By: Lina Kloufetos And Kate Wynack

1. A Digital Learning Walk of Teacher Inquiry at SunshinePrimary School By: Lina Kloufetos And Kate Wynack

2. Question • How can I get my students to ask deeper questions? • Mainly what, when questions – lacking deeper thinking -

3. Process of Inquiry • Data to inform question • Week 1 planning with Jeni Wilson • Week 2 teaching in classroom • Week 3 reflection and refining with Jeni Wilson • Week 4 teaching new lesson • Week 5 reflection and future planning

4. Lesson in classroom • Process of Inquiry • Lesson 1 • Using my question, we (Jeni, Paul, Kate and I) discussed different activities that would enhance the student’s questioning skills in my grade. • The Answer Is… was the first activity. It was to get the students thinking about question. Students were given an answer and they had to think of a question. We did this individually and in tribes.N:\12K\Photos\Jeni Wilson Questioning\Questioning 002.jpgN:\12K\Photos\Jeni Wilson Questioning\Questioning 006.jpgN:\12K\Photos\Jeni Wilson Questioning\Questioning 009.jpg • Question Tribes was the second activity. Each table had a set of question starters (what, when, where, how, why and who) and a topic. They were to think of questions about that topic using the question starters. N:\12K\Photos\Jeni Wilson Questioning\Questioning 030.jpgN:\12K\Photos\Jeni Wilson Questioning\Questioning 027.jpgN:\12K\Photos\Jeni Wilson Questioning\Questioning 013.jpg • Bundling was the third activity. This is where the students helped in grouping similar questions in appropriate bundles. This was to see which direction to take with the students learning.N:\12K\Photos\Jeni Wilson Questioning\Questioning 047.jpg • Smiley Face Reflection was the last activity. Students were to place their names under the correct face to show how they went on their questioning. They were also asked to explain their response.N:\12K\Photos\Jeni Wilson Questioning\Questioning 049.jpg

5. Observations • Lina and Paul • Questioning • Started out with treasure box on answers – what question would I need to ask to get this answer? • Paper • Lilith ‘what shape is paper?’ • Aungkana ‘ what do people draw on?’ • Material • Shaun ‘what are teepees made out of except poles?” • Aluminium • Yelani ‘what is a can made out of?’ • Groups of 5 • Each group was given a word and needs to think of a question • Group 1 • What are beer bottles made of? Glass • Group 2 • What are boxes and eggs made of ? Cardboard • Group 3 • What are bottles made of? Plastic • Group 4 • What is the opposite of man made? Natural • Questions students asked in groups – they were given who, what, when, here, how cue cards – then bundled • See bundled questions poster

6. Children’s Questions • These are examples of questions children had as a result of the activity…COMPOST: • What are we going to build it with? • How are we going to build this compost bin? • Why are they made to make soil better? Celeste • Why is compost bin is are pote??? • What is a compost bin? • Who looks after the compost bin? • WORM FARM: • Are worm farms good for the environment? Lilith • What do you need to make a worm farm? Cindy • What day are we going to make it? Brandon • Who is going to help us make a worm farm with us? Brandon • When are we going to make it? Brandon • How are we going to build it? Shaun • What are we going to need to build it? Shaun • Why do we make worm farms? Cindy • Why do we have to have a worm farm? Brandon • Why do we need a worm farm? Yelani • How often to we have to feed the worms? I think we should feed them every 3 days – Jasper • What should worms drink? Aungkana • Where are we going to put the worm farm? I think it should go in the vegetable patch – Jasper • Where are we going to put it? Hanok • Do farms use worm farms too? Lilith • Why do we use worm farms? Lilith

7. Refining with Jeni • Refining Lesson 1 • In week 4, we discussed how the lesson could be refined and continued. I felt that I needed to continue working on the questions that the students asked and felt that they needed to answer them as part of their inquiry. This is how we came to the second lesson. In the time leading up to lesson 2, students used graphic organizers to research the topics and organise their thinking.

8. New lesson • Lesson 2 • Lesson 2 was all about allowing the student to answer their own questions and enabled me to see how much they actually learnt during the researching part of it. • Question Time was the first activity. This is where students re-visited their questions and answered them. • Game Making was the second activity. Students were to make cards using their questions and answers. The cards were to be placed together to make a class memory/concentration game. • Snapshot was the last activity. This is where students reflected on their work. They were to take a photo of something that was important to them during the process of the lesson and reflect on why it was an important aspect of their learning.

9. Reflection • Overall Reflection • ~ I have high expectations of my students as the questions they asked in the first lesson were interesting and relative to our inquiry. • ~ I was surprised at the level of thinking as some of the questions asked blew us all away. • ~ The question starters were a great way for some students to express their questions (grade 1’s especially). • ~ I realised that once they started asking questions, they began using question starters that were not displayed on the table. • ~ The Smiley face reflection was interesting as the students actually thought about what questions they asked and reflected on how they can ask better questions. They were actually quite hard on themselves. • ~ Snapshot reflection was interesting as they reflected on not only the activity they were doing, but on what they were learning too. • ~ Resources were the most important part of this process. Giving them the question starters and the right type of information, the students were able to ask wonderful questions and organise their thinking.

10. Where to from here? • Important aspect of professional learning is that it is a process which is shared • Next term we are looking at doing learning walks at the start and end of a project