Grade 3/4's Collaborate!

During our first lessons in our "Under Our Feet" inquiry, we had the students form inquiry teams, create a team name (some were super creative "Metamorphic Masters" for example) and began working through the stage of wonder.  Things were off to a great start and we were so pleased at the progress.  Then the second or third day in, we stumbled over a few bumps in the road...our collaborative work became somewhat derailed as teams struggled to work cooperatively on their task.  Through an exit pass at the end of that lesson the students voiced frustration in working together.  It was at that moment that I thought of Harvey Daniels and the knowledge he shared in his book "Comprehension and Collaboration"...how could we expect the students to work collaboratively and effectively together when we haven't spent any time explicitly teaching them and practicing collaboration skills?!  We knew we needed to take a step back and put our "inquiry" learning on hold in order to do some "teamwork" learning. 

We spent our next lesson working in our teams to co-construct criteria on what our teamwork should sound like, look like and feel like.  Having done similar criteria building in other areas, the students had no trouble assigning such criteria for their teamwork.  To my surprise they were also able to identify strategies they could use to help keep their team on track, or things they could do to help themselves and individual teammates get back on track!  It was funny to listen to one team identify that sometimes members get off track because they are sitting next to someone that they just want to visit with.  Minutes after overhearing this conversation, we were delighted to observe this group re-structure their seating arrangement!

Following this work we asked students to use their inquiry journal to reflect on themselves as a teammate and to pick one particular area to focus on in our upcoming teamwork.  The student's honesty was touching as they accurately reflected on needing to be a better listener and to do a better job of encouraging team members. 

To help practice collaboration skills we have begun having "table talk" at least once a week outside of our inquiry time.  During this time we focus on active listening, and taking turns sharing in a collaborative setting using some of the activities outlined in the book "Collaboration and Comprehension" and those I picked up during a learning session with Harvey Daniels last spring.

Though a step we failed to recognize in our original planinng, we quickly discovered the importance of including this teaching and learning throughout our inquiry work. 

Grade 3/4s Work Through the Wonder Stage!

"Under Our Feet" - Wonder Stage

After presenting our students with our guided inquiry question "Why are rocks, minerals and soil important to us?" Tamzen and I visually presented the inquiry process to our students and gave a brief overview of each stage of the process.  Then we jumped into "wonder" with both feet!  We formed inquiry teams composed of both Grade 3 and Grade 4 students.  Using Linoit (an online cork board with virtual sticky notes...very engaging!!!) we had the students brainstorm the things we would need to know in order to answer our big question.  The students did an amazing job!  From their brainstorming, we were able to generate 5 smaller "sub" questions to help guide us in working towards discovering answers to our big question:

• What are rocks, minerals and soil?
• Who is "us"?
• How do we use rocks, minerals and soil?
• What does "important" mean?
• How would the world be different if we did not have rocks minerals and soil?

We were so impressed with the students' big thinking!  Together we looked at our sub questions and sharing first in our inquiry teams and then as a large group set the order for which we should investigate these sub questions.  Through discussion and some guided work, we found that we were discovering many more smaller questions that we need to answer.  So many questions!  Again, we were blown away by the students ability to think about what we need to know and to identify even smaller sub questions such as "What minerals are in Saskatchewan?", "Where are the minerals located in Saskatchewan?", and "What do we use the rocks, minerals and soil in Saskatchewan for?"

After taking some time to reflect on the "wonder" stage of the process in our inquiry notebooks we are now ready to move on into investigating!

Teacher reflections (Miss Elliott):
For myself the reflections at this point are huge.  My students are capable of thinking much more deeply than I anticipated.  In all honesty, I was skeptical that they would identify the knowledge and questions we would need to use to guide us toward our big question and I assumed we would have to do much more prompting and explicit guiding.  They have defintely gone beyond what I expected with some even identifying how we could classify and organize our questions!  I am thrilled that we are pushing them because they are certainly rising to the challenge!  Introducing and using some new technology such as "Linoit" and "Today's Meet" has helped engage the students while at the same time giving them experience with a new online tool way of sharing and ensuring that all students have a voice.
Though we have our long range guided inquiry mapped out, Tamzen and I meet after each lesson and each week to reflect, focus and specifically plan what we will do in our next session.  It takes time but being well planned has been contributed to successful lessons and experiences.
Our work in this inquiry is helping me see and understand the steps and stages of this process more clearly and how to guide students in understanding them.  "Inquiry" is a common word in our classroom now, not just during our guided inquiry time.  Often when doing our highlights at the end of the day, students identify our inquiry time as a highlight of their day!

Robust Inquiry

One of our school division initiatives this year is a partnership between the teacher-librarian and a teacher at every elementary school in the division. Each term, the learning partners will have an opportunity to attend a robust inquiry professional development session and will also be provided with a .5 day to plan. The goal of the robust inquiry project, as outlined by the Saskatoon Public School Division is to:

•      Build a robust inquiry question that is authentic, significant, and relevant to students' learning
•      Develop an outline that details the facilitation of rigorous worthy inquiry tasks
•      What are the milestones or benchmarks for classroom projects?
•      What is my readiness for processes and skills needed for this project?
•      What is my role(s) and opportunities in growing project successes?
•      Have I fostered transformational technology use as outlined in the H.E.A.T. Spectrum?
•      Foster the use of affinity groups (Learning Circles/PLN/Social Media) for furthering learning and celebrating student successes

      This term, Ms.Elliot and Mrs.Kulyk attended the Robust Inquiry session and have co-planned a grade 3/4 inquiry unit around the topic of rocks, minerals and soil.  The "big" question that the students will be exploring is, "Why are rocks, minerals, and soil important to us?" 

Co-Constructing Knowledge of The Inquiry Process

Our school priority for student learning this year is around developing student's conceptual understanding within an inquiry framework. Over the summer, our teachers read the book Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action by Harvey Daniels and Stephanie Harvey. As a staff we were able to build our background knowledge together and develop a common language and understanding of what inquiry is.  We also consulted a variety of documents and research to co-construct our own inquiry model at Hugh Cairns school. We used the Points of Inquiry Framework created by the British Columbia Teacher-Librarians' Association as well as Barbra Stripling's Model of Inquiry  as well as a variety of other sources.

We look forward to sharing our inquiry learning journey with you.