How do we assess understanding? Part of my role as Teaching and Learning Coordinator involves facilitating and supporting the planning of units of inquiry. Planning for inquiry can be difficult. On the one hand, over planning limits the potential for inquiry. On the other hand, we have desired outcomes and understandings, as well as the demands of a national curriculum.
We used to plan a range of learning experiences in advance. You can read here about how we have improved our planning process. Nowadays, we start by identifying the desired conceptual understandings and carefully considering what evidence will indicate that our learners have achieved them. Then we plan some provocations that engage the learners in the big ideas and wait to see where the learning takes us.
Keeping an eye on the conceptual understandings allows us to add further targeted provocations as the inquiry unfolds. Creating a rubric helps clarify where our units are heading. Here’s a Year 5 example that’s more content based: Like this: Like Loading... The Learning Pit. IB Learner Profile Videos. Pixar - For the Birds. O2 Refresh - Be more dog. TMB Panyee FC short film. The Story of Stuff. The Story of Stuff, originally released in December 2007, is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.
The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the Stuff in your life forever. Download the Fact Sheet Credits The Story of Stuff was written by Annie Leonard, Louis Fox, and Jonah Sachs, directed by Louis Fox and produced by Free Range Studios. Executive Producers included Tides Foundation and the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption. It was released in December 2007. Thinking: Shaken Not Stirred. Prov·o·ca·tion (pr v -k sh n) n. 1. 2.
Our brain needs it. In an inquiry-centered environment learning provocations abound. The recipe? What are some ways to put that into practice in a classroom? 1. Because they are worth a thousand words. Use various strategies: – I See / I Think / I Wonder – Silent Conversation – Musical Tables etc. There are millions of photos available that can be used in inquiry on various concepts – poverty, conflict, power, gender, multiculturalism, pollution – basically anything and everything. Where is this beautiful city with skyscrapers? It is in Africa, more exactly in Congo. The power of photography. 2.
I always use high quality photographs and add intriguing, confusing, or simply powerful words. 3. Whenever I use posters I am looking for simplicity…even minimalism “because it eliminates the obvious and adds the meaningful”. *You can print your posters in a really big format here. 4. Need I say how important they are in triggering thought and emotion? 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. The Power of Simple Provocation. The Power of Simple Provocation Urban Safari Please click the hyperlink just above this and take a look at the Powerpoint before reading the rest of this! This Powerpoint was made as part of my daughter’s homework during a unit of inquiry about living things that we share our community with. We simply went for a walk down a nearby street in central Bangkok and I took whatever photos Ruby told me to take.
When we got home, we put it together and she told me what to type on each slide. As you can see, there are countless opportunities for further inquiry that emerged from the simple provocation of going for a walk and looking. Given the chance and the guidance, Ruby could have taken one or more of her questions, confusions and observations further. Kids are already as curious as we allow them to be. It then becomes our job to help them navigate their curriculum in a way that remains true to their initial curiosities. Like this: Like Loading... About sherrattsam. JustWondering — Kath Murdoch. It’s 1974. I am in Grade 5. I know all the words to 'Seasons in the Sun' and I am in love wth David Cassidy. I have very few memories, but I do remember Miss McNab’s shiny, white leather boots, mini skirt and turtle-neck sweater. I remember a painful week of inexplicable ostracism by my supposed ‘best friends’ andI remember the weekly program, posted each Monday, to help us figure out how to use our time.
It’s 1981. ‘In our school freedom means doing what you like so long as you do not interfere with the freedom of others. It’s 1983 and I am on a practice-teaching placement at a school in Melbourne’s Western suburbs. It’s 1986 and I am teaching grade 4. It's 1992 and I am back studying again. We looked closely at so-called ‘child-centred’ progressive teaching techniques, where teachers purport to take a largely facilitative role.
It’s 2004. ‘Having a sense of agency then, is fundamental. It’s 2007 and my music has become my kids' music too. It’s 2018. What Ed Said – A blog about learning. Making Good Humans – Inquiry, PYP and Good Teaching.