JV Humphries School "Kaslo Book Project"

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What did your teacher team do and learn?

Hannah Lunn, Phil Fertey, and Brenna Leitch with the support of interim principal Monica Doyle collaborated between three classes, creating a mixed age group of students who self-selected an important community member to interview.

• Created scaffolded learning guides to support students in open-ended inquiry based questions.
• Incorporated community experts, such as local photojournalist Louis Bockner to inspire and create a real-world connection for students.
• Created a four-week learning plan to teach students how to write narratives. Utilized exemplars from local publications such as Kootenay Mountain Culture to educate students on incorporating themes, imagery, and symbolism into their narratives.
• used a pre and post assessment tool (scaffolded for younger years) with the goal of supporting students’ self-reflection on their listening and interview skills. 

 What did your students do and learn?

• Learned interview and active listening skills from photojournalist Louis Bockner
• Practiced with peers and self-assessed using a “Glow” and “Grow” scale at the beginning of the project.
• Self-selected an important community member to interview
• Developed ten open-ended interview questions designed to foster discussion with their interviewee
• Scheduled and conducted interviews
• Using scaffolded prompts students drafted, wrote, and edited their narratives to highlight their important community member.
• Students self-assessed using a “glow” and “grow” scale at the end of the project.

Salmo Family of Schools Literacy Project 

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Teachers from both schools co-develop and implement cross-curricular literacy practices focused on vocabulary and fluency and literacy transitions, supported by co-teaching, PD sessions, learning bursts, and collaboration. 

SES/SSS- What did we do and learn?

• Collaborated in Grades 3 and 4 and  Grades 5 and 6, demo classroom observation and supporting district reading assessment with SSS teachers 
• Gained a clear overview of reading/writing performance across grades 1-6 based on BC Performance Standards. These helped build detailed class literacy profiles to inform teaching and to provide clear, differentiated tools for all learners.
• 3 SES staff members in attendance at Literacy (4-6) Learning Series with Dr. Chase Young on April 25^th- This provided research and instruction to dive deeper into Morphology and Vocabulary instruction.
• SSS teachers attended Learning Bursts in the afternoon with district literacy teacher-coordinator (grades 4-12) Melanie Mobbs.

What did your students do & learn?

• Engaged: The school-wide Read-a-Thon activities in February found 100% student engagement in school and at home. ALl students had more practice with independent and partnered reading.
• Participated: in morphology and vocabulary lessons that includes the use of: The Frayer model, thinking aloud" using "I" language,  a mini version of the "Fluency Development Lesson", games such as  Wordo, a few different ideas from Dr. Young in combination with the Read Aloud format from Molly Ness.   
• Practiced: The daily use of the UFLI decodable readers consistently with tier 2 readers in grade 3-5 to improve reading levels and fluency:  CBAL volunteers working with tier 2 readers daily.
• Completed: Reading (comprehension and fluency) assessments in 3 intermediate classrooms with next steps identified and pursued (Faye Brownlie /Nanaimo/Ladysmith model).
• Completed: School-wide spring write based on the same topic (“Why I like Spring”).

Intermediate Literacy Learning Series (2025)

Watch the interview with several of the SD8 teacher participants in Part 2 of a 3-part literacy series with Dr. Chase Young. A complementary book study series, "Artfully Teaching the Science of Reading" (Dr. Chase Young) was also attended by over 20 participants.

View video here.