Real World Situations

heather. Welcome to my presentation on how to build an

inquiry unit.

In this presentation.

I'm going to share with you my unit plan template

as well as describing some benefits of the different components

of creating an inquiry unit.

The first one I'm going to talk about is increased

statements and inquiry questions.

These are important to include in your unit planner so

that you can ask the kids the question or show

the kids what your essential question is your inquiry question

or statement so that they have an idea of where

they need to go.

Your increased statements and questions shouldn't be too broad, shouldn't

be too open ended, but they also shouldn't be too

specific. They need to be able to discuss and debate

and be able to narrow their search down enough when

they're during research so as not to become overwhelmed.

There are some benefits of increased statements as well.

They inspire creativity and they nurture student passionate talents.

They enable students to take ownership of their learning and

it makes research more meaningful.

They learned how to ask questions and they allow for

real world connections, which is so important.

Often I found that I've been teaching something in social

studies and history and the students asked me why are

we learning about this, Why is this important?

And if I'm able to connect it to the real

world, to today, to something that's out there, then they

become more invested and they can relate to it a

little bit better.

Formative assessment is something that should be done throughout your

inquiry unit should also be included in your inquiry planner.

Different ideas on how you are going to formidably assess

your students.

For formative assessment is assessment is feedback.

So it gives the students a better understanding of where

they are in the steps that they need to take

in order to get there.

And visual thinking um, in the form of headlines, allow

students to capture the heart of the matter and come

to some conclusions.

And it works best at the end of a class

discussion when students have had a chance to explore a

topic in the Harvard Graduate School of Education, um, article

of Thinking routine from Project Zero, they describe how to

launched this in your classroom and they say that it

can be used quite effectively with think pair share.

So you talk to your students about what you discussed

in class and if they are able to read a

headline for the topic or issue that captured the most

important aspect, what would it be?

And then you have your students share with your with

their partner and then share with the class so that

the students can kind of see where other people's thinking

is. And as they learn more about the topic, they

can update their headline from time to time and you

can ask them how it's changed or how is it

different from what you might have said?

And it's used, it can be used to help students

reflect on the changes in their thinking.

I've included my headline, essential questions, asking the right questions

and building relationships will open the doors to student learning

and inquiry.

I found that throughout this course that I've taken teaching

through inquiry questions are one of the biggest components asking

the right questions.

Um In order to plan a successful inquiry unit, I've

also included some formative assessment options that I created um

and I found some different resources.

I've included some websites on what you can, where you

can go to find some different ideas on what you

need to do um in order to formidably assess your

students. Um You can assess your students affirmatively throughout the

entire unit as they're working on their project as they're

doing their research as they're taking their notes.

You can give them feedback on how they're doing where

they need to go next steps that they need to

take. The core competencies should also be included in your

inquiry unit planner because they are embedded in the BC

curriculum. They are um sets of intellectual personal social and

emotional proficiency is that all students need in order to

engage in deep lifelong learning.

They are central to British Columbia's K.

to 12 curriculum and an assessment system that supports students

in their growth in the as educated citizens.

The B.

C. Curriculum talks about how they are embedded within the

curriculum and that they're naturally supported when students engaged with

the big ideas in curricular competencies in each area of

learning. Um examples of explicit connections with big ideas can

be found in the connection section for each sub competency

and teachers need to support students in assessing their own

growth in the core competencies as a self assessments that

they can reflect and grow on, figure out where they

might need to do a little bit of work in

communication and critical thinking and creative thinking.

Things like that.

I've included my core competency rubric in here for self

assessment. This is something that will go home in the

students report cards after they have reflected.

So I've listed how um the different proficiency is that

they need to assess themselves on um with the core

competencies there's a place for reflection, there's a place for

growth what they might need to work on as there

assessing themselves throughout the unit.

Another important part of your increased unit planner is incorporating

first People's principles of learning.

They are super important and the first people's principles are

also embedded within within our curriculum.

And there's different websites, there's different resources that can give

you ideas on how to incorporate these principles into your

teaching. I really liked the Set B.

C. Website.

The resources and videos on there can be applied to

inquiry, learning an everyday practice in the classroom.

Um I like how they talk about holistic learning and

interconnectedness. Um I've also included the first peoples principle of

learning poster.

This goes through the different um principles and how you

can pull from that in order to incorporate it into

what you're teaching.

I included my classroom reflection um How I the two

principles of learning that I use most often in my

classroom learning involving recognizing the consequences of one actions and

learning embedded in memory, history and story.

I also talked a little bit about my challenges in

the classroom and how I don't always incorporate the first

people's principles enough and how that is something that I

definitely need to work on to.

Um start teaching more of I've included a sample unit

plan of an aboriginal unit that I've done before on

oral storytelling and as well as injustice.

So you have your essential questions um what understandings are

the students going to take from this?

You've got your big ideas and your content and context.

You've got um what they're expected to know and what

they're going to be able to do.

I've included apart where it lays out the different um

core competencies that are going to be in it.

Teaching strategies, um how to do a formative assessment.

The summit of assessment included all of that in my

unit plan a part where you have a learning plan

apart with assessments.

The different resources that I use when I teach.

This particular unit differentiation in the classroom is also super

important. It's definitely an important part of your inquiry unit

planner so that you know where you need to make

those adaptations and modifications and it makes your creating your

plan much easier.

Um I find that on most adapted I.

E. P.

S. Um The things that you want to do to

help those students can be used as whole class instruction.

It doesn't just need to be for specific students.

So providing your graphic organizers notes that are pre photocopy

for students.

Um things that they can see.

All these things can be differentiated for specific students but

also for a whole class.

I've attached to cheat sheet on what um you could

do to go through your I.

Ps and figure out where you need to make those

adjustments in your lesson plan.

I've also included some supports that you can use um

to help um in your classroom and the different things

that you can do to support the students that need

those adaptations.

Someone of assessments are also something that needs to be

added to and in create unit plan.

Um These are usually in the form of rubrics um

or projects but you could but then your projects also

always come with the rubric.

So and you can create those rubrics and add them

to your unit planner.

Um Some different ideas for summit of assessments or end

of unit quizzes for novel studies, projects, portfolios, power points

or google slide presentations, infographics, living museum, whole bunch of

different things that you can do for someone of assessment

that doesn't just mean they're going to write an essay.

I've included some examples here of some different rubrics, a

single point rubric um which is a fast way to

create a rubric and it also allows for reflection on

what they're doing.

Um Students have a place to reflect on how they

did and what they might be able to do better.

I've also included a rubric for a unit that I

do. Um for persuasive writing, it has the core competencies

in there and it's a criteria based rubric or you

could do a grasps.

Framework grasps is a form of assessment form of Summit

of Assessment um that goes through a goal and a

role, an audience, a situation and then your product, performance,

presentation and purpose.

It's more of an interactive kind of thing where the

students might be role playing and it helps to keep

them engaged and get them into what it is that

they're looking at.

You can include all of these things into your unit

planner, or you can just choose one rubric that you

like, One framework that you like, and include that in

your unit planner so that you know where you're going

to go and how you're going to assess the students

at the end of the project or the end of

the unit.

Your unit planet planet template should also have a place

for reflection.

So it's important to add a space for reflection in

your unit planner, asking questions like what went well, what

would I do differently next time you can involve the

students in this reflection, they can help you to understand

if the lesson kind of bombed, then, you know, you

could sit down and you can have a circle and

you can talk to each other and say, well, okay,

so why didn't this work?

What are your suggestions for how I can make this

better? And I've attached some different reflection ideas in the

form of a pdf from Kath Murdoch.

Um She has a ton of different graphic organizers in

this pdf that you can use with your students to

help them reflect on their own learning.

Um and you can even use them for yourself to

reflect on your teaching, your lessons and how the unit

went. And the last is my unit plan template.

So as you can see, I've included the big ideas,

you have your inquiry questions, so your factual questions, debatable

questions, conceptual questions.

What are the unit understandings that the students need?

Um what they're expected to know, what they're going to

be able to do, what you're going to have, what

you're going to assess in terms of core competencies, your

different different teaching strategies and differentiation, your formative assessment, your

Summit of assessment.

All of these different things are included in your in

your unit planner, your connections to first people's principles of

learning um and elaborate and take notes on that your

learning plan.

So you can lay out your lessons.

Um You have your prior to teaching the unit during

teaching after teaching and then your reflection.

So you can have a pre unit reflection amid unit

reflection and a post unit reflection cooperating all of these

ideas into your unit planner will help you to create

a great inquiry unit that the students are going to

be engaged and that they're going to enjoy.

Thank you for listening.

I hope you enjoyed my presentation.

Real World Situations

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