After two years of digging deep, exploring and taking action our staff collaboratively and collectively landed on the need to define common language and anchor competencies to act as a framework to hold student evidence up to as our next step.  Research tells us that a “…coherent instructional framework means that teachers reinforce the same ideas, use similar vocabulary for communicating those ideas, know how to make links with what has gone before, and are guiding their efforts in common assessments.” (Robinson, V. & Gray, E. 2019, pg. 8).  We need to be able to all talk the same language when we share and evaluate our student evidence collectively.  We need to anchor our evidence in common language that will support our School Goal.  The intention is that if we are all using the same language that this will bring a greater depth of understanding and knowing and to help our students actualize their personal and social core competencies across the curriculum.  

We worked together to create such a framework; to co-design a framework, leaning on all the learning and discoveries the staff has made up to this point.  Paniagua, A. and D. Istance, (2018) say that “Innovations in teaching and learning are not so much assimilated as adopted progressively and creatively by teachers who know how to use their experiences as “anchors” for implementation and innovation.” (pg. 24).

  Our plan was to co-construct a framework and make it a living document for us to use.  We’ll use this framework to hold our student evidence up to and to help guide our practice.  It will be for use across all learning environments, all contexts and with all learners.   

    To infuse research into the creation of this framework, we leaned heavily on the The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia and equally by the Early Learning Framework for BC - Draft 4 (2018).  Both offer big ideas that are rooted in “being, becoming and belonging” and they reflected most closely the work we are doing here at Blair.  Our goal is to place our work and ideas into bigger themes and containers for us to frame our work.  My efforts thus far is in draft) 

 We gathered the voices of the students, asking them to generate the evidence for processing:  What does it mean to belong?  How do you know you belong?  What do you need to feel you belong here at Blair?  Can you give an example?   While this is not a formal scan, it is focusing on and thinking about “What is going on for our learners?”  and it will help us ensure “… a much richer understanding of student experiences and helps us avoid the traps of our own assumptions, biases, judgments or perceptions.” (Timperley, H., Kaser, L., & Halbert, J., 2014, pg. 7). 

Below is a draft of our Framework thus far.

Our next steps will be to complete the "Applicaitons" portion.  Stay tuned!