Michael Pohl

We have been fans of Michael Pohl for some time now, this day just reaffirmed what we are doing.


The Question Map
This is a fantastic strategy that we use in the organise stage of our inquiry. It is a strategy that does help the children organise their wonderings and thoughts. It helps them structure their questions and right form the start of the inquiry, challenges their thinking. No longer do the children just accept questions that they or their peers pose, this strategy insists that there is an element of critical thinking, they have to justify why that question should be included. From there, they know the inquiry path, can organise their investigations and it is a great visual to refer back to throughout the process.

This strategy works really well when conducting a whole class directed inquiry (from our experience anyway) - each area of the question map become the focus of a small group. This way, the children get indepth knowledge of one area, while being exposed to other areas when groups present their findings. For our children, at the start of the inquiry journey, they find the whole process a little less dawnting, see the whole picture without feeling overwhelmed with trying to tackle the whole inquiry focus.


S.C.A.M.P.E.R and other such techniques

We have used SCAMPER for some time now - mostly in the creative writing area. It is a great way to engage 'non writers' and give them a lot more control over their ideas. Using this strategy gives them an easy pathway to structure their ideas. It encourages creative thinking and brings the fun back into writing for those students.

We have used 'tomatoes' to assess art. We have also designed our own. When we first trialled them, the responses from the children were - 'its easy', 'you dont have to write much'. At first we were a bit concerned, thinking that we were not challenging them enough, however with repeated use, the quality of responses increased. It was 'easy' for the children to focus their thinking on specific areas rather than commenting on the whole aspect of their art work (as previously done), sometimes children didn't know what kind of comments were required, this provided a solid structure. It has been an excellent tool to transfer to other areas, especially self evaluations, we used I ROCK for self management, STITCHERY for another art topic, SWEET for a junior art assessment, the possiblities are endless when you put your green hat on!

Tony Ryans thinker Keys are also a fantastic tool, would highly recommend purchasing the CD shown on the day - really good value for a fantastic resource!

We were extremely lucky to have such a day with Michael Pohl, thank you to Jan for organising it and thanks to Julie for providing an opportunity for other staff memebers and schools in our region.