Designing an Enquiry Learning Unit

Designing an Enquiry Learning Unit
Enquiry / Integrated / Negotiated Units Belonging Engaging Succeeding Together 1

Factors Affecting Student Achievement
Marzano What works in schools (2003) School Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Challenging Goals and Effective Feedback Parent and Community Involvement Safe and Orderly Environment Collegiality and Professionalism Instructional Strategies Classroom Management Classroom Curriculum Design Home Environment Learning Intelligence/Background Knowledge Motivation Teacher Student 2

Unit or Learning Sequence
Class and individual Standards Domains and dimensions Assessment as of and for Learning PoLT 4. Students are challenged and supported to develop deep levels of thinking and application 4.5 uses strategies to develop investigating and problem-solving skills 6. Learning connects strongly with communities and practices outside the classroom 6.2 plans for students to interact with local and broader communities 3

ruMAD? ruMAD? enables students to lead change within their communities and to become active citizens. It is values-focused, student led and at the very core starts from student identified values and visions The process starts with students identifying shared and important values as a group. Once shared values are established, students identify community issues that are inconsistent or in conflict with those shared values. Students then explore possibilities for action through various levels of involvement in social change projects, and lead the planning and implementation of their chosen projects. ruMAD?By identifying problems and challenges in their school and communities, students and teachers set out to "Make a Difference" in realistic and achievable k - Cached - Similar pages 4

Template 4 Inquiry Unit Throughline Concepts Essential Question Unit Questions Standards/VELS Level: Strand Domain Dimension Key element of standards Physical, Personal and Social learning Disciplined based learning Inter-disciplinary learning Other vocabulary used in our school include unit and content questions, key understandings, concepts and vocabulary. 6

Vocabulary Enquiry Learning 7
understanding performances Negotiated curriculum understanding goals understanding Integrated units essential questions fertile questions big ideas concepts Zone of proximal development Scaffolding Essential Question: A significant question which provides depth and rigour, multiple connections and different perspectives required to support students' development of powerful concepts. An Essential Question is typically central to one or more of the disciplines, interesting to both teachers and students, accessible and supports inquiry-based approaches to learning. Wiggins and McTighe Scaffolding: "process that enables a child or novice to solve a problem, carry out a task, or achieve a goal that would be beyond his unassisted efforts" (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976). Understanding Performance: “Activities that require students to use knowledge in new ways or situations. In such activities students reshape, expand on, extrapolate from, apply, and build on what they already know. Performances of understanding help students to build as well as demonstrate their understanding.” Fertile Question: (a) An open question: a question that in principle does not have one definite answer, but actually several answers different from and even contradictory to each other. (b) An undermining question: A question that undermines the basic assumptions and fixed beliefs of the learners; one that casts doubt on the “self-evident,” on “common sense;” uncovers basic conflicts lacking a simple solution, and requires thinking about the roots of things. (c) A rich question: A question that requires grappling with rich content indispensable to understanding man and the world; that is impossible to answer without careful and lengthy research; that tends to break up into sub-questions. (d) A connected question: A question relevant to the life of the learners, to the society in which they live, and to the discipline and subject within which it was asked. (e) A charged question: A question having an ethical dimension. Such questions have a strong emotional and ethical charge able to motivate learning and inquiry. (f) A practical question: A question that can be developed into a research question; a question about which information is available to students. Understanding: “It may help to have a picture in our minds of what we mean by understanding. I feel that I understand something if and when I can do some, at least, of the following: (1) state it in my own words; (2) give examples of it; (3) recognize it in various guises and circumstances; (4) see connections between it and other facts or ideas; (5) make use of it in various ways; (6) foresee some of its consequences; (7) state its opposite or converse. The list is only a beginning; but it may help us in the future to find out what our students really know as opposed to what they can give the appearance of knowing, their real learning as opposed to their apparent learning.” John Holt How Children Fail (1964) Quoted by Yoram Harpaz (2003) 7

Vocabulary Concepts: Refers to powerful ideas usually expressed in words and phrases derived from disciplinary, interdisciplinary and social knowledge that we want students to learn. Adaptation Behaviour Beliefs and values Cause and effect Change Changing lifestyles Citizenship Communication Conflict and cooperation Conservation Consumption Creativity Culture Customs and rituals Cycles Development Distribution Diversity Ecological sustainability Energy Environment Feelings and emotions Gender equity Human rights Imagining and constructing the future Indigenous peoples Individual potential Individuals and groups Institutions Interaction Interdependence Invention and design Justice, rights and responsibilities Life and living Living and non-living Location Mobility Needs and wants Organisation Patterns Perception Personal safety Place and space Power and control Production Relationships Resources Revolution Rites of passage Ritual Roles, rules and laws Similarities and differences Social justice Society and socialisation Spirituality Supply and demand Survival Systems The global society The physical world Thinking Critically Time Tradition Transitions Wellbeing Work and leisure

Vocabulary Essential Question
A significant question which provides depth and rigour, multiple connections and different perspectives required to support students' development of powerful concepts. An Essential Question is typically central to one or more of the disciplines, interesting to both teachers and students, accessible and supports inquiry-based approaches to learning. Wiggins and McTighe Examples of Essential and Unit questions: Must a story have a moral, heroes and villains? What is the moral of the story of the Holocaust? Is Ned Kelly a hero? How does an organisms structure enable it to survive in its environment? How do the structures of amphibians and reptiles support their survival? Who is a friend? Are Frog and Toad true friends? Is it true that in our country’s history that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend’? What is light? How do cats see in the dark? Is light a particle or a wave? Do we always mean what we say and say what we mean? What are sarcasm, irony and satire? How do these genres allow us to communicate without saying what we mean? Is Australian history a history of progress and hope? Is our treatment of aborigines one to be proud of?

Vocabulary Fertile Questions
(a) An open question: a question that in principle does not have one definite answer, but actually several answers different from and even contradictory to each other. (b) An undermining question: A question that undermines the basic assumptions and fixed beliefs of the learners; one that casts doubt on the “self-evident,” on “common sense;” uncovers basic conflicts lacking a simple solution, and requires thinking about the roots of things. (c) A rich question: A question that requires grappling with rich content indispensable to understanding man and the world; that is impossible to answer without careful and lengthy research; that tends to break up into sub-questions. (d) A connected question: A question relevant to the life of the learners, to the society in which they live, and to the discipline and subject within which it was asked. (e) A charged question: A question having an ethical dimension. Such questions have a strong emotional and ethical charge able to motivate learning and inquiry. (f) A practical question: A question that can be developed into a research question; a question about which information is available to students. Examples of Fertile questions The Human Genome Project – a curse or a blessing? (biology) Why do we sleep? (biology) Human beings – a product of environment or genetics? (biology) Why is the sky blue? (physics) When was life better – in the Middle Ages or today? (history) Why did the farming class obey the gentry and the church, although these exploited and oppressed it? (history) How did it happen that the same generation that called the First World War “The war to end all wars” initiated the Second World War within two decades? (history) Is there progress in history? (history) What makes a “good story”? (literature) Who is “the other”? (sociology-anthropology) Why do people marry? (sociology-anthropology) What is love? (from a sociological point of view) What is love? (from a biological point of view) What is love? (from the point of view of certain literary works) Australia – west or east? (multi-disciplinary)

Vocabulary Understanding
Vocabulary Understanding Performance “Activities that require students to use knowledge in new ways or situations. In such activities students reshape, expand on, extrapolate from, apply, and build on what they already know. Performances of understanding help students to build as well as demonstrate their understanding.” Vocabulary Understanding “It may help to have a picture in our minds of what we mean by understanding. I feel that I understand something if and when I can do some, at least, of the following: (1) state it in my own words; (2) give examples of it; (3) recognize it in various guises and circumstances; (4) see connections between it and other facts or ideas; (5) make use of it in various ways; (6) foresee some of its consequences; (7) state its opposite or converse. The list is only a beginning; but it may help us in the future to find out what our students really know as opposed to what they can give the appearance of knowing, their real learning as opposed to their apparent learning.” John Holt How Children Fail (1964) Quoted by Yoram Harpaz (2003)

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)=
"the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86) Actual developmental level What a child can do alone Potential development Assistance of others Scaffolding “what children can do with the assistance of others might be in some sense even more indicative of their mental development than what they can do alone”.Vygotsky (1978) 12

Activity1 - Recognising enquiry based learning: What is enquiry learning?
Consider the stories about the learning experiences in five classes. Which of them are examples of enquiry learning? Q1: Analyse the characteristics of the learning process taking place in each of the five classes. Q2: What big ideas or significant questions were being investigated? Q3: What thinking processes and enquiry skills were required in each of the classes? 13

Model of enquiry learning unit
1. The challenge 2. Enquiry skills 3. Understanding performance 4. Scaffolding 5. Reflection 14

What are the key concepts or big ideas?
1. The challenge: What could be the topic of the enquiry? What kind of topic is worthy of investigation? What is the challenge? Topic: Generative Topic (Unit) “Those topics, issues and themes, concepts ideas, and so on that provide enough depth, significance, connections, and variety of perspective to support students’ development of powerful understanding. Typically they are interesting to students and teachers, central to one or more disciplines, and accessible to students.” The teaching for understanding guide Blythe What are the key concepts or big ideas? “We turn now to the questions of how experts’ knowledge is organized…Their knowledge is not simply a list of facts and formulas that are relevant to the domain; instead, their knowledge is organized around core concepts or ‘big ideas’ that guide their thinking about the domain.” Bransford, et. al., How People Learn, p 24 Generative Topic (Unit) “Those topics, issues and themes, concepts ideas, and so on that provide enough depth, significance, connections, and variety of perspective to support students’ development of powerful understanding. Typically they are interesting to students and teachers, central to one or more disciplines, and accessible to students.” The teaching for understanding guide Blythe What is the significant or essential question? After becoming aware of a significant question, issue or problem, students may reach a state of puzzlement, curiosity and/or concern and feel challenged to enquire further. The next step is to clarify, define and redefine the particular question, issue or problem to investigate. Source: Adapted from Gough, N. (1992) Blueprints for Greening Schools, Gould League, Melbourne, p. 90. 15

Climate change – How can we live in a warmer world?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 The dripping tap Is there enough for us to drink? How much water do we drink each day? How much water do we use in the washing up? Where does the water go?Where does it come from? Water water everywhere Is all water drinkable? How much water do we need to live? Can anything live without water? Is it better to live in air or water? The end of the ice Is the ice melting? Why is there ice at the poles and in the highest mountains? Why is there ice in our fridge? What is ice? Is there ice in outer space? Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Washing in a bucket What is more valuable a bucket of water or a pot of gold? How can our school and our family save water? How can we find more water? Hotter by degrees Is the world hotter than ever before? What happens to animals and plants in the heat? How can we cool the world? Can we heat and cool the world the way we do a room? The CO2 story What gasses might kill us and what let us live? Can we live with CO2? Can we live without CO2? How much is too much CO2? 16

Taking control – How can we make the right choices about drugs?
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Trying to get well Can we decide to be sick? What can you do when we are ill? How do you know when you are sick? When is it all right to take medicine? Can medicine make you well? How much medicine is too much? Warnings How do you decide what is safe to eat or swallow? How do you deal with an emergency? Who can help in an emergency? How can we prevent an emergency? What warnings should be included on bottles and packages? Making informed choices Why do we choose to take drugs? How do we decide if drugs are helpful or harmful? Do all drugs come with instructions to allow us to make good choices? How do we know which drugs are harmful and which are safe? Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Taking responsibility What reasons do people have for using drugs? Who is responsible when drugs are used? How might others be affected by other peoples drug use? What might be the main reason for teenagers using a particular drug for the first time? Is it possible to take drugs responsibly or is all drug taking irresponsible? Making choices How can you communicate your concerns about drug use? How do you assert your own wants and choices if you do not want to use drugs? How do you deal with occasions when what is right for one person is not right for another? Do people who use illicit drugs have enough information to keep themselves safe? Why might some people become regular or heavy users of a particular drug? Are heavy or regular users able to make choices about drug taking? Taking control Who is in control when drugs are being used? In what ways are you influenced by what parents think about using drugs and what friends think? Can people mix with friends who hold different views about what is right or wrong regarding drugs? What can you do to prepare yourself to deal with the situation when offered a drug? Why is it that sometimes under pressure people take drugs rather than take control?

2. Enquiry Skills: What are the enquiry skills students have and need?
What are their current enquiry skills? What can the students do alone? KWHL (Know? Want to know? How will I find out? What did I Learn?) - a tool used to inform teachers of the knowledge and interest level of their students at the start of a topic or unit and to help assess their learning at the completion. Consider a sample rubric for use during a one-to-one interview with a student about his or her What enquiry skills will students need? Analysing, Checking, Classifying, Cooperating, Considering options, Designing, Elaborating, Estimating, Explaining, Generalising, Hypothesising, Inferring, Interpreting, Justifying, Listening, Locating information, Making choices, Note-taking, Observing, Ordering events, Organising, Performing, Persuading, Planning, Predicting, Presenting in a range of ways, Providing feedback, Questioning, Reading, Recognising bias, Reflecting, Reporting, Responding to others’ work, Restating, Revising, Seeing patterns, Selecting information, Self-assessing, Sharing ideas, Summarising, Synthesising, Testing, Viewing, Visually representing, Working independently, Working to a timeline From Kath Murdoch Classroom connections Metacognition (PDF - 63Kb) What are their current enquiry skills? What can the students do alone? KWHL (Know? Want to know? How will I find out? What did I Learn?) - a tool used to inform teachers of the knowledge and interest level of their students at the start of a topic or unit and to help assess their learning at the completion. Consider a sample rubric for use during a one-to-one interview with a student about his or her Metacognition (PDF - 63Kb) What enquiry skills will students need? Eg Making generalisations Generating and testing hypotheses Note taking Finding information Predicting Asking clarifying questions Asking open questions Preparing reports Other specify 18

Specify the skills needed according to VELS domains and dimensions appropriate to the topic.
Give a brief statement of the Standard in VELS language according to domain and dimension What personal and/or social goal could they reach? 19

3. Understanding Performance: What performance task must anchor the unit and focus the instructional work? What will the students do with the knowledge and skills once they have gained them? How will this be negotiated? Cf Pirozzo’s grid and Real Assessment Task. What real life action could they take? Describe what students will do to demonstrate understanding. How will understanding be assessed? Design a rubric for assessment Examples of Understanding Performances or Real Assessment Tasks The Victorian Department of Tourism has asked your help in planning a four-day tour of (your state) for a group of foreign visitors. Plan the tour to help the visitors understand the state’s history, geography and its key economic assets. You should prepare a written itinerary including an explanation of why each site was included on the tour. You have been hired by a day care agency to fence in an area to be used for a play area. You have been provided with 60 feet of fencing (in 4’ sections) and a 4’ gate. How can you put up the fence so the children will have the maximum amount of space in which to play? Submit your plan for the playground area. Include a diagram, your calculations, and a summary of why this is the best design. How will you prevent the Koala from becoming extinct? Your action plan will be presented to various groups including student, teachers, administrators, parents, local government officials & a number of environmental experts. Why did the dinosaurs become extinct? Plan and illustrate a book dealing with the dying out of the dinosaurs suitable for children aged 7-10 How can rain forests be saved for the future? Create a poster and campaign to prevent logging in a major rainforest of the world. “Activities that require students to use knowledge in new ways or situations. In such activities students reshape, expand on, extrapolate from, apply, and build on what they already know. Performances of understanding help students to build as well as demonstrate their understanding.” 20

Understanding Performances or Real Assessment Tasks
1.Undertake an energy and resources waste audit at your school and propose ways to waste less water and paper and save more energy. How much is spent on electricity water and gas? When are lights turned on and off? When are air conditioners in use and why? How much paper could we save? Take action to change the way resources and energy are used at school. 2.Investigate your local environment. How many trees in the school? What native birds animals are found in the school? What areas are grassed and garden? How much is concrete and asphalt? Is there shade in summer? How many air conditioners? Prepare a report on the quality of your school environment and give a rating. Suggest improvements to your school environment and draw up a list of priorities. 3. Run a parent forum for sharing what you have discovered about drugs. Set up stalls for them to visit where you will show them how to make choices and take responsibility for drugs. You could do a role play or make a poster for display. You might make a fact sheet or survey parents. You could make an advertising campaign video warning of the dangers of misusing drugs to show parents.

Bloom’s Taxonomy: Six Thinking Levels
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES & BLOOM’S TAXONOMY (This 42-grid matrix was devised by Ralph Pirozzo, 1997) UNIT OF STUDY:_______________________________ YEAR LEVEL:_________ Seven ways to be smart Bloom’s Taxonomy: Six Thinking Levels Knowing Understanding Applying Analysing Creating Evaluating Verbal I enjoy reading, writing & speaking Mathematical I enjoy working with numbers & science Visual/Spatial I enjoy painting, drawing & visualising Kinaesthetic I enjoy doing hands-on activities, sports & dance Musical I enjoy making & listening to music Interpersonal I enjoy working with others Intrapersonal I enjoy working by myself 22

4. Scaffolding: How will the skills be scaffolded
4. Scaffolding: How will the skills be scaffolded? How will the student be assisted to conduct the investigation? Show or list resources required including web sites Describe step by step what you do to support the student or students through the Learning Identifying similarities and differences Summarizing and note taking Reinforcing effort and providing recognition Homework and practice Nonlinguistic representations Cooperative learning Setting objectives and providing feedback Generating and testing hypotheses Cues, questions, and advance organizers (Marzano et al) The successful scaffolding of instruction requires that the teacher perform a number of functions, among which are the selection, organization, and presentation of suitable tasks. These tasks must also allow for: the teaching of emerging skills; ongoing evaluation of the task's suitability to its purpose; the generation and maintenance of the learner's interest in the task; the use of modeling, questioning, and explanation to clarify the goals of the task; and the presentation of approximations and appropriate approaches to the task (Palincsar, 1986; Wood, Bruner, and Ross, 1976). “what children can do with the assistance of others might be in some sense even more indicative of their mental development than what they can do alone” Vygotsky (1978) 5. Sorting Out Questions How might we sort out our information? What similarities and differences can we see? How can we categorise this information? How does this information compare or contrast with other situations? What connections can we see? What inferences or conclusions can we draw? Does this information change our view of the issue? Objectives Data collection, processing and analysis. Refining the issues. This involves: Organising and presenting data Forming or modifying concepts through classification strategies Comparing and contrasting findings Discussing the issue and hypotheses Evaluating 23

5. Reflection and action. How well did the enquiry work
5. Reflection and action. How well did the enquiry work? Evidence Attach photographs and / or student work where possible. What next?

3. Understanding performance
Activity 2 – Expert Jigsaw / Similarities and differences Take one of the design stages 1-4 excluding 5 and read through the material in the handout notes. Explain one of the design stages to the other staff at your table Discuss the similarities and differences between the way you construct an integrated or enquiry unit and this model What would you add or take from this model? Where are the entry points for negotiation? 1. The challenge 2. Enquiry skills 3. Understanding performance 4. Scaffolding 5. Reflection 25

3. Understanding performance
Activity 3 Mind Map or Flow Chart In a group of 3 or 4 draw a mind map or flow chart of the enquiry learning process as you envision it with annotations and additions you consider to be needed. 1. The challenge 2. Enquiry skills 3. Understanding performance 4. Scaffolding 5. Reflection 26

http://www.bestcluster.cc.com.au Activity 4 Design an Enquiry Unit
Include in the hand-out or on your mind map (above) one or more of the following: the generative topic or the challenge, concepts, enquiry skills, essential questions, an understanding performance and/or notes on scaffolding. Name (s) Level(s) School(s) address

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