Learning Log 2: Modules 2 and 3 LIBE 469

This past week a grade 1 teacher asked me to pull all the books I had on penguins.  A light bulb went off thinking back to the reading from Module 2 by Jean Donham on “Deep Learning.” Knowing that I should try to suggest an inquiry approach that promoted deeper learning, I looked at Jean’s shift from topical questions about polar bears to conceptual questions about migration.  I thought that this shift was similar and could be used to guide my suggestions to this teacher.

Rather than restricting research to only penguins that includes their life cycle, habitat, diet and predators, I suggested shifting this topical study into the overarching concept of Antarctica.  This way students could learn about its geographic location, other animals that live there including adaptations that help support their life in this challenging environment and about human impact including things we can do to help protect this part of the world.  

This conceptual study would encourage students to demonstrate curricular competencies:

-Questioning

-Predicting

-Making and recording observations

-Sorting and classifying information

-Considering environmental consequences

-Communicating observations and ideas. 

When I suggested this shift from topic to concept, my colleague worried that her students would not have enough experience in a basic type of report first before moving into an inquiry type report.  She felt that the first one should be modeled specifically in order to teach them how it should be done so they will understand the expectations and be successful.  I left it at that for the moment and went on to think about how I could scaffold her students to see how they would be able to manage an inquiry-based approach.  

After thinking for some time on this, I realized there is no need to reinvent the wheel.  I will suggest we use some exciting ideas from a grade 1 blog that I found that could help to guide the shift.  Kristin Smith’s blog, A Day in Grade One, contains some ideas that I believe will inspire excitement and questioning from our students and will provide the right atmosphere for this shift to take place.  I will do this on Tuesday in a collaboration time with the teacher and her class, so long as she is on board and agrees to try the shift in approach.  If she does not want to shift her approach, I can still do some of these activities with the class during their library time with me and we can make some deeper connections to the learning that is taking place in the classroom.

An approach that may make this inquiry more doable is to spend time teaching together as well as to use Library time to connect students to other resources.  Already in Library time we have been learning how to access the digital resources including Tumble Books and National Geographic.  Moving forward I can teach them presentation skills such as Book Creator or Draw and Tell either of which could be a way of sharing their inquiry.  If these research strategies are made available during library time then this would foster student centered learning in the Library as well as in the classroom and at home.

I think video is a very powerful way of beginning a unit of study because it opens the possibilities about what could be learned about a subject rather than being told what they are going to learn.  Perhaps a KWL chart after the video as a class would illicit some areas of potential study.  This would also allow students to talk about stories or previous experiences they have to add to the learning.  One thing I like about this video is that there is no narrative given, only music and so it leaves room for students to create a narrative of their own.  

Next, I would gather resources around student interest to make them available in their classroom for free reading time.  I would also locate digital resources that could be used to support the teacher in classroom research activities.  National Geographic Kids is a useful database available through our district, and has some interesting videos, pictures and e-books that look appropriate for this inquiry.  This class has access to  iPads and each student has their own headphones, and so I think it is a reasonable way to begin this inquiry. 

Perhaps a more open-ended project would be a nice way for students to learn more about what they are interested in.  They could then share their learning with the class to create a fuller picture about Antarctica.

Resources Cited:

Donham, J. (2010). Deep Learning: through Concept-based Inquiry. School Library Monthly, 27(1), 8–11. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=53337459&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Smith, Kristin. “A Journey To Antarctica.” A Day in First Grade, 29 Jan. 2018, adayinfirstgrade.com/2018/01/a-journey-to-antarctica.html.

Geographic, National. “Take a 4-Minute Escape to the Blissful Serenity of Antarctica | Short Film Showcase.” YouTube, YouTube, 14 Aug. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnQo3DgEoo.

Lindblad Expeditions, and National Geographic. “Journey to Antarctica: Expedition Overview.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 Jan. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3tR5uHMlL0.

"Amazing Animals: Gentoo Penguin." National Geographic Kids Video Collection, Gale, 2015. National Geographic Kids, http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/8tuox9. Accessed 26 Jan. 2019.