Spiral of Inquiry T4

This term for our spiral of inquiry we have been looking at how to motivate our learners during iExperience, including provocations and team teaching strategies. Our original wonder was...

We wonder if using an open ended provocation questions and planning an iExperience collaboratively with different co-teaching strategies will improve learner engagement.

We had struggled with provocations that grabbed the attention of our learners and wanted to experiment with open ended questions and build it into our iExperience learning time. We had also struggled with feeling like our learners weren't as engaged in iExperience workshops as we would have liked them to be. So we refined what we wanted to explore...

How to create open ended questions that provide plenty of scope for learner choice and how to manage this in an organised but flexible way.  Be open to, and experiment with, different co-teaching strategies.

I felt that this experiment went really well.  The learner voice that we gathered at the very start was really interesting.  Many of the learners felt that they didn't get enough choice and wanted to do more hands on, active stuff like art and P.E.  The market day iExperience has turned out to be something that ticks many the boxes of what they wanted, they've been able to choose their groups and choose what they create, it's been creative, they've been able to collaborate.  I think this project has been super successful!  

I have really enjoyed this experiment.  I found it really confronting to start with because we had a starting point but no other planning however I quickly became comfortable with where we were headed and have enjoyed the process. 

Spiral of Inquiry iExplore doc

What I learned from this inquiry

* Kids are more invested in something when they have had a large part in creating it.  They do still need guidance though as they don't know what they don't know. 

* Even less able, or ELLs, can participate in taking responsibility for learning in a collective way when they have the support of others.

* Mixed groups work really well. 

* I think supportive teaching and team teaching work really well, I don't really think parallel teaching is a worthwhile method based on what we have done in our habitat this year. 

Induction - Day One

What?   

The need to challenge my own thinking, beliefs and assumptions from time to time to develop new ideas about how to meet the needs of the learners (developing a hunch: Spirals of Inquiry).  I think I'm going to have to put my current knowledge aside at times and really think outside the box which is something I'm not really used to but am excited to have the opportunity to do.  

I also learnt ways to document my learning through my Google site and my blog.  I'm excited to start doing this because I think it will help me to challenge my thinking and notice how it is changing.  

So What?  

This matters because in this environment (OrmPS) the learner is truly at the centre of everything we do. They are our focus, ahead of everything else, and I will need to make sure I am providing the best opportunities for learners to develop their skills and knowledge. 

Now What?  

My next steps are to set up my blog and Google site and have a think over the next few weeks about how I'm going to use them.