This afternoon, Rebecca Bathurst, a kindergarten french immersion teacher hosted a group of UVIC students in her classroom and discussed inquiry mindset.  She is the co-author of ‘Inquiry Mindset’ with Trevor MacKenzie.

To begin the discussion, she pulled up a hyperdoc, which is a word doc that features links to other pages (websites, powerpoint, giphys, etc.).  She shared her personal sketch noting, taking multiple ideas and putting them together as one.

Rebecca read a few pages from the book ‘Ada Twist, Scientist’ by Andrea Beatty.  This book is in a series of three.  The book is about a curious little girl who questions everything around her.  Rebecca informed us that in our roll as teacher, we are to make sure that students know they are all included.  We want our students to be curious and independent.

Shift your lessons.  For example, instead of starting off teaching with ‘here is an example of a pattern’, ask the students ‘do you know what a pattern is?’ and ‘can you see a pattern anywhere in the room right now?’.

Rebecca believes in collaboration and told us multiple stories of getting together with another class and how you can use it to your advantage.  Older students can help in writing and together with primary students, they can use their minds together to be creative.  She also finds collaborating with other teachers helpful, and likes to use online documents that feature a share button, such as padlet.

Types of student inquiry:

• Structured inquiry
• Controlled inquiry
• Guided inquiry
• Free inquiry

During her kindergarten class, they are given an hour of ‘free’ or ‘exploration’ time.  She does not title this time ‘centres’.  There is a minimal amount of plastic in her classroom.  The kitchen corner can be converted into a doctors office, or vet clinic easily as nothing is labeled to make it only one kind of play area.  There is a wonder area with magnify glasses and a quiet space known as the ‘tent’.  Her room is full of open activities, which help to trigger questions.

Provocation – the ‘hook’ that students discover on their own.  She continuously asks her students what do you see? wonder? know?

Remember to ask yourself as a teacher, how can I flip my lesson to start with a question?

Resources:

• giphy.com for giph images to capture students attention
• Provocation books: ‘On Our Street’, ‘I am Canada’, ‘Thunder Boy Jr.’
• Padlet – a free online tool used to make mind maps.  Can be displayed in ‘shelf mode’.  This can help to capture provocations

Twitter: @rbathursthunt         Instagram: @InquiryTeacher

Permission to blog information and share photos was given by Rebecca.