Inquiry: classroom implementation
Last Inquiry: how do I implement inquiry based learning in my lessons?
- Continue to use students’ background knowledge and when planning for lessons
- Think about how I might ask questions, what questions I would ask (the students and my input into lesson design)
- I want my students to walk into their classroom feeling comfortable and confident to safely express their feelings, thoughts and needs with each other as well as to their teachers.
- I want to ensure my students are all given an opportunity to be positively heard and that their opinions and ideas are valued.
- I will strive to listen attentively and maintain a positive and trusting relationship to allow open communication between school, student and their families.
- I want my students to have a sense of pride in themselves and realize the value of questions by modeling respect for each other’s ideas. (e.g. listen when others speak encourage questions)
- I want them to realize that the classroom is an inviting learning space.
- I will model some ways of forming questions. Some questions might not have a yes or no answer.
- Lots of hands-on/ experiential activities!
- related items to lesson for provocation (*student sparked questioning)
Good goals and you have set some challenging targets! Which would you start with? Maybe you can start with one that you feel you can manage to achieve within a time frame such as creating the inviting environment or continuing to do so.
I wanted to add the importance of doing some guided inquiry with this young age and really listening to children’s questions (where does garbage go? why is the sky blue?) and taking up their wonderings as a group or with them individually.
You have really put a lot of effort into this project in the last two weeks and have a solid groundwork in theory and have articulated your plans for practicum. It will be interesting for you to put some of this knowledge and interest into practice.