The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
-Albert Einstein.
-Albert Einstein.
As many of you will remember from my first post, questions are very important to me and my orientation as a teacher, which is why I love the Einstein quote above. At my current school our mission is to "Inspire Learners for Life". But what does that mean and how do we do it? In the elementary school, there is a big focus on understanding inquiry and helping students develop the skills to follow an inquiry process to begin to investigate their own questions. The graphic above from Kath Murdoch can be seen in every classroom and guides our thinking and planning. As a learning support teacher focused on helping students develop the skills to read, write, and calculate, I had little Inquiry Training in my background. However, when I reflect on my most powerful and memorable learning experiences in my schooling, it is clear that all of them were driven by the inquiry process, whether more teacher driven or self directed.
One learning experience I remember vividly comes from studying Ancient Civilizations in sixth grade, which was still elementary school at the time. We worked as groups to develop our own civilization with a language and structure and created artifacts to represent different aspects of daily life, including a "Rosetta Stone". Then we buried our artifacts, switched with another group and had to dig up their artifacts. We then took the artifacts back and spent time exploring them and trying to analyze and interpret what life was like for the people from the civilization they created. We then presented our findings at a mock conference. The whole experience provided an authentic reason to be an archaeologist and gave us the opportunity to do archaeology. It required us not only to know something about how civilizations in the past are studied but also use and apply that knowledge. It is the type of inspired experience we hope to create for our students.
When Inquiry is used as a way of structuring learning, students are presented with authentic and engaging problems, situations, or provocations that they need to interact with to construct meaning and understanding. The process of learning how to inquire is at least as important as the content studied. In short, students are learning how to learn by doing the disciplined studied, whether archaeology, math, or science.
This method of teaching and learning has a long and well studied history. Our school has worked with Kath Murdoch for a number of years and she was recently at our school for another week long training. She worked with our staff and individual teams to evaluate and improve our Units of Inquiry, develop our Inquiry process, and consider in more depth the Skills and Behaviors that support learning. During these sessions we considered in depth the idea of "split screen" planning. When we do this, we plan equally for the content and the process skills that we wish to teach and have students work to develop. The goal is always to help them further understand and develop their ability to use and apply the Inquiry Process while they learn about Forces and Motions, Diversity, or Change. As students become more skilled and independent in the use of the Inquiry Process, they develop the capacity to ask their own questions and understand how to begin to explore them. They learn how to learn so they can be "life long learners" who follow their passion, whatever that it.
It struck me, as I was considering these issues in depth through the sessions with Kath, that this is also differentiated learning at its best. A skilled inquiry teacher meets students where they are in their learning journey and helps them take the next steps, regardless where they might fall on the continuum for that grade level or course. Students ready to fly and capable of working independently can be set loose to explore their passion by following the expectations of the process. Students who have difficulty forming questions to explore or staying focused on a task, can have greater teacher direction and scaffolding to begin to explore their passion and develop skills to work independently while following the same expectations of the process. Each student can interact with the content at their level of understanding and practice and engage in the process with the level of support or independence they require. The individualized and personalized nature of inquiry, also gives teachers a chance to "hook" reluctant learners by enabling them to spend time exploring their own interests within the framework of the process, giving them choice and self-direction.
Because so much of my training as a learning support teacher was focused on skill acquisition, it was an uneasy fit years ago to understand how inquiry based learning could work for "my" kids. Over the years I have come to develop a better understanding that Inquiry done well can meet the needs of most kids. The week with Kath helped to crystallize that understanding. My challenge now is to bring more of that Inquiry to the work I do with students struggling to read, write, and calculate. What has been your experience? Do you have any thoughts, suggestions, ideas, or other questions? Help me on my Inquiry into Inquiry as an approach for supporting students with learning needs.
One learning experience I remember vividly comes from studying Ancient Civilizations in sixth grade, which was still elementary school at the time. We worked as groups to develop our own civilization with a language and structure and created artifacts to represent different aspects of daily life, including a "Rosetta Stone". Then we buried our artifacts, switched with another group and had to dig up their artifacts. We then took the artifacts back and spent time exploring them and trying to analyze and interpret what life was like for the people from the civilization they created. We then presented our findings at a mock conference. The whole experience provided an authentic reason to be an archaeologist and gave us the opportunity to do archaeology. It required us not only to know something about how civilizations in the past are studied but also use and apply that knowledge. It is the type of inspired experience we hope to create for our students.
When Inquiry is used as a way of structuring learning, students are presented with authentic and engaging problems, situations, or provocations that they need to interact with to construct meaning and understanding. The process of learning how to inquire is at least as important as the content studied. In short, students are learning how to learn by doing the disciplined studied, whether archaeology, math, or science.
This method of teaching and learning has a long and well studied history. Our school has worked with Kath Murdoch for a number of years and she was recently at our school for another week long training. She worked with our staff and individual teams to evaluate and improve our Units of Inquiry, develop our Inquiry process, and consider in more depth the Skills and Behaviors that support learning. During these sessions we considered in depth the idea of "split screen" planning. When we do this, we plan equally for the content and the process skills that we wish to teach and have students work to develop. The goal is always to help them further understand and develop their ability to use and apply the Inquiry Process while they learn about Forces and Motions, Diversity, or Change. As students become more skilled and independent in the use of the Inquiry Process, they develop the capacity to ask their own questions and understand how to begin to explore them. They learn how to learn so they can be "life long learners" who follow their passion, whatever that it.
It struck me, as I was considering these issues in depth through the sessions with Kath, that this is also differentiated learning at its best. A skilled inquiry teacher meets students where they are in their learning journey and helps them take the next steps, regardless where they might fall on the continuum for that grade level or course. Students ready to fly and capable of working independently can be set loose to explore their passion by following the expectations of the process. Students who have difficulty forming questions to explore or staying focused on a task, can have greater teacher direction and scaffolding to begin to explore their passion and develop skills to work independently while following the same expectations of the process. Each student can interact with the content at their level of understanding and practice and engage in the process with the level of support or independence they require. The individualized and personalized nature of inquiry, also gives teachers a chance to "hook" reluctant learners by enabling them to spend time exploring their own interests within the framework of the process, giving them choice and self-direction.
Because so much of my training as a learning support teacher was focused on skill acquisition, it was an uneasy fit years ago to understand how inquiry based learning could work for "my" kids. Over the years I have come to develop a better understanding that Inquiry done well can meet the needs of most kids. The week with Kath helped to crystallize that understanding. My challenge now is to bring more of that Inquiry to the work I do with students struggling to read, write, and calculate. What has been your experience? Do you have any thoughts, suggestions, ideas, or other questions? Help me on my Inquiry into Inquiry as an approach for supporting students with learning needs.