Fostering Inquiry while Balancing Curriculum by Kabrena Riley
Fostering Inquiry while Balancing Curriculum
Overwhelmed with curriculum expectations and the pressure of creating a classroom that foster's students interests? You're not alone, most teacher's have this feeling. The first question that popped into my head when I was told that the Kindergarten Program is inquiry based was, how can I meet all the curriculum expectations while allowing the students to explore their interest? In reality it is easier then you think
The Importance of Inquiry
Inquiry allows students to have invested interest in their work which in turns allow them to have a better understanding of material they are learning. Students who are engaged in learning are better able to retain the information and allows them to use a higher order level thinking (Helm, 2008). With being able to retain and remember what they have learned students have increased test scores. Inquiry based learning has shown to have higher test scores and better student understanding of materials compared to teacher directed instruction(Helm, 2008).
Incorporating Inquiry and Curriculum
"As educators give children opportunities to seek answers to questions that are interesting, important, and relevant to them, they are enabling them to address curriculum content in integrated, “real world” ways and to develop – and practise – the higher-order thinking skills and habits of mind that lead to deep learning. (The Kindergarten Program 2016)" Allowing students to engage in topics that interest them allows them to make real world connections and application which give meaning to their work.
After reading the article: Got Standards? Don't Give up on Engaged Learning! by Judy Helm, I realized it is not as hard as we all fear. Judy Helm provided simple strategies that any teacher can use to cover the curriculum while fostering students inquiry. I will break down her strategies into 3 steps. I will also provide you with examples of how I used her steps to foster inquiry in my own classroom.
Step 1: Get to know the curriculum document.
Taking time to read and understand the curriculum is important as it will help provide you with a foundation of what the student's should be learning and you can connect it to your inquiry. Judy Helm suggest create learning goals and checklists of curriculum that you can check off when students have met an expectation during the inquiry process. It's important to note that you do not have to follow the curriculum in order and that you can complete that expectation with the students interest in mind (Helm 2008).
In my classroom, I have printed the list of curriculum expectations for each student and highlight the expectation they meet and write a note about how they met that curriculum expectation.
Step 2: Anticipatory Planning
The Importance of Inquiry
Inquiry allows students to have invested interest in their work which in turns allow them to have a better understanding of material they are learning. Students who are engaged in learning are better able to retain the information and allows them to use a higher order level thinking (Helm, 2008). With being able to retain and remember what they have learned students have increased test scores. Inquiry based learning has shown to have higher test scores and better student understanding of materials compared to teacher directed instruction(Helm, 2008).
Incorporating Inquiry and Curriculum
"As educators give children opportunities to seek answers to questions that are interesting, important, and relevant to them, they are enabling them to address curriculum content in integrated, “real world” ways and to develop – and practise – the higher-order thinking skills and habits of mind that lead to deep learning. (The Kindergarten Program 2016)" Allowing students to engage in topics that interest them allows them to make real world connections and application which give meaning to their work.
After reading the article: Got Standards? Don't Give up on Engaged Learning! by Judy Helm, I realized it is not as hard as we all fear. Judy Helm provided simple strategies that any teacher can use to cover the curriculum while fostering students inquiry. I will break down her strategies into 3 steps. I will also provide you with examples of how I used her steps to foster inquiry in my own classroom.
Step 1: Get to know the curriculum document.
Taking time to read and understand the curriculum is important as it will help provide you with a foundation of what the student's should be learning and you can connect it to your inquiry. Judy Helm suggest create learning goals and checklists of curriculum that you can check off when students have met an expectation during the inquiry process. It's important to note that you do not have to follow the curriculum in order and that you can complete that expectation with the students interest in mind (Helm 2008).
In my classroom, I have printed the list of curriculum expectations for each student and highlight the expectation they meet and write a note about how they met that curriculum expectation.
Step 2: Anticipatory Planning
Anticipatory planning is the most important part of this plan. In this step you should create a list or make a mind map of all the possible places the inquiry could go (Helm 2008). After thinking about all the different connections the students could make or places that you could guide the students to with this inquiry, write the curriculum expectation below the different possibilities. You should also leave room for those possibilities that the student's are able to come up with that you can't. You would then be able to quickly add them and connect it with the curriculum.
My class is currently very interested in flamingo's. Therefore I have created a mind map of all the different ways that I believe the inquiry could go. Then under those ideas I copy the curriculum expectation from the Kindergarten Program document. The next step will be documenting the students learning throughout these activities.
Step 3: Documenting students learning
Documenting the students learning is very important as it tells the story of the inquiry based learning the students took part in. By documenting the students learning you are able to see the learning that took place and make notes about which curriculum expectations where met during the students inquiry. Documenting before, during and after are very important as it allow you to see the students growth and learning progress though out the inquiry. Below I have provided Apps or styles for documenting students learning. I personally use Seesaw and Pic Collage as they are simple apps that allow me to document students learning while providing parents with photos and videos about what their child is learning.
Seesaw
The app Seesaw allows you to post photo's, video's, note's and voice recordings. This app also allow's parents and students to post comments or their own learning. Having all these options allows for teachers to document all parts of the students learning.
Google Docs
Google Docs allows both the teacher and ECE to have access to a document where you are able to check off the curriculum expectations the student is meeting and take anecdotal notes which are helpful when writing the communication of learning. It also allow you to provide examples of the students learning where you can write down observations for their inquiry-based learning.
Pic Collage
Pic Collage allows educators to have multiple photos on one page with notes and comments about students learning. This app allows educators to show a learning story by showing photo's from the beginning, middle, and end of the students inquiry.
Blogs
There are a lot of different platform to use but they allow you to blog with ease. Blogs will allow you to add photos and write learning stories. It will also allow you to communicate with parents or other educators on what is happening in your classroom.
Student Journals
Not only do student journal's allow for the documentation of students learning but they allow for students to review and make observations about their work. Student journals also provide us with an assessment as learning which is defined as"assessment as learning when they support children in setting individual goals, monitoring their own progress, determining next steps, and reflecting on their thinking and learning, to help them become confident, autonomous learners. (Growing success kindergarten adddendum 2016) " Which is important as it allow the students to become part of the documenting process.
Final words
After doing this research I no longer fear how I'm going to meet curriculum expectations while still allowing students to guide their learning though inquiry. By following Judy Helm's three simple steps I found it to be very easy to connect inquiry to curriculum. I no longer have to balance both curriculum and inquiry as they are truly complementary of each other and go hand in hand.
Work Cited
Step 3: Documenting students learning
Documenting the students learning is very important as it tells the story of the inquiry based learning the students took part in. By documenting the students learning you are able to see the learning that took place and make notes about which curriculum expectations where met during the students inquiry. Documenting before, during and after are very important as it allow you to see the students growth and learning progress though out the inquiry. Below I have provided Apps or styles for documenting students learning. I personally use Seesaw and Pic Collage as they are simple apps that allow me to document students learning while providing parents with photos and videos about what their child is learning.
Seesaw
The app Seesaw allows you to post photo's, video's, note's and voice recordings. This app also allow's parents and students to post comments or their own learning. Having all these options allows for teachers to document all parts of the students learning.
Google Docs
Google Docs allows both the teacher and ECE to have access to a document where you are able to check off the curriculum expectations the student is meeting and take anecdotal notes which are helpful when writing the communication of learning. It also allow you to provide examples of the students learning where you can write down observations for their inquiry-based learning.
Pic Collage
Pic Collage allows educators to have multiple photos on one page with notes and comments about students learning. This app allows educators to show a learning story by showing photo's from the beginning, middle, and end of the students inquiry.
Blogs
There are a lot of different platform to use but they allow you to blog with ease. Blogs will allow you to add photos and write learning stories. It will also allow you to communicate with parents or other educators on what is happening in your classroom.
Student Journals
Not only do student journal's allow for the documentation of students learning but they allow for students to review and make observations about their work. Student journals also provide us with an assessment as learning which is defined as"assessment as learning when they support children in setting individual goals, monitoring their own progress, determining next steps, and reflecting on their thinking and learning, to help them become confident, autonomous learners. (Growing success kindergarten adddendum 2016) " Which is important as it allow the students to become part of the documenting process.
Final words
After doing this research I no longer fear how I'm going to meet curriculum expectations while still allowing students to guide their learning though inquiry. By following Judy Helm's three simple steps I found it to be very easy to connect inquiry to curriculum. I no longer have to balance both curriculum and inquiry as they are truly complementary of each other and go hand in hand.
Work Cited
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2016). The
kindergarten program. Retrieved from
https://www.ontario.ca/document/kindergarten-program-2016?_ga=2.161973756.1522697850.1508453201-2119745995.1504440959&_gac=1.114493045.1508453201.CjwKCAjwmqHPBRBQEiwAOvbR83rClJtg2HNZVY1pTXcXoAVIFHvrg6-nQp2LfvKWKzPAQxCFIBa5ohoCSSQQAvD_BwE
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2016) The Kindergarten Growing Success- The Kindergarten Addendum: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. Retrieved From: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/growingSuccessAddendum.pdf
Helm, Judy Harris (2008) Got Standards? Don't Give up on Engaged Learning! Retrieved From: http://www.californiakindergartenassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Got-Standards.pdf
Comments
Post a Comment