Reflections of how the model is working in Rocking Rua

How is the model working?
It has been working really well but my main concern is the amount of time spent
on Immersion/Organise. We spend two weeks on Immersion and then move to Organise but there seems to be a large overlap and organising our learning takes over half our time. Am I spending too long on this?
I don’t think this reflects the need for change but I need to have colleague discussions on this to see if others are finding the same.

Within each stage, are there any issues arising?
Each stage is easy to follow and we have clear guidelines on the expectations of each stage. It is more of the time factor that is an issue for me.

Do we need to make any changes to our Assessment rubric?
In the Communication of Results: The jump from stage 2 to 3 is large and on stage 2 the child can share the answer to one question but on stage 3 they are clearly and confidently reporting and providing supporting evidence. Could this be broken down further? It seems that students are confidently answering their questions but need a lot more guidance to go further and provide supporting evidence.

Can you suggest any ways to further our understanding of Inquiry?
I think that PD into other schools may help our understanding but I wonder if collegial discussions might provide further understanding. We seem to go off and complete the tasks but bring very little back to each other. Our facilitator checks in with all of us and we can ask questions etc but we don’t seem to have these discussions with each other. An understanding of how Inquiry is working in younger/older classes could be beneficial for us.

Discuss the use of ICT in Inquiry?
Where would Rocking Rua be without it!!!
The integration of ICT tools in Inquiry seems natural and provides further stimulating learning. The students are keen to use the tools for research and enjoy adding photographic evidence if able. They are becoming more confident users and the tools are used daily during our Inquiry.

How is supporting documentation going?
I think that the documentation is enough. It provides clear links on what is going to happen and how it is going to happen. I find our documentation thorough and easy to use.

What PD would you find useful for 2010?
I was thinking that visiting other schools could be useful but only if they are following a similar path of Inquiry.
Could PD on a particular stage be more useful? Do we use the same tools as others to get to the next stage?

Reflection on Inquiry

How do you think our model is working? Are there any changes that need to be made?
I think the model is working OK, seems to be a natural flow on. The main aspect that isn’t really working too well is the knowledge if it by the students. Ideally it would be better to have it as a mnemonic but I think changing it at this stage would not be beneficial. I think that it is up to the teachers to use the language when teaching to the model and also for visuals to be evident in the classroom – there are visuals now but perhaps they need redesigning so they are more eye catching to the students, and not just in the classrooms but also down the corridor, on the website and in the staffroom – the higher the exposure the better it will be.
Within each stage, are there any issues that you have, what are they and do you have any suggestions for further development?
I still feel that the immersion stage is vitally important, this sets up the whole inquiry. However, I know for me that this can drag out a bit and perhaps we need to set some time limits for each stage – so the momentum continues – just something to think about.
Also I do think that action needs to drive the inquiry – there needs to be a purpose for the students. I feel that although our inventors unit was fun, it was hard to work through the stages due to the very nature of the unit, perhaps we need to do more strategic planning so that each stage is utilised the best.
The assessment rubric seems to be working thus far - do we need to make changes and are there any other aspects of assessment that need further discussions?
There seems to be large jumps from a few sections. There is a lot of skills needed to move form one stage to another and sometimes the lines are a bit blurred. I do think we need a whole stage at each skill for doing things with support, this is not in there yet. I still think that this needs to be coded more so the lines aren’t as blurred, one teachers opinion or judgement could be very different from anothers, if we used something like SOLO then there would be no confusions – this is a direction that the whole school would need to invest in and would be a new pathway to follow, perhaps an option for when we are more comfortable with the changes we are making now.
Can you suggest any ideas to further develop our understanding of inquiry?
I do believe that seeing inquiry in action would be beneficial, it is fine having lead teacher bring ideas back but each teacher sees tings differently, having first hand expereince has to be more valuable for the individuals. However, there needs to be a self motivation from each staff member to do their own research and learning. It can’t be left up to one person. My biggest worry is that since lead teacher wont be in the school for the first half of next year, that the momentum will slow, someone needs to continue to drive this, teachers need to be researching and trialling ideas for this to continue to develop.
Discuss the use of ICTs throughout the inquiry process.
ICTs are a vital component of inquiry, it is a mind shift that is needed. Once we are confident with applications we need to think creatively about how the can benefit learners and create authentic learning experiences. I would love to see our school continue to move forward with this, to get more on the global stage, but investment and the importance placed on ICT will need to change for this to happen. Our hardware lets us down, yes I realise that it is an expense, but it really comes do to priorities and also teacher skills level and the willing to continually push yourself out of your comfort zone.
How do you think our supporting documentation is going - are there any gaps that we need to fill?
It has taken a long time (believe me I know) but the documentation will be ready in the next couple of weeks.
Each staff member has received it in stages has they have been developed, but now it is collated and will be in a inquiry folder for each class.
What PD support would you find most beneficial in 2010 as far as ICT and inquiry goes?
Visiting other schools, teacher motivation and expectations lifted from the leader of the school to ensure there is still and importance placed on this change we are making.

My reflections on how Oroua Downs Inquiry Model is working for me.

How do you think our model is working? Are there any changes that need to be made?

I like the model we are using. It is easy to follow, not too complicated.

Within each stage, are there any issues that you have, what are they and do you have any suggestions for further development?

I don’t use the specific words of the stages enough by saying that now we are working on the organising stage, or the immersion stage. So the kids are not really aware of the stages although some can remember some things we have done like the y charts and the tally charts. That’s my challenge for next time.

The assessment rubric seems to be working thus far - do we need to make changes and are there any other aspects of assessment that need further discussions?

I like the way the Assessment Rubric is set out. On the Questioning part of the Rubric, it would be helpful to have another level included between 2 and 3 which could be, can use a question map with teacher guidance.
Collection of information column – Stage 1 – should read with teacher guidance.
Just ideas to think about!

Can you suggest any ideas to further develop our understanding of inquiry?

I think the topics have to be chosen very carefully so tasks are hands on. Children respond really well to this. I know that my level of children like topics about things that live and grow. I have found some of the topics obscure for their level of thinking. I need to keep on with the practise of the delivery of inquiry. I would like to visit some other schools and see what they are doing for inquiry.

Discuss the use of ICTs throughout the inquiry process

My class have learnt to use different ICT tools during our journey and they do enjoy the visual side of producing and experimenting with the tools. It has been and will continue to be hard yacka with the new entrant kids who don’t have many skills to start with. I have learned along side the kids too. I would like time to consolidate all the tools learned this year, next year.

How do you think our supporting documentation is going - are there any gaps that we need to fill?

It will be great to have our own sourced document and I know you are working 100% on finishing for us.

What PD support would you find most beneficial in 2010 as far as ICT and inquiry goes?

Visit other schools as I have already mentioned.
Assessment tasks I find tricky.

Liz Sullivan Room 4

Reflections on Our Inquiry Process

How do you think our model is working?

I think our model is straight forward and is working well, it is just a matter of me as a teacher ‘knowing’ it and being really familiar with what Thinking tools to use at each Stage. I still think about which one will serve ‘the purpose’ best.
The Invention and Heroes Inquiries, I felt, were very successful, the children being very motivated throughout. And learning how to develop specific questions using the Question Map and refining them will be ongoing. The Key Competencies, being owned by the children and referred to often, made the students aware of what is required of them when Thinking, Relating to Others and Participating and Contributing, developing the necessary skills for living in a challenging world, communicating with people. Also, our choices of Inquiry topics have been good – meaningful to the learner with many practical activities and an authentic Action at the end.

Issues within each stage and suggestions for further development

I can’t think of any issues or suggestions for further development.

Changes to the Assessment Rubric and other aspects of assessment that need further discussion

In the Questioning Rubric, I think it would be beneficial to include another level before the ‘can use a Question Map‘ – ‘can use a Question Map with teacher guidance’
Assessment - maybe each term’s assessment could be discussed by all the staff more, for shared imput, clarity and keeping everyone on the same wavelength.

Ideas to further develop our understanding of Inquiry

I think working closely with another staff member and sharing ideas helps one’s understanding of Inquiry and the children benefit. As a teacher, I just have to ensure that I quickly get to the point, where I understand the Stages implicitly.


The Use of ICT throughout the Inquiry Process

Using a camera, phone, fax and computer as tools, are happening in Inquiry. The children have used several different computer Websites and Programmes to find information and Present work. They like experimenting and being able to create a new look that’s their own, that can be edited and changed easily. They are always eager and excited when they go to get their work off the Printer.
Being able to make their own Photo Stories and presenting them to the school, makes the children feel successful and they still have a sense of wonderment of it.
The children like to go the Class Blog when they’ve done something they are very involved with, pleased with or proud of. They like to see photos accompanying their written work.
It would be good to get more parents making comments.

Supporting Documentation

The Planning document is very helpful and keeps you on track, and our assessments in the Roll book and children’s Portfolio,
with accompanied work, plus the storage of many photos, Photo stories, art and written language on the computer, are all worthwhile documentation. I can’t think of any gaps because I feel we’re very thorough.


ICT and Inquiry Professional Development for 2010

It would be good to consolidate what we we’ve learned, but we will need some P.D. to keep up to date and to continue upgrading our skills, but not so full on, perhaps one goal per term?

Barbara Noaro Teacher of Year 3 & 4 children Room 5

Summary - Inventions Term 3 Room Four

Summary:

Use of the Question map:
I have had trouble getting my head around this thinking map, so I joined with a colleague and observed how it was done with older children. Once I had visually seen the map evolving over several modelling sessions I felt more competent in trying the map with my own class and it worked!!!!. Observing the older children in group situations, I realised that 3 or 4 heads of differing levels, enables them to bounce ideas off each other and that the young kids are learning from this “watching and listening”.
The young children are thinking about using the key word before asking a question and most of them are remembering the 7 servants to begin with.

Key Competency: Participation and Contributing:

Observations of mixed groups, differing levels of abilities and ages, to me was a valuable time in which to see how these groups of children could / couldn’t work together. That gave me the opportunity to encourage and teach those children who hadn’t developed the skills as yet to “get a turn” to share their own ideas, regardless of what it might be, and further extend their ideas with my help.

Stages of Sharing and Action:

This stage was highly successful with the “hands on activities”
Those children who have some difficulty with abstract oral explanations blossomed in the “making side” of the activities, where it’s actually the “doing and seeing” that they can talk about.

Cheers Room 4

Inquiry Review

The staff at Oroua Downs School are using this blog to review INQUIRY and to see where our next step is.
Each member of staff is asked to reflect on the following questions and write responses, this is to refine our teaching, the learning children do and the monitoring of this. This is also being used as a tool to develop on going professional development once our ICT contract is completed at the end of the year.

As lead teacher I am asking that staff reflect upon and suggest ideas for further development under the following headings:

• How do you thnk our model is working? Are there any changes that need to be made?
• Within each stage, are there any issues that you have, what are they and do you have any suggestions for further development?
• The assessment rubric seems to be working thus far - do we need to make changes and are there any other aspects of assessment that need further discussions?
• Can you suggest any ideas to further develop our understanding of inquiry?
• Discuss the use of ICTs throughout the inquiry process.
• How do you hink our supporting documentation is going - are there any gaps that we need to fill?
• What PD support would you find most beneficial in 2010 as far as ICT and inquiry goes?

Thanks for your time and input.

Tarnz

Reflections on Inventions

Immersion/Organise
This was a really good Inquiry as it catered well for both genders but particularly saw our boys achieve success throughout the stages.
Reflection:
I have been reflecting on the fact that a lot of the time is spent on these stages and I am finding that Immersion continues through to the Organising stage and I'm wondering if I am not providing enough time for the Discovery stage?
My other thought though, is whether this contributes to more focussed participation/motivation for the Discovery stage (which I do see with majority of students) and this may contribute to the students working quickly through it.
Do teachers work to a time frame for each stage?
Immersion/Organising
We discovered, within the first few days, that we had the knowledge of Inventions and could brainstorm excessively various types of inventions. One of the true successes through this, was the discussion that the students instigated about all types of products/machinery... and were debating whether this and that were inventions. They concluded that everything was invented at some stage! I listened tentatively as more and more students volunteered their opinion and watched others take it on-board. The Contributing and Participation in the discussion was great and it continued for 15/20 minutes.
Our brainstorms lead us to look more closely at who the inventors were. Through the use of an Alphaladder on Inventors, the students were focused into discovering what was invented and when. Thus the gap in knowledge began to close. From here we went on to create our Wonderings wall. This involves the students writing a question or two (using our seven servants and higher order questioning skills - these are on permanent display) based on what they want to find out. The students needed more modelling of the skills required and so more teaching time was required than anticipated. However, I discovered later on that this would be beneficial when we went on to use our question map as we went through the teaching process quicker than I thought. The constant use of Graphic Organisers and the questioning skills display is what I really enjoy about our entry into our specific Inquiry. The students are still thinking about their task but it appears more focused as the emphasis on recording is lifted. (ie: pressure to write lots is off and most recording is more succinct).
The purpose of the Inquiry was set very early during this one and the motivation to become inventors and retailers! lead to a very successful Inquiry for Rockin Rua.

Inquiry - Inventions Room Five - Yr 3 & 4

SUMMARY

Successes

Immersion
The idea of ‘Invention’ is huge so the children had to think about what they knew already, about inventions and their purposes. These ideas were recorded on a Fishbone G.O. They worked in pairs, learning from one another, then shared their ideas in groups of six. Some students debated whether something was an invention or not. eg. carrot seeds. I asked them to find out. The children worked in pairs filling in an Alpha Ladder, thinking about how many inventions they could think of in 15 minutes. FUN

Making another person’s invention and experimenting with them [origami peeking crows and sailboats] made the children think about the process of making someone else’s design. They learned that you needed to follow instructions carefully to succeed but also, that there was always someone in your group to help you, a benefit of participating together. They found out that inventing was creating.

Guess what I am? talks about an Invention where the students had to describe the Invention and it’s action, was fun and made everyone listen carefully to the clues before they gave a calculated guess. Then the invention was shown to everybody and handled. The children gained a lot of knowledge from each other. They also had to think about a previous or similar invention which had the same purpose or a later adapted invention, these class discussions took place after each talk.

During instructional reading, two groups read about Inventors and their unusual Inventions. They had to read a short passage of information, then choose their answer from 4 multiple choice possibilities and then substantiate their answers. The children had to think carefully, assimilating information from the text and the diagrams. The children gave very valid explanations for their answers having made informed judgements.
Participating and Contributing
Working in teams with the Year Ones and Twos, from the ORGANISING Stage to EVALUATION gave the Year Three and Four students an opportunity to be leaders. They learned to accommodate the younger children, and the younger children watched and listened, and were encouraged to participate and contribute to their team activities, learning all the time from the older children. The younger children were supported in activities eg using Graphic Organisers. The teacher’s role was to encourage.
The Participating and Contributing Rubric which the classes ‘owned,’ was referred to often – how do we work successfully together? And the children knew. The biggest benefit to the children in Teams was the pooling of ideas and shared expertise. They analysed possibilities together, agreeing or disagreeing – reasoning, looking at Data- finding out what information it was giving them etc. Everyone listened to each other and asked questions.


Graphic Organisers

Question Map –Organise Stage - Difficulties and Successes

This has been modelled by the teacher more than once, with the children contributing their ideas for them. The KEY WORDS became obvious to most children eg. Chocolate Sailboats need to be TASTY. How can we make them TASTY? I still find that a few children have the greatest difficulty working out what the verb should be. For example, Snake pencils NEED pipe cleaners, Snake pencils MUST be attractive. Also when this part has been done, the odd child forgets to write the question and just writes the answer. They need to look at the question starters - Kiplings Seven Servants down the side of the page to help them. I give these children examples of verbs you can use and a model to check on.
When each team did a question map for their product, a large model was displayed on the wall for them to refer to. Each part was done in a different colour to make it stand out clearly. All the teams completed theirs successfully with lots of discussion, and they found out that they’d gained some very useful information that would help them with the next Stage, the planning and design of their product. They learned ‘where to go next.’

Chain of Events-Discover Stage

Using the Chain of Events G.O. made the children think about the practical aspects required, before making their chosen invention
eg. when, where, how, what, etc This G.O. clearly illustrated ‘discovery’ the children learning from it, what was needed to be done before they could begin the Sharing Stage of Making.

Tools, competencies and Stage reflections

DISCOVER STAGE:
A hands on stage where children really had to think outside the square, the information that they were searching for wasn't necessarily found in conventional areas. Children were required to design, create and market a product - it was the gathering of information that really saw the use of ICT and competencies in action.
Children worked together in groups to locate materials, it was amazing to see the children so confidently bargin with suppliers, to make deals that suited them and to use technologies to help them. Children sourced materials, made deals as far as sponsorship goes and managed to negotiate their way into making a considerable profit. Each group had an intial budget of five dollars but by the time the 'selling day' was upon us, six groups had made over $270.00 profit! Groups managed to contact merchants, negotiate and compare items and prices and get things shipped from various parts of the north island free of charge. They became true entrepreneurs and were so confident to do so - very impressive.
KEY COMPETENCIES
Throughout this unti the competencies were a key focus. Children showcased the competencies and the skills involved throughout the unit in practical ways. This reinforced their importance to learning. The children could see how the competencies assist their learning and their language of reflection was developed throughout.
Children became more honest about setting themselves goals and although the all competencies were threaded throughout the unit, they could see what ones were used more frequently and for which purposes - very powerful learning.
Tony Ryans thinkers keys
These were fantastic tools fr this unit - it forced creative and critical thinking.....
The BAT key was used directly for inventions and the children quickly let their imagination go wild but then had to turn around and justify their ideas and wether or not they would be practical, this tuned in their critical thinking. Children could analyse ideas quickly and then take a step back and be honest with their thought and were more accepting of criticism than at other times. Children became more confident to experiment with ideas but also look at others ideas with a greater sense of maturity.

Inventions and Inventors - Tremendous Tahi

Creativity was key for this unit. Rather than focussing on inventors as such we looked at the qualities of inventors and linked these to the virtues and key competencies. This allowed the children to think on a broader scale. Yes they had the chance to focus on a specifc inventor but we didn't use inquiry time to do this. Children gained a better understanding of the processes involved when inventing, the process of modification, or trial and error, no longer are the children satisfied with the final product, they needed to look deeper into the idea. Children were not distracted by the 'bells and whistles' of inventions, rather, they focussed on the competencies and processes that inventors showed/took.
This gave the children a wider angle to look at the topic, I think this is why the unit was so successful, the children really took charge of their learning and the pathway of that learning. I do think that if we had of focussed on specific inventors or inventions then the unit may have just been a research project. This way the children felt more confident to experiment, to take risks and make mistakes because they realised that nothing ever works first time (only if you are truly lucky)hehehe - I guess the next step is to encourage them to transfer this thinking into their everyday learning.

"An overview of how the implementation of the Inquiry Process has gone at Oroua Downs School."

The inquiry process has had a significant schoolwide impact on the way our students are learning, how our teachers are teaching (or as is the case with inquiry, more a role of facilitation), and how we now go about organising classroom programmes. Gone are the days where a narrow topic of focus is chosen and adhered to stringently with no input (or interest at times) from our students. Now an overarching and broad topic is chosen that allows all in sundry to explore different tangents, and also gives the opportunity for individuals to find answers to questions that are pertinent to the individual.
Here at Oroua Downs School, Tanya Zander took on the role of facilitating the immersion of the inquiry processes with regards to school practice and staff development and it has gone exceedingly well. Children are becoming familiar with the processes to the point where they are becoming second nature and our teaching staff have willingly made alterations to accomodate the new style of teaching that inquiry demands.
We are still 'learning on the job' so to speak with regards to the 'perfect' inquiry approach, but through blogging and professional discussion between staff members, we are gradually fine tuning our practices and they are becoming more and more effective.

Inquiry-Organising Stage-Inventions

We have to say, that having the slightly older children in groups, sharing their knowledge with the younger children and readily accepting their ideas, at the organising stage of our inquiry, has been so, so awesome because the older children had an opportunity to lead and model the skills needed for recording on graphic organisers and the leaders role was to encourage participation from their group members. Both classes had already completed a rubric for Participating and Contributing and knew what their foci were.
Their cooperative learning within the groups, has shown us there are only a few children that have not learned this skill yet. So as the teachers we were “on the spot “ to give specific encouragement.
The question map, carefully modelled several times, encouraged the groups to ask those “useful questions “ pertaining to their product, The groups of kids gained confidence at completing their own question maps with the chosen product, and then answered their own questions. A couple of groups answered some questions with short phrases or one word, so that again led to the specific skill teaching of answering a question in a sentence, using a keyword.

Inquiry-Organising Stage- Inventions

Immersion - Inquiry - Inventions - Origami Sailboats

Making the waxed sailboats and sailing them against another Country was a great way of exciting the class. Afterwards we had to think about suitable modifications as some boats caught the wind and others didn't, and some sunk while others sailed to otherside. Great fun anyway!

A Hero in the home...

After all our visitors to share their ideas about what a hero is, the children realised that a hero is someone that impacts on your life.
A touching report .......

My Hero report
This term for inquiry we have been researching heroes and the qualities they display, wether they're life savers or just ordinary people with extraordinary hearts.I have selected you (my mum) as my hero because you display these qualities: Understanding, patience, hugs and kisses, listening, teaching, gentleness, providing, kindness, respectfulness, courage, humbleness, thoughtfulness, truthfulness, believing, and forgiving.I interviewed a few people that are close to you and this is what they said: You show the virtue of love to many people in your life, thats because besides being a mother of two, you are a wife, a daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, aunty, and a friend. You are always kind to the people that you meet and the people that surround you and you never think bad of anyone.You show determination by never giving up despite how hard things get. If you get a knock back or a rejection, you just bounce back up, ready for the next opportunity that comes your way. I admire you for your true bravery and gutsy determination, and the way you portray this is by always trying again, and always having a wonderful attitude.You are a role model to me and I thank-you for that. You are always there for me when I am down and always help me through any situation. Thank-you for everything, and mostly, thank-you for being my hero.
For my mum,By Sarah

Welcome back you lovely room 4 kids

I hope you all had a great holiday

Welcome also to Miss Tong who is going to be teaching in our room for 3 weeks. Aren’t you so lucky to have two teachers helping you to learn.

In our inquiry time this term, we are learning about inventors and inventions. For the next couple of weeks the children will be immersed in knowledge about this topic. Already they have a little knowledge about what they think inventors do.

In the photos the children know that they have to design or plan something first before they can be inventors.

.


The children have now reflected on their designs and their finished products [thank you cards ] and have interesting thoughts on why they changed their original designs. I wonder if inventors have to change their designs to make them finish with a better product???? [ This is ? is on our Wonder Wall ]


The trip to see Mr Sketcher at Cheltenham Wrought Iron was another way of immersing the kids in the process of what an inventor does to make a product that he can sell to the public.

The power of the ACTION!

An inquiry is so much more than a research project.
The words the Trevor Bonds said still stick in my mind - it we end inquiry at a sharing or communicating stage then it is just a glorified research assignment.
The use of the task was key to our action this inquiry. Children knew right from the start, that there was going to be a consequence of their inquiry, something was going to have to happen and they had control over it.
It was great to see the children thinking carefully about how they could celebrate their local heroes - rather than a thank you afternoon tea, the children decided that it would become more of a treasure to the hero to have something concrete presented to them. As an action the children wrote a report as to why that particular person was a hero and created a certificate of appreciation or them. Not the most ideal, and they would have liked to create something further, but we simply ran out of time.
However, our heroes had no idea that this was happening, they were posted to the heroes and they recieved a nice surprise in the mail. Some heroes were quite shocked that the children held them in such high regard and we quick to minimise their actions and shine the light onto others.
Children found it quite difficult to use the information they got from their interviews, to convert it to information in a report was qute tricky for some, this will become a major teaching focus next term, not only for inquiry but also literacy.
Children received phone calls, heroes came into our last school assembly to thank them and official letters of thanks were received. This all made the action so powerful for the children, it made them realise that their learning meant something to someone, they were really chuffed. This in turn has made the children more motivated about shairng their learning and ideas.
Inquiry is simply getting more exciting as we move along our journey.

To follow is a sample of a report sent to one of our local heroes.

Our Hero – Mr Dear
This term for our inquiry we had to research what it means to be a hero and the qualities that heroes display.

I have selected you as my hero because you have shown
· Commitment
· Courage
· Bravery
· Loyalty
· Helpfulness
· Participation
· Caring
· Determination

We interviewed a few people about you and this is what they had to say…….
· You have to have determination when putting out a fire
· You have to use courage when you go into a burning building
· You have to be on call all hours of the day
· They have to do their best to save people from danger
· You have to have determination and courage to go into a burning building and save people in danger
· You have to use self management being on call and to be ready on time
· You have to sacrifice your time to save others

Thank you Mr Dear for being the best you can be and saving peoples lives and showing all of those heroic qualities.

Thank you

the final outcome..

Well, happily I can add that our questioning and interveiwing of our heroes was very successful. Not only were the students still motivated learners in completing this part of the inquiry but more importantly they couldn't wait to share their results. We only had one parent who felt that it was 'unnecessary' homework (we love the support!) but after a short phonecall and explanation that her son had chosen her as his ultimate Hero, the interveiw was completed. We shared and compared answers within the class and spent an afternoon discussing why some students had more complete answers and looked closely at their questions. There was a lot of class discussion on this and the students shared thoughts and ideas on what they would change next time and how they could have been more specific to gain better answers. All of this discussion will lend itself to better teaching and learning for next term. We continued on our journey and had lots of fun presenting their power-point presentations and their Hero sheilds to their selected Hero. This was a great inquiry topic and provided many many discussions on teaching and learning. Now we are into Term 3 and beginning a new inquiry on being an Inventor!!!!.....
ka Kite
Tanya H

Reflection - Heroes - Racing Rima

Reflections about Questioning, Sharing and Evaluating Heroes

The children put their talks together, [after I orally modelled several ways you could do it] using the information they discovered when they asked their Heroes their questions. Most children had developed questions which required more than a one or two word answer which resulted in informative talks.
Next time when we use the question map or are defining our questions for our own questions in our Inventor Inquiry, I will group the children, in order to help them at the Stage they’re at, and to give them an awarenesss of what Stage they’re aiming for.
I found it wasn’t a good idea having an able child helping a less able child with questions, as the less able child didn’t think for him/herself. But maybe I will pair children next term, a few times, as a practice exercise eg. in Reading to, I’ll read passages about an Inventor/invention and the children can have turns composing a question, so that they can help and learn from each other. Then they can define their questions, looking at what they specifically want to find out. More teacher modelling with student participation is needed too. Everyone needs more practice with developing specific questions.

The children practiced their talks with a buddy in order to become really familiar with the content, endeavouring to use our Oral Language goals. They gave their talk in conjunction with our Photo Story, “Heroes in Our Eyes,” where the photo of themselves holding their Hero Art and their talk were displayed on the big screen. Apart from one student, all the children seriously did their best. Our audience was the New Entrant, Year 1 and 2 class who were appreciative. The children had to Self Assess their presentation to well known and practised goals in order to ascertain Where To Next.
My next goal is for the children to work in pairs and make their own Photo Story, using photos they’ve taken of making our own inventions, and speak to them, so that the Oral language and ICT focuses continue to flourish.

Barbara Noaro Racing Rima Year 3 & 4

Newspaper celebration

interviewing

Tremendous Tahi - what has been happening.....

For this inquiry, we have focussed in interviews as our main avenue to gather information. This in itself proved rather tricky. The children had formulated questions using the question map but had real difficulty converting these into questions that you could ask someone. It is a lot harder to word a question correctly to ask a person, instead of finding answers fromt he net or a book.

To make this more successful we had mock interviews using these questions. The children tested the quality of their questions as they asked peers. This proved to be a valuable activitity as it gave the children an instant gauge of the quality of the question. The interviewee was directed to only answer the question asked, not to contribute any prior knowledge or to read between the lines. This was very frustrating for some as they had to think harder about how the question was worded. Now the children are comparing the quality of the answer against the quality of the question, for some, quite challenging. It was great to see those children that made the connection quickly, tutoring others so their question and interview techniques also improved, some very powerful learning.

This has made the children realise that they can learn so much more by taking risks and supporting their peers through those risks. Really meaningful learning, in more ways than one.

Heroes in Room4

The children had some ideas on what a hero was so immersing in Traditional stories and
Fairy tales, articals and pictures from the newspaper and listening to our numerous wonderful visitors has enabled the children now to talk more freely about what key competencies these heroes have. We have used Y charts as a class and in groups to let them voice their own opinions on what a hero looks sounds and feels like. We are continually referring to the 7 servants on display not just for inquiry but for any questioning at any time and especially during our" oral language time" when making sure the children are using key words in their questions. Doing this orally appears to be working really well and much easier at this early level, for them to understand. The children were able to choose their heroes quickly of course being their mums, dads, and grandads. those being important in their lives. Again referring to the 7 servants, in pairs the children shared their ideas for questions to ask their hero. 3 main starters were How, What and Why.

Questioning skills are not easy to teach!!

Well Rockingrua have moved through the questioning map and we've done lots of work on 'what makes a good question'? This was not as straight forward as I may have initially thought and has taken more time than I first anticipated...but was it worth it? Absolutely!
We knew the layout of the question map so this was not new to the students and we've used it before so there was prior experience BUT did we really know what components create a good question? After feed-back from lead teacher of ICT, we were given resources to enhance our questioning skills. We began by identifying the Seven Servants: who what where etc. Great we all knew those! Then we looked (lots of displays needed here) at the 'criteria' of writing a good question. We practised and practised so our questions were relevent to the topic, contained more than one Seven Servant and contained Keywords. We discovered just how important the contextual language is and how we incorporate it in our questions as Keywords. O'kay so now we have the tools and we've practised the process....where to from here? We used the question map to practise our skills and each student shared their questions to the class. The class then fed-back ideas on improvements or agreed a good question had been written. This was such a useful (although time-consuming) task as it allowed me to observe and listen to the students and identify those that still needed guideance. One of the key points that the students fed-back to each other was to stop using 'they' and 'their' and to be specific throughout the entire question. As their teacher, I was so pleased to hear the learning they had taken on-board and to listen to these wonderful questions they had written. Once our 'practise' was over, we moved onto identifying our own personal Hero. Each student brainstormed possible Heroes to them and wrote statements to justify each person. This ensured they were not randomly selecting but actually thinking about the person and their characteristics. Once this was complete they then chose one person that they believe to be their Hero. Then they brainstormed this Hero and included Keywords (from our display of contextual language) to describe the character of their Hero. Next came our Question Map. The students worked through this with confidence and wrote a good selection of questions to use for interviewing their Hero.
One point to note: It was decided (by the students) that if you use more than one Seven Serpent then you have two pieces of information to gather to answer the question and this must make it better!
And one other: Throughout the teaching of questioning skills there were many times that I reflected upon a lesson and was satisfied that the majority of students had understood and demonstrated successfully their skills but then we'd revisit and I found myself re-teaching/reinforcing the same skills. I mention this because the skills are life-long and not as easy for students to grasp and transfer without the time being put in.

We are now in the process of interviewing our Heroes so I'll update soon to let you know how our Inquiry goes and the outcomes of our interviews..

Racing Rima - Heroes

What has gone well in our Topic—Heroes in Room Five

Firstly and very importantly, having visitors – heroes in our school, who shared their experiences first hand and answered the children’s questions. This was much more beneficial than finding answers in books , Google, etc but in saying that, books and other resources provided very useful background information, rather than being the information

Before Brigadier Torrance came, the children became enthused through the ‘Whisky 3’ website where they viewed photos and became familiar with the environment in Vietnam and could recognise the Brigadier. They had some very specific questions which he answered in full, and so much was learnt. The children loved seeing his medals, uniform and sword etc. which added meaning. Many of the Year 3 and 4’s had a real feel for what the Brigadier went through in the War.

Danyon Loader was another success, relating so well to the children. The children had a good background of his life so they had other things they wanted to find out, another opportunity to have their questions answered. Most children understood that there was a sacrifice made over years, hours and kilometres of training, leading to success.

We looked at our visitors ‘attributes’ which reflected the Key Competencies which we’ve been looking at quite closely. Eg. Thinking on the spot and making decisions which were hopefully the best for all concerned, working alongside others to succeed, being part of a team and cooperating with others and contributing to the group and managing self in regards to time and looking after/using the tools of the job.

The question Map

This is a tool that we use to set up our inquiry.



In past inquiry units, this hasn't worked as well as it should have, this time we used a task to start our inquiry. The question map was much more useful, it became a tool or learning and thinking rather that a sheet we needed to fill out.

Once the children had unpacked the task, found the purpose for their inquiry, the question map was the next logical step.

The children found it a lot easier to write questions, having a bank of contextual language definately helped. The question map forces the children to look at a topic from a variety of angles, rather than staying focussed on a singluar aspect. It promotes questioning by encouraging deeper thinking and deeper exploration of a single subject.

Our next step is to design an interview, questions taken directly from the map will be the main body of the interview.

check out the children reflections http://www.tremendoustahi.blogspot.com/

The questions have a purpose, the assist the inquiry path - which was the whole aim of using the question map.

We now have to decide - if we keep the task and only use the QM with tasks or do we have a choice between question and task - also, do we need to alter the steps in the discover stage for each option.

The journey continues.

Poems are published

Check out poems from the senior children as a result of their inquiry.

Go to this website www.w3vietnam.org.nz - click on the news page and scroll down, it also provides a link to the classes poems - which are on their own page.

Congratulations Tremendos Tahi - You Rock

Celebration of ideas!!!!

Please check out http://www.tremendoustahi.blogspot.com/ for details of how childrens thinking about heroes in wartime is going to be celebrated on the global stage after a local hero visited our school.

Brigadier Torrance a Vietnam Veteran visited our school, he was impressed with the childrens questioning skills.

Danyon Loader came and shared with the children of ODS how they could become a hero through determination and believing in themselves. A very inspirational presentation.

Children have been working on using contextual language in their questioning, this has made a huge impact, both in quality of questioning and the childrens confidence. Danyon Loader was also impressed with the quality of questions, he said they really had to make him think of his replies - great work students and teachers!!!

Staff Reflections

Staff were asked to reflect on their understanding of inquiry. One for each letter of the word.
I is for....
Immersion is crucial for sparking interest in a new Inquiry topic.
Immersion is probably the most important stage for all children but especially for the young children as they often haven’t had the same experiences yet.
Immersion to capture the student’s motivation into the Inquiry and to record their ‘wonderings’/questions that they initially think about. These are displayed and revisited throughout their learning as they gain further understanding within the Inquiry process.
IMMERSIONThe key to this information is to inspire the learner, to spark curiosity, to engage the children with the topic on a broad sense. This stage is vitally important to set up the inquiry – this is where skills are directly taught and students exposed to information and ideas that will lead them through a successful inquiry pathway. This is the stage that the spark of curiosity is shared and valued through wonderings – it is important that time is given to these wondering so the students curiosities are valued.

N is for....
New information builds on known, in Immersion.
New thinking, learning and questioning emerges from the immersion stage. Curiosity to find out more.
New thinking tools and new learning for the students. Introducing and using new thinking tools – could be keys, hats, MI, Blooms or Habits of the Mind etc. The new learning refers to Immersion and then the Inquiry focus.
New Tools and TechnologyThe integration of technology is a key aspect to inquiry, tools of technology allow the learner to take control of their pathway, to develop critical thinking skills for the effectiveness of the technology for the task. Thinking tools and the direct teaching of how to best use these tools is another important aspect throughout the inquiry process.

Q is for....

Questioning is a skill and a tool by which we discover what we want to know.
Questioning is paramount to the children’s thinking and learning. I have to teach the children how to ask questions first and then improve their quality of questioning. Really enjoyed Trevor Bond and questioning rubrics should be in our policy Lots of practise at this .
Questioning skills that are directly taught to encourage Higher Order Thinking. Students are becoming aware of their own level of questioning and are beginning to gain confidence in using a Questioning Map (G.O) which enables all students to ‘push’ further than they have originally gone. This is a good tool because teachers can add to it in order to deepen the questioning used.
Questioning is an important life skill and a major learning and thinking skill.Questioning is a central core skill that is explicitly or implicitly woven through all of the new curriculum.” All students experience a curriculum that enables them to become active, confident, creative, and innovative learners and thinkers. All students experience a curriculum that enables them to become active, confident, creative, and innovative learners and thinkers.” (NZC)

U is for...

Use Graphic Organisers as tools to record ideas and thoughts concisely and meaningfully.
Understanding
Understanding the Inquiry and its process. As students progress past the Immersion stage, they need to be made aware where (within the process) they are working so they gain clarity of understanding about Inquiry. They need to be able to expect their learning to lead to an action and to understand how to gather relevant information to lead to this.
Understanding – “Useful application of inquiry learning involves several factors: a context for questions, a framework for questions, a focus for questions and different levels of questions. Well designed inquiry learning produces knowledge formation that can be widely applied.” (icwcclusterblog.blogspot.com)Children understanding themselves as learners develop throughout the inquiry process, they set their own goals, reflect on their pathway, evaluate their efforts, learn new skills that they can continually build on as they progress through their inquiry learning. Understanding how tools for learning can impact on their experiences, how different tools can provide a variety of angles on the one aspect. Children develop into self motivated learners as they understand how to use these skills and tools to follow their interests and how their thinking and actions can impact beyond the traditional four classroom walls.

I is for....
It is important to know that WALT ………for a reason or purpose.
Interest
Ideas and Impressions from the students. Throughout the Inquiry it is important from the onset to accept all ideas from the students whether relevant or not and these can be sorted through the use of G.O’s and thinking tools. The impressions refer to the ‘wonderings’ that students have and these need to be displayed so they can be integrated throughout the Inquiry process and students feel ideas are valued.
INVOLVEMENT:“Inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding. Involvement in learning implies processing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while you construct new knowledge.” Icwcclusterblog.blogspot.com

R is for.....
“Responding and Reacting” are positives outcome in all the stages of Inquiry.
Real-life experiences. Inquiry should be full of real experiences so the learning remains meaningful and relevant to the students. This will ensure motivation is maintained throughout the Inquiry.
Reflections Throughout the whole inquiry process it is important to reflect on where you have come as a learner, to reflect on the skills that you have developed and need to develop further. You need to reflect and analyse the whole process to ensure the best learning has occurred, to ensure that the inquiry has been successful.

Y is for...
You celebrate everyone’s effort and creativity at the end of an Inquiry.
Yahoo! Celebration of the children’s learning.
YES…The action! All of the hard work and learning can be celebrated with the action that finalises the Inquiry. This is relevant and meaningful to the students so they are involved until the very end.
You, the learner, takes control – create an action
The power and meaningful aspect of inquiry and to move it beyond a simple research project is to put the new information learnt into and action, an authentic purpose, creating impact with the knowledge. This is a time where learning is celebrated and shared on a local, national and international stage if possible.

Immersion Racing Rima Weeks 1-3, Term 2


Displaying Learning Intention - this was important because children were learning the purpose of what they’re doing at this stage of our Inquiry. The children knew that there were always new questions to ask and answer.

Information was shared about Heroes from articles and books, and deeper thinking was developed when considering how the hero achieved what they did. Apart from class discussions, this was achieved by using the ‘Chain of Events’ G.O. Working in pairs, the children had to use/read the information in front of them and think about the WHO, HOW, WHERE, WHAT etc. This was important because it gave the children, the understanding, that there was often more than one event or circumstance that contributed to an outcome.

Clarifying the concept of a hero. Thinking of / discussing who are/is the hero and what did the hero do?
The children didn’t have any difficulty grasping the idea of a hero because they worked on the criteria of: Are they doing something good and worthwhile? Are they kind and helpful people? Are they doing something brave?

Teacher asked specific questions in context, pertaining to person’s actions/situation and what ‘it took’ to do what was needed. This required the children to think of all the different attributes and underlying strengths the person had, using factual knowledge and making inferences. The children got to know their hero in a more personal way and could put themselves in their shoes, in their world.

Discussion on K.Comp: Participating and Contributing-What does P.and C look like to us as a class? - ideas recorded and displayed for referring to. Eg. Tom, you agreed we would speak nicely to each other and work as team. Are you speaking nicely and working well with your group? NO. So what could you do to achieve this? Etc. This was great for encouraging this student to be responsible for his own actions because he was part of the class when this K.C. was composed by the class, he shares ownership of it and he understands and relates it .The responsibility was his.

Visitors contribute a hugely to IMMERSION, especially when children have deep thinking questions where so much more is revealed of the “HERO” – their feelings, emotions, thoughts, thinking, creativity etc. This is HOW the visitor/s impacted on the students understanding:The specific questions the children asked eg. How can you get a person out of a burning house and how do you feel? required complex answers, and feelings revealed through facial expressions, voice and body language told a story of their own. And when a demonstration ensued, the students understanding further increased. And because the Visitor had had first hand experiences and skills to share, the situation was genuine for the students and they were learning at first hand. Questions, also generated questions, so children were scaffolding each others learning.

Wondering Wall - many questions about Heroes were too broad and didn’t have any keywords. So the children had to make their questions more specific, so that information could be accessed on the Internet more easily. I had to work with some children 1-1 on their questions. Not all the children are at the stage where they can clearly see the purpose of deeper thinking questions. These questions were very important for seeking relevant information, and finding out exactly what they wanted to know, as the children were learning to be skilled, informed researchers, saving a lot of time. I now need to help the children to see where they’re at on the Question Rubric and how they can work on their question skills.


Classifying Heroes- Encouraged children to think about differences. Are they heroes by occupation, circumstance, chance, setting a goal and achieving it, displaying certain Virtues or using certain Key Competencies? The challenge for the children was to think about: Why don’t heroes have to be famous? – Round Robin Brainstorm
Discussion followed – consensus was, a hero could be someone you know who has helped someone in need, or someone working hard towards a goal. Used T chart G.O. with 4 of the above for headings.
In groups of three, children listed heroes who they felt belonged under each category. Children then to decided which category of people was the most important, because of the impact/affect they had people. It was very important to show that the children’s reasonings and decisions were valued, and when reporting back, for others to listen, and agree to disagree. Also, understanding that people are heroes for different reasons and could be the person sitting next to us.

Conclusion

I think, because I realise Immersion is so crucial to the success of Inquiry, I’ve tried to give the children a wide range of activities and experiences to learn about Heroes. I’ve used several G.O.s and encouraged the children to generate their own deeper thinking questions, which in turn give them more knowledge and understanding and control of their own learning. In other successful Inquiry Units we’ve done, I don’t think I had, as
a teacher, as much insight into what I was doing. So as a result, I hope the children have really benefited, especially in questioning. These reflections make you think about your own understanding and practice, which can only be good.

THE PROCESS OF IMMERSION DURING INQUIRY:

We have explored both, ‘super’ and ‘real’ heroes and this provided some good insight into the student’s initial thinking. It also went on to provide clarity for those students who were having difficulty recognising a different type of hero other than superheroes. (eg: Sir E. Hilary). Almost immediately the students began debating the qualities that determine a hero and this lead well into creating our ‘wonderings’ wall. Having the students’ curiosities, in the form of questions, displayed in the classroom has lead to extra researching and learning which the students have taken on-board independently. A great step towards self-management! With the debating still going on, we brainstormed the qualities and attributes that heroes possess. So we now have a large visual display of powerful contextual language that students are starting use when discussing heroes, however it needed to be sorted further as both ‘types’ of heroes were intertwined. This is where the introduction of The Define Map has been so beneficial. It allowed the students to ‘sort’ out the different qualities and attributes of both types of heroes and to prioritise the relevant and not so relevant. A lot of discussion amongst themselves eventuated. For me, as the teacher, I was able to quickly observe students who participated and contributed confidently and to gain an insight into the language being used and by whom. The students then demonstrated higher order thinking as they initiated a class discussion on ‘who determines who a hero is and what makes one hero better than another (or are they?) and why? This was real evidence that the Immersion into the topic had raised their level of thinking and questioning skills. Even better were the justifications of their thoughts and their confidence to share this with their peers whether they agreed or not.
We are now beginning to explore our questioning skills and have been trialling writing deeper questions to broaden the skills the students already possess.
Tanya Hunter@ Rocking Rua

Room 4 Inquiry - Heroes

More concentrated effort put into this stage of Immersion by myself resulting in all children [even the very young] able to use the key competency language when discussing heroes. Having “Thinking” and what it means on display makes me refer to the sign constantly. This, I hope, will begin to impact on making the children put more thought into their own ideas when having discussions. I have realised that I have to be the strong model of effective questioning to guide the children’s learning of how two ask a good question because through observations this is not happening. By trialling the use of Drama in this Immersion stage the children are developing a much stronger understanding of thinking what it must be really like to be blind, deaf or have no legs.

Immersion complete

For this unit, I have tried to focus on the skills needed to set up inquiry - immersion has been much more successful this time.
Focussing on the tools that the children use to clarify their understanding has been more beneficial than I realised it could be.
The Define Map - created excellent discussion in whole class and small groups, children are challenging their own thinking as well as developing the confidence to challenge others. This tool meant that understanding of concepts could be confirmed, working in goups of three demanded that everone in the group was required to showsome level of understanding and the support the students gave eachother was fantastic. The biggest benefit from this tool in Immersion is the justification of thoughts, all thinking is accepted, but now there is the expectation that students need to justify their thinking - this was not so evident in this stage before. Immersion, in previous units, has been exposure to information, it lacked the directed teaching of skills and tools. The changes made in this stage are going to have such a positive impact on the remainder of the inquiry - well thats the hope.
Questioning skills taught at this stage in context has also been very powerful. Creating meaningful and authentic thinking and learning through questioning. This being completed at this stage is providing the expectations and scaffolding for the inquiry. Children not knowing the task also means they are more open to ideas, the tools learnt at this stage will now be extended throughout the inquiry. much more powerful than previous inquiry units.
IMMERSION is one of the most important stages - it is really exciting to think about where we are going to be heading with this inquiry!!!!

Questioning

After studying a few heroes, children were asked for a question that would give more information about a hero.
We had a variety of responses - using the questioning rubric (Trevor Bond) we even had some at level 2!!!!
Simply by showing the rubric and analysing our repsonses, the children made huge changes to their questions and were very surprised as to how simple it was, now that they knew what they were doing.

One students response:
1: How did she get experience form jobs?
after questioning lesson
2: How did Amelia Earhart get experience from her volunteer nursing and flight instructor jobs?

Children made the connection straight away, that with a better question, the information or answer is going to be of a higher quality too.
Providing the students with the scaffolding to support their thinking and learning is vitally important and has such positive and powerful results.

Hero vs Superhero

When introducing the topic in IMMERSION stage, there was a lot of confusion about heroes - children automatically aligned their thinking with superheroes (at this stage they do not know the task).
We used the DEFINE MAP to help clarrify ideas. Using the children original thinking on this topic, we defined a hero and superhero. The DEFINE MAP, challenged the childrens thinking as they had to justify their decisions. It made children consider different aspects of heroism, something that hadn't really happened before. The children studied a variety of heroes and use contextual language form their studies to help them when compiling the DEFINE MAP.

To follow are examples of defintions written after using the MAP.
A hero is someone that saves the day and is modest about the things they do.

A hero is an everyday person who does heroic acts and is a role model that inspores others to do good things.

A hero is a modest person who never gives up, has the courage to risk their lives for people in desperate need.

A hero is a courageous person who is kind to people and willing to save people in danger.

The define map is a great strategy, it encourages powerful thinking and great discussions.

Inquiry term two - heroes

This term we have decided to change our inquiry model slightly.
We are using the tool - the question map - however, it wasn't working as well as it should be. After attending the Trevor Bond workshop, it was decided that instead of having a leading question, our question will be embedded into a task. This should (hopefully) set up the thinking for the question map so it is used more effectively.

This is our task for the unit:
Research what it means to be a hero.
Investigate the qualities that heroes display.

Using the information you have discovered, locate a hero in our local community.
Share their heroic qualities and plan an action to celebrate the heroes in our community.

Children will have questions about this task and those are going to lead into the question map.
Something else that we are trialling, so will keep you informed about how it is going.

Programme Blurb

Dance for Disney
Oroua Downs School Production 2008

We have been focussing on Inquiry learning this year as part of our ICT PD cluster.
This term we tried something quite unique, something quite scary, but something we knew that our wonderful children could handle.
We investigated components that it takes to “make an entertaining show”, children followed the inquiry process to discover this information. We had a fantastic whole school presentation afternoon, which showcased the excellent effort that everyone had put in.
We then broke into house group and selected the character groups that we wanted to be, organised our costumes, created our dances, decided who was going to have the speaking roles, what props we needed, the backdrops, designed the programme, the advertising, the tickets, found a stage manager, had MC auditions, organised out ICT crew, gathered our stage hands, a huge effort from each and everyone of our dedicated students.
Tonights show is owned by your children, they created it, practised in, and are going to put on an amazing performance for you. We know you will enjoy it!
I totally take my hat off to all of the cast in this production and the wonderful staff for their commitment and support throughout the process.
Zee


What is it all about you may ask…
This production is about learning how to accept each other for who you are and working together towards a common goal.
It is about people being who they want to be and developing the courage to be confident and assertive.
You will giggle, you may be shocked, hopefully you wont cry but we know you will be entertained.
Please celebrate your childrens success with us, and allow for any hiccups we may experiences, sit back and enjoy.
We thank you for you support throughout this process.

Narrators and the midget

We had auditions for the narrators, this is an extra role on top of their house character. It was great to see so many juniors come to the auditions, they were really supportive of eachother and very excitied to have this special role.

It was planned that narrators would pre record their speech, but as it turned out, they wanted to 'do it live' on the night.

Each narrator was given their part and time to practise was their responsibilty.

A great effort was made, it was a chance to showcase their confidence and oral language skills.

We had one last special role to fill, that of the midget. This character is noticed on stage throughout the production, but does not say anything until the last scene, this midget pulls the whole message of the production together.

Props, ICT and stage manager

being in the spotlight is not everyones favourite past time, so some children were given the chance to work behind the scenes. This took the pressure off those that didn't want to be up on stage, it also gave leadership opportunities for the stage manager and a chance to showcase skills for the ICT crew.

This group of children ran the sound system worked all equipment needed, organised the props and made sure things were going to right on the night.

Dances and music

Children worked in their house groups to create their dance and find their music.

We practised at various times for a week and then had a shared dancing session in the sunshine. This was amazing and nearly brought tears to the teachers eyes. An amazing collection of moves, every single child in the school was involved and proud of what they did as well as others efforts. The playground was alive with cheering and children trying to copy dance moves. Parents came down and were amazed by the childrens efforts.
The screams of delight echoed through the corridors - this is really going to work!

One child says "this is so awesome, we get to have our own music, it makes it so much more fun for us and not boring like other times"

Sharing our discoveries

Oops - has been a while since I have updated this so here we go........

After a very intensive few weeks researching 'what it takes to put on a good show' the students had a shairng day in our library.
This was a fantastic afternoon of celebrations! It was impressive to see the children using ICTs with confidence to share what they had learnt. Nothing was the same, even though we had group studying the same aspect, their reporting were different - this was most noticed by the students, the were making comparisons of their information to groups that had the same.
Children took great pride in their presentations and this also created another boost of momentum for the second half of the inquiry.

This is a movie made by a junior class that shows their inquiry learning.
This really impressed me with the dedication to develop ICT skills from a less confident teacher - hats off to you!

The children have really owned this unit, there is much excitement, a real change for them to hold the power and for the expectations to be there for them to achieve success. For me, this unit has provided the opportunity for the children to really showcase their skills, it is something that in previous year they haven't been able to do - the production was too big for the children to take on. A real credit to the staff - for throwing caution to the wind and creating a truly meaningful learning experiences for the children.

From here, Miss Z presented the script to the school, this created even more excitement and children went back to house group to vote on the roles they wanted.

Children then had 3 days to get their costume organised for the show and to be shared at a parade at a special assembly.

We had geeks, jock, bogans, emos, pretty girls and ganstas.

The story line for the production was a mixed between high school musical and grease, with the happy ending that we all wish for, in the end, differences are celebrated and unity is found in the playground.

The children made a fantastic effort and really showed their character through their costumes. This created even more ownership and determination to do a great job.