I’ve come to describe my shifted classroom as an inquiry-driven, project-based, tech-embedded environment. But that’s not where I started.
For most of my teaching career, I’ve been a pretty traditional teacher (even now I slip back into that mode sometimes). However, as I went through the motions of trying to “teach” my students, something didn’t feel right. My students seemed to learn things only for the exam, were focused on the mark, not the learning that was supposed to be taking place. When the unit or semester was over, they dumped all their notes and assignments. Frustrating.
My shift to a student-centred classroom has been a roller coaster ride, but well worth the work and effort (you can read about some of it here). For the most part, my students are engaged and have started to take responsibility for their education. We view knowledge as a process, not a product. I think the most valuable skill my students have acquired is the ability to learn, unlearn, and re-learn. Given today’s constantly changing world, this is one of the most important things they’ll take with them when they graduate.
Teachers who are interested in shifting their classrooms often don’t know where to start. It can be overwhelming, frightening, and even discouraging, especially when no one else around you seems to think the system is broken. The question I’ve been asked often throughout the past year is “Where should a teacher begin?” I’ve reflected on this a fair amount, and I think small strategic steps are the key.
Start with one unit
(1) Start with creating one inquiry unit in one subject. You can jump in and change everything at once like I did, but that’s slightly crazy. Instead, if you design one unit in one subject, at the end of each day, or week, you can analyze what worked and what didn’t. While teaching doesn’t always leave a lot of time for luxuries like reflection, it really is the key to figuring out inquiry learning, and as the teacher, it’s one of your most important roles.
Sometimes you may not understand why certain things aren’t working. Ask your students. I’m often surprised by how much they know and how adept they are at articulating what they need.
Two of the best resources I’ve found for creating an inquiry classroom are Carol Kuhlthau’swork and Alberta Learning’s Guide to Inquiry Learning.
If you don’t know how to create an inquiry classroom, ask me. I’m happy to help. You can begin by posting comments here. If you need resources, I can probably point you to some. Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to email, Skype and, if distance allows, have teachers, administrators and superintendents visit my classroom to see what we do.
Talk about learning
(2) Talk to your students about their learning — a lot. Especially in the beginning, I talk to my students about why my classroom is structured differently than every other class in our school. I show them Ken Robinson’s talk about how the 20th century school system doesn’t really prepare students anymore. I also show them Chris Lehmann’s TED-X talk emphasizing how education is broken and Karl Fisch’s Did You Know?.
I tell my students that essentially I’m preparing them for jobs that don’t currently exist, that will use technology which hasn’t been invented yet, to fix problems we’re not currently aware of. They get the point. It’s about developing skills and habits of learning, and we use content to do that.
But I also talk to my student’s about stuff like how their brain works, and how neural connections need to be made. That often, in order for students to learn something new, it needs to be attached to things they already know. Just before the recent break, during the last week of school, we talked about cognitive dissonance and Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. They like to know there’s a reason for the way they feel when they don’t “get it.” And they like to know that everyone’s zone of development is different. In fact, they were amazed to find out everyone’s brain is different.
And, yes, I use the big words. I simply explain what they mean. I don’t use them to sound smart. I use them because it makes my students feel smart; most of our society doesn’t treat our students like they’re capable of understanding or doing much. I do.
Make the tech work for you
(3) Embed technology in ways that are authentic to the learning process. The first tools that I teach my students are Google Docs, Diigo or delicious to bookmark their research, and Symbaloo to house their tools.
Experience has taught me that the first day I introduce a class to Google docs, we will get nothing done. To them, it’s the most amazing thing ever. They usually spend most of the class typing back and forth to each other in the doc. No big deal. However, eventually, my students open Google docs without me telling them to. I have students who literally use them for every lab, essay, and assignment. And the ability for a group to work on and edit the same document at the same time, more than makes up for the initial class we lose.
The social media tools we used to show our learning in our slavery unit seemed like the most natural and logical tools to use. As a learning community, we want our learning to extend beyond the four walls of our classroom. So we have a discussion, or likely multiple discussions, about what that should look like. We also want our projects to have “real world” implications. What’s more real world than advocacy against modern-day slavery using social media?
Essentially these are the two criteria we use to assess the product we’re going to create. How do we extend our learning beyond our classroom — and how can what we do here make a difference to the real world? Our tool selection is guided by the answers to these questions.
Expect to hit the wall
(4) Remember that inquiry learning is an emotional process. Each stage of learning has specific emotions attached to it, and at some point, you and your students will likely hit the wall. That’s normal.
I’ve found that we need to talk more as an inquiry class. My role is to be well aware of how my students are doing emotionally, especially when we’re dealing with a weighty, overwhelming topic like slavery. While this may not matter much in a traditional classroom, it can completely blow apart a community learning through inquiry.
I won’t promise you that any of this will be easy. It’s not. You’ll likely have days when you wonder why you ever started it. But trust me, it’s worth it.
A Look Inside
Shelley Wright
Latest posts by Shelley Wright (see all)
- Start with Why: The power of student-driven learning - May 8, 2019
- Are You Ready to Join the Slow Education Movement? - August 26, 2014
- Academic Teaching Doesn't Prepare Students for Life - November 7, 2013
I so appreciate your words of wisdom, encourgement, and advice. How did you address any reluctance or reticence that your teaching peers exhbited while you were making the shift to an inquiry focus? I don’t wish to alienate anyone on my grade level by stepping outside of the box, yet whenever someone tries something new there is often resistance. We work pretty closely and are expected to be on the same topics of study around the same timeframe. How do I explore new ways to facilitate learning and supoort my colleagues? Thanks!!!
In all honesty, I kept pressing on because I knew it was best for my students, and it was hard at times. There were many times I felt alone, but through creating a network, I was able to reach out to those who understood what I was doing. And that gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going I think that can be one of the most valuable and important things for a teacher who is doing this.
I think if you provide opportunities for your colleagues to see what your doing, and to talk to your students, that can make a world of difference. It’s not about undermining your peers, but doing what is best for our students. Often people dont’ want to change because they’re afraid of the unknown. I try to show, rather than tell. Hope this helps!
I’m interested in inquiry-driven classrooms, especially since we’ll be 1:1 tomorrow. I clicked on Carol Kuhlthau’s name in your article and it didn’t work. Just thought you might want to know.
I’m sure you have heard of Larry Ferlazzo who has a guest post about helping students motivate themselves, which I think is important for inquiry. I included the article’s link. He also posted awhile ago what he knows to show the importance of students understanding how they learn. He discussed a lesson plan about how he did that. I have it bookmarked on my Delicious bookmarks. Thanks for getting me started…again.
If you have any tips or advice…I think I’ll use my last unit of the year, which is Survival, and do some shifting.
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/guest-post-helping-students-motivate-themselves/
Kris – Voices editor here – thanks for letting us know about the broken link. It’s fixed and will download a Word doc with a summary of some ideas about guided inquiry from Kuhlthau and Ross. Or you can click here:
http://icwc.wikispaces.com/file/view/Guided+Inquiry.doc
Also, the very last link in Shelley’s post leads to the PDF of an interesting article by Kuhlthau titled “From Information to Meaning: Confronting Challenges of the Twenty-first Century.”
Well done! I’m slowly but surely making my way to a student-centered classroom with technology as a major component. Thanks for the informative post and accompanying video.
I love what you’re doing and am so grateful that you’re sharing your experiences. I would love to know if you have any suggestions for making this work with younger elementary students (grades 3-5). Thanks again!
Hi Julie,
This is something I struggle with, too, because many of the examples you see out on the web are examples in secondary settings. It’s hard to see how it would work with younger kids.
I just wrote a post for VFLR that showed how I did my first classroom attempt at PBL: http://plpnetwork.com/2011/11/09/baby-steps-growing-self-directed-learners/ so you can get a glimpse of what I did with my 4th graders.
My biggest suggestion if you’re just getting started is to begin with teamwork and collaborative learning. That has been the biggest challenge for my kids and definitely hinders what we can accomplish. If you feel like your kids work well as teams, then my next suggestion is to piggy back a PBL unit with a required unit like I did in my post.
Be prepared – it’s crazy. Some days it goes exactly how you want it to, and others days you wonder what in the world is going on! Just keep reminding yourself that any attempt is a great opportunity to learn, and you and your kids will get there (at least I think we will… I’m still way away from being “there” but we keep trying)!
You can check out my class blog at http://thebairsdenetown.blogspot.com/ to see what’s going on in our classroom. The Allegheny Plateau tab shows you our latest PBL attempt about the regions of PA. You can find me on twitter and Skype at becky7274 – I would love to chat more with you about this crazy journey if you’re interested.
I have to admit that inquiry at the high school level is very different than at the elementary. Another couple of VFLR voices you might be interested in are Kathy Cassidy and Marsha Ratzel. Kathy teaches grade 1, and Marsha teaches grade 6. They’ve both done amazing work with inquiry and technology. Thanks for reading!
Thank you Becky and Shelley!
Great to read about your journey which has obviously been replete with challenges and highs/lows. I have a year 3 & 4 class (7-9 year olds) with many varied learning needs and for the past 3 years I have been integrating more technology into my classroom. When I began, I had a massive shift in my own teaching as we moved from devices and gadgets to purposeful life skills – we call them key competencies in New Zealand. This means teaching learners to manage themselves, think, collaborate, communicate and so on. We use the tech as a tool for learning these skills and it has been wonderful to see the learner become the teacher. Enjoy the ride – it is well worth the energy!
Thanks, Kimberley!
I noticed someone asked about implementing inquiry classroom for elementary school. Do you have any resources and suggestions for implementing in a grade 7 math class? Most of what I have come into contact with has been either in an elementary classroom teaching all subjects, or on a high school level for an english, social studies or science class.
I have to admit, I haven’t done a lot of research in the area of math. However, the best resource I’ve come across is Dan Meyer’s work.
Dear Shelley,
I could agree with your quote any more. “Remember that inquiry learning is an emotional process. Each stage of learning has specific emotions attached to it, and at some point, you and your students will likely hit the wall. That’s normal.”
For my young studnets (11-12 year olds), it’s scary not knowing that you have the “right” answer. This is a very different approach than answering multiple choice questions and fill-in-the-blank. Just as we’ve taught them to eliminate answers that are clearly the “wrong” answer, we have to help teach them to make their questions about deeper ideas and content.
Talking, debriefing, tearing apart what went right and what went wrong….engaging with them as an integral part of the feedback loop. All those things are supports they’ll need.
By helping them, you help yourself too!!!!
You’re so right, Marsha. I think we do our kids a huge disservice in teaching them that there’s always a “right” answer. The more complex the problem is, the fewer right answers there seems to be. In our world I see more complex problems than simple ones.
Your students are so incredibly lucky to have a teacher like you!
I can’t get the YouTube video to open. I really want to see it in action! I’m trying to change how it i teach- it is so difficult!! I’ve been teaching for 19 years!
It can be a difficult thing even if you’ve only been teaching a short while! Our educational system is engrained in most of us. It’s how we were taught and how we were taught to teach. But small steps make the difference.
Inquiry with English Language Learners at the K-5 (ages 5-11) level? Resources and helpful hints would be appreciated, especially if they aren’t computer based technologies-not only do I not have access in the classrooms, the students don’t have any access at home for practice. Thank you.
Shelley,
Recently (as in last week) we became a 1:1 school for grades 6th-12th. There was some controversy from a group of parents who were against this and of course the older citizens of the district couldn’t imagine why every student would need a computer.
Since I’m interested in making my class more inquiry-based and project-based with technology, I was thinking one of my 8th grade classes putting together a multi-media presentation about how teachers are using the computers in their classes, asking students how the technology has impacted their learning, etc. The presentation could be shown to a variety of groups: school board, community groups, etc.
To help me sort of organize my thinking, is there a template available. I would definitely not show this to the students because I want them to develop the ideas, but I don’t want to go at this without some direction (for me).
Thanks for your help
Kris
Hi Kris,
Take a look at the resources on Buck Institutes website, as well as Edutopia. They both have different types of templates you can use.
Hi- thanks for the post. I’m going to make use of your information. I am slowly trying to go this way in my own classroom. It is a long hard journey and at times very discouraging. But I’m plugging away becasue I know it is best for my students. Thanks for the encouragement.