Martha Jane Norris Elementary
OUR LEARNERS
Literacy skills enable people to navigate in a world full of communicators. Our learners read about people, places and ideas that are new to them, they learn to present their ideas to others, and write about their thoughts for others to read.
Many of our learners are able to speak more than one language at home, and are learning in English-speaking classrooms. Learners in an English Language Learning context are figuring out how to bridge between their home language and English. They translate phrases and expressions commonly used in their first language and find ways to understand unusual expressions in their second language. This process requires time and support. Evidence of the way our learners are able to express their thoughtful and creative ideas are highlighted below.
Through the exploration of stories or texts, our learners are able to understand themselves, and make connections to others and to the world.
Understandings become deeper and deeper over time, as students continue their exploration of texts. (“Who am I?”; gr 5 student, Powerful Understandings – A. Gear… Sept/Oct).
As explorers, our grade 3’s and 4’s discover the little birdhouses that have been placed all over Redwood Park to provide enchanting homes to our feathered friends there.
As artists, our gr 5/6 class create a forest reminiscent of those painted by BC artist Emily Carr. The masked figures are inspired by the message from “The Elders are Watching” written by David Bouchard and illustrated by Roy Henry Vickers
Our learners can explore and share many perspectives to extend their thinking
As they meet new people, they listen to their stories and ideas and expand their understandings.
They can find connections and draw conclusions that reveal deep critical thinking.
Our grade 7 learners draw on comparisons between optical illusions and first impressions of peers. In this way they wisely advise others on the need to look deeply to see past the surface of people to understand them more completely.
Our learners can summarize, visualize, predict, question, and make inferences about passages they have read.
Our grade 6 Learners summarizes the key ideas contributing to the Russia and the Ukraine conflict
Our learners are able to apply their knowledge of language features, structures and conventions, such as phonemic and phonological awareness, to read text.
Our learners can use their oral language skills to participate in conversations and communicate their ideas about a topic they know and understand.
OUR FOCUS
As we shape learning experiences for our students, our educators know the importance of supporting our learners to understand new concepts and unfamiliar terms. We aim to examine and adjust our teaching practices to meet the evolving needs of our learners. We believe that strengthening our learners’ literacy skills will impact their future academic successes. We know our learners’ emotional well-being and social connections impact their ability to absorb and process information. 
Our students’ learning goals include:
*To apply effective strategies to reading and writing to acquire, interpret and present information effectively.
*To cultivate critical thinking strategies to ask questions, make connections to personal experiences, and defend reasoning.
*To understand special strengths and values make each of us a unique and important part of the community.
*To behave responsibly and interact with others respectfully.
Our teachers from K through grade 7 are intent on building upon our students’ literacy skills.
They ensure they have set clear criteria and purpose when writing.
They encourage critical thinking as learners are given reading tasks
They provide opportunities for rich discussion of social and emotional needs of all learners.
We followed two cohort grade groups to focus more closely on the impact of specific literacy instruction strategies on the learning gaps and strengths in those cohort grade groups.
Reading
Our learners read to gain knowledge across the curriculum. Many of our learners’ first language is not English. Yet, as they begin their school years, they are immersed in a school life where they communicate orally, and read and write in English. They are absorbing new and unfamiliar words, broadening their vocabulary and applying strategies to ‘fill in 
the gaps’ when unfamiliar words are mixed in. Our learners are working very hard to increase their reading proficiencies, and they rely on the educator team to provide instruction that meets their needs. Our learners learn from each other through peer reading, letter matching, and word work.
Across all grades, students apply word analysis strategies to think critically as they identify the language patterns and meaning of new or unfamiliar words.
As our students think critically about the structure of English words, they develop increased success as decoders. Our gr 6 cohort class has studied English morphology- the branch of grammar that studies the internal structure of English words. In this way, they learn to study the base or root word and its meaning, as well as the meanings of prefixes and suffixes.
Our students continue to develop their reading analysis skills through small group learning support with our Learner Support Teachers, applying their word analysis skills to break apart multisyllabic words into manageable chunks.
Writing
Through the use of frames that focus our learners on identifying personal opinion, gathering evidence and building background knowledge, our learners are able to formulate predictions that are based in critical thought and show a clear commitment of the writer to defend a point of view.
Young students collaborate with older students through the writing process
Social and Emotional Learning
As our educators support learners to understand their own emotional needs and state, they provide opportunities to meet as a group to discuss varying perspectives. Together, students and teachers take the time to check on one another, to build understanding of multiple ways of experiencing and responding in social situations.
We strive to foster empathy for those we share our time with, and stewardship for the environment in which we live.
OUR NEXT STEPS
Evidence of our students’ learning demonstrates that our literacy focus, with its emphasis on teaching phonemic awareness and phonics at the grade 1 level and word morphology at the grade 6 level, is positively impacting our learners as readers. Our students have demonstrated gains in relation to our literacy goals:
*Reading strategically in order to comprehend
*Writing to communicate personal thought and opinion clearly
Reading Strategically to Comprehend
As our students think critically about the structure of English words, they develop increased success as decoders. This year, our grade 1 cohort learn to read through an explicit direct instruction model. Their Learning Support Teachers provide targeted small group instruction to help those learners who are have emerging levels of reading skill, and require further practice and instruction.
Grade 1 Cohort Explicit Direct Instruction Model Lesson (link opens to new tab)
Our grade 1 cohort participating in these explicit direct instruction lessons showed remarkable growth in their ability to apply their phonological skills to reading. As they started their grade one year, approximately half of these students had achieved scores below 26. Students with scores of 26 or less are considered to have significant gaps in their understanding of the phonological skills, and students with scores of 33 or greater are considered to be students who are ready to read. In their skills assessment at the end of the year, Their ability to identify rhymes, segment and blend syllables, identify first and last sounds, and blending sounds into words improved significantly, and the entire group had a full grasp of the phonological skills to read with success.
Our intermediate cohort demonstrated through initial reading assessments that they had a firm grasp of their reading fluency and could decode words satisfactorily. One third of the students had proficient comprehension levels when reading short passages, and so this was an area to focus on.
Over the course of 6 months, our intermediate cohort studied English morphology- the branch of grammar that studies the internal structure of English words and reading for content and focus.
The reading comprehension test result of 90 – 110, based on the age of the participant at the time of testing, reflected the student was comprehending at proficient level for age. The test increased in difficulty level to match the increased age of each participating student after 6 months.
Our students continue to develop their reading analysis to strengthen comprehension skills through small group 
learning support, applying their word analysis skills and critical thinking strategies, to break apart multisyllabic words into manageable chunks. They paraphrase, illustrate, and summarize complex concepts to seek to understand the passages they read more clearly.
Our intermediate LST students receive pull out support to focus on reading and writing fluency. This year they were provided with explicit reading instruction on spelling morphology and their reading ability improved by at least two grade levels at Independent, Instructional, and Frustration levels of reading. This played a significant role in ‘closing the gaps’ for these students!
Writing to communicate personal thought and opinion clearly
Our learners write to provide their thoughts and opinions daily. Growth in their ability to add detail improves over the course of their learning year as can be seen in this grade 1 student’s writing from term one and term three:
Early in the year, our grade one learner draws their subject, and then writes their thoughts down. They rely on their knowledge of letter sounds to inventively spell the words they print. They understand there are spaces between words, and can determine initial and ending letters. Over the months, our grade one learner develops greater understanding of the sounds and letters in the middle of the words, and has confidence to provide more detail. They are beginning to form sentences with punctuation.
Similarly, our older students add detail, and learn to provide evidence to back their opinions, and defend a variety of perspectives. This was evident in side-by-side samples of student writing over the course of the school year.
Gr 6 – Student #1 Early in the year: In this sample, the student demonstrates a developing proficiency to defend a prediction with evidence and specific details.
Our learners use of frames that focus their attention on
-identifying personal opinion
-gathering evidence
-and building background knowledge
As a result, our learners are able to formulate predictions that are based in critical thought and a clear commitment of the writer.
This skill develops over the year, as Student #1, clearly defends an opinion with specific details by the middle of term 3:
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.
