Creating a Culture of Inquiry 

INQUIRY IS A BALL TOSS - As Teachers, we toss an inquiry ball to

students, but we don't know what ball they will toss back to us.
Inquiry is a culture that you will co-create with your students. There is no recipe and no set
procedure. for inquiry.  Exploring wonders will take you and your students on a new
adventure every time. When you create a culture of inquiry, the process of learning is
valued over the products that are created, and the questions are valued over the answers.

Choose Your Own Inquiry Adventure 

Year Long Theme That
Simple Theme  You Will Connect All
(ie: Plants)  Your Inquiries To 
(ie: "The Me in We")
Cross-Curricular
Theme
How Big Is Your A Question
(ie: Human Impact
on the World) 
Inquiry Box? (ie: What Is Freedom?)

An Interesting
An Invitation Scenario
(ie: a bucket of Other..? (ie: Math 3 Act Task)
worms)

Inquiry can take:

Hours  Days Weeks  Months Years 

Variety is best!

The Provocation Cycle

This phase of inquiry is very important AND might continue for an extended
amount of time. It will help students discover questions they care about.

MULTI-MODAL Examples of Provocations:Play tables,

nature walks with intention, expert
PROVOCATIONS speakers/mentors, stories, videos, quotes,
poems, experiments, ads, images,
What will you provoke your documentaries, your students' wise words,
blogs, field trips, primary and secondary
students to think and wonder sources, political cartoons, artifacts, local
about? Let your students' voices issues/dilemmas, news articles/reports,
guide you as you determine how to food, scents, sounds, magazines, fun facts,
continue to provoke their thinking questions, shared experiences, non-fiction
throughout the inquiry cycle! books, etc...
TEACHER MODELING
Model asking questions
that don't have easy
answers - "I wonder how
big the universe is..."

MAKE STUDENT A) Students Share Verbally in

knowledge building circles, with
  Teachers are co-learners. 
It's okay to not know all
THINKING VISIBLE partners, in a small groups, etc. the answers.
Create multiple B) Teacher Documents Thinking with
opportunities for students a wonder wall, Google Doc, anchor
chart, sticky notes, etc.
to make their thinking and
questions visible to each C) Use Making Thinking Visible (MTV)
other in many ways. Strategies (see
www.rcsthinkfromthemiddle.com)

STUDENT SELF
REFLECTION
Students continually record their
questions and thoughts in
inquiry journals. Encourage
students to include visuals as
well as words.

Created by SD23's Instructional Leadership Team

 Teachers will know it is time to move
on to the next phase of inquiry when M A G I C
they feel that ALL of their students M O M E N T
have a question they care about or a
connection to the theme.

Question Selection Sharing Circle

Students share their
favourite questions with
each other in a sharing
circle.  

They will pay attention to

Have students choose and record new questions that are
their favourite questions by sparked in their brains as
referring to their inquiry journals, they listen to each other. 
their conversations throughout the
provocation cycle, and the teacher The sharing circle will
documentation of class wonders. continue as students share
the new questions that were
sparked by others.  This
continues until all the
questions are exhausted.

Burning Questions
Students select the
question(s) they want to
explore in depth. This
question might change and
evolve throughout the inquiry.

UN-
PLANNING DECISION TIME Students explore
their own individual
questions.

Students sort their

A common theme questions to form
emerges from The class votes to inquiry teams.
student questions determine the order
that they will they will investigate
explore as a class.  the most popular
wonders (as a large
group).

Have students go around the

circle and sort their own
questions  (consider using hula
hoops) into groups with related
questions.  
Created by SD23's Instructional Leadership Team
 WHAT'S NEXT?
As a class, in an inquiry team, or as "Wisdom begins in wonder" 
an individual: ~Socrates
1) Determine the big theme(s) that
unites their questions.
2) Think about and record all other
questions connected to that theme.
3) Use these questions to determine a
larger overarching question(s).

Record Your Thinking

What do we already
#1 know or what do we
think we know? CONSIDER THIS
What do we predict we
#2 will find out when we
start to explore our
question(s)? How can we
#3 start to explore 
our topic?

REMEMBER: 
inquiry is NOT a "one size fits all."
Now that we
have our
question
THE "ANTI-RESEARCH" PROJECT It is about TRANSFORMING
our THINKING! 

Why isn't inquiry a research project? While research might be involved, it is the teacher's role
to stay very involved in this next stage of inquiry.  To honour student questions and transform
student thinking, teachers will continue to search for additional provocations.  Listening to
what is going on for students throughout the inquiry will help to inform teachers about what
to bring to the students next.

Teachers might want to consider giving students a learning map that

will show which skills/curricular competencies they will be developing
throughout this inquiry.  These learning goals should be made explicit
so students can set goals and collect evidence of their growth
throughout the inquiry process. Teachers can conference with students
to help them determine their strengths and stretches and to set
personal learning goals. 

Teachers can scaffold learning by continuing to

STUDENT  stretch and provoke student thinking around the
theme/question(s) using: Play tables, reflections on
EXPLORATION peer's wise words, materials to think about their thinking,
nature walks with intention, expert speakers/mentors,
stories, videos, quotes, poems, experiments, ads,
interesting images, documentaries, blogs, field trips,
Students will explore their primary and secondary sources, political cartoons,
questions in a variety of ways artifacts, local issues/dilemmas, news articles/reports,
food, sounds, magazines, fun facts, juicy questions,
shared experiences, non-fiction books, etc...

TEACHER 
AS RESEARCHER
Holding the belief that all
students are curious,
COLLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE capable, and competent.
BUILDING
Teachers will document what students are
This is a key move in inquiry-based learning. saying, thinking, and wondering.  They will
Regardless of the structure you choose use this to both scaffold skills (ie: how to
(individual, team, whole class inquiry, etc.), it is collaborate, how to use technology, how to
important to get small and large groups of research, how to conduct experiments, how
students together.  to reflect, etc.) for students and to continue
to push thinking forward.
Students will continue to share with each other in
order to build on each others' ideas and push This could be done by making observations,
each others' thinking.  This can be done with MTV conferencing with students, documenting 
strategies, knowledge building circles, and other conversations and wise words, and
sharing strategies. videotaping/photographing the learning
moments.
 
STUDENT REFLECTION &
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Students can use their inquiry journals to
record all of their thinking, questions,
observations, drawings, etc. They can use
their learning map to guide them as they
collect evidence and grow their curricular
competencies/skills. They will keep track of
how their thinking is  transforming. 

Created by SD23's Instructional Leadership Team

 When students are
ready, they can help
you decide...

HOW WILL WE...

SHARE WHAT
WE HAVE
LEARNED IN A
TAKE ACTION AND
MEANINGFUL
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
WAY?
(FOR OUR SCHOOL,

Continue with the next inquiry and

COMMUNITY, CITY,

help students to see how all their

WORLD)?

learning is connected.

Continue to explore these questions or

move on to another inquiry. Help students
to see how all of their learning is connected!

The student's role in inquiry is to:

- ask questions, reflect, discuss, seek to discover, create, uncover, and understand.  
- actively participate in building the group's collective knowledge.
- take responsibility for designing ways to investigate and play, explore problems,
take on challenges, and discover their passions. 
- develop their competencies.
- self-assess, collect evidence of growth, and conference with teachers                               
on a regular basis.                                    
- share their learning and seek to make a difference.
 
The teacher's role in inquiry is to:
- build strong relationships with students. 
- provoke thinking, honour student questions/interests, listen, observe,                             
document thinking, and use student thinking to determine future learning
opportunities.

- support students as they inquire, scaffold skills, and ask strategic questions.

- notice, name and nurture competencies, assess learning, give timely feedback, and
conference with students/teams.
- give demonstrations, explain concepts (mini-lessons), redirect when required,
suggest and connect students with resources that might be helpful, and provide
opportunities for students to share what they have learned in meaningful ways.  
- be flexible with 'un-plans,' be ready to follow the paths students take, and be ready
to catch the 'ball' they toss back to us! The student is the curriculum!

YOU'RE ALL SET - GO FORTH & INQUIRE!

For More Ideas, and to see case studies of inquiry in action, go to:
www.instructionalleadershipteam.com --> Learning --> Inquiry Resources
Created by SD23's Instructional Leadership Team