Connecting more as colleagues to build capacity across grade groups by seeking ways to further develop our practice in an effort to address areas of reading that teachers targeted from Fall reading assessments. This is the TAKE ACTION stage of the Spirals of Inquiry.

Coming together is important as a staff to: 

• build accountability

• develop a learning space to foster best practice and ongoing collaboration

• continue to fuel the importance of our school reading goal/momentum

By coming together, we work toward building in strategies that will support our learners while at the same time allow us to formatively assess if our instruction is making a difference.

APPROACH #1 (March):

Some strategies tried this year are included below in the photo:

(photos attached as separate document)

Examples of strategies include:

• Explicit teaching of text-to-text

• Thinking journals

• Developing questions during literature circles

APPROACH #2 (April):

Staff brought grade-alike student samples of learning to consider: 

• What do we notice?

• What do we wonder?

Each grade band recorded their thoughts on post-it notes to document our professional learning.

Some of the areas of NOTICING include:

• students seem to struggle with providing evidence to their learning/understanding

• most of the upper intermediate team notice that their learners are improving with making good connections while our primary team has some classes showing continued challenges with making connections while reading.

Some of the areas of WONDERING include:

• What information are students retaining?

• How can we engage students more?