"Natural Curiosity: A Resource for Teachers" - Building Children's Understanding of the World through Environmental Inquiry - From University of Toronto, The Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study - OISE.
This resource can be uploaded at naturalcuriosity.ca and it's free! It is worth taking the time to take a look at it. Website shares videos and inspirational stories...enjoy!
develop the ability to use the 'concepts of disciplinary thinking" to investigate issues, events, and developments;
develop the ability to determine and apply appropriate criteria to evaluate information and evidence to make judgement;
develop skills and personal attributes that are needed for discipline-specific inquiry and that can be transferred to other areas of life;
build collaborative and cooperative working relationships;
use appropriate technology as a tool to help them gather and analyse information, solve problems, and communicate. (p. 6 - New Revised Social Studies, History and Geography)
How do educators help students achieve these goals in SSHG?
In June 2013, the Ontario Ministry of Education released the New Revised Social Studies, History and Geography.Teachers across the province will receive their copies in September. However, September 2014 will be mandatory implementation. This will allow time for teachers to explore and learn about the tools and strategies to help achieve the vision of this program.
Vision
"The social studies, history, geography, and Canadian and World studies programs will enable students to become responsible, active citizens within the diverse communities to which they belong. As, well as becoming critically thoughtful and informed citizens who value an inclusive society, students will have the skills they need to solve problems and communicate ideas and decisions about significant developments, events, and issues." Ontario's New Revised Social Studies, History and Geography - Ministry of Education
What does this vision statement mean to you? Stay tuned as we continue this conversation!
Inquiry
question:
What does writing look like in a play-based kindergarten classroom?
This
is a question that many Kindergarten teachers struggle with! In a play-based
classroom, finding evidence of writing, needs to be planned and organized. What
does writing look like? This post will look at; the instructional approaches
to writing, stages of the writing development and assessment, planning and
classroom organization for writing.
Key
Instructional Approaches to Writing
It
is important that teachers and students write daily in kindergarten. As stated in the Ontario A Guide to Effective Instruction in Writing, there are 5
approaches to writing that need to be considered when planning for writing - modelled,
shared, interactive, guided and independent writing. (pg 1.4)
1.Modelled
writing lessons:Teacher
writes daily (5 minute lessons), providing varied writing. Daily writing helps
encourage students to understand that stories matter and helps them make a
connection between oral language and written word. In my experience, sharing my personal stories about my life,
my kids, my pets, help children tell their own stories. Who doesn’t want to
talk about their cat playing with a live mouse! Note- the lesson can be whole group, small group or one-to-one.
2.& 3.Shared/Interactive writing lessons: Allows
for children to actively engage in the writing process. They enjoy taking the
marker “pen” to write on the chart paper and share what they know. Note- the lesson can be whole group,
small group.
4.Guided writing
lessons:are temporary
and in kindergarten will most likely be one-to-one.You might notice that a student needs immediate guidance
about strategies and you can target that learning.
5.Independent
writing:
is done throughout the day in play/learning centres.
Writing
by the teacher and the students occurs daily in a Kindergarten classroom with
different approaches. Early writers need to observe teachers and friends
writing in authentic and well-supported ways.
Stages
of Development & Assessment
Students
move through various stages of writing at various rates. It’s important that
teachers understand the stages of the writing in order to plan and assess where
their students are, on the development scale. Teachers need to observe and
record student’s movement through these stages. Recording the date (students
can use a date stamp) and keeping samples of their work to see the growth of a
child’s written work is valuable information. Building a writing portfolio is a
great way to share students’ progress with families.
Scribbling
is writing!
When
working in the kindergarten classroom, I had to explain that scribbling is
writing, to students and to adults alike. I also, encouraged the adults, not
write on students’ work. I would ask the student to tell me about their story
and if I wanted to remember it, I would record it on a post-it note. We also
had a list of prompts and questions to ask our writers. For example, “tell me
about your picture’ or“I notice…”
We celebrate all stories, including the scribbles!
You
can check out the following link for examples of the different stages of
writing. We have the stages posted in every primary classroom, which is very similar
to the one listed from the website (see below) because it helps to remind everyone involved
about the stages of writing.
Once
our students are writing independently then we need to observe, record, and conference with each student to help
move them along."Although
conferences appear to be warm, informal conversations, they are in fact highly
principled teaching interactions, carefully designed to move writers along
learning pathways." -Lucy Calkins
Sharing
After
a block of play/learning time, it’s important to share the writing. Regie Routman talks about whole-class sharing, but you can also have partner
sharing.“I never skip whole-class share in
kindergarten…Students just learning to write need and benefit from having their
efforts celebrated.” (P. 207 Regie Routman) I usually had a schedule for
children to share their writing on a given day, with the whole group. Then the
rest of the class participated in partner sharing, taking turns to listen to
each other’s stories.
Planning
and Organizing a Classroom for Writing
Observing
the classroom and where children are in the stages of development will guide
the mini-lessons for whole-group, small-group or individuals. These mini-lessons
lessons allow for opportunities to introduce, assess, and teach writing concepts.
Planning for writing needs to be
intentional and authentic. Multiple opportunities for students to work
independently needs to occur daily, so what does that look like? Where is the
independent writing? Each of the centres/play/learning areas needs to be
carefully organized for writing. Providing multiple opportunities for the Kindergarten
team to interact and work with students one-to-one or small group throughout
play/learning centres day is vital to a child’s success in writing/learning.
Play/Learning
Centre
Materials
to Include
Possible
Prompts
Writing
Centre
- wide
variety of paper
-wide
variety of writing utensils
-
examples of student’s work
-envelopes
-word
cards (such as children’s names or words related to theme)
-notebooks
-book
binding material – stapler, hole punch
-magnetic
letters
-writing
folders
-we
talked about writing letters in whole group today, would you like to write a
letter to someone?
Reading
/Library Centre
-paper
and pencils
-clipboards
-class-made
or individually made student books
-books
with variety of formats and content
-I
notice in that book you’re reading, that the character writes a letter. Would
you like to write a letter to someone?
Science
Centre
-paper
and pencils
-clipboards
-post-it
notes
-student
made work
-writing
pertaining to ‘watching our tadpoles grow’
- Our tadpoles are growing! How can we document that to be sure?
-I
took a photo of you looking at the tadpoles. Let’s make them into a book
with writing about what you notice
Block
Centre
-paper
and pencils
-clipboard
-post-it
notes
-I
noticed you made a road! There are some writing materials if you’d like to
make signs with it.
Math
Centre
-paper
and pencils
-clipboards
-examples
of students work
-How can
we make that into a story problem? Let’s write it down.
From: Writing Instruction in Pre-Kindergarten Classrooms: Methods,
Considerations, and Practices. Capstone Experience, Sarah Shufelt, Peabody
College of Vanderbilt University
In
Conclusion
If
you plan, organize, provide mini-lessons and tools for writing at the
play/learning centres in a play-based kindergarten classroom, you will observe
writing everywhere!
“Young
children learn the most important things not by being told but by constructing
knowledge
for
themselves in interaction with the physical world and other children – and the
way they do this
is
by playing.” (The Play’s the Thing)
Bibliography & References
A Guide to Effective Instruction in
Writing –
Kindergarten to Grade 3- Ontario Education – Excellence for All – 2005
Calkins,
Lucy. Units of Study for Primary Writing
(K-2). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Jones,
Elizabeth & Reynolds, Gretchen. 2011. The
Play’s the Thing: Teacher’s Roles in Children’s Play. Teachers College
Press
Shufelt,
Sarah. Capstone Experience. Writing
Instruction in Pre-Kindergarten Classrooms: Methods, Considerations, and
Practices. Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.
Stages of Writing -http://www.fourblock.wikispaces.com/file/view/StagesofWritinghandout.pdf
The above post was written for an AQ Kindergarten course!
For the past couple of years, our school has been involved in reading books that have been picked by Ontario Library Association (OLA). Our volunteer extraordinaire, Donna White, ensures that our school purchases the books that have been nominated for the school year. Thanks to parent council and a supportive principal every class has a selection of new books to read.
Students read the books that are selected for their age group, track their reading and respond to the text in a variety of ways. Donna visits each classroom to conference one on one with each student about the book they've read. She collects their comments and will post them on our bulletin board. In May, our students have an opportunity to vote for their favourite Canadian book. We compare our selection of winners with "The Forest of Reading Award Program" and announce our results, along with OLA choices at our year end celebration.
This year, Donna organized our celebration for the entire school with guests from the Public Library. Bonnie took time to announce the summer programs at the library but most importantly made the announcement of the book winners that we've been anxiously waiting for. Scott works at the library but he is also a musician! He performed songs he wrote for some of the books nominated and entertained us with his music. Our students love him! We ended our celebration day with a treat.
We had fun! And most importantly....we...love to read at our school!
Pete (my partner in crime) wrote a great blog post on our website - Inquiry-based about our PKE project and our work with the inquiry approach to teaching and learning. I'm publishing it here, in the hopes that followers of this blog will also follow our work on our website. Enjoy!
Some
of the constant comments we hear after a workshop are that the teachers
love the techniques, can't believe how engaged their kids were, and how
motivated the students were to complete the explorations.
Unfortunately, close on the heels of these positive comments is a tepid
suggestion that 'maybe I'll try it next year when I have more time'.
The truth is, it's not difficult to make the change from a coverage
approach to an inquiry approach.
Start off small. Think
of some really neat topic in your curriculum that you enjoy teaching.
Ask your class to create a list of questions that they have always
wondered about the topic, or ask them to create a mind-map of ideas or
questions they associate with the topic. Then, ask them to think of
ways you might explore together. You, the teacher, will be learning
along with them. (As an aside, I can honestly say that in my classroom
we have now tipped the balance: the students end up teaching me more
than I teach them on new explorations. After all, there are 27 of them
researching and writing, and only one of me.)
Gather
some simple materials to get started. Show a few videos, read a few
books together, or take a field trip to build some excitement and
background knowledge. This gives you lots of time to determine what
mini-lessons you might want to include (we are responsible for a
curriculum, after all). Now the real fun begins.
Set
up some teams or groups in your room and give them fun names. Mix and
match like crazy and don't worry about setting up just the right
combination. The students will all bring something to the table that is
going to build a satisfying whole. Create a rotation of activities
that the group can rotate through and make sure of one vitally important
element: every group presents their work to the class. The students
will feel the excitement of preparing to teach their peers and rise to
the challenge, I guarantee it. They may stumble and hesitate, but end
result will be that their work has an audience, is appreciated, and is
the stepping stone for greater success down the line.
Our experience with the "Provincial Knowledge Exchange" (PKE) program funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education and supported by our board has been very rewarding. This unique Professional Development (PD) opportunity for teachers has provided time for us to work with them in their classroom and explore the 'Inquiry Approach' to teaching.
Pete and I continue to follow a template for our "Day of Inquiry" with teachers and students:
1. Introduce the theme and topic for the day by sharing a "Learn 360" movie clip and a mentor text. This step helps students to develop background knowledge and gives us information about their understanding of the theme.
2. We model questioning and record our learning as a group on chart paper. We also start a vocabulary list that the teacher can continue working on when we leave.
3. Students in groups of 5 or 6 are given a bucket with informational text for research, chart paper and post-it notes to record their questions and new learning.
4. Once students have a list of questions and new learning, each group shares their information to the class.
5. Next, each group is given an opportunity to explore and they are provided with hands on activities. We work on a station rotation, giving each group a chance to move from one station to the next.
6. During the station exploration, teachers help students to think critically and we guide questions that promote curiosity and wonder.
7. Finally, each group shares their learning and presents to the class. In the clip below, students use the iPad to take pictures of information they learn. Then, they transfer the information to the Explain Everything Appto create a slide/audio presentation.
Frogs by Justin
Special thanks to Danielle Parent - our Primary Level partner and Judith Gatt - our Principal.
We appreciate your support!
Do you have questions about the inquiry approach to teaching?
What do you think about this unique PD opportunity for teachers?
