inquiry – Mrs. Chyz's Classroom

I was tasked with doing a little inquiry of my own this semester. The question posed to me was “what do you wish you knew more about?” With three weeks of math on the horizon I really wanted to know how I was going to make math engaging. Math was never my favorite subject. When a student says they hate math and don’t understand it, I get it. I was that person. I could take great notes about math, but give me a word or number problem and I was lost. I didn’t want my students to feel that way too (their success in my unit is a story for another time maybe).

I partnered up with a few other ladies who wanted to learn the same thing – shout out to Amanda M, Amanda K, and Alisha – and off we went researching. Each of us came up with a list of resources that we thought would help us and others make math engaging. We annotated our resources and created a Google Slide presentation so we could easily share with others. Some of the resources are links to different math games or apps that can help with both student engagement and student learning and some of the resources are other individual’s blog posts that provided good tips and information to teachers.

If you have any ideas that you find make math engaging for your students, please share them with me! I heard somewhere that a teacher can never have too many resources!

Throughout this year we always seem to come back to inquiry. What is it? Is it good for student learning? How can we teach it? Since part of my teaching philosophy is centred around inquiry, I hope that I know what it really is. This government of Ontario document describes it wonderfully. Inquiry based learning is turning wonder into knowledge. What do the students wonder and how can I facilitate their learning of that content? I think people struggle with two parts of inquiry. One part is releasing some control in the classroom and the other is under-planning. Those seem a bit contradictory, and I agree with you, they are. But that does not mean that inquiry based learning does not require both of those things.

Inquiry may seem like something that the students just do and you as a teacher can sit back and get some other work done. Tis not the case. If you plan on teaching through inquiry, and you should, you better be ready for some serious planning. Inquiry requires a lot of scaffolding. Students need to know how to properly navigate the internet, how to find credible sources, how to research, and the many ways that they can present their results. As students continue to do inquiry based projects, it does get easier. There will be less scaffolding required but you will still need to check in with your students all the time. Without students being required to check in, you will never know that they are on task and on the right track.

The other point, releasing some control (notice I don’t say ALL control), is tough for teachers who train their whole degree by planning out every aspect of every lesson. Giving up all control would be less like inquiry and more like Genius Hour; which is its own amazing strategy. Inquiry can and should still be able to fit into the curriculum. There are plenty of outcomes that aim to teach inquiry but within a given topic. So open up topics in science, art, health, and language for students to inquire within. Then give up some control and allow them to teach it to themselves and present it to each other. Take a small step back but always be within reach to facilitate the learning and support the students.

Teaching through inquiry, if done correctly, has the potential to increase student engagement tenfold. So I challenge you to try it. If you fail, try it again. It is not something that we will all be perfect at in a day. Let your students know you are trying something new and ask for feedback from them as often as you give it to them. We try new things in our lessons all the time, so make some room for inquiry.