Over the summer I attended a professional development seminar centered around the concepts of student exploration. During the presentation, we were asked to collaborate with our colleagues to discuss different materials (birds nest, feathers, pictures of third world countries, new articles, etc.) and our understanding of the topic. Following, we completed a worksheet titled “I Wonder”, similar to the one below:
| What we think we know | I Wonder | Yes! We were right | Misconceptions | New Information | Still Wondering |
What initially caught my attention, and has proven to be effective, are the titles “What we think we know” and “misconceptions”. Teaching grade 2, I was sceptical about my students grasping it. We first discussed the chart in depth, and one of my bulletin boards was transformed into a large class wonder chart. On sticky notes, we wrote facts that we thought we knew about spiders (an intro into our spider life cycle unit last term). As the month continued, I brought out 20-30 books, computers, and artifacts related to spiders. The student’s goals were to 1. determine if their original thoughts were correct or misconceptions (the sticky note was then moved to one of the columns) 2. find new information that we had not yet discussed (answer the original I Wonder questions) 3. write down any new questions that come to mind as they do their research.
It did take time, and a lot of preloading of instruction; however, once students became engaged it was all they wanted to do. As a teacher, it also demonstrated to me where my student’s misconceptions were coming from and what I needed to directly teach or questions I could propose to have them investigate and answer. By using sticky notes, students were also able to visually see whether they were on the right track with the previous thoughts, and also build on the understandings of their peers. I had students walk up to the board throughout the day and read all the new stickys and then go home to their parents and explain what they had learned (whether they were the ones to find the information or not).
Studies have also demonstrated that using these inquiry based approaches are more effective in identifying student misconceptions, and increase student performance (Prince, Vigeant & Nottis, 2012). They found that student understanding and overall performance improved from 46.6% to 65.7%, where minimal gains were made using instructional methods. Windmann, Self and Prince (2014) also summarize the defining features of these inquiry based learning activities, which support their effectiveness. These include: using peer instruction and collaborative work, using the physical world and materials, evaluating student understanding, making appropriate use of technology (in this case for research purposes), and beginning with the specific and moving to the general.
For anyone who would like to know more, Sandra Ball is an amazing resource and can be found on Twittter or email for those of you in the Surrey School District.
Shayla
Prince, M., Vigeant, M. & Nottis, K. (2012) Using inquiry-based activities to repair student misconceptions related to heat, energy and temperature. Frontiers in Education Conference Proceedings. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6462344
Widmann, J., Self, B. & Prince, M. (2014). Mini-Workshop – inquiry based learning activities: hands on activities to improve conceptual understanding. IEEE Frontiers in educational conference (FIE) Proceedings. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7044165
Hi Shayla,
What an elegant activity! It is a lovely way to be able to adapt your formative feedback to students/classrooms in real time! I especially like how you ask for the parents to engage in this as well.
Two questions:
1. Did you find that your students performed better on assessments after this activity? Do you have end of term test or other form of assessment that allows you to provide summative assessment to your students? (sorry! I am not in the K-12 world so I can’t remember if there is formal assessment in grade 2!)
2. Do you connect with parents (outside of parent/teacher meetings) to let them know about daily/weekly topics so that they can chat with their kids about topics that were covered that day/week?
Cheers,
Kari
Hi Kari. Thank you for your questions.
1. In my own practice I do not typically use tests as summative assessments. For many of my students who are not yet confident in their writing, I find tests give them anxiety as they are not able to fully express themselves. Instead, I pull students one-by-one and have them describe three-five things that they learned about the given topic. I have also done projects such as posters to teach others about a given topic.
2. I would love to say that I connect with parents on a regular basis, but the reality is that this is something I would love to improve in my practice. A co-worker of mine uses a program with his students where they need to write one thing they learned and one question they had for the day in their planner. Parents are then asked to check their planners nightly and discuss the topics with their kids.
Shayla
Interesting points! I have used a wonder wall in my class both as a shared activity and as a personal inquiry project and I particularly like the “I think I know” category. I hadn’t considered it as being a place to counter student misconceptions but I think you are absolutely right. This is a good way to access student thinking and it allows us the opportunity to counter misconceptions and to push thinking. I will look up the Prince, Vigeant & Nottis article you cited! It’s interesting that the student learning increased so dramatically using the inquiry approach. I had thought that the increase in student achievement could be contributed to student engagement achieved through the use of student-driven questioning, but in light of this week’s readings I now think that the gains students make are due to the ability to counter misconceptions at the outset of the wonder wall activity.
Hi Tracy.
I would argue that students gains are a combination of multiple things. Like you had mentioned, student engagement is a huge part of the teaching process. The way I look at it, if the students aren’t excited to learn the topic, you lost their attention from the beginning. As well, student misconceptions are a player as you can leave students confused and frustrated if the new information does not fit into their original understandings. As educators, I think one of the most difficult things is findings and accounting for each of these contributors.
Shayla
Hi Shayla,
I love the Wonder Wall idea. I like how, when you make it visible, children can engage with it and see their learning progress. I must admit, I have been guilty of completing an activity similar to this at the beginning of a unit and then forgetting to go back at the end to reflect and review! Having this as a working wall and visible to me everyday would also enourarage
me to schedule in more time for the students to reflect on their learning, which, as someone who tends to be go go go, just happens to be one of my classroom goals this year! The misconceptions category is also not something I previously would have thought to include but an idea that I love and will be borrowing for my next history unit!
Thanks!
Kathryn
Hi Kathryn!
Thank you for your thoughts! I am just as guilty of forgetting to come back to things when they are out of sight. I found the making the board visible not only helped me with remembering to come back to it; it also encouraged the students who got to see their stick notes get added to the board.
Shayla