The following examples show the wide range of topics and curiosities students were exploring during the first few weeks of independent inquiry time. Students managed their own learning time, which consisted of reading, writing, material exploration (hands-on creating), reflecting, logging their learning and tracking their inquiry practice. Students mutually agreed that these were productive and acceptable ways to spend their learning time.
Planet X:
Planet X:
Goldie Blox Construction Materials:
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A working movie player made with goldieblox. The student followed instructions, built the machine and then wrote in her blog using Kidblog.(See sample of her blog below). This student later took on a leadership role by teaching other small groups of students how to create their own blogs.
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| This Grade 5 student experimented with duct tape over a range of several days. She made a babysitting kit, pencil flowers, a wallet and a few other projects. Each day, she read about how to make the item (if she could find it in the book) and she also wrote about her experience of creating it. The student then took pictures of her creations and uploaded them into her digital file. |
Landforms:
Boat Building:
Top 10 Expensive Cars
Bridges
Skyscrapers
Clay Creations and Villages
Lego Structures and Fisher Technik machines
How to Make an Imovie
Types of Graffiti
The Great Wall of China
Deadly Plants
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| The student began by making an island from clay. She then expanded her learning by researching and creating a model for other landforms. She completed her project by making a poster of her inquiry journey. |
Boat Building:
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| Students built one raft and then worked together to build a new, more sturdy one. |
Top 10 Expensive Cars
Bridges
Skyscrapers
Clay Creations and Villages
Lego Structures and Fisher Technik machines
How to Make an Imovie
Types of Graffiti
The Great Wall of China
Deadly Plants
Great products and interesting ideas! I totally want to try Goldiblox.
ReplyDeleteSome wonderings for you!
- Do Ss have to make a product? (presentation/model/writing) Or can they just explore all the time without every actually creating something? (I know it's about the journey not the destination... but curious!)
- How do Ss share their learning with their classmates? And in what capacity? We've been doing genius hour/passion projects this year in our grade 2/3 room and Ss have to present our learning to the class in some way (whenever they are ready to do so) and then publish learning to our kidblogs. What do the 5/6s do?
- When Ss share their learning with others - do classmates (or larger audiences) have the opportunity to provide feedback to their peers? How?
Just curious! xo
Hey! Great questions! As you said, there are so many things they can/could do. Love the ideas and thoughts you have shared.
DeleteThe way it is now for the 5/6's (it's evolved some from when we started), when students decide on an inquiry, they have certain components that they have agreed upon as being important: exploration, reading about/to learn more, note-taking about their reading, other writing and a reflection of their learning process and experience. They organize all of their learning- notes, photos, videos, etc- in folders in Google drive.
Students monitor their learning on a tracking system. This tool allows students to work through up to 4 inquiries before they need to take their learning further and create a final/finished product to share with others. For each of the inquiries, they include the components mentioned above. Final/Finished products for the one they take further are of the students' choice.
This tracking system also allows Ss to take a 'not myself today' break where they can disconnect from their inquiry for a day in order to recharge and be able to come back at it fresh again the next day. WE all have days where we need a break from the regular and this feature allows for that. I also read an article recently that said that boredom is necessary in order to recharge imagination. Allowing students to take a break now and then seems to work really well for keeping the momentum going.
Awesome - thanks for fielding my wonderings. I'm sure I'll have more.
DeleteI figured there was a final/finished product of some sort that I was missing. I like the idea of dabbling until they find their "true" passion project/inquiry before committing. I also have found that being flexible in when they work on it helps my primary kiddos too. I used to have Friday afternoons as "Passion Project" time, but then switched it up and also made it another choice in our literacy block - so they can work on it every day if they want.
I think I have a blog post brewing of what I'd do differently next year around passion projects for grade 3s. Including some challenges that arise for being a late primary class (still learning HOW to read - but capable of some writing) and in a French Immersion room (finding grade-level appropriate relevant reading material etc).
I love the blog post for your rethinking of what next year could look like. It would be interesting to see how we continue to evolve on this journey. Look forward to hearing about the changes you make.
ReplyDelete