amazeinquiry

'Black Snake'  - Was Ned Kelly a villain, victim, or hero? As mentioned in my previous post, I have (re)designed this unit from one I taught earlier this year. However, I altered a considerable amount thanks to my increasing knowledge of inquiry learning. In redesigning this unit, I primarily focused on: Reducing the amount of teacher-directed content in each week, opting instead for student-led literature circles. It is hoped this will allow students to "be on the inside" of understanding rather than observers to knowledge creation (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p. 122). In order to facilitate this change, I used Carol Kulthau's Guided Inquiry Design model to organise the stages of inquiry. I paired this with an instructional model, the  Gradual Release of Responsibility  (Fisher & Frey, 2014), which forms part of my schools pedagogical framework. I felt that this allowed for some direct instruction (for example modelling text annotation, character an

My inspiration & overview This year has been a steep learning curve (or a challenging maze, if you like!), as I have been teaching both the Middle Years Program (MYP) of the International Baccalaureate and Year 7 for the first time. These are not your average Year 7s however, as I teach in a select entry school where virtually every child in Year 7 is in the top two bands of NAPLAN for reading and numeracy. This presents a unique challenge: keeping students engaged through suitably pitched learning activities without neglecting foundational skills. They are wonderfully curious students who enjoy the opportunity to find things out for themselves – perfectly suited to both inquiry and the MYP. I team-taught this Ned Kelly unit myself for the first time this year and chose to redesign it following my journey into inquiry learning for two reasons: firstly, there was too much in the initial inquiry for a 10 weeks unit; and secondly, I felt that for a Language and Literature uni

Curated collection, final reflections & feedback The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. - Mark Van Doren Photo by  Daniel Welsh  on  Unsplash From my searchings and readings - as I got my bearings, found a passage through - I not only learned a few key things about implementing effective inquiry in the MYP (see my Infographic ), I curated a collection of resources and have provided short annotations on how these resources relate to the key findings of my inquiry. I hope they will be of use to other practitioners. Reflections The MYP uses concept-based learning as both a pedagogical model  and  a curriculum planning tool, and so often takes the  form  of inquiry but is not necessarily seem as combined  with  inquiry – it is more that inquiry is inherent, or assumed to be inherent, in the model. This initially posed some challenges to my searching, as the two did not appear together in the literature in the way I had assumed they would. I

Below is my simple representation of 8 tips for what effective inquiry 'looks like' in the Middle Years Program. For further information and more detail on what these each entail, look for key words   in my curated collection . Inquiry is the dynamic process of being open to wonder and puzzlement and coming to know and understand the world. —  What is inquiry?  Galileo Education Network

“The meaning of ‘knowing’ has shifted from being able to remember and repeat information to being able to find and use it.”   -  National Research Council , 2007 The internet is a daunting place in many respects. This post details my attempts to 'get my bearings' the expert searching maze. I admit to taking an (at times) rambling approach and, as though I was in a real maze, going back and forth between platforms and search engines a little, sometimes back-tracking when I found something worked in one and trying it out in another... This is necessarily a 'snapshot' of the process. Photo by  Maxwell Young  on  Unsplash Initial attempts - straight into the maze... Having learnt about Boolean operators and searching long ago (and having forgotten about it in the intervening years), I decided to incorporate this into my search terms map because I thought it would be a more useful starting point than simply typing my inquiry question into Google... Search T

Tuning In: Entering the maze... I personally love the possibilities inherent in inquiry learning . For students, I sometimes think of it like a maze, with multiple potential pathways through, which involves strategy, problem solving, collaborating, back-tracking, experimentation, and embraces a little 'getting lost' on the way to discovery of new destinations. As a teacher I love that it shifts the role of the teacher from passing on acquired knowledge - showing the way or leading students through the maze directly - to guiding students through the  skills and processes  of learning: how to plan, validate, reflect on and interrogate learning, ask for help, research, analyse sources, ask good questions and consider multiple answers. For a generation that has access to more information than any humans in history, this critical engagement with knowledge and knowledge acquisition is especially important.  Image: 'Inquiry Maze', sketch by Briana Chapple What I'