This year, our inquiry question was: As we endeavor to create a culture of learning and belonging, how do we design curriculum to allow access, engagement and meaningful learning for ALL students? Our “hunch” was that our students wanted their time at school to be meaningful with more opportunities to explore, play and learn interactively. We were thinking of the meaning that comes from relationships, and needed to find ways that students could be together and engage with curriculum at the same time. We found students were more engaged, focused, productive, creative, smiling, laughing and more open and trusting of adults and each other. They interacted positively in their self-selected groups and environments, and students were able to articulate their learning and growth in multiple competency areas. Reflections and exit slips demonstrated students proudly sharing their growth, not only in literacy, but in their learning journey throughout the year.
Reflection on Comic Writing: This student writes about how her values shape her choices and make her a uniqueindividual, "All of myfriends chose song writing, and of courseI wanted to work with them and be part of what they were doing. But even though my friends mean the WORLD to me, I went for comicwriting becauseI feel I'm more strong in thisarea, and I wanted tosomething that me feel more comfortable to work on. I also thought thatComic Writing would get me a better result and I'm proud of my work."
Reflection on Academic Progress: This student writes about learning more about herself. "I learned that I work well in noisy spaces... I guess I get inspiration from noisy spaces."
Reflection on My Learning Journey: This student writes about communication and creativity. "I can get new ideas in areas I'm interested in...when I was doing comic writing, me and my friends were discussing something things we liked, we came up with other ideas that we liked and I used them to our advantage."
Reflection on Personal Identity: This student writes about personal identity. "I understand how I am different from others because when I choosing my literacy block I realized that some of my friends like different stations that I did. I can identify myself as a hardworking, determined person.
