Comparing BC's Transformed Curriculum (Language Arts)

At our September in-service Delta Kindergarten and K/1 teachers spent some time working with the new language arts transformed curriculum drafts that were released in August.  To help teachers process the new curriculum we worked with one pagers for both the new and current curricula (English and French Immersion). We spent the bulk of our time comparing the big ideas which is why the first page of each document just has the big ideas (goals from IRP docs) listed. The second page of each document has all the detail including the pop-ups/elaborations added from the newest drafts so that teachers can see all the detail in one place and easily cross reference different pieces. Not all of the transformed English Language Arts curriculum fit on the one page so the overflow definitions are included in a glossary page.

Transformed Kindergarten English Language Arts (08/2015)

Transformed English Language Arts Glossary (08/2015)

Kindergarten English Language Arts (2006)

Transformed French Immersion Kindergarten Language Arts (08/2015)

French Immersion Kindergarten Language Arts (1997)

Supporting Kindergarten Students (and the adults that support them)

I recently ran a half day session on a district ProD Day on what I called the little-big things to consider when working with Kindergarten students. (though really the ideas are quite applicable to any age student). The session was aimed at all the adults supporting K students from Education Assistants to Support Teachers. The idea was to consider some early learning principles and how they translate into our work with students, particularly those that are struggling. We worked through themes of belonging, attachment, neuroscience/building on strengths and interests, and differentiated support. Professionals that attended had time between the sections to complete an individualized reflection sheet on a student that they wanted to focus on.

Where it fit we made links to our Kindergarten support materials that we developed a few years ago that are also available online. https://deltalearns.ca/kindergarten/social-emotional-learning-and-class-organization/

The presentation and materials can be found at https://deltalearns.ca/kindergarten/social-emotional-learning-and-class-organization/workshop-presentations/

Ready-Set-Learn & Kindergarten Play Kits

This year to support schools in planning their Ready-Set-Learn events we provided them a menu of kits which they could choose to spend their RSL money on.

The kits are sourced from catalogues and Vancouver area suppliers. There's an Aboriginal Kit, an Artistic Expression Kit, a Dramatic Play Kit, a Forest Block Kit, and a Light and Colour Kit. Complete sets ranged in price from $340 to $560 and schools were able to not order any items if they didn't want them.

The idea was to help teachers and schools source learning materials that could be used at their RSL as a play area and later be incorporated into the Kindergarten and StrongStart rooms.

Kit Details and Ordering Info

Vancouver School District - Early Literacy and Early Intervention

Vancouver School District is working with 2 teams in CR4YRs. There is interest in other departments in using the Spiral of Inquiry in examining other educational areas and issues. Our district is also supporting Collaborative Inquiry within schools which has been growing the past two years.

This September, we are have 58 schools in our district that have adopted the VSB Early Intervention Model. Presently, we have over 60 Reading Recovery Teachers trained or in training to meet the needs of our most at risk students and small group intervention (4X4) with many other students. From our data, we are observing growth in our struggling readers/learners as we follow cohorts of students up to grade three. 

Keep Calm and Teach Kindergarten and Grade One workshop series of 4 sessions have been well received by many new and beginning teachers to these grades. Each teacher is given a professional resource: Literacy Beginnings: A Prekindergarten Handbook by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas, What Every Kindergarten Teacher Needs to Know: About Setting Up and Running a Classroom by Margaret Berry Wilson and Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in Primary Grades by Debbie Miller.

Peter H. Johnson, author of "Choice Words - How our language affect children's learning" and "Opening Minds - Using Language to Change Lives" will be presenting on Friday, April 24, 2015 in Vancouver.

Teaching Oral Language in Kindergarten

Teachers in Delta are inquiring into the ways they support language acquisition. The inquiries are collaborations between Kindergarten classroom teachers, and in many cases the ELL specialist teachers who support their students. The project also includes French Immersion teachers.

The purpose of the inquiry is to deepen our capacity to provide responsive in-class support to all of our language learners in Kindergarten. We have used district funds to release teachers to come together with their school teams to:

       1. Establish shared understandings between Early Childhood and Second Language specialists;
       2. Co-plan how they will collaborate to support language learning and;
       3. Share their school based inquiries with other teachers.

We are using a blog to both share information and document the professional learning of the participating school groups. Our materials and process can be viewed at the following link

Teaching the Acquisition of Language in Kindergarten Blog

Kindergarten Challenging Behaviour Classroom Toolkits

In collaboration with our Special Programs staff, Delta put together a toolkit for every Kindergarten and K/1 classroom in the district in an effort to help teachers respond positively and proactively to children with social-emotional challenges.  The toolkit included a Resource Binder, Visual Schedule, Classroom Rules and Expectations Posters, Student Materials, Class Social Stories, Individual Social Stories, and Home-School Communication Tools.  Where appropriate French Translation, of Student Materials and class visuals were also given to French Immersion classes.  Also included was a literature kit and we have begun collaborating on units/ideas for incorporating SEL teaching goals into the year in a way that is integrated both with the overall program and other curricular areas.

Most documents can be viewed or downloaded online

Delta Kindergarten Social-Emotional-Learning-Classroom Tools