Black History Month

This post was written at the beginning of our journey, in the inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning (2012). We quickly noted that to begin an inquiry, it is important to build students' background knowledge on a subject, in this case Black History.  Students were unable to ask questions because they did not have enough information related to the topic.  Together, we read picture books, articles, watched news clips and shared stories.  Our students, then did their own mini research, mostly based on interest.  Finally, they began to ask quality questions. Their questions were discussed and listed on a chart paper, along with new vocabulary connected to Black History.  It is from these questions, that we developed stations (shared in the blog post) to further their knowledge and understanding.

You can find the original post here:
http://inquiry-based.blogspot.com/2012/02/inviting-curiosity.html

This story book was used as a read aloud and a great way to invite curiosity. Students enjoyed hearing about Henry's story.

Integrating Lessons

This post was written in 2014 and shows the work of a group of grade one students. You will notice that they are working on literacy, math concepts and simple machines.

This student is following his plan for constructing a power crane!

You can read about student learning in this classroom by clicking on the following link.
http://inquiry-based.blogspot.com/2014/06/busy-and-active-in-grade-one.htmlhttp://inquiry-based.blogspot.com/2014/06/busy-and-active-in-grade-one.html

Theme Blog Post: Classroom Setup

The following blog posts are connected to setting up your classroom space.


1. This post shares the work we've done with 'Ontario Elementary Social Studies Teachers' Association' (OESSTA). We created 8 videos connected to Pete's inquiry-based classroom and this one video focus' on setting up your classroom space.

 http://inquiry-based.blogspot.ca/2015/08/setting-up-your-classroom-space.html

2. In preparing your classroom, you may need to think about the steps of inquiry. This post gives you example of the type of material you may need when setting up your inquiry-based classroom. 

                               http://inquiry-based.blogspot.ca/2012/07/steps-to-inquiry.html

Two important features for our classroom: large group gathering area and areas that allow for small group work.

                   

                         

Recycling!

This blog was created in 2012, and my goal was to share what we've done in our classrooms, to share our learning and most importantly, to share how we've used the inquiry approach.  The way the blog structure is presented, old post get lost and there are top traffic posts, that I would like to share with you again! Whether you're new to this site, new to learning about the inquiry-approach or curious about what we have learned along the way, check here regularly as I highlight and recycle posts.

The following post was written in 2013 and it is THE top traffic post.  It was written for an Additional Qualification (AQ) course. Let me know what you think! 

Writing in Kindergarten 

http://inquiry-based.blogspot.ca/2013/07/writing-in-kindergarten.html

P.S. I have two good reasons, for not regularly writing new blog posts...retirement and grandma-hood! However, I do plan to mix it up with new content and old...so please stay tuned!

The Value of Working in Small Groups

We learned that creating a classroom with small working groups, celebrates diversity, allows students to learn with all types of people, and it builds teamwork skills. However, this is not always an easy task to set up. It takes time and patients to help students learn how to work collaboratively. But, in our experience it has been, well worth the effort.

We noticed that, once our students learned how to work together, many of our quiet ones, had a voice! There also seemed to be less stress in the classroom learning, students were helping each other, and often, they were inspiring confidence, and encouragement for all to participate. Our students, began to understand their classmates strengths and weaknesses. They developed care, compassion and understanding for each other!

Do your students work in small groups? 

Do you see the value of working in small groups? 

Allowing our students to work in small groups, turned our classroom into mini-workshops, full of excited voices and engaged students. You can view the following video clip, where we discuss the benefits of having our students' work in small groups and you can take a peek at a classroom in action. Please let us know what you think! Leave comments and/or feedback below. Thanks!

(OESSTA produced this video and it's one, in a series of videos titled 'An Approach to Inquiry' that can be found on the OESSTA website.)

Reading Celebration - Castex 2016

The students at our school enjoy reading a variety of books from 'The Forest of Reading' program. Each year the Ontario Library Association create a list of book titles that celebrate Canadian authors. Our school, purchases the books from the nominated list in the Blue Spruce and Silver Birch category. Throughout the school year, students read and share book reviews in a variety of ways; one on one with our volunteer extraordinaire, or with peers in their class.

At the end of the school year, we have a celebration of reading and invite community members to celebrate with us. Scott Cooper is our favourite guest. He is a local musician, that likes to read the Forest of Reading books, and then he writes songs about them. How cool is that? Scott has entertained our students for the past couple of years, with his love for music and children's literature. Of course, the celebration would not be complete without a visit from the Community Librarian. She enjoys meeting the students and encourages them to join the library and to become a member of the summer reading program.

Scott Cooper

This reading program helps to foster a love of reading and generates a positive buzz for all books.  Take a look at this short clip, enjoy!  Forest of Reading - Castex 2016

How do you promote reading at your school? 

Natural Environment

Take a look at this group of primary students as they look at "How people affect the natural environment?"  

 This resource comes from the OESSTA website which has a bank of lessons, videos and resources to support the Social Studies, History and Geography curriculum.

Curiosity and Teamwork Make the Perfect Recipe...

Honoured to have our work highlighted on Teach Ontario's website. Check out the article and let us know what you think! Your feedback and comments are greatly appreciated.

TeachOntario Talks: Curiosity and Teamwork Make... | TeachOntario

The Teach Ontario website is an amazing resource for teachers. It's a great place to meet, share and learn. Try it out!

Learning How...

....to use the iPad effectively!

These students are learning how to use the iPad in an effective way. While many of the students are familiar with using the technology, it’s important for them to learn how to use it as a tool for learning. A point of interest for this class, is that their teacher does not own an iPad, had never used one and so, this was a huge learning curve for the teacher!

In this classroom, students work in small groups at centres, and they have learned to work independently. Creating the iPad centre required a bit of coaching but once the students became familiar with apps and expectation, they were able to complete work and share their learning.

To begin with, students were taught how to use the 'Explain Everything' app. The teacher modeled a lesson, with the whole class and gave them an anchor chart with easy steps to follow.

Then the teacher,  had students work in pairs to experiment with all the features. At the end of centre time, each pair shared what they did and what they learned.

 Finally, some students created a work board with examples of 'how to' upload images, draw, create and present on the iPad.

My Wisdom To You....

To kick off the school year, Ms. Bourgeois used the picture book called 'Only One You' by Linda Krantz with her Grade 1/2 students.

This inspirational book has a number of key messages that encourage positive thinking, making memories, learning about making a difference and so much more! It’s important to build a positive classroom culture and this story helped to pave the way for helping students understand about friendship, and to celebrate their own uniqueness.

Ms. Bourgeois read this book a number of times to her students and was able to communicate the importance of being unique and making a difference. There were many brainstorming sessions about what is wisdom, how to make the world around us a better place and what makes each of us special. 

The key message in this book was inspiration for a school bulletin board developed and created by the students and their teacher. Much like the message in the book, it encouraged working together and celebrating our differences. Students were able to share their words of wisdom with the whole school. 

There were many fun activities that spun out from the book such as making dioramas of sea creatures. Students were randomly placed in small groups. Each group worked together to teach each other about getting along and listening to others. 

The book taught students about wisdom, friendship and being unique. They began to understand 

that we are all different and that they need to be 'proud to be me.' One of the ways the students were able to show their uniqueness was to pick a rock and add a design that they felt represented who they are and they talked about how they are all different but the same.

The following slide show was created with the 'flipagram' app and shows the work that was done in this grade 1/2. Click here! https://flipagram.com/f/faLuudM6fLThanks for sharing Ms. Bourgeois. You have an amazing class!

My wisdom to you is....

How do you build self-esteem in your students and create a positive classroom culture? 

Do you have a favourite mentor book? 

Please share!

 

OESSTA Twitter Chats

OESSTA (Ontario Elementary Social Studies Teachers' Association) is working to provide resources and support for Social Studies, History and Geography teachers. A website has been developed and it is updated regularly - check it out here.

OESSTA is using twitter (@oessta1) to reach out to teachers. We are using #ontsshg hashtag to not only share ideas and collaborate with fellow Ontario colleagues but it is also a conversation that is opened to educators from around the world.

We meet bi-weekly, using #ontsshg on Thursday at 9pm EST. Most chats have a specific topic or theme such as our last chat - Reading Historical Fiction Picture Books. You can read about that chat here. If you have a topic or idea that you wish to discuss, please comment on this post.


Looking forward to meeting you on twitter and hope you will join our learning community! 

                                                                                                 Credit Elijah van der Giessen / FundChat

Educators Learning Together About the Inquiry Process

The 8 videos that we created for the OESSTA website, are intended for groups of educators who wish to learn more about the inquiry-based approach to learning and teaching. You can find suggested discussion questions about the content for all of the videos here.

The following is a video titled "How Can I Start to Plan for Inquiry?" Also, included in this post is a sample of the discussion questions that are posted on the OESSTA website. This website is a great resource to use with educators wanting to learn together about how to implement the Social Studies, History & Geography curriculum, about the inquiry approach to teaching and much more!

The following text was copied from the OESSTA website - please check the link to find all 8 videos along with suggested discussion questions about the inquiry process. (This is a cross-post with our inquiry-based website).

 
This video explains techniques for creating good inquiry questions to guide student exploration and depicts one teacher's approach to organizing the school day to facilitate independent learning.
Questions for Viewing:

• What do you see as the advantages of a two week inquiry as a starting point?
• What drawbacks do you imagine? How could those be overcome?
• How do you see the potential for the quality of the products evolving over the two weeks? How might this relate to establishing success criteria and assessment AS learning?

Task: Determine a topic, central question, and related questions based on the curriculum overview

• What is a curriculum topic you might explore in a two week inquiry?
• How might you introduce the topic to students in a way that stimulates wondering, questions, and pondering of ideas and solutions? It might begin with immersion in an experience, with primary artifacts, or an issue that relates to their lives to provoke thinking.
• Using Social Studies as an example, what might be a central or overarching inquiry question for that topic that takes into account Big Ideas, Social Studies Thinking Concepts, Overall Expectations and Spatial Skills? This would be a rich, divergent question with diverse response possibilities worthy of investigating over time. It should be something that frames the explorations at each station and is summarized in the final stage of the inquiry. Ideally these come from the students in the background portion of the two-week exploration. NOTE: Use the framing questions in the grade overview as a guide.
• Brainstorm some related questions and mini-inquiries that spill out from the topic. These act as sub-topics that will contribute to investigating the central question. Again, ideally these are initiated by students. 
• List resources and supports you might need. 
•  Please share your experience with us! We would love to hear from you!
  

Setting up your Classroom Space

Are you starting to think about your classroom space? Take a look at this video that was produced by "Ontario Elementary Social Studies Teachers Association (OESSTA) in association with "Ontario Association of Junior Educators" (OAJE). You can view the video series on the OESSTA website.

What does your classroom look like?

Please share your questions, thoughts and comments!

An Approach to Inquiry - Video Series

We developed a series of videos about the inquiry approach that was produced by "Ontario Elementary Social Studies Teachers Association (OESSTA) in association with "Ontario Association of Junior Educators" (OAJE).

The following video "How Can I Start to Plan For Inquiry?" explains our process for creating an inquiry-based classroom.

You can check out the entire video series on the OESSTA website under the video tab.
There are 8 chapters:

1. Introduction - An Approach to Inquiry
2. Why an Inquiry Approach?
3. How can I start to plan for inquiry?
4. What might teaching and learning look like?
5. When to move beyond a two-week exploration?
6. How does this process allow for the assessment?
7. What is the value of working in groups?
8. What do you consider in setting up your classroom space? 

What process/structure do you use to start an inquiry?

What does you inquiry-based classroom look like?

Please share!  

Students Join Twitter Chat!

Check out the archived discussion from an #ontsshg chat with Rashmee Karnad-Jani (@Ms_Karnad) and her students. It's about Critical Thinking and students with Individual Education Plans (IEP).

Stay tuned because Rashmee and her grade 8 students will be blogging about their experience here!

Knowledge Building

On June 4th, we had a twitter chat about 'Knowledge Building' with Heidi Siwak @heidisiwak, the guest facilitator. She asked us to look at the 12 Principals listed at http://learnteachlead.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Knowledge-Building-12-Principles1.pdf
You can see the archived discussion on the link below.
https://storify.com/Robitaille2011/knowledge-building

It's All About The...Relationships We Build!

Pete's brilliant idea of starting the year by having his students build go-karts; allowed kids to move freely around the classroom, gave them skills to work together, to problem solve and to feel like they were still on summer holiday! In the meantime, they were reading, writing "how-to" manuals, learning about simple machines, learning about measurement and the list goes on! They were motivated, felt safe to explore and learned the importance of collaboration. They were building relationships that would help them grow throughout the school year.

In this grade 4/5 classroom, students are engaged and motivated to do work not only because it's an energized workshop environment, but because their teacher builds a safe and inclusive classroom.  Pete takes time to get to know his students, he builds a positive relationship and by providing a hands on activities, he is able to observe the abilities and potential of each and every student.  It's rare to see Pete sitting at his desk, instead he is sitting with students, listening in on groups or conferring with individuals.  The relationships he builds in his classroom creates a positive climate where students feel like valued members and it promotes curiosity and interest.

How do you promote positive relationships in your classroom? 

How do you create a positive classroom environment?

Please share!

It's All About The....

...relationships we build in our classrooms!

It's important for teachers to create an environment that fosters a sense of community, where all students feel included, appreciated and where ideas are treated with respect.

One way to do that is to start the year with an amazing project/inquiry. In this grade 4/5 classroom students had the opportunity to build go-karts! This classroom turned into a workshop and let the students know that learning in this inquiry-based classroom would be different. Students responded immediately and couldn't wait to come to school everyday. Building go-karts in September helped to motivate and engage the students and it helped to build a community of learners.  They quickly learned how to listen to each other, collaborate, problem solve and become critical thinkers. 

Classroom workshop!

More pictures and stories here!

Dinosaur Exploration

This kindergarten class had a choice to make! Will they be learning about planets or dinosaurs?

The majority of the kindergarten students decided that they wanted to learn about Dinosaurs. The next step of learning for students was to build their background knowledge. What do they know? What questions do they have? 

Their teachers provided lots of books, showed pictures, showed video clips,  read informational texts, provided fun learning activities that included mapping skills and following directions. The students were able to discover and learn about the life cycle of dinosaurs!

Discovery Table

Follow directions

The students had to follow these dinosaur prints to find a dinosaur's nest and her eggs!

The Nest!

Once they found the eggs, the students had to take them to the water table to learn about melting ice and to discover what was inside the egg!

Melting Eggs

This kindergarten classroom was buzzing with excitement, interest and curiosity.

What has sparked your interest and curiosity lately?

OESSTA Newsletter

Check out the newsletter for Ontario Elementary Social Studies Teachers' Association (OESSTA). The following was compiled by Byron Stevenson:

OESSTA News #8

Hello teachers , I have included a variety of materials that support the teaching of Social Studies History and Geography focusing on the 2013 Revised Curriculum. There are a variety of professional learning opportunities available to you that will enhance your practice.

We have also completed most of our projects related to the roll out. They are posted on our temporarily on our blog http://oessta.blogspot.ca/ Do visit and see what we have created. In addition our new website will be ready shortly. The main feature of the website will be a forum to promote sharing and collaboration. Please share with your colleagues.

Professional Learning Opportunities

Please promote the conference within your district school board.

A) Ontario Elementary Social Studies Teachers Association Conference - OESSTA in conjunction with OAGEE will hold a conference at Ryerson University on October 17 & 18, 2014.

The conference will highlight teaching/learning approaches and resources related to the 2013 Revised SSHG curricuum document.

Registration has just opened:

Go to - http://oagee.org/en/conferences-14/all-conference-programs

Select the OESSTA section for registration. There are session relating to : inquiry, spatial technologies, using primary sources, teaching an African Canadian perspective , leading teachers with the revised curriculum, and working with the concepts of thinking.

B) Connecting with your colleagues across the province using twitter!

Teachers and administrators are invited to participate in the Ontario Elementary Social Studies Teachers Association (OESSTA) social media network to explore the New Revised SSHG on twitter @oessta1 using the hashtag #ontsshg for discussion. There will be a twitter chat on Thursday nights at 9:00-10:00 PM to discuss, share ideas and strategies. Hope you will follow!

Upcoming chats:  October 9/14 - Sharing effective practices for SSHG

(PLEASE CONSIDER facilitating (or co-facilitating) a #ontsshg Twitter chat on Thursday at 9pm - DM your email address to @Robitaille2011 - thank you)

C) Webinar - Heritage Minutes (register today) - Heritage Minutes, also known officially as Historica Minutes: History by the Minute, is a series of sixty-second short films, each illustrating an important moment in Canadian history.

Presented by Historica Canada in conjunction with The Ontario Elementary Social Studies Teachers Association (OESSTA) - October 8, 2014 3:45-4:30 - OPEN TO ALL

Register at:

http://goo.gl/forms/D7whWqXz0P

D) OTF Connects… small, frequent doses of valuable PD designed to fit your needs and your schedule

http://www.otffeo.on.ca/en/learning/otf-connects/

Registration opens -  October 7, 2014

The Ontario Teachers’ Federation cares about supporting your learning and is pleased to continue to offer OTF Connects. The OTF Connects program is online, ongoing support developed by teachers for teachers. A wide variety of session topics are available in the 2014-2015 calendar, including 21st Century Learning, Critical Thinking, Environmental Education, Financial Literacy and Violence Prevention.

Resources

1) What is Inquiry-Based Learning? (read this article about two OESSTA members)

http://tvoparents.tvo.org/article/what-inquiry-based-learning

“Inquiry-based teaching is an approach to instruction that begins with exploring curriculum content and providing a framework for the students to ask their own questions which builds interest and curiosity,” says Louise Robitaille, an elementary teacher in Midland.

Visit the inquiry website for more ideas at http://www.inquiry-based.com

2) The Thinking Teacher

The Thinking Teacher highlights ideas, strategies and resources for teachers and educational leaders who are working to support critical thinking in K-12 classrooms.

History? HERstory! Daily life of a pioneer woman - October is Women’s History Month. Invite students to determine what daily life was like for pioneer women at the turn of the 20thcentury using photographs, interviews and even a letter-to-the-editor. The set of History Docs,Daily life for pioneers 1890-1914, contains source documents, an image viewer, student tasks and teacher notes.

Targeted grades: Middle

View the History Doc

http://tinyurl.com/opkk5sx

Find out more about the History Docs collection.

http://tinyurl.com/p2hp3b7

See more resources in The Thinking Teacher archives.

http://tc2.ca/ttt/