Inquiry learning is especially important in my personal classroom. This is the first year of "real" school for my students, and they are naturally very curious and excited about exploring both school and the world around them. They are also experimenting with different levels of self-sufficiency when it comes to life in general, as well as in their own learning. Through academic readings and reading classmates blogs this semester, this class has opened my eyes to the way I teach. I was not actively promoting an inquiry learning environment before, because I considered my children too young and still in need of so much help. I realized I was only stifling them. Instead of rushing over to tie their shoelaces as they struggle with them and turn them into knots, I need to let them explore more. Let them knot their laces until they're a mess. Let their wobbly block houses fall down instead of showing them the exact way to make a solid structure. Let them break a few rubber bands to find out exactly how far they'll stretch. My students have plenty of natural curiosity that hasn't been crushed yet, so I'm going to let them use it! I also need to "extend" even more of my lessons with technology. I've been downloading a bunch of new math and word game apps onto their tablets. My goal is to teach a short lesson on a word family or numbers over 20, then let them explore these concepts more fully on their tablets. They seem to enjoy their tablets over listening to me anyway ;)
For my Mini-Lessons, I'll probably be focusing on 5th grade history. I lovelovelove teaching Civil Rights, as it creates such interesting and deep conversations in the classroom. I'm thinking of having the students research a Civil Rights activist and deliver a speech as that person, advocating for equal rights. It would require learning some research skills, and it would really open the door for inquiry based learning, as they decide how to best emulate their subjects. What did they wear? How did they sound? Were they quiet in their rebellion? Did they yell and protest and call people to action? I think the students would really get into it. I'll assess them on a presentation rubric, which would be given to them ahead of time.
I love the idea of the Civil Rights speech and having students discuss their own opinions about the subject with each other. They can create a fact sheet or do research on the topic to learn in depth about the subject and this type of learning is very meaningful. I try to allow my students to be creative and produce products because I feel if they do this they will retain what they have learned.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see you're so encouraged to promote inquiry learning at an early age. As a seventh grade teacher, I greatly appreciate it. By the time I get them, most of them expect me to walk them through each step of everything they do, which can be daunting when you teach well over 120 students. If we can promote inquiry learning in the early grades, then students will have a particular skill set for approaching inquiry problems by the time they get to the higher grades and are required to explore on their own.
ReplyDeleteI love how you are getting your very young students started on research projects. It is a great skill for them to learn and it will nurture their curiousity and make them eager to find things out. Personally, I love giving my students an open ended questions and asking them to research it. For example, they are supposed to research tonight which country is trying to become a state (Puerto Rico) and report back tomorrow.
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