William Watson Elementary 22-23

Each and every day, our learners are presented with opportunities to focus on thinking, reading, writing, and communicating in all curricular areas to allow our learners to build strong literacy foundations that are fundamental for students’ participation in today’s world.

Our students’ learning goals include:

-Understanding, interpreting and reading strategically with comprehension

-Communicating their understandings and learning through writing with clarity

Our learners across all grades experience learning opportunities aimed at increasing the literacy success rates of our learners.  To highlight and determine overall successes and gaps, we monitored the progress of two cohorts for each goal area.

In all areas of learning, students read.  They read about art, music, sports, culture, history, geography, and life sciences.  Reading connects them to the world and introduces them to new learning.  Reading allows for a deeper understanding of the world.  Through examining texts, letters and words the act of reading is a significant part of development in making sense of the world, fitting in to the world and making social and emotional connections to the world.  Reading both fiction and non-fiction is an important part of this process. 

Our learners wrote and engaged in communication practices that are specific to different areas of learning.  Students wrote short personal impromptu expositions, poems, plays, non-fiction essays, narratives, responses to their learning and understanding, reflections, and self assessments.  They documents observations and findings

We continue to gather evidence of learning in our student cohorts that demonstrates continued growth in our literacy focus.  Teachers reported that students demonstrated a positive impact in relation to our literacy goals using teacher's professional knowledge  and a wide variety of assessment tools.

Reading strategically with comprehension

To help them make sense of what they read, our learners ask open-ended questions, describe their thinking, and develop conclusions using a variety of reading strategies.  Students continued to make gains in this area.  

76% of students are now proficient in their ability to comprehend text and use strategies to help them build deeper levels of understanding – compared to 70% who demonstrated proficiency earlier in the year.  Students not yet proficient show us that we need to continue to implement reading strategies that offer opportunities that allow for growth. We have every confidence they will continue to develop their reading skills. 

One Student's Story:

An early primary teacher reflected, It never ceases to amaze me how much student success is impacted by self-belief and student choice in learning.  I am reminded of this by one student.  At the beginning of the school year one student in particular would demonstrate work avoidance behavior during literacy instruction.  Over time, it was discovered that this student had very low self-esteem. He believed that he did not have the capacity to learn to read; it was easier to avoid reading than feel like he was failing.  The student’s self-confidence began to grow by introducing Fly Leaf decodable readers to him.  Using these books, and providing explicit reading instruction, the student was able to work on specific reading skills.  As he mastered a skill, his self-esteem began to grow. The more skills he mastered, the more willing he was to try.  However, it was not until it was discovered that he loved reading a certain chapter book series that his reading really began to soar.  Although these chapter books were above his reading level, he could access the reading material with the support of a peer or an adult.  Seeing his peers read these chapter books provided further motivation for him to practice his reading.  I am so proud to report that this student has gone from avoiding reading at the beginning of the year, to reading confidently.  During literacy instruction, he can now often be found in the classroom enjoying reading for pleasure.  Most importantly, he has learned that he has the capacity to learn, and success is achieved through self-belief, hard work, and determination.   

Moving forward with Reading for Comprehension

Based on evidence of students’ progress in relation to our learning goals, our next steps will include:

-continuing to increase opportunities for students to regularly use reading strategies and thinking routines that guide their thought processes and support them in developing deeper understandings of text (print, visual, and digital)

-continuing to implement reading strategies to allow learners to become well rounded readers.

-expand our home reading library collection to include a wide variety of reading materials to reflect student interest and to promote a love of reading.

Communicating their understandings and learning through writing with clarity

To help learners communicate their understandings and learning through writing with clarity it is expected that learners will write clear focused personal writing for a range of purposes and audience that demonstrates connections to personal experiences, ideas and opinions. Students continued to make gains in this area.

73*% of students are now proficient in their ability to organize their thoughts prior to writing, use connecting words in their text, provide a clear beginning middle and end to their personal writing - compared to 62% who demonstrated proficiency earlier in the year.

An intermediate teacher commented that, "Writing is the key that unlocks the door to self-expression, creativity and personal growth. Through written words, I've witness the students  discover their unique voice, explore their thoughts and emotions, and make sense of the world around them. Writing empowers them to communicate their ideas, share their experiences, and connect with others in a profound way. It is a powerful tool that allowed the students to develop their language and literacy skills and  cultivate critical thinking, problem-solving, and empathy skills. Writing is a skill that will serve them well throughout their lives, enabling them to navigate complexities, express their passions, and leave a lasting impact on the world. Additionally, the students report that as their skills develop their writing becomes more powerful." Writing is important and impacts opportunities later in life with writing grants, applications, reports....  Our students need to learn that writing can and should be fun.  Language, both oral and written provides opportunities to play with words and develop vocabulary.  Writing allows students to express their critical and creative thinking.  When teachers work from a strength based focus through conferencing with students about their writing students are able to be more reflective about their own writing and this develops a love of writing as students see their own strengths within their writing."

Moving forward with Communicating their understandings and learning through writing with clarity

Based on evidence of  students’ progress in relation to our learning goals, our next steps will include:

-continuing to increase student opportunities for writing with purpose

-continuing to implement writing strategies that break down the writing process

-exploring and digging deeper into the aspects of the writing process

-provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their writing abilities through the use of various types of narratives. 

-create opportunities to self-reflect on their writing.

Instructional strategies we implement will build on students’ social, academic and athletic successes by expanding opportunities to work collaboratively in groups and continue to engage in hands-on activities that are specifically aimed at developing students’ reading, writing, and communication skills