Inquiry-Based Learning

Inviting Curiosity

2012-02-26T13:15:00.000-08:00

Discussing Read-Alouds

Reading “Henry’s Freedom Box” by Ellen Levine and KadirNelson to the class added to the curiosity and wonder about “Black History” for ourstudents. The discussion from the read-aloud helped to enhance and expand their understanding of this topic. They were anxious to get started with researching, learning and thesharing.

For this unit six workstation activities were developed and the grade 5/6 studentsworked on three of the activities while working in groups of 4 or 5.

Activity 1- Dramatic Presentation – Students selected apicture book to dramatize what they learned from the story. They had to write ashort script and present it to the class.

Activity 2 – Interactive Diary - Students read passages from “A Desperate Road to Freedom –The Underground Railroad Diary of Julia May Jackson” by Karleen Bradford. Theythen had to write from the perspective of a slave (mom, dad, child), plantationowner, abolitionist... Students used the iPod Touch to record their diary entrywith the Dragon app.

Activity 3 – Memorial – Students had to design a memorial for those who fought for freedom. They picked an individual or group thathelped in the abolition of slavery. They had to plan and sketch a proposal topresent to town council.

Activity 4 – I Have a Dream – Students had to write theirown short speech and video the speech using photo booth application.

Activity 5 – Declaration of Rights – Students had to pick anarea and brainstorm what they believe are the rights of a group or individual. They had to create a keynotepresentation.

Activity 6 – Timeline –Students had to research and create a timeline of important events andachievements of key individuals in Black history. They were provided with Internetlinks and had to create a timeline using Smart Ideas Software or Posterpresentation.

Students were completelyengaged and excited about their learning. We gave students a 90-minute block tocomplete one workstation activity. We blocked 30 minutes for dailypresentations. Every student was expected to share his or her learning to theclass.

Using the iPod Touch

Interactive Diary


Researching for Dramatic Demonstration

Presenting

Harriet Tubman Memorial

The quality of the workproduced was amazing. It was clear that the students understood theconcepts and were able to share their knowledge with classmates. All studentslistened attentively while each group shared. The groups worked well together except for one team, they needed to reviewstudent responsibility. This leads me to point number six in the “Inquiry Approach versus Coverage Approach” chart that is posted on our website.

StudentResponsibility VS Student Compliance

The students in our inquiry-based classrooms have been learning how tobecome proficient collaborators and they are learning what social strategieslook and sound like. It's important to set the stage for small groups and establishground rules that allow students to be responsible for their learning. Daniels & Harvey (2009) discuss sixfactors to nurture in students: expectations, norms, friendship, leadership,communication and conflict. These factors help to develop strong interdependence group skills.

All About TIME!

2012-02-12T13:34:00.000-08:00

The pressureof finding quality “Time” seems to be causingconcern among the teachers involved in establishing inquiry learning in theclassroom. While the grade onestudents happily explore, their teacher worries about the length of time it’staking for them to work through the process.

Grade 1 Investigation

Adding Detail

Adding Information

How do teachers find the time to allow for learningin depth? How do we juggle authentic investigations while meeting the demandsof curriculum? Let’s take a look at bullet number 5 listed from our website under the Inquiry Approach VS Coverage Approach chart (Harvey & Daniels, 2009).

AuthenticInvestigation VS As/If Surrogate Learning

Integrating curriculum into authentic investigations might beone way to help with time constraints. This week, we worked with our grade 5/6 students to develop background knowledge on “Black History” month, this resulted with students asking avariety of questions.

Questions from students

As we introduce the topics ofslavery, abolition, segregation and civil rights, the students will workin teams of 4 or 5. These topics will support Social Studies and the Language curriculum expectations through a variety of activities. During the mini-inquiry, we encouragestudents to ask questions, rather than have the teacher ask questions and expect them to supply the answers. As we work through thisprocess the students will be rotating through workstations. This step helps to develop curiosity and interest in a topic. Next, the students will dig deep, investigate the topics and questions that matter tothem.

How do you encourage authentic investigation in your class? Is finding 'time' to learn deeply an issue? Please join this discussion by sending your comment below!

Created with the PhotoTangler collage maker app!

Ask Questions and Wonder

2012-02-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

Sharing and Learning

Teacher Collaboration

Talking and Learning

We started a book club with a group of teachers (JK-Gr.7) interested in learning more about inquiry-based learning. The book we are working on is called "Comprehension & Collaboration- Inquiry Circles in Action" by Stephanie Harvey & Harvey Daniels.


Book Club

At our last meeting we shared ideas and lessons. Anne shared a lesson "Ask Questions and Wonder About Information" (pg. 121). Below you will find a video clip of the process and the learning happening in her grade one class.

Primary Inquiry

2012-01-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

Excitement is building in this primary class around inquirylearning. The students are learning, studying, researching and asking questionsabout animals. They are working in small groups, building their understandingand learning deeply about their topic of interest. Talking and thinkingtogether is helping them to make new and better meaning. This actually leads meto bullet number 4 from the list InquiryApproach VS Coverage Approach posted on our website (Stephanie Harvey andHarvey Daniels 2009)...

Strategic ThinkingVS Memorization

Students in this classroom are developing their criticalthinking skills by working on projects that are authentic and kid-driven. Ms. Parent fosterscuriosity and encourages students to think, talk and collaborate.

Teacher models, models, models!

She began this process by teaching the students how to talkand turn. She explicitly taught them how to read non-fiction text and gatherinformation with a variety of lessons, read alouds and teaching small group withguided inquiries. One lesson taught students how to track their thinking.

Creating guidelines

Tracking our thinking

Thisprocess took time but once Ms. Parent felt they had the skills, strategies and understanding for learning and working in small groups,the inquiry began!

Students picked an animal to research and groups werecreated. The first step into the inquiry was to work on a question chart –
What I Know/ Questions I have.

More to follow…

Let's Make a Movie!

2012-01-22T15:28:00.000-08:00

Pete and I made an iMovie about our project and whatinquiry-based teaching means to us.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Since we had so much fun creating our movie, we invitedstudents to create their own iMovie for the ‘Space’ project. The students picked an area of interest and began working in groups of 3 or4.

Collaborative Work VS SolitaryWork

Let’s consider point number three ‘Collaborative Work Versus Solitary Work’ from the list on our website. We have found that one of the mostimportant strategies in inquiry-based learning is to create the culture of collaboration and smallgroup work. Research shows, that inorder for our students to be successful in the 21^st century, theywill need to develop effective collaboration skills.

We teach our students how to build these skills withspecific lessons. One lesson we use is called “Home Court Advantage: ShowingFriendliness and Support “ developed by Nancy Steinke and shared on page 126 in“Comprehension and Collaboration” by Daniel Harvey and Stephanie Daniels. At the beginning of the school year, wemodel and teach many lessons about how proficient collaboratorsthink and act plus we show them what social strategies look and soundlike. If you haven't started small group collaboration, you can develop and build these strategies anytime during the schoolyear...'effective groups are made, not born.'

Our students have lots of experience working in small groups so they were able to create groups quickly and start work on their iMovie projects. We were able to observe them listening actively, sharing and encouraging each other, and showing tolerance and respect. The students picked an area of interest, decided on a question, did their research and started working on their movie. It's amazing how quickly they can create movies and how easy it is for them to work together in small groups. I can't wait to see their final product.

How do you encourage group work? What does small group work look like in your classroom?

Where are the Aliens?

2012-01-16T14:53:00.000-08:00

Students arrived back to school this week excited to learnabout our next inquiry. They were thrilled to find out that we will beinvestigating ‘Space.’

Let’s continue the conversation and discussion aboutinquiry-based learning in the classroom. As we look at point number two“Questions and Concepts VS Assigned Topics and Isolated Facts” from the chartInquiry Approach VS the Coverage Approach* on our website, we get the“space” study started in our classroom.

Questions andConcepts VS Assigned Topics and Isolated Facts

We introduced the concept of‘space’ to our students and we will encourage them to developtheir own questions for inquiry. However, the first step was to gather as manytext resources as we could, from the school and community libraries orInternet. Next, to activate andbuild their background knowledge we introduced vocabulary and the text/digitalresources by allowing them to read independently, watch informational video clipsand give them time to share their findings. The question we modeled, thathooked them was “Where are the Aliens?” They absolutely loved it! This process took about three days andthe students will be ready to develop questions for their inquiry.

When we begin the inquiryprocess, asking questions is central to inquiry-based learning. So, in the following weeks we willfocus on helping our students develop their own questions about ‘space.’ Wecan’t wait to begin our journey with them…what will our students learn?

We'd love to know how youbegan the New Year with your students? How did you encourage your studentsto question and learn about concepts?

*Stephanie Harvey, HarveyDaniels, 2009, Comprehension and Collaboration. Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann.

Happy 2012

2012-01-10T15:52:00.000-08:00

Welcome readers to our blog! We have big plans for expanding the website and writing a blog. To kick off 2012 join us in our discussion of how you have encouraged or plan to encourage inquiry-based learning in the classroom. Inquiry-Based learning "is an approach to learning whereby students find and use a variety of sources of information and ideas to increase their understanding of a problem, topic, or issue...it espouses investigation, exploration, research, pursuit, and study."* For more information on what inquiry-based learning is please see our website.

So to begin this discussion let's start with looking at the Inquiry approach versus the Coverage approach. The differences between the two approaches can be found in bullet form on our website, but to break it down lets start by looking at the first point.

Student Voice and Choice VS. Teacher Selection and Direction

This year we encouraged student voice and choice through a class project on the theme of flight. Students were given free rein to look at the specific aspects that interested them. The ideas of flight was taken as the base for exploration and discovery of all aspects from the science and engineering of air travel, to the history and biographies of various pilots. The students were further encouraged to work in groups based on their interests. Those who chose biographical information created podcasts based on their research of the individual and acted out interviews to share the information with larger audiences. Using google earth students were also able to map out the flight path of famous pilots such as Amelia Earheart. Others created model airplanes to explore the science of flights.

Research was undertaken in groups and individually. Group based research included analyzing photographs as a class and creating discussion. The library and internet was used for individual research. Inspired by the National Geographic's article "If Only We Had Wings" and all this research a debate unfolded about the nature of flight and whether or not it is possible for humans to achieve flight on their own.

The quality and caliber of each students' work was astounding. Active engagement and participation was present in the student's obvious interest in their selected topic. Learning was sought and internalized through group work but also on an individual level. The collaboration and group work was very inspiring to us as teachers and a great wrap up to our 2011 year. Can't wait to get back to class!

How did you encourage student voice and choice in 2011? Do you have any plans to encourage Inquiry-based learning in 2012? Join this discussion by sending us your comment below!!

*Guided Inquiry Learning in the 21st Century, Kuhltau, Maniotes, Caspari, Libraries Unlimited, 2001