December Blog Post - Inquiry Unit

For the inquiry unit, I decided to pull a subject matter in which students have natural and innate interests: butterflies and caterpillars. This topic came to mind because the leveled readers I am using in the small group I pull were about caterpillars and focused on the life cycle and metamorphosis of caterpillars to butterflies. The students were already showing interest and asking questions about what the caterpillars ate, how they laid their eggs, and how the caterpillars transformed. Knowing that we have a well-stocked selection on this topic in the Literacy Closet, I picked my topic. The topic lends itself well to inquiry. The students can easily begin to generate their own questions and do small investigations in books and on websites to find their own answers to these questions. I envision begin able to construct a symabloo containing great websites on the topic without too much struggle as well. The students first lesson on inquiry focused on teacher modeling. I modeled generating questions that would have factual versus opinionated answers. "What is the best butterfly" would be an example of an opinion question while "How many different types of butterflies are there?" would yield a more factual answer. As a whole group, we reread our inspiring leveled texts. I then modeled my wonderings, and gave each student an I Wonder notebook to record their own questions for inquiry. Then I introduced them to the large collection of books that focus on the topic. I modeled rereading the questions for inquiry I had generated and looking through the books to find some answers for those questions. I also modeled how I would record any answers I found below the question recorded in the I Wonder notebook. The students' next lessons will focus on surveying the books for themselves and recording I Wonder questions on Post It notes on the pages. They will then transfer these post it notes into their I Wonder notebooks. In later lessons, they will focus their investigations on their top 3-5 questions that they've generated. These will be the topic for their in-depth investigations and reports. To find the answers to their top questions, they will be reading the collection of books about butterflies and caterpillars and using online resources in the symbaloo I have made. As a whole group, they will make a presentation that showcases their learning on this topic. We will choose either Padlet, ActivStudio or another creative outlet (Smore?) for the students to make a visual for their presentation. I am very excited about the guided reading practice and the focus on inquiry that this unit provides. I hope the students enjoy it as much as I am enjoying it.