Term two Unit and Our Inquiry Journey

I think it is exciting the way we have left the door open in terms of charting your own Inquiry. Using the team structure to develop this work means that you can pick up some good ideas along the way

What a great introduction to Inquiry Based Leaning. What we heard from Jan-Marie Kellow leaves us with much to think about with regards to the road ahead and it just won't happen overnight, but it will happen. Food for thought- Inquiry Based Learning and Information Literacy are two different things. Inquiry Based Learning is much more than just what we know, what we want to find out and once that has occurred, what we now know.

Higher Order Thinking and Inquiry

Presentation online at: http://centre4.interact.ac.nz/modules/kb/entry.php?space_key=15095&module_key=56537&entry_key=2545&category_key=682

The idea of a wonder wall is a good one. Have a heading - I wonder ?

Two parts within the display - I wonder related to the current study and the second one for general wondering.  This  idea cam up during Jan-Marie's workshop.

Stages of Inquiry

Ask

Acquire

Analyse

Apply

Act

Assess

Jan-Maries session

The thing that we need is to decide the model - give the children the tools to solve their answers

 - that is what we will be doing with our model - keep the link with the new curriculum.

Inquiry is about responding to the learners of today

Inquiry-based Learning workshop

Workshop with Jan-Marie Kellow e-fellow learning about Inquiry. We're really looking forward to getting our teeth into developing inquiry at North. IBL is based on questioning and wondering, children's interests and curiosity, investigation. It may focus on problems and issues and encompasses motivation, skills, processes. She suggested that key elements of IBL are

1. Student ownership (to some extent) - teacher still has a role though in developing the inquiry
2. Authentic contexts with purpose and relevance to their lives - they must be able to grasp and relate to the problem or issue. Idea - Wonder walls - allow children to post notes on a wall both for general and current inquiry topic based learning.
3. Some scaffolding needed - guided inquiry - means that children of any age can be engaged in IBL - there are different forms of inquiry - directed, guided, pure
4. The teacher has a facilitator role - may be doing some teaching - they are not Captain Answer!
5. There may still be a need for explicit teaching of concepts and skills relevant to the inquiry
6. IBL will often include knowledge creation - some new presentation or arrangement of information - related to the purpose of the inquiry
7. Action - this is controversial - some people argue that social action is compulsory, others do not. I think it does depend on the purpose.

Jan-Marie's model - Ask, Acquire, Analyse, Apply, Act, Assess - 6 A's. Many models have different expressions of the same handful of steps or concepts In the assessment stage - look at developing rubrics with your class for assessment of IBL IBL and Info Literacy are related in that you need Info Literacy skills to do good inquiry but they are not the same and shouldn't be confused. IBL is also a good means of meaningfully practising Info Literacy skills. These skills may need teaching in the context of inquiry. Models of inquiry may be class, syndicate or school wide. Expressing them visually and graphically is helpful to enabling students' understanding of their inquiry. When we find information an inquiry, we should triangulate it from two other sources Developing an Inquiry Learning Model in a School Link to follow It's important to have this to develop common understandings of inquiry - visiting other schools is a good idea. Also, look at the elements of Inquiry and discuss what they mean to staff. This discussion will be probably be quite diverse and may even be quite heated. We need to explore, question and trial existing models. We could use an "inquiry into inquiry" for teachers. Don't be afraid to get underway though..... Personalise the model for your school and express it visually. Communicate with your community. A change to planning documents may be needed to take into account inquiry based learning - important when doing integrated unit plan sheet for us. BUILD THE PLANE WHILE IT'S IN THE AIR! As teachers we need to developing a questioning attitude and the ability to question in our children. Why inquiry?

• Fun, meaningful, providing life long skills, purpose, sits well with the new curriculum, it's rich and motivating, engaging for children