Student Led Inquiry

For our current unit of inquiry, we in grade 3 have taken a new approach from what we have done in the past.  There is a heavy emphasis on what we refer to as Student Led Inquiry.  Simply put, it is a process of learning that involves a number of important activities for students, including asking their own questions, investigating multiple sources of information for a purpose, thinking critically to make sense of information they’ve found, and establishing and communicating new understandings and knowledge.  Of course these are processes we pursue for all units of inquiry, and this is how it has happened previously.  What makes this more unique this time is that we have presented all of our information much earlier on, so that students have a broad understanding of the central idea from the beginning.  The goal is to make the students much more involved in their personal learning path.  For example, we exposed the students to various "tuning in" resources about our unit, such as videos, books, and discussions.  Our UOI, How We Organize Ourselves, is about how we understand and use time to manage our lives. One student used this preliminary research and knowledge presented, and would now like to pursue knowledge about time zones and the international  date line, and to develop her understanding how it is connected to managing time.  In this way, students build their own repertoire of skills as they research, think critically, and present their ideas.  This way they also link their math and literacy skills which are developing simultaneously. For example, they read, gather and summarize information, both in note and extended form.  They also may build something related to their learning, such as a model of a time keeping device such as a sundial or water clock. They apply their growing math knowledge of time related concepts such as elapsed time, the use of the earth's moving shadow to measure time, and of course how to tell time to the minute. 

This image outlines the research process we use in class.  Students are encouraged to be very participative in class, working and discussing ideas together.  My experience is that during student led inquiries, students gain a great deal of confidence in their research abilities.

In addition to the literacy associated with their research this week, the students were learning about the writing process: prewriting, writing, revising editing and publishing their work.  Most students were in the revising and editing stage, after having chosen a piece of written work they felt they could improve.

In math this week, the students were learning about arrays, area, and grids, and how these terms the are connected to addition and multiplication.

Be sure to see the photos from the week below.

I wish everyone a restful few days with your families.