T.E. Scott Elementary 22-23
OUR CONTEXT
At T.E. Scott, we asked our students and staff what our school community means to them. In the video below, you will see some responses as well as images of the teaching and learning that represents our school.
OUR LEARNERS
Literacy is a core life skill that is essential for effective communication. Reading and writing helps us to make sense of the world around us and to express our thoughts, ideas and expressions to others. As such, teaching effective literacy skills is central to supporting our learners as they learn to problem solve, share ideas, exchange information, and work both independently and in collaboration with others.
The BC Curriculum highlights and emphasizes the wide ranging skills that are needed to make our students literate. Reading is a fundamental skill in all grade groups and is necessary for achievement and success in all subject areas. At T.E. Scott, we know that reading skills develop over time and require the teaching of specific strategies to develop students skills. Below are examples of how our learners and T.E. Scott use their reading skills.
Our learners use strategies to make meaning of a wide variety of text structures
Students use reading skills in all subject areas. The strategies that they develop help them to make meaning of the variety of texts that are presented with throughout the day.
This student is using their reading skills to work through a word problem in Math.
Our learners explore texts and story to understand ourselves and make connections to the outside world
Students use their reading skills to follow their interests and passions. Research begins with seeking out appropriate texts and being able to understand the information being shared. Students are able to use their skills to create projects and share their understanding.
This student is exploring text to begin a research project on animal habitats.
Our learners question what they read and view to become educated and engaged citizens
Students read to make sense of their world and to learn about the perspectives of others. Questions are both answered and raised through reading.
These students are exploring an article about mining in our oceans. After reading, they are reflecting on their understanding to share their opinions.
Our learners recognize that different texts reflect different purposes
Students visit the library weekly to discover new texts that allow them to read for the purpose of pleasure. Whether fiction or non-fiction, students use the variety of texts to further develop their passion for reading. Students know that being able to access a variety of texts further opens their eyes to new ideas and perspectives.
This student is exploring a non-fiction text and to identify facts and information about sharks .
Our learners understand that text can be a source of creativity and joy
Students know that reading can be both an individual and collaborative process. Through this process, are able to find texts that bring them joy and continue to develop their creative process .
The video above shares students reading a story collaboratively. This video was shared at a school wide assembly.
OUR FOCUS
A Window into Learning - Young Readers at T.E. Scott Elementary
Our students are provided with daily learning experiences to support their understanding of phonemic awareness and of decoding. Students practice daily reading activities that help to develop their decoding skills. Examples of lessons that are explored are learning beginning letter sounds, blending sounds, as well as long and short vowel sounds. Students brainstorm words that they know with these sounds to make real world learning links.
Our students learning goals include enhancing their ability to read strategically. Specifically, we see and hear our students work towards:
- sounding out and using phonemes
- blending and segmenting phonemes
- decoding phonemes to make words
During the 2021-2022 school year, we monitored the progress of our incoming kindergarten students. As we continue to commit to our reading goal, this school year, we are highlighting the learning of our grade 1 students.
These students are practicing recognizing and identifying letters and their sounds.
Phonological Awareness Skills
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate sounds in speech. Students work on isolating specific letter sounds or blend sounds in words to develop beginning reader skills. Throughout the year, our students work on their phonemic awareness skills with the following activities:
- Daily Sound Play with individual letters
- Practicing sounds through poem reading
- Finding the missing sounds in words
- Brainstorming words that have the same beginning sound, middle sound, or end sound
The student is practicing segmenting sounds and blending sounds to make a word
Decoding Skills
Decoding makes the connection between letters and the sounds they represent. When our students are working on decoding, they are using their reading skills to apply letter/sound relationships and letter pattern knowledge to convert print into language. Throughout the year, students practiced their decoding skills through some of the activities below:
- Daily Sound play through the practice of digraphs: sh, th, ch, ph, etc.
- Whole class reading- reading common passages and poems
- Individual and guided reading groups Blending
- Finding rhyming words to identify similar ending sounds (some examples are; goat, boat, moat, float).
This student is working on identifying and colour coding words that rhyme (have the same ending sounds).
OUR NEXT STEPS
Using a Phonological Awareness Assessment tool in both September and May, comparative data demonstrates growth and development of student reading skills in grade 1. The Surrey School District proficiency scale (see below) was used to assess student growth.
Reading Proficiency in Grade 1: Comparative Data
September 2022
May 2023
Interpreting the Data
Between the months of September to May, our grade 1 readers have demonstrated growth on our proficiency scale continuum from emerging towards developing, proficient, and extending since the month of September. Our evidence demonstrates that focused and daily practice of phonological awareness and decoding skills positively impacts the development of students beginning reading skills. Staff that work directly with our young readers have been excited to share their success with others, " Students know the alphabet letter sounds along with some long vowels and digraphs. They can blend and segment. It is amazing."
This year, a new student joined us in September who had never attended kindergarten or had any other educational experiences. Upon her first assessment, the student could not identify any letter names or sounds. During her May assessment, this same student is now able to identify most letter names and sounds and is able to read CVC words and simple sentences. They have been able to also use their reading development to help with sounding out words when writing in their journal.
Another student, who also joined us in September with limited educational experience, also demonstrated strong progress in reading development. In September, this student could identify some letter names and could not identify any letter sounds. In May, they are a developing reader who can apply their letter-sound knowledge to decode unfamiliar words in texts. The student moved from working with small group support to becoming an independent reader.
Moving Forward with our Learning
Based on our learning goals as a school community and the student progress made with our grade 1 cohort, we have identified the following area to continue learning growth amongst our students:
- Continue practice of a daily and targeted phonological awareness program for our young readers and beginning English Language Learners
- Exploring specific language comprehension strategies such as connecting and inferring to help students to become proficient readers through the combination of word reading skills and language comprehension skills
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.
