I have just finished my first week of my full time two week practicum in my lovely Grade 2 classroom! During this week my class started their new Unit of Inquiry on the trans-disciplinary theme “Where we are in place and time.” The central idea in this unit is “Navigation provides information.” This has been a really exciting unit so far with the Grade 2 students. Our provocation began with scattering gold (chocolate) coins all over the gym floor, turning off the lights, and having the students use their flashlights to find the coins. I felt that this was a great introduction to the unit as the students were very engaged and were having a great time. We then had a group discussion in our room about their navigation to find the chocolates, then a general discussion on navigation. The students came up with very creative and intellectual ideas. All the students were actively involved, engaged, interested, and wanting to learn more. Some comments the students had involved people using the stars to navigate, boats using lighthouses to navigate, animals using their senses to navigate, and planes using towers to navigate. We also got into an interesting discussion about wifi and GPS. The students went home that day (Monday) and did a ton of research themselves, and came back the next day (Tuesday) ready to share and learn more. Over the entire week the students remained actively engaged with the topic of navigation. Each day there was at least one student who brought in an item to share with the class such as maps, and compasses. The topic of navigation was not only discussed during our Inquiry class, it was also included in our spelling words for the week, our morning messages, the students’ reading, and in general throughout the day. It even came up when we discussed trick or treating! During this first week I really got learn more about IB and got to see how IB can transform a classroom.
Incorporating our U of I into the Morning Message I wrote. Students must fix the spelling and answer the questions.
The fixed morning message.
Gathering some student ideas after reading the original morning message and before fixing and answering it.
Thanks for the glimpse inside your first week of 315 Danica. How wonderful that you were able to see the provocation for the new Unit of Inquiry! I noticed how neutral the central idea is – this will provoke lots of interesting thinking and it sounds like it already has! It sounds too like you have been very involved in the class and taking risks to jump right in. Good for you! I wonder how this approach compares to your experiences in early primary or your beliefs about how best children learn? What learning engagements did you observe that really resonated with you and connected to your IB understanding so far? I look forward to hearing more in your second post.