Kathy

Resources: [|What is Inquiry?] -provides some examples and non-examples of inquiry and gives some definitions of inquiry. [|Youth Learning] - provides more info about student learning [|Donna says this is a really good site]

I can see the confussion about trying to keep science and this unit separate when doing an English unit. It seems that the two are quite closely related. I can also see this tieing in closely to social studies. It will be a wonderful skill for students to have - knowing how to ask higher level questions and caring about the answers they come up with. That will be a steep learning curve for some but a very valuable lifetime skill at the same time

Four phases: 1) Monday, December 03, 2007

How do we empower students to value questioning and care about answering?

Backward Design:

1) Objectives -must decide if unit is an introductory unit to inquiry (at start

of year) or if students are familiar to inquiry based units (later in the year) 2) Assessment 3) Instruction & Resources

Essential Question: **What are our responsibilities as humans to others?** How have innocent people suffered so that others can gain? 1. How could it have happened? 2. How could it still be happening? 3. How could we prevent it from happening again It = prejudice, discrimination, racism, hate crimes, chemical and biological warfare, war, euthanasia, genocide, injustice

Ultimate goal is for the students to come up with the guiding questions which could end up having the unit going in a different direction that what you originally planned.

QAR - Question Answer Relationship - lots on google

Randon Thoughts for Dec 3 I have so much to learn about using the technology! I feel a little more comfortable about writing the unit (not just because Rick has been so busy doing all of it since his internet doesn't work today). I like the idea of working together on this unit and I am pleased that we seem to come from so many different teaching backgrounds and classroom backgrounds. That, I believe, will help us create a unit that could be used by countless grade eight ELA teachers. The technology will come (to me) as I scrape together more time to actually play with the tools provided. I am enjoying this workshop immensely!

March 4 2008 My position in regards to the inquiry process? I believe that I have learned a great deal about inquiry and planning for an inquiry unit over the past few months. I realize that it is a huge project and one that students can gain a lot of valuable lessons from. It is a project that I, as a teacher, must be willing to give up the learning and teaching to the students to make it truly valuable to them. What is my overall impression of working on this project? I think that this is an excellent way of developing a unit. It is fanatastic to bounce ideas off each other. It does require time to do this, but I believe the end product will be much more useful to many more people. I really appreciate this opportunity and I would certainly recommend it to others in the future.