This week we are fortunate that Joanna Lake, who is a K-12 educator in Victoria, BC, has taken the time out of their busy schedule to engage talk to us about her inquiry-based learning practice and assessment in her middle school classes. Joanna is interested in using technology to provide authentic learning experiences and incorporating Indigenous pedagogy in both face-to-face and online learning environments. 

When we move to the hands-on lab portion of our class time, we will review the semester in our learning pods by Sketchnoing highlights from each topic of the semester and then make visual connections between them.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe how the inquiry process can be implemented in your elementary or middle school classroom using a scaffolded approach using technology where appropriate.
• Describe how the “See 👀, Think 💭, Wonder❓” technique could be used to facilitate guided inquiries as early as kindergarten. 
• Create a group sketchnote to identify, summarize and visualize the main themes and takeaways from the course.

Pre-class Activities:

As you watch the following videos, please do the following:

• Prepare at least one question to ask Joanna during our class time this week.
• Make note of the inquiry-based learning suggestions and tips that you think might be helpful to you in your grade level and in particular your practice as a teacher.

Technology & Inquiry

The Habits of the Inquiry Teacher (2 min)

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A post shared by Trevor MacKenzie (@trev_mackenzie)

The Four Pillars of Inquiry (2 min)

Inquiry in Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt’s Kindergarten Class

Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt, who is a kindergarten teacher at George Jay Elementry School in Victoria, BC often uses “See 👀, Think 💭, Wonder❓” exercises with her kindergarten learners to help them think more critically about the world around them. Rebecca typically does this by asking her learners to look closely at an object or an idea and then encourages them to ask themselves:

• What do you see?
• What do you think about that?
• What does it make you wonder?

Rebecca typically uses paper worksheets and clipboards for her young learners so that they can easily go outside to conduct inquiries in nature as well as in the classroom. As most of her learners are not yet writing, she encourages them to draw on their worksheets, and then Rebecca assists by writing a summary of the learners’ stated thoughts on the form.

The video below uses the “See, Think, Wonder” technique with Google Slides rather than paper and clipboard, but the concept is the same no matter what media you choose to use as an instructor.

“See, Think, Wonder”: A Visual Thinking Strategy using Google Slides (2 min)

Inspirational Inquiry-Based Learning Sketchnotes

Please skim through Trevor’s wonderful Inquiry-Based learning Sketchnotes. Trevor uses them to help scaffold the inquiry process for both learners and their parents. As you review the sketchnotes, ask yourself the following questions:

• Which sketchnotes do you think would be most helpful for your future learners given the grade level you hope to teach?
• At which points in their inquiry process would they be most helpful?

Class Time

Guest lecture and Q&A by Joanna Lake (follow her great Twitter feed)!

Joanna graciously shared the slides from her presentation with us, which I hope will be particularly useful to you as you prepare for your practicums:

Hands-on Lab Time

Sketchnoting

We’re going old-school EdTech this week as you Sketchnote your key takeaways and important ideas from this course! Even though we’ve all experienced EDCI 336 together this semester, everyone’s sketchnotes will be different because everyone’s brought different things with them to the class, and we will be teaching learners of different ages, so what is very important to me might not be as important to my classmate.

The photo below is of a group of education students sketchnoting to review the main themes and takeaways from a course on Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) at the end of the semester on a much larger sheet of paper than we will be using.

Step 1: Brainstorm with Post-It Notes (20 min)

• 10 min: First on your own, use Post-It notes to brainstorm and identify concepts, ideas, and pedagogies that are important to you
• 10 min: Compare your Post-It notes with your partner, and discuss any differences between them. Because of the different backgrounds and grade levels you will teach, there may be significant differences, and that is just fine.
• Feel free to create new Post-It notes for yourself based on your discussion with your partner.

Step 2: Organize Your Post-It Notes (5 min)

• Next, individually you will organize your Post-It notes in a way that will allow creates visual relationships between the notes to help you prepare to make your sketchnote.
• This is optional, but you might want to quickly draw simple doodles on your Post-It notes to visualize some of the concepts, and ideas you’ve identified.

  

Step 3: Draw Your Sketchnote on Paper (30 min)

• Continue to work on your own, and use a provided sheet of paper, along with your pens, and highlighters (highlighters are optional) to create a sketchnote, using your organized Post-It notes to guide you.
• Create Relationships Between Ideas with arrows or other connecting doodles.

Step 4: Post a Photo of Your Sketchnote to Your Blog (5 min)

• Take a picture of your sketchnote and post it on your blog using the “weekly-reflection” category. No need to post anything to BrightSpace.

EdTech Training Resources

These are mostly, but not all, free training resources for EdTech tools and related resources:

• Podcasts on Teaching & Learning
• Getting Started with Google Classroom
• Microsoft for Education Training
• SMART Board Training (for the SMART Board brand)
• Education Apps, Website, & Digital Citizenship Resouces

Learning Pod Time & Homework

• Register for a 1-1 end-of-semester interview with Rich (link will be provided during class time).
• Complete any outstanding blog posts or assignments.