What Inquiry Means To Me Barbara Noaro
Inquiry means to seek information by asking questions.
Inquiry means to organise one’s self.
Inquiry means to ask questions and investigate further.
Inquiry means to make discoveries.
Inquiry means to present and share outcomes.
Inquiry means to ask ‘how did I do?’
Inquiry is a means to an end, which at the beginning, you cannot for see.
Inquiry means there’s ‘a big important to us’ question to answer.
Inquiry means students will learn in a powerful way – being meaningfully involved, while learning about themselves and their strengths and abilities, using, improving, and sharing them.
Inquiry means there is a system, a simple format, a set of procedures, that enable the inquirer to find answers to the things they wonder about, and then answers to the questions that need investigating and exploring in a variety of chosen ways, maybe with others, by one’s self or with the class. The inquirer gains meaningful knowledge and useful new skills in the process.
Inquiry in the classroom means the teacher needs to model and guide.
Inquiry means that the process becomes well known and seamless over time to the user.
Inquiry means the outcome is celebrated and shared with others.
Inquiry means that there is an evaluative process at the end for ‘taking stock’ and for further learning.
Inquiry is thought provoking, caring, active and purposeful in the world.
By Barbara
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
vegie time
Look at the kids immersed in finding out about seeds, what they look like, comparing sizes and discussing their finds with each other.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Staff Meeting - whats going well
We had a catch-up for inquiry this week. We talked about how things were going with inquiry and where to next……..
What is going well with immersion – what difference have we seen since the last inquiry?
· Hands on experiences
· Exposure to a variety of concepts/ideas
· It is important to be specific enough to ‘guide’ – point the inquiry in the right direction
· One teacher says -“Really have to be specific in the immersion to make that meaningful link with children – if they don’t make connections at this stage – the inquiry is lost – if there no natural curiosity – where does the inquiring mind come from? Will place more emphasis on this stage in the next inquiry.”
· Children make more contributions to this stage (compared to last inquiry), they have made their own connections to the real world – meaningful concepts really help drive the inquiry – something that children can really get involved with.
· This stage really motivated the children – they are eager to go further
· Immersion is a crucial aspect to set up the inquiry
· Lots of resources – equipment – materials for the children to work with creates authenticity and ownership.
· Immersion is easier to manage as whole class activities – sets up working relationships for co-operative learning and developing communication skills, have a great class buzz when all are eager to investigate.
· Questioning is coming through at this stage – seen a huge difference from last inquiry as children weren’t really engaged. It is a lot easier and more fun to grow veges from seed to spark interest rather than watching a video or some such thing –(which is where we came from) – This highlighted the importance of the delivery a focus of the inquiry – really have to think about the concept rather than the topic.
We then discussed - what do we do with these questions or the wonderings?
A huge discussion was had about the importance of these questions or wonderings. Discussed how these questions should/could drive the inquiry – these are the questions that will capture our students, will be their motivation, their ownership of the whole inquiry.
We set another inquiry meeting to further discuss the continued refining of our thinking about questioning in preparation for term four.
This also brought us to the realisation that we didn’t have an over-riding question ourselves – this is because we tackled this inquiry from the back end.
We had these vege boxes etc, we wanted to promote healthy eating, so we did ‘edible gardens’ – we have forced this inquiry down the road we wanted it.
We have kind of ‘done’ inquiry and kind of haven’t – we know where we went astray, have reflected on this and have discussed further refinements for next term – it has allowed us a great chance to take ownership of the whole inquiry buzz – together – to continue refining and strengthening our understanding of what we need to develop to ensure we make inquiry work in our school. We are so on the right track – just had a slight detour but what a great journey we now have.
What is going well with DISCOVER?
· Hands on
· Visual aspect
· Increase of vocab and language
· Sharing of skills
· Experimenting of hands on curiosities
· More involvement through learning
· There is an expectation and requirement of self management
· Not on the computer researching
· Children are investigating
· Children are debating their findings
· Learning continuing beyond classroom and time constraints
· Learning tools (thinking maps) are being used more effectively and confidently
· Groups are focussed by questions
· Makes it easier for the juniors to do as a class
· Increased communication skills
Confidence to express opinions
Meaningful involvement promotes listening skills
Children have the confidence to challenge ideas
What isn’t going so well or what are our troubles?
· There is a danger of it dragging out a bit due to having student teachers with their own requirements, the weather, time and interruptions. We need to think about the length of time we are spending on each stage – we have spent quite a while on immersion – this is the danger as it could lean us towards integration rather than inquiry – something we have to watch.
· One teacher was wondering how they can monitor the whole class input – how do I make sure that everyone is contributing?
· At times lack of materials eg wood etc can hinder our path – just means that the teacher has to be more organised and the children can make the sourcing of these materials part of their inquiry.
Where to next?
We discussed the importance of scaffolding.
For this inquiry (what’s left of it) we will focus on our scaffolding – what we need as facilitators and what the children need to successfully complete the inquiry process.
· What we need – we will come together to discuss questioning in immersion and scaffolding.
We are coming together in two weeks to set our rubrics for inquiry.
This is a new task for us as rubrics are currently not used – we set learning intentions and success criteria but not in rubric form.
The staff are going to create a rubric for managing self and participating & contributing, We need to solidify our own understanding before we take it to the children. We discussed the importance of knowing skills involved and what the learners needs to do before reaching the next level – providing the learner with goals and next learning steps.
Two meetings on inquiry before the end of the term.
PHEW!!!!!!!!
What is going well with immersion – what difference have we seen since the last inquiry?
· Hands on experiences
· Exposure to a variety of concepts/ideas
· It is important to be specific enough to ‘guide’ – point the inquiry in the right direction
· One teacher says -“Really have to be specific in the immersion to make that meaningful link with children – if they don’t make connections at this stage – the inquiry is lost – if there no natural curiosity – where does the inquiring mind come from? Will place more emphasis on this stage in the next inquiry.”
· Children make more contributions to this stage (compared to last inquiry), they have made their own connections to the real world – meaningful concepts really help drive the inquiry – something that children can really get involved with.
· This stage really motivated the children – they are eager to go further
· Immersion is a crucial aspect to set up the inquiry
· Lots of resources – equipment – materials for the children to work with creates authenticity and ownership.
· Immersion is easier to manage as whole class activities – sets up working relationships for co-operative learning and developing communication skills, have a great class buzz when all are eager to investigate.
· Questioning is coming through at this stage – seen a huge difference from last inquiry as children weren’t really engaged. It is a lot easier and more fun to grow veges from seed to spark interest rather than watching a video or some such thing –(which is where we came from) – This highlighted the importance of the delivery a focus of the inquiry – really have to think about the concept rather than the topic.
We then discussed - what do we do with these questions or the wonderings?
A huge discussion was had about the importance of these questions or wonderings. Discussed how these questions should/could drive the inquiry – these are the questions that will capture our students, will be their motivation, their ownership of the whole inquiry.
We set another inquiry meeting to further discuss the continued refining of our thinking about questioning in preparation for term four.
This also brought us to the realisation that we didn’t have an over-riding question ourselves – this is because we tackled this inquiry from the back end.
We had these vege boxes etc, we wanted to promote healthy eating, so we did ‘edible gardens’ – we have forced this inquiry down the road we wanted it.
We have kind of ‘done’ inquiry and kind of haven’t – we know where we went astray, have reflected on this and have discussed further refinements for next term – it has allowed us a great chance to take ownership of the whole inquiry buzz – together – to continue refining and strengthening our understanding of what we need to develop to ensure we make inquiry work in our school. We are so on the right track – just had a slight detour but what a great journey we now have.
What is going well with DISCOVER?
· Hands on
· Visual aspect
· Increase of vocab and language
· Sharing of skills
· Experimenting of hands on curiosities
· More involvement through learning
· There is an expectation and requirement of self management
· Not on the computer researching
· Children are investigating
· Children are debating their findings
· Learning continuing beyond classroom and time constraints
· Learning tools (thinking maps) are being used more effectively and confidently
· Groups are focussed by questions
· Makes it easier for the juniors to do as a class
· Increased communication skills
Confidence to express opinions
Meaningful involvement promotes listening skills
Children have the confidence to challenge ideas
What isn’t going so well or what are our troubles?
· There is a danger of it dragging out a bit due to having student teachers with their own requirements, the weather, time and interruptions. We need to think about the length of time we are spending on each stage – we have spent quite a while on immersion – this is the danger as it could lean us towards integration rather than inquiry – something we have to watch.
· One teacher was wondering how they can monitor the whole class input – how do I make sure that everyone is contributing?
· At times lack of materials eg wood etc can hinder our path – just means that the teacher has to be more organised and the children can make the sourcing of these materials part of their inquiry.
Where to next?
We discussed the importance of scaffolding.
For this inquiry (what’s left of it) we will focus on our scaffolding – what we need as facilitators and what the children need to successfully complete the inquiry process.
· What we need – we will come together to discuss questioning in immersion and scaffolding.
We are coming together in two weeks to set our rubrics for inquiry.
This is a new task for us as rubrics are currently not used – we set learning intentions and success criteria but not in rubric form.
The staff are going to create a rubric for managing self and participating & contributing, We need to solidify our own understanding before we take it to the children. We discussed the importance of knowing skills involved and what the learners needs to do before reaching the next level – providing the learner with goals and next learning steps.
Two meetings on inquiry before the end of the term.
PHEW!!!!!!!!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Facilitator Meeting
Tried to bribe Jan with my birthday morning tea, so I wouldn't have to heaps of work - but alas - my cunning plan failed - hahaha - thanks for all the help Jan (really mean that)
Looked at model, new format is too complicated. After review of the last one, teachers wanted more information about each aspect, so tried to put it on the model. This made it very scary looking and didn’t really help the cause. So have decided to simplify the model and put the required details into the support booklet. The staff have all the bits and pieces they need for the inquiry journey but it is scattered, I need to compile a booklet of support so that all scaffolding for the staff and their students is in one easily accessible place.
Discussed the importance of the focus question – something that this term we skipped over (put that one down to experience) – we had our theme and our direction but skimmed of the questioning part too quickly – this need to be more detailed and thorough as it sets up our inquiry – it is the key to our inquiry – kind of got a bit lost on the journey – trying to move too quickly I think and forgot about the key ideas of inquiry. We are using this unit as an inquiry process, I got a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing and lost the big idea. We will still reflect on what is working well, looking at each stage of our inquiry and together as a staff problem solve any issue and keep reworking on our ideas and refining our inquiry process.
We are looking at key competencies and how we can use these in assessment. We have completed some ground work on assessment and key competencies – we are now looking at moving to our next step and designing rubrics for these. This unit our key competency focus is managing self and participating and contributing – we are going to have a staff meeting (or two) on what these mean and look like to us as a staff. Once our rubric is designed, we are going to include in the organise stage – the children designing their own rubric for the specific competency – this means the children can assess themselves at the beginning and also know the steps they need to take to make improvements – which in turn will be very powerful. We will keep you up to date with the progress. Once we have completed the first couple of rubrics, then we can link them to other areas of the inquiry processing – information processing skills, communication skills etc – or we may just decide to use the key competencies – further research and development is needed here. Also it needs to be a process completed together as a staff and not just one staff member – this will also encourage ownership of the whole thing too.
We are thinking about including our production as our inquiry next term – could be a challenge, could be a disaster, we will keep you informed
Looked at model, new format is too complicated. After review of the last one, teachers wanted more information about each aspect, so tried to put it on the model. This made it very scary looking and didn’t really help the cause. So have decided to simplify the model and put the required details into the support booklet. The staff have all the bits and pieces they need for the inquiry journey but it is scattered, I need to compile a booklet of support so that all scaffolding for the staff and their students is in one easily accessible place.
Discussed the importance of the focus question – something that this term we skipped over (put that one down to experience) – we had our theme and our direction but skimmed of the questioning part too quickly – this need to be more detailed and thorough as it sets up our inquiry – it is the key to our inquiry – kind of got a bit lost on the journey – trying to move too quickly I think and forgot about the key ideas of inquiry. We are using this unit as an inquiry process, I got a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing and lost the big idea. We will still reflect on what is working well, looking at each stage of our inquiry and together as a staff problem solve any issue and keep reworking on our ideas and refining our inquiry process.
We are looking at key competencies and how we can use these in assessment. We have completed some ground work on assessment and key competencies – we are now looking at moving to our next step and designing rubrics for these. This unit our key competency focus is managing self and participating and contributing – we are going to have a staff meeting (or two) on what these mean and look like to us as a staff. Once our rubric is designed, we are going to include in the organise stage – the children designing their own rubric for the specific competency – this means the children can assess themselves at the beginning and also know the steps they need to take to make improvements – which in turn will be very powerful. We will keep you up to date with the progress. Once we have completed the first couple of rubrics, then we can link them to other areas of the inquiry processing – information processing skills, communication skills etc – or we may just decide to use the key competencies – further research and development is needed here. Also it needs to be a process completed together as a staff and not just one staff member – this will also encourage ownership of the whole thing too.
We are thinking about including our production as our inquiry next term – could be a challenge, could be a disaster, we will keep you informed
Muratai Visit
What a great atmosphere the school has. The Principal is a ‘real’ person, he doesn’t mince words or window dress efforts within the school. The transperancy of things that happen within the school and classrooms was admirable – it makes a pleasant change.
I was really inspired by the systems that are in place and being used throughout the school. In every classroom the same thing was evident, just in slightly different forms. Just reinforced the importance of the common language throughout the learning spaces. Reinforced for me the importance of scaffolding, not only for the kids but also for the staff – if we are going to take control of inquiry, it is no use wondering around in the dark – we must have a clear direction and to torch (supporting materials) in our hand to defuse the darkness.
I also really liked the idea of the theme throughout the year, POWER, with such a broad and powerful theme, the tangents are endless, we are thinking of doing something similar next year. However in say that, I’m sure that we have to consult with the children as to what they wonder about and see if as a staff we can come up with a rich concept that can be applied to many areas – just thinking about it at this stage.
A huge thanks to Muratai School, their Principal, the wonderful Kapa Haka group, the friendly and open staff for letting us invade their classrooms on mass. It was a great school to finish our school visits on, every time we visit, we always take something away with us. Thanks Jan for all the organisation.
I was really inspired by the systems that are in place and being used throughout the school. In every classroom the same thing was evident, just in slightly different forms. Just reinforced the importance of the common language throughout the learning spaces. Reinforced for me the importance of scaffolding, not only for the kids but also for the staff – if we are going to take control of inquiry, it is no use wondering around in the dark – we must have a clear direction and to torch (supporting materials) in our hand to defuse the darkness.
I also really liked the idea of the theme throughout the year, POWER, with such a broad and powerful theme, the tangents are endless, we are thinking of doing something similar next year. However in say that, I’m sure that we have to consult with the children as to what they wonder about and see if as a staff we can come up with a rich concept that can be applied to many areas – just thinking about it at this stage.
A huge thanks to Muratai School, their Principal, the wonderful Kapa Haka group, the friendly and open staff for letting us invade their classrooms on mass. It was a great school to finish our school visits on, every time we visit, we always take something away with us. Thanks Jan for all the organisation.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Changing for inquiry
We had a huge staff meeting on inquiry. Really had a lot of solid discussions on the unit we had planned to do and if it would be a true inquiry unit.
After a lot of discussion and clarrification, we decided that it wouldn't. YEY!!!!!
We were planning on doing a unit on the Olympics - what it takes to get gold - but we realised that the children wouldn't get the practical opportunities to 'work' for or with information, it would still be a research type unit with no 'hands on' or opportunities to fully engage.
We changed it to 'Who dares wins' - and edible garden project to promote participation in developing and maintaining edible vegetable gardens.
The staff got really excited really fast about the opportunities that they children could take ownership over.
We also focussed our learning intentions to the key competencies - this ensured that the children would take ownership and made us look at planning in a different light.
We developed a new planning format (again hehe) and tweeked the visual model (still think this needs further development - this is on going and will be so for quite some time yet I guess)
We discussed the importance of providing scaffolding for our learners and again refined the thinking tools that we will be using throughout this unit.
Our next step is to go through our second trial unit, focuss on the scaffolding and key competencies and continue to refine our thinking and opportunities.
The staff are coming to grips with the inquiry way, there will still be bumps and hiccups - to be expected when change is happening.
Congratulations to our staff for the open mindedness and commitment to providing great learning experiences for our children.
After a lot of discussion and clarrification, we decided that it wouldn't. YEY!!!!!
We were planning on doing a unit on the Olympics - what it takes to get gold - but we realised that the children wouldn't get the practical opportunities to 'work' for or with information, it would still be a research type unit with no 'hands on' or opportunities to fully engage.
We changed it to 'Who dares wins' - and edible garden project to promote participation in developing and maintaining edible vegetable gardens.
The staff got really excited really fast about the opportunities that they children could take ownership over.
We also focussed our learning intentions to the key competencies - this ensured that the children would take ownership and made us look at planning in a different light.
We developed a new planning format (again hehe) and tweeked the visual model (still think this needs further development - this is on going and will be so for quite some time yet I guess)
We discussed the importance of providing scaffolding for our learners and again refined the thinking tools that we will be using throughout this unit.
Our next step is to go through our second trial unit, focuss on the scaffolding and key competencies and continue to refine our thinking and opportunities.
The staff are coming to grips with the inquiry way, there will still be bumps and hiccups - to be expected when change is happening.
Congratulations to our staff for the open mindedness and commitment to providing great learning experiences for our children.
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