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Feature Story
BOUNDARY PARK ELEMENTARY #36 Surrey Year 2
Leadership Team: Andrea Downes, Erik Henderson, Sandi Stacey
Contact: downes_a@sd36.bc.ca
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School Context/Community:
Boundary Park Elementary is located in a middle-class neighbourhood in the southwest area of Surrey. Seven years old, we currently enrol 330 students from Kindergarten to Grade 7. Approximately 19% of our student population is identified as ESL. Our staff, students and community work together to ensure a safe and caring school that promotes the success of all learners in all areas. Parents are actively involved and strongly supportive. Students enjoy opportunities to participate in a wide variety of activities, including extracurricular sports, student leadership, community outreach, choir and band.
School Inquiry and Action: Reading
Our question this year is a logical extension of last year’s inquiry into the use of the reading performance standards to improve student achievement. It also reflects an interest in the link between metacognition and student learning, along with a desire to empower our students in their learning.
Question: Does the teaching of meta-cognitive skills and self-assessment, using student-friendly performance standards, improve student achievement in reading, as measured by the reading performance standards?
Strategies:
- Working in grade-appropriate groups, investigated, studied, and adapted student-friendly scoring guides of the reading performance standards shared from other network schools,
- Using Surrey District’s newly developed RAD 36 (Reading Assessment District 36) in the fall as an initial ‘assessment for learning’ tool, and then again in late spring as a final assessment ‘of learning’,
- Administrative coverage of grade groups to provide teachers release time for collaboration about reading strategies (i.e. planning, instructional practice, assessment).
- Development of blocks of classroom instructional times devoted to reading at each primary grade level, thereby allowing our Learner Support Team to work flexibly and collaboratively with classroom teachers to meet the needs of specific (groups of) students and to reinforce reading strategies.
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Don't Re-invent the Wheel
Hazelton Secondary serves a large native population in the
northern interior of BC. Over 75% of the 500 students
come from native communities around Hazelton including Hagwilget,
Gitanmaax, Kispiex, Gitwangak, Gitsegukla and many others.
The surrounding communities are suffering from a high unemployment
rate. The school is a bright spot in the community. The Hazelton team of Ron Burleigh, Mark Newbery, Scott Stewart,
Rob Sturney, Jan Thorfurn and Cathy van der Mark are now on their
second year of implementing writing performance
standards in their school.
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| Writing Results Sample |
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EE |
NYME |
MME |
FME |
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| Grade 8 Start |
50% |
41% |
8% |
1% |
| Grade 8 End |
37% |
40% |
20% |
3% |
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How they Did it:
Since their start in Fall 2001, they have attended workshops;
wrote quick scales in kid friendly language; held 'timed' writes
monthly in all Grade 8-10 English classes; attended marking sessions;
and started tracking data.
Advice to other schools includes, "Start with one standard...don't'
re-invent the wheel...communicate with other Network schools and
share your successes!"
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