Idea: Extend students' observation skills by supplying a variety of sensory materials with an opportunity to respond.
I started my first full-blown inquiry centers in the library in late November. Most of my focus for the last several years has been push-in collaborative information literacy instruction, and now I am looking for other ways to ensure our library is making a difference in student learning. I love the wonder and excitement of inquiry, and these centers were directly connected to our learner outcomes, which focused on developing observation skills through sensory exploration.
We had five stations for student to explore. Each station was equipped with paper and markers for students to record their observations as well as a Word Bank box in which to collect their ideas. We covered the tables with paper, too, which the students loved--although some did make more than their fair share of comments. About half-way through the project I also introduced some picture dictionaries with sensory vocabulary to help guide students in their observations.
Students were introduced to the centers during class library visits and came back to play during snack and lunch breaks for about ten days.
Because there were so many cool artifacts to investigate, the students bounced around a lot instead of digging deeply into one or two centers. Some observations were fairly sophisticated, but many were pretty shallow. I'm planning to follow up by collating and displaying all their observations, which I hope will extend their learning, too. I would like to revisit the project with a more assessment-friendly set up, perhaps using a thinking routine such as I see, I think, I wonder.
I started my first full-blown inquiry centers in the library in late November. Most of my focus for the last several years has been push-in collaborative information literacy instruction, and now I am looking for other ways to ensure our library is making a difference in student learning. I love the wonder and excitement of inquiry, and these centers were directly connected to our learner outcomes, which focused on developing observation skills through sensory exploration.
We had five stations for student to explore. Each station was equipped with paper and markers for students to record their observations as well as a Word Bank box in which to collect their ideas. We covered the tables with paper, too, which the students loved--although some did make more than their fair share of comments. About half-way through the project I also introduced some picture dictionaries with sensory vocabulary to help guide students in their observations.
Students were introduced to the centers during class library visits and came back to play during snack and lunch breaks for about ten days.
Because there were so many cool artifacts to investigate, the students bounced around a lot instead of digging deeply into one or two centers. Some observations were fairly sophisticated, but many were pretty shallow. I'm planning to follow up by collating and displaying all their observations, which I hope will extend their learning, too. I would like to revisit the project with a more assessment-friendly set up, perhaps using a thinking routine such as I see, I think, I wonder.