At the end of September, teaching staff had a one hour virtual session with Trevor MacKenzie to talk about the fourth characteristic of an inquiry classroom, "Foster curiosity and a love of learning". It was an amazing session with deep learning and practical application strategies!
Specifically, we talked about how to build engagement and curiosity through the use of provocations. Then staff had time to collaboratively think of ways they can use provocations with their classes.
We learned that when planning for curiosity, it is important to consider students and their identities, experiences, and stories. Consider how to make connections and entry points to the curriculum. Think of provocations in a variety of ways such as contextual, relatability, awe-inspiring. Also consider the community, places and the setting for our students' lives. Then it is important to observe and collect the questioning and curiosity of the students to help plan next steps in learning.
Between now and our next session with Trevor Mackenzie, teachers will be developing and collaborating on how to foster curiosity in their classrooms. We will use our PD/Staff meeting days to share with each other, collaborate, and continue to learn. Our support staff--having less past experience with inquiry--will be working through a set of activities and lessons to identify how to best support in an inquiry classroom.
