At the point of Spring Break, we had just received our ants. Our inquiry was really just taking shape. We created our chart of what we think we know to compare to our end learning. I provided my students with books and as I mentioned in my previous post a guided goal to all explore/inquire about.
We then watched our ants and began forming wonderings.
Then we jumped in by looking at what ants look like. (notice my drawing has legs on the abdomen - they should all be on the thorax on the what I think I know poster. The students looked for information about what an ant looks like, parts of and even that it is classified as an insect.
I cannot say we have a literature circle format; I guess for first graders it looks a lot different. The kids were each searching through non-fiction text in pairs or individually and marking pages for me to read (or reread) about our focus for that week. We then discussed and wrote items that fit on our web. Our discussions around the literature were on what to take from my read outs that met our inquiry focus.
I used to think this would not really fit inquiry, but I now see that even with a top as specific as what ants look like, the kids really got into searching out their own piece. Some wanted to know if ants were different colors or could be blue, others wondered if they were the same size and some questions grew out of it as to if the ants could regrow legs.
While all of our questions that evolved were not answered yet, students are on the right path to understanding the inquiry process (or start).
I am so glad I am taking it slow and a bit more structured than perhaps I could. I feel more confident as their teacher in allowing them to understand the expectations and process of inquiry. My goal is to allow them at the end of our inquiry to pick one wondering they have and allow them to go deeper and bring it back to our puzzle.
Maggie- I love the questions that little minds come up with about things adults take for granted, like ants. This is such a great experience modeling the inquiry process. With this as their basis, I imagine they are going to dive right into searching for answers to all sorts of questions. This is such a valuable thinking process to teach to young learners as they transition to "school" behavior. They are so naturally curious and we struggle for ways to not stomp that out as they get older in school. It seems inquiry is the perfect format to preserve some of the natural curiosity!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like such a fun lesson. Every year I do an investigation with planaria worms and I think I would like to try this literature circle thing to open up more questions, even though we just focus on how they regenerate. Time is always an issue with the tight pacing guides, but I think will be worth it. Thanks for the great idea.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like such a fun lesson. Every year I do an investigation with planaria worms and I think I would like to try this literature circle thing to open up more questions, even though we just focus on how they regenerate. Time is always an issue with the tight pacing guides, but I think will be worth it. Thanks for the great idea.
ReplyDelete