Muritai Inquiry

Here is an example of an inquiry in a class at Muritai School. Our ICT cluster visited this school in August to gain new ideas about inquiry. Note the topic label "The Power of One", the big idea and the big questions. Next term we will explore our first inquiry.

Down memory lane

Back in April we had an introduction to using our NEW interactives and the Inquiry process from Johnny and Bronwyn Ward. Here are the staff, parents and kids on a Saturday morning listening and waiting patiently to have a tutu on the IWBs!

Anaru's thoughts on Inquiry Learning

While i am still unsure with the "Inquiry learning process" it is a process that I am looking froward to with both anxieties and excitement. I do see the great potential in children's thinking and learning that can take place, especially with the great ICT resources we have avaliable to our children here at Foxton Primary School. the shift in power from a more teacher centred to a child centred classroom and learning process is an adventure that will be filled with many bumps and bruises but nevertheless it will, in my opinion, be a journey filled with many intrinsic and intangible rewards for our children.

Thoughts from Tina

Looking forward to Term 4 and trailing our new Inquiry Model. So much to get our heads around but it is exciting to be learning something new along with our students. Thinking Hats are up on the wall, just need to get the associated language flowing in the staffroom and the classroom. We can do it!

Michael Pohl workshop

Last Thursday I attended our cluster worksop at Coley Street School to listen to Michael Pohl. Funny thing was he turned up at my school - he got lost in Foxton (I told him not to tell anyone that), so I took him to Coley Street School. Michael talked to our cluster about developing a classroom culture of thinking. Wow, this guy really knows what he's on about - and he talks really fast. My head was spinning at the end of the day with all his wonderful ideas. He shared with us what to "do" to develop a culture of thinking and our main learning intention needs to be to enhance the questioning ability of our students. I absolutely believe this and remember back to a past staff meeting where we discussed the skill of questioning needs to be explicit and specific, so in order to do that we as "effective" teachers need to become good at questioing too. We need to discuss as a staff what are the qualities and attributes of good thinkers? More importantly for our school - what is good thinking around here? This is an aspect where we will as a staff explore more deeply. On debriefing with staff the next day after they attended the Michael Pohl workshop that afternoon as well, they were inspired by him and also some were buzzing that their practices were confirmed by him - use 6 hats, use blooms taxonomy, use all sorts of tools to enhance students ability to question and therefore to think. I must say the most intriguing part of our day with Michael was hearing how him and his wife survived the Tsunami in Indonesia, now that experience would really get you questioning.....life.

What we have covered so far

Our journey into inquiry-based learning is underway. We have included inquiry as part of our appraisal process and this helps to keep focus with what we are doing and what we aim to achieve this year with inquiry.

At Foxton Primary School:

Inquiry based learning is….

A shared approach which seeks knowledge, understanding or information as you develop a range of processes and skills that can be applied in different contexts. This may lead to an action or the communication of new knowledge.

Inquiry – Term 3

Lots of staff meetings on inquiry
2-3 good readings on inquiry
Email out
Read these
Note down key elements of the report
2 groups
Make a statement about inquiry
Lets make a share statement
What do we want a “Year 8” to leave our skill with
Skills and attitudes when they leave
2 statements
Inquiry – does our vision and our inquiry statement (vehicle to deliver our vision) match up? Are we agreed that inquiry can deliver our vision? (display this)
Year 8 leaver

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Elements – questioning etc
What are the key elements
Common Understanding
Things to ensure our vision is in line
Model of inquiry
Term 3 explore, Term 4 implementation
Set of thinking tools
3 thinking tools, Term 1, 2009 (i.e. thinking maps, De Bono, Blooms)
Assessment (2009)
Key competencies (2009)
Curriculum development book
Model of inquiry – presentation
Models – directed topic
Jan Marie’s model
Draft model
Define to staff/ presentation
Inquiry model curriculum team : Hellen, Anaru, Ani
Powerpoint
Each stage presented
What will it look like in the classroom? (Jan visit)
Practical side
Inquiry – on wiki
Ready for next term
Ignition – what kinds of things?
Stages, model, planning for Term 4
Sandpit time
Work out together


Week 4, Term 3

Staff meeting on inquiry

Our school inquiry model is under development. We have had several discussions about the components and reviewed our inquiry statement. I shared with staff the key elements and we viewed sites such as sauce and inquiry based learning. This term we are to explore models and decide for ourselves what would suit our school. Anaru and Hellen were to present back to the staff next week their ideas for a model of inquiry created by and for Foxton Primary School. Tina also networked with other teachers and brought back ideas about inquiry models. Anaru and Hellen have agreed to join our inquiry team at our school to be able to bring all these ideas together. We also needed to decide on 3 thinking tools that we would introduce to the students by the end of this year to enable our students to “speak” the language of inquiry as they use the tools.

I attended our ICT cluster day on 14.8.08 and visited Muritai School in Eastbourne. A great powhiri greeted us. Listening to the Muritai Journey from the principal and students was very inspiring. The principal was down to earth and relaxed (I was impressed how he knew all their names) and the students could express easily what inquiry was about for their school. We then got to look around the school and take photos. The photos I take include displays and I have put them on our school server so that teachers can gain more ideas for inquiry, art and presenting displays effectively – this has been the best way to share what I get exposed to and I also spend meeting time sharing back the models that I am exposed to. I believe this will enhance our honing down what inquiry model is most effective for our school because we are looking at lots of different ideas.


Week 5, Term 3

Staff meeting on Inquiry

Tuesday - Hellen presented a powerpoint presentation on a proposed model of inquiry for our school – STRIVE which stands for: Stimulate, Take Aim, Research, Intention, Visual, Evaluate. The staff were inspired and impressed with this beginning. Anaru added to the presentation by sharing graphic organisers that suited each element in our model, again impressing staff with his explanation. Both had complimented each others work by making it all come together and by articulating a very strong understanding of the purpose of each element. Well done staff of Foxton Primary.

Wednesday - Met with Jan and updated where we are at in our journey of inquiry. I was very excited to share with Jan our new model and planning template. We discussed creating a supporting booklet to sit alongside our model. The idea of the support booklet is to help staff to know what they need to know as they work through the inquiry model. Our staff will discuss and develop this together. For our first inquiry we will be taking a whole school directed approach as this enables us all to step slowly through the process together and support each other on the way. We discussed the essential questions, junior/senior theme, focus in staff meetings, blogging, tracking sheets, assessment, thinking tools, gantt charts, planning templates, and the importance of staff speaking the language of inquiry.

Week 7, Term 3

Staff meeting on inquiry

Tina shared with staff about 6 Thinking Hats and some awesome ideas for implementing each hat in our topic study. (select examples from Tina’s papers)

Georgia expressed how she hadn’t found many resources/ books on Maori stories. A suggestion was to have a look online under TKI. We decided to go to TKI and search some resources, and found some sites of interest for her.

Update on Inquiry Journey with Jan

Inquiry Update for Foxton Primary School

Model: The draft model has been designed and has 6 stages.
Implementation: Term 4
Whole school will do a directed inquiry with one over-riding theme. Each team or class will be free to choose one area within the theme if they wish.
Staff have completed work on creating a shared understanding of what inquiry is and what it means to Foxton primary School.
Staff have created a shared understanding of the skills and attitudes that they wish their year 8 leavers to have.
The Principal has identified two staff members as being the ‘drivers’ of inquiry along with support from herself.
Choice of themes: At this stage staff will choose themes for inquiries, but hope to move eventually to having student imput into this.
Length of inquiries: 1 term
Curriculum Coverage: A tracking sheet will be kept with an eventual move to keeping a record on School Master.
Assessment of inquiry: staff are in discussions as to what will be assessed and how it will be assessed. Term 4 will be spent looking at the kinds of things that need to be assessed and term 1 next year will see an assessment rubric being developed.
Thinking tools: Currently a range of thinking tools have been explored: graphic organizers, DATT tools, Thinking hats, Thinkers Keys. Habits of Mind. Before term 4, staff will select 3-4 tools to use in their first inquiry.
Planning: A planning template has been created. Staff will plan 1st inquiry together.
Presentations: Whole school will celebrate and share their 1st inquiries in December after the 1st inquiry is completed.
Language of inquiry: The Principal will ensure that the staff are familiar eith the language of inquiry through shared discussions at staff meetings and that language is shared with the students, in order for them to be able to articulate what they are doing. The aim is to have students articulating the model and the skills, processes and understandings they are learning.
Recording of inquiries: At this stage, most of the record of learning will be on classroom walls, but will move next year to recording middle and senior school work in student clearfiles.

Next Steps:
Before the end of term 3:
A support booklet will be created to support and scaffold teachers in the inquiry approach. This will also assist any new staff in the future.
A selection of 3-4 thinking tools will be chosen for the draft toolbox. As people become more familiar or have more PD on thinking tools, this may change.
Planning for term 4’s inquiry will be completed.
A gantt chart will be created with staff at planning time, in order to scaffold them for time management for their 1st inquiry.
Term 4:
Staff meetings will be focused on the progress of the first inquiry. Staff will be encouraged to share problems, successes etc and a culture of collaboration will continue to be fostered to encourage problem solving of any issues that arise.
Staff will each blog their experience of their first inquiry and will discuss challenges and highlights.
A curriculum coverage sheet will be created for future reference.

2009:

The main focus will be creating an assessment tool.
Staff will create templates that allow students to record their inquiry story and will at this stage be kept in clearfiles.
A set of thinking maps and graphic organizers will be developed to ensure there is a shared language throughout the school.
Thinking tools will explored further and the toolbox will be reflected on as to whether the tools used are meeting the needs of the students.