What If?

 November is all about the turkey, but bland white meat can be pretty dull. It's in the lesser-known November celebrations that we can find spicier classroom inspiration this month.

For instance, aspiring novelists thrive in November as they push themselves toward writing the next classic during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The website even describes November as a "fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing." What if we took a NaNoWriMo approach to our classrooms, turned control over to the students, and let them frantically write, create, build, and engage just to see what they develop?

Gamers and puzzlers also have some time to shine in the third week of November during game and puzzle week. What if there were a content area puzzle each week for our students to solve using readings, images, and resources? What if we looked at each lesson and found one way to remove teacher-provided knowledge and substitute in time for students to puzzle out answers?

Puzzles, exploration, questioning, and creating are all part of inquiry learning.  Dr. Kathy Swan is known as a leader in inquiry scholarship, and this approach concentrates learning on discovering rather than passively receiving knowledge. While that sounds simple in theory, in practice we all struggle to relinquish control. The power of teachers, however, is in relationships, planning, organization, and facilitation of learning. Inquiry-based teaching lends itself masterfully to theories of learning where the control is in the hands of students who are continually connecting and transferring learning with agency.

Inquiry learning is predominately associated with STEM courses, but the principles of inquiry are also embedded in Social Studies Standards and encouraged in multiple subject areas. As we learn more about the infinite power of inquiry, there are some fundamentals to consider throughout implementation.

There are myriad ways to structure inquiry

There is not one path to inquiry. Teachers can approach inquiry via structures like John Spencer's Wonder Day or AJ Juliani's take on Genius Hour. If those projects feel overwhelming, teachers can look to a more formulaic approach like the 5E model and the variable takes on the model from educational experts such as Catlin Tucker. As long as the classroom structure supports the basic phases of inquiry, teachers should choose models that work best with their students and their personal style.

Questioning strategies are vital

The best inquiry is guided by questions throughout the process. Compelling questions guide students to begin learning and to keep digging throughout. Questions are also the basis for any research students may do independently as they work through resources and gain knowledge to support the standards in the unit. Regardless of the inquiry at hand in the classroom, questions are vital to success.

Media and resources are meant to be explored for answers rather than explicitly taught

When students read a resource as part of an inquiry lesson, they are still gaining knowledge and practicing reading skills. The difference is, students are motivated to use the information for discovery while teachers guide the exploration beside the student instead of in front of the classroom. There are a wealth of examples online using texts, graphics, and other resources as part of inquiry instead of simply as an assignment students complete and turn in.

While turkey as a symbol for November may never recede, we can all spice up our classrooms this month with some inquiry. In the spirit of frantic novel writing and weeks celebrating games and puzzles, we can infuse that same energy into learning.

Inquiring minds want to ask...what if?