Inquiry Learning.

1. Inquiry Learning. Inquiry learning helps students to learn HOW to learn. Through Inquiry learning they come to understand and manage themselves as learners. This powerpoint is based on a presentation by Kath Murdoch in 2007. If you ever have the change to listen to Kath do go - it will change the way you teach!

2. Inquiry Learning – Kath Murdoch This planning model follows a sequence of activities and experiences to build on and challenge students perceptions. The sequence is inquiry based – it begins with student’s prior knowledge and experience and moves through a deliberate process that helps the knowledge to be extended, challenged and refined. Sequence of activities • Tuning in • Finding out • Sorting out • Going further • Making connections • Taking action. Learning is something I do – not something that is done to me

3. Why use an inquiry based approach? • It helps children take responsibility for their learning • Provides for new learning – extends on prior – helps to find new • Students evaluate their learning and each others • Detailed approach – working through the sequence of activities • Allows students to use a variety of great thinking tools • Caters for a range of learning styles – multiple intelligences • Allows for deeper understanding – students make connections • Gives students a real purpose for learning • Allows success for all – collaborative learning • Students see teacher as a learner also • Students own it! – their work their ideas. • High engagement – ownership, authenticity, relevance • Deeper independent learning skills • Vehicle for integration of the curriculum • Fosters connected learning – a sense of journey • Taps into student’s CURIOSITY

4. Inquiry Learning • Makes the process obvious to students – Learning intentions clear Say to the children we are tuning in… we are gathering data… we are sorting out.. • Talk about and display BIG UNDERSTANDINGS (related to your learning outcomes) link activities to these understandings. • Big understandings should not be answered in one session • Instead of a title for your unit why not use a question? What is the role of technology in theatre? Year 5 and 6 prop making for a school production How can we create a healthy garden? Big understandings: different types of gardens, different conditions needed to grow, different roles and responsibilities in the group… How can I be the best that I can be? Commonwealth games/Gold medal -Olympic games What, why and how do we buy? Leading up to a school market day. How could/can we create a fitness circuit at school? What makes things move? New Zealand how has it changed and why?

5. How do people tell their stories? • How can we care for animals? • What makes good constructions? • Why is Asia so important to us? • Fashion – who decides and how? • How does TV influence us? • How can we keep ourselves safe? • How do living things change as they grow? • How do people overcome challenges in their lives? The question must develop the big picture idea – ask as you work through the unit What is it, through this inquiry will they come to understand? eg: what makes a good leader? Understandings recorded this is what they will learn.

6. Topic considerations for inquiry learning… Relevance • Children need to see a connection between the topic and their lives. • Developmentally appropriate, does it really matter to the students? Potential for inquiry • Can you “frame” this topic up as an investigation? Is there a leading question that will ignite this topic? Authenticity – Resources • Are you able to use real people, places, events in your investigation? Will students be able to gather information about this themselves? Authenticity – Action • Will the topic allow students to do something as a result of the inquiry – what will it work towards or be driven by – could it be linked to a real project or problem? Challenge • Will it take students beyond the known? Does the topic have the potential for developing creative, critical, ethical and reflective thinking?

7. Inquiry units can be related to: an action, an event, an issue, essential questions linked to the curriculum or an investigation of a problem. • Project oriented inquiry – driven by action How can we create a healthy garden? • Inquiries to accompany key events in the local school, community or global setting –e.g: How can I be the best I can be (Olympics) what, why and how do we buy? • Inquiries driven by essential questions (curriculum based questions) e.g: What makes something move? • Problem oriented inquires eg: What do kids really want? (toys, new school library) What can we do to look after our river?

8. Teachers need to be clear … Understandings – what it is we want our students to UNDERSTAND. Do – What it is we want them to be able to DO with their learning/skills Be – What it is we want them to BE Understandings – transferable concept - developmentally appropriate - demonstrated by students - Learned in a number of ways - Generally agreed by all - Are not facts or low level knowledge - Are generated by the team - Are refined after tuning in

9. Display understandings in the classroom Record your understandings in “kid talk”. Put on the wall and keep referring to them as the unit unfolds. Under your understandings you will also be able to record the skills children need to use or have used during the process of understanding. (Venn diagram, interview, PMI sort) Three to four weeks into the unit stand by the understandings and ask students to explain each understanding – the one/two they don’t understand is the understanding you need to teach to or guide students through. Referring to the understandings helps you and the children connect to the BIG picture all the time.

10. Tuning In Let’s find out what we already know about this topic • The purpose oftuning in • To find out what students already know, think and feel about a topic • To provide students with a focus for the forthcoming experiences • To provide students with opportunities to become engaged in the topic • To ascertain the students’ questions about and interest in the topic • To allow students to share their personal experience of the topic • To help plan further experiences and activities

11. Tuning in examples Brainstorm Post box -post a statement or a question about the unit Look at the big questions – write understandings with students Inspiration - mind mapping software More false, more true – statements children categorise F/T KWL chart Mind mapping Paired interviews -students interview each other about their understandings of topic Think pair share – Think individually – pair with someone and share Rocket writing -children write everything they know within a very short time frame People Bingo -Treaty of Waitangi example Placemat visual organiser – excellent strategy see hand out

12. Finding out Let’s find out about our topic… we could do this by … The purpose of finding out • To further stimulate students’ curiosity • To provide new information which may answer some of the students’ earlier questions • To raise other questions for students to explore in the future • To challenge students’ prior knowledge, beliefs and values • To provide a shared experience for all students to process and reflect upon • To develop research / information skills

13. Finding out examples Going on visits/trips Interviewing Experimenting Listening to experts – Ask an expert Asking people Doing surveys Looking at pictures and objects CD Roms, internet, film, video, DVD Letter writing / Emails – to ask organisations or individuals for information Newspapers and magazines Paintings, photographs, drawings, visual images Picture books and novels Phone calls

14. Sorting out Let’s sort out what we have found out so far… The purpose of sorting out • To provide students with various means of processing and representing information and ideas arising from the finding out stage • To allow for a diverse range of outcomes • To encourage students to begin to apply and transfer some of the information they have gained to an range of tasks or contexts • To develop skills in the arts, mathematics, language and technology • To assist students to explore some of the feelings, values and attitudes associated with the topic • To create concrete records of experience and information gathered through the arts, mathematics, language and technology • To encourage students to review what they know as a group

15. Sorting out examples Cutting up survey results Reflective thinking Visual organisers – KWL, PMI, Y chart Sorting photos Dance and drama – freeze frame, mime, puppet plays, role-play, talk shows, simulations Media and visual arts – collage, dioramas, models, diagrams, making videos Maths – classifying, fact finding (world’s tallest building), graphs, problem-solving, timelines Music – chants, raps, soundscapes, compositions English – recording in a range of text styles, Build a story, compare and contrast, data charts, oral presentations, wall stories and charts, Puzzle cards (Who/what am I?)

16. Going further Let’s find out more about something in our topic. What do we still need to find out about? What would we like to know even more about? What new questions do we have? • The purpose of going further • To extend and challenge students’ understandings about the topic • To provide more information in order to broaden the range of understandings held by students • To meet the particular interests that have emerged during the unit • To revise, where necessary, some of the key understandings relevant to the topic • To develop independent research skills

17. Going further examples Individual projects Questions Scaffolding, booklets with procedure Research Learning Contracts Information skills and sources Co-operative group tasks Expert groups Multiple Intelligence work stations

18. Making Conclusions Let’s share what we have learnt … The purpose of Making Conclusions • To assist students to make conclusions and generalisations about the topic • To assess and demonstrate students’ progress towards the planned understandings, skills and values throughout the unit • To inform further planning • To encourage students to reflect on their learning • To foster each student’s ability to synthesise their learning and to see the ‘big picture’ ideas behind a topic • To help students explore and justify their feelings and values related to a topic • To provide a point of comparison for students between the ideas generated at the beginning of the unit and those evident now • To develop metacognitive abilities

19. Making Conclusion examples Puppet shows Models Booklets Web 2.0 tools Making board games – excellent way for students to bring together the knowledge they have gained during the unit of work and to pass it on to others. Useful “performance” based assessment task. Bloom’s Taxonomy Concept maps Crossword puzzles De Bono’s 6 thinking hats PMI Time Capsules – choose 5 items to put in a container that would represent the important things we know about…the topic…what would they be? KWL – students fill in what they have learnt.

20. Reflecting and Taking Action Let’s think about how things went and what we could do with what we have learnt… • The purpose of reflecting and taking action • To assist students to make links between their understandings and their experience in the real world • To enable students to make choices and develop the belief that they can be effective participants in society • To provide further insight into students’ understandings for future unit planning • To reinforce the link between school, home and the wider community • To provide further opportunities and contexts for ongoing learning about the topic

21. Reflecting and taking action examples Teaching someone else Reflect on our learning Advertising campaigns – students use persuasive techniques of advertising to encourage others to take action Exhibition – students work in groups select key pieces of their learning write explanations set up the classroom like an exhibition and invite other students to come and view. Design self-guided walks – particularly appropriate for environmental topics Develop an action plan for the school – examples; improving access for people with disabilities, reducing bullying in the school playground, reducing packaging/glad wrap in school lunches, improving an area of the school ground. Global links – internet allows students to make links around the world with others that are involved in action plans Hear all about it – involves creating a news program for ‘radio’ or ‘television’ Letter writing – students register a protest against or their support of ... Personal pledge – students consider one thing they will do in their own life as a result of what they have learned Read all about it – students create a class newspaper devoted to the topic

22. Information for this presentation came from a two day workshop presented by Kath Murdoch in 2007 MUST HAVE RESOURCES “Classroom Connections – Strategies for Integrated Learning” Kath Murdoch ISBN: 1 – 875327-48-7 “Learning for Themselves” Jeni Wilson and Kath Murdoch ISBN: 978 11 863666657