and developing skills.

Our older students play too! We enjoy cross country and track and field. Our student athletes have opportunities to play on school volleyball, basketball, badminton, and ultimate teams. We have clubs to join like Makers Club, Board Games Club and the Diversity Club. Everyone loves Sports Day!

We hope you've enjoyed learning a little about some of what makes Hazelgrove a great place to work, learn, and play at!

OUR LEARNERS

At Hazelgrove we know that our learners are diverse and varied. We embrace this diversity and prioritize access to the curriculum equitably to ensure every student has a point at which they can actively participate in the learning community. We know that learning is collaborative and students learn best when they work collaboratively with peers, teachers, and parents.

Our learners begin developing an understanding of the relationship between reading, writing and oral language from kindergarten. The ability to read and comprehend written language opens doors to knowledge, creativity, and personal growth. At Hazelgrove our learners engage daily in literacy activities as they learn to see themselves as readers while building understanding that language and text can be a source of creativity and joy. 


Primary students exchange home reading books daily

Our students understand that language and text can be a source of creativity and joy and learning is embedded in memory, history, and story. Our learners know that reading takes practice over time and exposure to a rich variety of print. They understand that we read for different purposes; we read for entertainment and joy, we read to learn, or we read to understand more about a topic.

Grade 7 students reading for information


OUR FOCUS

At Hazelgrove our students have rich opportunities for learning focussed on thinking, communication, and identity. We explore these competencies through building strong literacy foundations that we know are fundamental to participate successfully in today’s world.

Reading fluency plays a vital role in shaping a child’s reading journey. Fluency is the ability to read with accuracy, speed, and expression, which helps young readers to comprehend text. It involves the seamless integration of decoding skills, vocabulary knowledge, and comprehension strategies. Building fluency helps children move from simply decoding text to understanding meaning of text. (Pilkuski & Chard, 2011)

Our reading goals include:

  • Building foundational phonemic and phonemic awareness skills that improve reading fluency
  • Building rich vocabulary to enhance fluency by reducing the need for decoding and allowing readers to focus more on understanding the text
  • Reading and understanding connected text; where students quickly recognize words, integrate what they are reading with their background knowledge, and monitor their comprehension

Daily fluency practice and instruction helps us to become better readers

We are Building a Rich Vocabulary

Vocabulary knowledge is closely linked to reading fluency. When readers encounter familiar words, they can recognize them quickly, leading to smoother reading. Building a rich vocabulary enhances fluency by reducing the need for decoding and allowing readers to focus more on understanding the text.

Daily Word Work in Grade 1; Write the Room and Colouring Sight Words


We are Building Foundational Phonemic & Phonemic Awareness Skills

Our teachers explicitly and systematically teach students the foundational skills necessary for proficient reading. This year our learning support teachers (LST) aligned their targeted intervention with the classroom teachers’ scope and sequence for reading to support our vulnerable learners.

Over the course of this year, we monitored a group of students who received both in class instruction and targeted, small group instruction in reading fluency. We wanted to determine the success of aligning the reading instruction along the same scope and sequence between classroom and learning support to meet our reading goals above. Families supported students by reinforcing reading practice at home with materials provided by learning support teachers.

Reading Fluency Scope & Sequence for K-2


Regular practice at home with families to reinforce fluency skills

OUR NEXT STEPS

Examining the evidence from our cohort over the course of the school year, we see demonstrable growth through the alignment of learning support and the classroom when teaching reading fluency skills. Learning support teachers chose a representative sample of students needing targeted support in reading from grades 1 and 2 to follow.

Learning support teachers used a combination of a District phonics assessment, Fountas and Pinnell and their professional judgement (guided by the Provincial Performance Standards) to determine student growth over the year. The team was pleased to see the growth in students’ reading fluency skills and comprehension as students made large gains in reading proficiency over the school year.

Samples of Assessed Reading Levels Showing Growth Over Time in Grade 1 & Grade 2

These reading assessments are samples of some of our cohort  students. Assessments were completed in Fall, Winter, and Spring for at-risk readers receiving targeted intervention for reading. The students showed significant growth over the school year and were exited from LST  to be monitored  in their classrooms moving forward.

From the samples above, we see that every student made significant gains in reading fluency and comprehension with targeted small group instruction that aligned with the classroom reading fluency skill instruction.

The table below shows the growth of a sample of students as they progressed through the year. Every student was significantly below grade level at the first assessment of the school year and every student made significant progress with aligned targeted instruction. Of the 5 students in this sample, 4 are proficient in reading at the end of the school year and exited from learning support. These students will be monitored by the classroom teacher moving forward.

Assessment Showing Growth Over Time


Fall Assessment

Winter Assessment

Spring Assessment

Grade 1

Reading Readiness

Pre-Primer 1

End of Gr. 1

Grade 1

Reading Readiness

Pre-Primer 2

End of Gr. 1

Grade 1

Reading Readiness

Pre-Primer 1

End of Gr. 1

Grade 2

Pre-Primer 2

Primer

Beginning of Gr. 2

Grade 2

Primer

End of Grade 1

End of Gr. 2


Moving Forward

The success of the alignment of learning support instruction with the classroom reading fluency instruction showed us that the reading fluency skills should continue to be taught to our struggling readers in this way. Our learning support team will continue to focus on phonemes and phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and automaticity of decoding aligned with classroom teachers’ practice.

We will continue to focus on our reading goals as identified above and our staff will continue their collaborative work. Our early primary teachers will use their phonics assessments and ELPATS assessments to organize students by identified needs in their classroom to target instruction for reading skills in classrooms and those students requiring targeted learning intervention will go to LST. Our LST team will continue to use the scope and sequence classroom teachers use (as above) when providing targeted small group support. Our primary teachers and LST team will work together with the support of district helping teachers to create a tool to use for the assessment of reading fluency skills to ensure that we are able to objectively assess our learners using common language and understanding. Our goal is to develop one tool rather than using multiple means of assessment as is done now.

We believe that these initiatives will positively impact the reading growth of our students and help them to become proficient readers who find joy in text.

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