In preparation for a Zoom meeting scheduled for Tuesday, February 20 with @trev_mackenzie, who has been so kind to offer some of his time that I may ask some questions about his book and inquiry in the classroom, I have expanded on last week’s post to include a few select points from my notes for chapters 7 – 13 of Dive Into Inquiry (MacKenzie, 2016).
Dive into Inquiry Chapters 7 – 13 Notes
- āI am confident that if we gave students, from a young age, the opportunity to ask questions they were encouraged to explore, it would guide them to a more meaningful and enriched educational experienceā (MacKenzie, 2016, p. 45).
- āBy empowering students in the direction of their education, we are nurturing an intrinsic motivation with awesome benefitsā (p. 46)
- Four Pillars of Inquiry
- Explore a passion
- Use passion prompts to have students, on their own, with partners, or with the whole class, to reflect on and define what they are passionate about
- Introduce students to passionate people
- Aim for a goal
- Allows students to explore more deeply where they want to be in their future and how they can get there
- Interview students to help them identify a goal
- Delve into your curiosities
- Create a curiosity journal
- What if questions lead to amazing learning opportunities (see page 60-61 for a list of great questions)
- Take on a new challenge
- Individual challenges, small group challenges, or single long-term group challenges
- Explore a passion
- Equation for passion: exploration x discovery + time2 = passion
- Path to inquiry question ā select a topic, determine what a student already knows about the topic (W5H helps with this), do some preliminary research with strong resources, form an essential question
- Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins
- Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana
- The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) in Make Just One Change
- A strong essential question must be open-ended, be related to the course and grade level of the student, and be meaningful to the student
- An explicit list in the text states, an essential question shouldā¦
- Provoke deep thought
- Solicit information-gathering and evaluation of data
- Result in an original answer
- Help students conduct problem-related research
- Makes students produce original ideas rather than predetermined answers
- Encourage critical thinking, not just memorisation of facts (MacKenzie, 2016, p. 77)
- An essential question may not have an answer
- Some great question stems to initiate a studentās construction of a question: Which one? How? What if? Should? Why?
- MacKenzie (2016) also provides a list of the essential question stems with a little more direction on page 78.
- During a meeting with students to discuss their essential question, he asks three questions:
- Is your essential question open-ended?
- Does your essential question provide the depth of study demanded by the course?
- How is your essential question meaningful to you?
- The Free Inquiry Proposal has six parts:
- Identify the essential question and include a description of why/how itās meaningful. (The meaningfulness of the question can become the prompt for hooking an audience when itās time to display the learning.)
- What will be the authentic piece that demonstrates the learning process, and how will that be made public?
- What sources will be used to research/explore the question? (This is usually just the starting point, as new sources will be found during the exploration, and even new questions asked during the process.)
- What is the goal(s) of the inquiry project? (Teachers can use these goals to know how to support the student.)
- How will you provide evidence of your learning?
- What is the day-to-day, calendar plan that will lead to a successful learning experience? (Map out the milestones of the project, using the date of public display and working backwards from there. Periodically reflect on calendar and revise as necessary.)
- Question: What is the importance of āthe pitchā?
- Question: How can inquiry projects be used in elementary school? Which subjects are well-suited to inquiry projects?
- Page 92 has a list of a variety of authentic pieces/performances and the learning evidence each produces
- Teacher keeps all inquiry proposals in a binder for quick reference and check-ins with students
- Some tips shared with students for the explore and research stage:
- Take time to explore
- Be flexible about what you expect from your time
- Take time to reflect and relax
- Use an inquiry journal
- Excellent inquiry journal teacher-to-student prompts on page 98
- Frequent learning evidence check-ins are valuable for supporting students
- Providing specific, meaningful, and clear feedback throughout the Explore and Research stage leads students to feel supported
- The authentic piece āmust summarize their learning and reflect, to an extent, the must-know content [the] course demandsā (p. 104) and fit into the learning objectives of the course
- Use examples of other peopleās work to get an understanding of what you (the student) would like to achieve/demonstrate in their authentic piece
- When the authentic piece is outside the knowledge of the teacher, collaborate with a professional to do the assessment
- Public displays of inquiry learning include 3 components:
- A visual representation of the authentic piece
- An inquiry statement that includes the question and background of the inquiry, including motivation
- A five-minute inquiry reflection video (using Explain Everything app)
- Adopt inquiry with three things in mind:
- Think big and plan for the future classroom you want for your learners
- Start with small changes first to add inquiry to your class
- Always keep the learners at the heart of inquiry
- (and a fourth) Find comfort in the mess of uncertainty
- Great quote: āIn order to see results you have never seen, you will need to do things youāve never doneā (MacKenzie, 2016, p. 120)
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