Queen Elizabeth Secondary 25-26

Our Driving Question: 

How can we support Humanities 8 students in developing their ability to communicate ideas clearly and critically through writing and speaking, while fostering personal engagement and ownership of learning?

Focus for 2025–2026: Strengthening Student Voice through Literacy and Communication in Humanities 8 

This focus builds on Queen Elizabeth Secondary’s 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 Learning Plans, which emphasized inclusive literacy practices and strengthening communication across disciplines. For 2025–2026, we aim to empower Humanities 8 students to develop their voice through purposeful writing and speaking, while fostering critical thinking and personal connection to content. 

Scan: What do we know about our learners? 

Over the past two years, Queen Elizabeth Secondary has prioritized literacy development, particularly in reading comprehension, written expression, and oral communication. Students have shown growth when given structured opportunities to share ideas, collaborate, and reflect. However, many still struggle with organizing complex thoughts, using evidence effectively, and adapting communication for different audiences. Humanities 8 students are at a formative stage in developing these skills, and targeted support can accelerate their growth. 

Hunch: What is leading to this situation? 

Students benefit from inclusive and scaffolded literacy instruction but may lack consistent opportunities to connect personally with content and express their ideas in meaningful ways. Embedding literacy strategies into Humanities through inquiry, reflection, and dialogue can bridge this gap and promote deeper learning. 

Summary of Inquiry Process: 

A Humanities 8 class of 24 students engaged in an inquiry focused on strengthening communication skills through structured small group discussions and explicit instruction in key conversational strategies. Students practiced supportive listening, building on peers’ ideas, and disagreeing respectfully. Baseline discussions, whole class feedback, and targeted skills practice were used to monitor growth and identify areas needing support. Data collected across multiple attempts showed that direct instruction and isolated practice of specific skills led to the greatest improvement in students’ ability to engage meaningfully with one another. This process reinforced our commitment to fostering an inclusive, connected learning environment where all students can develop essential communication competencies. 

Core Competencies Focus

 Communication: 

• Connect and engage with others (to share and develop ideas) 
• Explain/recount and reflect on experiences and accomplishments 

Thinking: 

• Generate ideas and build on the ideas of others
• Reflect on thinking and processes 

Personal and Social: 

• Positive personal and cultural identity 
• Social awareness and responsibility 

Curricular Competencies (Humanities 8) 

• Use writing and oral language to communicate ideas, arguments, and information for a specific audience and purpose 
• Recognize and identify different perspectives and evidence in texts 
• Make reasoned ethical judgments about events, decisions, or actions 
• Assess the significance of people, places, events, or developments

 Proficiency Scale

 •    Language from the provincial assessment scales were used to identify successes and remaining challenges.

 Summary Data Results: For December 2025

Last year, Humanities 8 students demonstrated noticeable improvement in showing respect to their classmates during conversations; however, many were still speaking “past” one another. Only the most confident proficient/extending learners were consistently engaging with the content of their peers’ contributions. To support stronger dialogue, direct instruction and practice of specific conversational skills were introduced this year. 

For each attempt, the class was organized into five small groups based on interest or topic to encourage meaningful engagement. Before the first discussion, the class received instruction on open and supportive body language, followed by role-play and tableau activities illustrating body language that signals openness versus body language that does not. Students enjoyed exaggerating “perfect” and “terrible” examples, and the shared laughter helped establish a positive tone for collaborative conversation. 

After the first attempt, students received general whole-class feedback (“here’s what was noticed…”). Prior to the second attempt, students were reminded of these observations and then taught two targeted discussion skills: 

•    Adding to or building on another student’s contribution. A flowchart outlining effective response options was created on the whiteboard. As a class, students generated statements, and various response types were modelled using the flowchart. Students then practiced making statements and building on one another’s ideas in pairs. 

•    Disagreeing respectfully One branch of the flowchart focused on respectful disagreement. Using sentence stems, the class explored ways to express differing viewpoints while remaining open and supportive. Students practiced these approaches in pairs as well. 

Observations For December 2025: 

Direct instruction and isolated practice of specific conversational skills separate from a full-class discussion proved to be a highly effective intervention. The most significant increase in student proficiency occurred after this focused skills practice. Although an additional rise in proficiency might have been expected following individual feedback during the third attempt, the data showed that direct skills practice had the greatest impact on improving student conversational proficiency. 

Analysis of Data: 

The data shows a clear upward trend in students’ ability to exchange ideas respectfully across the three attempts. In the first round, most students were clustered in the Developing and Proficient categories, with very few demonstrating Extending level skills. After direct instruction on specific conversational strategies, the number of students in the Extending category increased noticeably, while the number of Emerging and Developing students decreased. Following individual feedback in the third attempt, this positive shift continued, with more students moving into the Proficient and Extending levels. Overall, the results suggest that explicit instruction and targeted feedback were effective in strengthening students’ respectful communication skills, with the most significant gains occurring after the focused skills practice.

Summary Data Results: For May 2026

Observations For May 2026: 

During the spring term, direct instruction in specific conversational skills continued, with the addition of structured peer feedback and group reflection following a discussion task (Attempt 4). Students participated in a guided group discussion, followed by a reflection session focused on identifying strengths and areas for improvement. This approach was intended to increase engagement and skill development for students in the developing range by shifting reflection from an individual to a group process. A subsequent discussion (Attempt 5) was held one week later to assess impact. 

Analysis of Data 

Student achievement in Attempt 4 remained consistent with Attempt 3, with one student moving from developing to proficient. Peer reflection sessions revealed that while students were generally willing to provide positive feedback, they struggled to offer specific, constructive suggestions, often defaulting to kind but vague responses. This indicates a need for explicit modelling and sentence stems to support effective peer feedback. The peer feedback approach did not result in anticipated growth for students in the emerging range; one student shifted from developing to emerging. A decrease in students demonstrating extending-level skills was partially influenced by absences among stronger discussion models. It remains unclear whether reduced peer modelling or the group feedback process affected student performance or motivation. 

Strengths

• Continued explicit instruction supported stable student performance across discussion attempts. 

• One student demonstrated growth, moving from developing to proficient.

 • Students showed willingness to engage in peer reflection and provide positive feedback. 

• Group reflection increased participation and awareness of discussion behaviours. 

Challenges 

• Students had difficulty providing specific, constructive peer feedback, tending toward kind but vague comments. 

• Peer feedback did not lead to expected growth for students in the emerging range; one student showed regression. 

• Reduced presence of strong discussion models (due to absences) may have impacted overall discussion quality. 

• It remains unclear whether group feedback supported engagement for all learners or affected motivation for some students.

Overall Observations Comparison of Student Performance: December 2025 vs. May 2026

 • Student performance shifted toward higher proficiency between December 2025 and May 2026. • In December, most students were Developing or Proficient, with minimal Extending representation. • By May, following targeted instruction and feedback, more students demonstrated Proficient and Extending behaviours. • Extending increased from 1 student to 6 students (26.1%), indicating greater independence and confidence. • Overall, targeted instruction reduced Emerging levels and supported movement into higher performance categories.

Conclusion

Classroom evidence shows that while students are increasingly willing to participate in discussion, many require explicit instruction to communicate ideas clearly, critically, and constructively. Targeted modelling of academic language, discussion skills, and differentiated access to texts will support more equitable participation. Emphasizing purposeful speaking, listening, and writing will help students develop confidence, critical thinking, and meaningful connections to content.

Next steps 

Continued explicit instruction in discrete conversational skills outside of discussion practice, increased use of differentiated text sets to address varied background knowledge, and integration of literacy screening data to guide targeted interventions. 

Literacy Instruction Resources to Support the School Plan • Grand Conversations (2nd Edition) – Faye Brownlie • When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do – Kylene Beers • The Vocabulary Playbook: Learning Words That Matter – Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

These resources inform literacy circles, screening processes, targeted interventions, and research‑based vocabulary instruction embedded throughout the year.

QESS Learning Plan 2026–2027 Humanities 8

 • Communication Focus

 Inquiry Question 

How can we help Grade 8 students sustain meaningful academic dialogue by strengthening their ability to ask probing questions, summarize peers’ ideas, and connect multiple viewpoints? 

Why This Focus? 

•    Last year’s inquiry showed strong gains in respectful exchanges after explicit instruction.

 •    Students are now ready to deepen their communication skills through richer, more sustained dialogue. 

•    This work supports belonging, confidence, and inclusive classroom culture. 

Key Competencies (Humanities 8) ELA 8:

 •    Exchange ideas to build shared understanding 

•    Communicate clearly and purposefully

 •    Build on others’ ideas and extend thinking 

•    Support opinions with evidence 

Social Studies 8: 

•    Ask questions; interpret and analyze ideas

 •    Consider multiple perspectives 

•    Communicate interpretations effectively

 2026–2027 Actions

 •    Baseline discussion in September 

•    Mini lessons on probing questions, summarizing, and connecting ideas

 •    Structured routines: “Say–Summarize–Connect,” paired practice, small group discussions 

•    Feedback cycles: whole class + light individual feedback

 •    Three discussion attempts tracked with a consistent proficiency scale 

Success Indicators 

•    More students demonstrating Proficient/Extending levels 

•    Students independently using target skills 

•    Increased confidence and participation 

•    Evidence of deeper thinking and collaborative meaning making