Teaching Strategies: Stimulate Through Effective Questioning If you’re looking to improve the effectiveness of your teaching strategies, it’s best to start by improving your questions. Questioning students is the foundation of teaching, and when done effectively, it can transform a traditional teacher-led classroom into one where the students lead. Oftentimes teachers ask questions in an attempt to “fish” for the right answer. When doing this, teachers are missing out on giving all students the opportunity to participate in the class discussion. To help shyer students develop skills of inquiry that will extend learning beyond the classroom, consider the following teaching strategies. With a little forethought and a bit of tweaking to your lessons, a STEM-based... To kick off this holiday week, we want to spread a little Thanksgiving joy with... Google Play for Educators is designed specifically to help teachers find the... Here are some ways teachers around the nation continually promote connectedness... Teaching Strategies for Asking Questions
No Frills… | My ideas on current educational changes that are happening in my life and in my classroom. These views are totally my own. Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning If kids can access information from sources other than school, and if school is no longer the only place where information lives, what, then happens to the role of this institution? “Our whole reason for showing up for school has changed, but infrastructure has stayed behind,” said Diana Laufenberg, who taught history at the progressive public school Science Leadership Academy for many years. Laufenberg provided some insight into how she guided students to find their own learning paths at school, and enumerated some of these ideas at SXSWEdu last week. 1. Laufenberg recalled a group of tenacious students who continued to ask permission to focus their video project on the subject of drugs, despite her repeated objections. 2. Laufenberg’s answer: Get them curious enough in the subject to do research on their own. “Rather than saying, ‘We’re going to study immigration,’ I took them through a process where they become interested in it themselves,” she said. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Related
What is Inquiry-Based Learning? | Discovering the Art of Mathematics (DAoM) Written by: Dr. Phil Hotchkiss and Dr. Julian Fleron Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) is an approach to teaching and learning in which the classroom environment is characterized by the student being the active participant while the teacher’s role is decentralized. Following Laursen and others ([8] and [2]) we identify IBL in post-secondary education with classroom practices that have the following characteristics: We created a short document with Good Starter Activities that you can use to get a sense of the type of inquiry questions we use in our classes. For additional discussion and video about good starter activities please see our blog First Day of the Semester: Good Activities. Since most of the class time in IBL classes is spent on student centered activities, IBL classrooms have very different structures than traditional classes. The benefits of IBL have been supported by research. Active learning increases student performance across the STEM disciplines. Bibliography J.
The Question Formulation Technique in Action We’ve been at work for more than 20 years teaching a strategy that helps people in low-income communities learn to advocate for themselves and their families. We have seen people use the strategy to advocate for their children at school, participate in decisions that affect them at the welfare office, secure better job training opportunities, and partner more effectively with their healthcare providers. We’ve also seen that the same strategy has universal value and has been used by college and graduate school students, professors, and professionals in various fields. What is the “Right Question Strategy?” We are seeing an explosion of implementation around the country in teaching the skill of question formulation. Learning “just” these two skills creates not only a pathway to success on many levels but also a pathway to full participation in democracy. Luz Santana / Dan RothsteinCo-Directors, The Right Question Institute
Evolution Starts Here, Part 1: Inquiry-Based Leadership It’s funny. There is much talk of inquiry-based learning in schools, but very little of inquiry-based leadership. Neither is there much of it in practice. I pondered, for some time, where to begin this series of posts about the evolution of a school in which innovative, even revolutionary, ideas like Studio 5 could become a realistic possibility. But, looking back, it is clear that the habit of school leaders perpetually asking questions is the very first ingredient in the soup of change. Why is it like that? Could it be like this? What is the purpose of that? Do we need to do this? In 2013, the International School of Ho Chi Minh City leadership team – an entirely new group of nine – had no choice other than to ask questions like these. These habits of questioning didn’t fizzle out though. Primary leadership meetings The appraisal process Coordinator meetings All too often, these are one-way information delivery meetings dominated by the person with the most authority. The Green Hat Room
Curious Homework: An Inquiry Project for Students and Parents Photo credit: iStockphoto International educator Scot Hoffman is a big believer in the power of curiosity to drive learning. After nearly two decades of teaching around the globe, he also realizes that school isn't always so hospitable to inquiring minds. (As Einstein said, "It's a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.") That's why Hoffman has developed The Curiosity Project, a self-directed learning experience that engages students, parents, and teachers as collaborators in inquiry. I first met Hoffman a couple years ago during a visit to the American School of Bombay in Mumbai, India. Here are highlights of our recent conversations about The Curiosity Project. What was the inspiration for this idea? Scot Hoffman: In about my third year of teaching -- this was back in the 1990s -- there were a couple students I just wasn't reaching. Another inspiration was a set of questions that a former professor, Dr. What is curiosity? What did you notice? How has the project evolved?
How To Understand Anything Using The Inquiry Process Hypothetical situation: you’re a student and your teacher has tasked you with identifying a topic that is important to you, understanding it, interpreting it, and then delivering a report to your classmates. Aside from the nerve-wracking part of talking at the front of the classroom (eep!) there are a lot of things to consider. For example, how do I find my particular topic? That’s where the inquiry process comes in to save the day. Quick aside: like the graphic on the right? The Inquiry Process Check out the fabulous visual below that maps out everything in a flowchart. Step 1: Pose real questions! Step 2: Find useful resources: Ask yourself questions like ‘Where do I find quality resources?’ Step 3: Interpret all that information you just acquired in step 3. Step 4: Now the hard(er) part. Good luck!
Small Acts That Change the World | KindSpring.org Dear Friends, The overwhelming response to September's 21-Day Kindness Challenge surpassed our wildest dreams! 6000 people, from 98 countries participated and lit up the world with thousands of kind acts and stories. This surge of energy, enthusiasm and connection left us wondering -- what do we do next?!? It didn't take long to arrive at the perfect answer. Inspired by YOU, we've decided to step it up and launch the 21-Day Gratitude Challenge. While the Kindness Challenge placed attention on all the ways we can give, the Gratitude Challenge will be geared to make us tune in to all the ways in which we constantly receive. As with the last challenge, you'll receive a daily email with inspiration and ideas. Together we will find and celebrate the good in each moment. Change Yourself. In the spirit of service, The KindSpring Crew At age 108, Holocaust survivor Alice Herz Sommer still practices piano for 3 hours every day.
36 Core Teacher Apps For Inquiry Learning With iPads 36 Core Teacher Apps For Inquiry Learning With iPads The interest in inquiry-based learning seems to ebb and flow based on–well, it’s not clear why it ever ebbs. In short, it is a student-centered, Constructivist approach to learning that requires critical thinking, and benefits from technology, collaboration, resourcefulness, and other modern learning skills that never seem to fall out of favor themselves. Regardless, St Oliver Plunkett Primary School has put together two very useful images that can help you populate your iPad–or classroom of iPads–with apps that support both inquiry-based learning (the second image below), and a more general approach to pedagogy based on Apple’s uber-popular tablet (the top image). The original pdf for the first file can be downloaded here. 36 Core Teacher Apps For Inquiry Learning With iPads; image attribution St.
Two Ways to Explore the News Through Maps When teaching students about current events I have always tried to incorporate maps so that students can make a connection to the places that they are reading about. I do this if the story is about something happening in Africa or something happening twenty miles down the road from our community. Newspaper Map and the Breaking News map are both helpful in showing students the connections between story subjects and their corresponding locations. Newspaper Map is a neat tool for locating and reading newspapers from locations all around the world. Breaking News presents a constant stream of headlines from around the world. Applications for Education A common assignment in social studies courses is to have students find, review, and share current events stories.
International Mindedness - PYP @ the Library The IBO encourages young people to help create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. The PYP library supports this by providing resources that encourage international mindedness developing a collection of mother tongue resourcesIBO Global EngageThe Global Engage website supports members of the IB community, and particularly teachers, in engaging with our global world. The following two pages have an amazing array of links, resources and information on international mindedness: Resourcing the PYP page on International MindednessThere is a particularly good list here of foreign language and international book suppliers. Librarians Continuum page on International Mindedness See below.
Read Around the World My kids and I have had fun taking two imaginary trips around the world. Our imaginary trips have consisted of choosing a new continent every couple of weeks and reading stories set in that continent. During our second trip, I compiled booklists of the very best books I could find and posted booklists and reviews here at Delightful Children’s Books. I hope that these Read Around the World booklists will inspire teachers and parents to take an imaginary trip around the world with their kids. * Click on each booklist link for book reviews and images! Maps Mapping Penny’s World by Loreen Leedy. Children Around the World To Be a Kid by Maja Ajmera and John Ivanko (board book edition). Africa I Lost My Tooth in Africa by Penda Diakité and Baba Wagué Diakité. Europe The Cat Who Walked Across France by Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben. Australia Big Rain Coming by Katrina Germein and Bronwyn Bancroft. The Arctic Mama, Do You Love Me? South America Asia Peek! Educational Resources