May 15^th-Professional Learning with Talmey Staff (afternoon session)

Indigenous Focus: Outdoor Learning and Literacy

*Guided Plant Walk- LLC-Library Learning Commons-Inquiry Grant Team Presentation

Our Library Learning Commons Inquiry Grant Team shared a short presentation outlining their inquiry work and sharing a new developed field guide created by students with staff support. The guide has information about local plants in and around our school grounds. It will soon be available for all classes to use as part of connecting to place and outdoor learning. Staff had time to review samples of the guide and participated in a guided plant walk. The hope is for all classes to explore and work with the guide during the month of June.

Presentation Highlights:

“How in our modern world, can we find our way to understand the earth as a gift again?”

After scanning students, the team learned that most students didn’t know a lot about local plants and the land in Richmond. This led to an inquiry focused on learning about local plants in and around our school grounds. Students are now working towards developing a plant field guide.

Staff sampled this field guide and participated in a guided plant walk during our Pro-D session.

Literature Circles & Exploring Indigenous Texts with Faye Brownlie

Exploring Strategies to Develop Literacy Skills w/ Indigenous Texts:

Staff had time to learn and practice strategies to help extend student thinking and build background knowledge. All strategies were connected to Indigenous texts. A full session on how to incorporate literature circles into classroom learning was included.

Presentation Highlights:

-Use the Say Something strategy to extend thinking (Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox poem)

-Connect with images in Indigenous texts to build background knowledge

-Start by modelling how a turn and talk works (Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story)

-Explode a picture to extend thinking (Jigging for Halibut with Tsini)

-Teacher is scaffolding based on responses throughout (see sample slides)