Making Discoveries While Exploring New Sources

We recently embarked on our first Social Studies inquiry with seventh graders, using the new Frameworks, and were very pleased with the natural engagement and student learning.

The essential question posed to our students was, "What makes an individual worthy of national recognition?"and coincided perfectly with Columbus day (it was almost like we planned it!).  To begin the unit, students had an animated conversation about Christopher Columbus' historical significance and his treatment of Native Americans.  These two ideas became our guiding, or supporting, questions for the research of other explorers.

Students were then launched into search strategies, using both books and databases, to discover what
they could about their assigned explorer's historical significance and treatment of Native Americans.  Mini lessons, such as how to determine relevant information and citation skills, were embedded during this phase of the project.  These lessons focused on important information literacy skills, while students learned about critical social studies content.  Both were being done effectively simultaneously.

After just a few days of digging into library resources, students were ready to gather that information in a shared Google Doc, which then allowed them to return to our original question and consider "What makes an individual worthy of national recognition?" in the context of this project.  Students were asked to look at example argument stems and then form their own argument for why one of the explorers on their list was worthy of recognition- they were encouraged to consider forms of recognition beyond national (local, state, etc.) and weigh the two supporting ideas of significance and treatment of Native Americans.

Once students had formed their own argument stem they were ready to create their own product to share that point of view with the class.  The natural form this took was a campaign poster, which they would then briefly share with the class.  Again their were information literacy skills embedded through this phase, including responsible use of images and how to appropriately breakdown your argument for this product.

There were many important lessons packed into this engaging project, and the entire thing was implemented in only a week and a half!

Inquiry Tools and Resources

Tools and Resources

As you begin your new year it can be hard to remember all the great things you learned in Summer PD or heard about last year. I thought that I would post a few resources that many teachers have found helpful.

Planning

Not everything that you do in the classroom will be a large inquiry project. In fact, most of time activities and lessons will focus on one skill in the inquiry process. However if you are trying to plan out a longer project don't forget about the Buck Institute that has a tremendous amount of resources. In much of our PD we spend a lot of time gathering ideas and resources from them. One resource that might be helpful in planning is the project planner or you may want to consider using the project template that Megan. Sarah and I created and shared in many PD sessions.

Wonder

There was a tremendous amount of dialogue last year about teaching students how to ask good questions. Many teachers have found the question starter grid to be helpful when trying to get
their students to ask questions that will yield more than a "yes" or "no" response. This is a nice tool to post in your classroom and refer to on a daily basis.

Investigate

This year we have a new database called ScienceFlix that can be accessed from the library website. You can use this database as a launching point for Inquiry or to specifically address the "investigation" stage of inquiry. There are videos, leveled articles, links to websites and experiments

that students can access on a wide variety of science topics.  Don't be afraid to have students develop questions on a topic in the classroom and then investigate the answers at home using the database. Students have been given the username and passwords for the databases, but I am happy to share them again if they are needed.

Remember, there are lots of great databases on the library website that can be used to help with the investigation stage.  I am always happy to lead or assist in instruction on how to use these resources.

Assistance

Hopefully some of these resources will help you to get started in your inquiry instruction. I encourage you to reach out to me whenever you are working on inquiry skills, as this is a large part of my curriculum and expertise. I am happy to help plan lessons or I can simply be an extra set of hands in the classroom as you navigate through the stages of inquiry with your students.

Essential Questioning

Questions form the structure within which we can wonder, think critically and solve problems.  Although questions may come naturally to us as children, we need to encourage our students to understand the art of good questioning.  This will become the foundation for their lifelong learning skills.

In our classrooms the essential questions we ask should guide our instructional practices and help us focus on the higher order thinking skills we want our students to strengthen.  "Essential questions can be used to effectively frame our key learning goals" (McTighe, Wiggins 4).

According to McTighe and Wiggins the defining characteristics of a good essential question are:

1. It is open-ended
2. It is thought-provoking and intellectually engaging
3. It calls for higher-order thinking
4. It points toward important, transferable ideas
5. It raises additional questions and sparks inquiry
6. It requires support and justification
7. It recurs over time- it will be revisited over and over again

During this school year we will focus on developing effective and meaningful essential questions, and incorporating them into inquiry driven instruction. 

Inquiry Explored

WISE model of research

At both the elementary and high school we use the same model of inquiry. This is the WISE model adapted from WSWHE BOCES. Inquiry is a process of learning, which incorporates, wondering, investigating, synthesizing, and expressing.  We also encourage building reflection into this process.  The only difference is that the students using the model at the high school are at a higher level of development than the students at the elementary, therefore the activities within each stage will be different, but the process stays the same. 

If you are looking specifically for activities that would fit in an elementary classroom then you can look for this icon before the relevant blog posts. These posts will reflect on collaboration being done in the elementary school.  If you have an activity or lesson that you would like to share we would love to highlight it here.  

If you are looking specifically for activities that would fit in a high school then you can look for this icon before the relevant blog posts.  Again, these will be reflections on work being done at the high school, and we would love to highlight your activities and/ or lessons.


Keep in mind that although we will indicate elementary or high school many of the activities can be tailored to fit different levels.

Inquiring Instructors

We started with a question..."How can we share what is happening with inquiry in both the elementary and the high school, so that instructors can get ideas and share what they are doing in their own classrooms?" This blog is designed to be a useful learning tool to assist instructors as they implement inquiry into their classroom. To make this blog user friendly, we are going to be using 5 main symbols to identify the stages of inquiry. In addition, we will also be tagging each post so that when searching for a particular idea you can easily find the posts that will be most helpful to you.

Wonder

Investigate

Synthesis

Express

Reflect

As you investigate new tools, activities, and ideas and apply them (synthesis) in your classrooms we invite you to express them through our Google+ community. This will allow us to reflect on our instructional practices and build a strong learning community.