I enjoyed this inquiry project, and as a teacher what works better than to have a planned unit for your classroom! I had the idea for this unit a couple of months before Covid 19 changed the world, and I continue to think how this topic, storytelling, will become even more important for students in such challenging times. I have many years of experience writing lessons and planning for units, and this course has challenged me to create a classroom of inquiry rather than separate units.
Friesen (2009) outlines 5 Core Principles of Effective Teaching:
- Teachers are designers of learning;
- Work students are asked to undertake is worth their time and attention;
- Assessment practices improve student learning and guide teaching;
- Teachers foster a variety of interdependent relationships;
- Teachers improve their practice in the company of their peers” (p. 4-6).
These core principles outline pedagogical approaches to learning in today’s classrooms that highlight engagement and deep learning opportunities as vital for students’ education. Friesen adds “today’s teachers are called upon to work with colleagues to design learning environments that promote deeper engagement in learning as a reciprocal process”, and this demonstrates that inquiry design is not a solo project, but an ongoing state of exploring, questioning and collaborating between both students and teachers (p. 6). This is probably the key idea I took from this inquiry course, the idea that inquiry is an ongoing state, dynamic and changing rather than one static unit before or after another. A challenge I see is to ensure a sense of connectedness across the topics of inquiry that we explore, but certainly it will not be a challenge to question and collaborate as we move through topics and texts, this is key to my classroom now, and I want to build on these skills for inquiry.
One key criticism that arose out of the readings in this course came from Susan Cain’s Quiet (2012). Her article articulated the need to preserve space for the individual in a way that is built in and natural in a collaborative classroom model. The criticism that inquiry is ‘group project based’ is not necessarily true, but it would be a good idea to intentionally preserve space for students to work as individuals because introverted students may need ‘quiet’ space to consider text and materials and move through their work. I think this is a solid consideration, and emphasizes the need for students to work together and as individuals to build inquiry skills. Cain uses the model of Group Think to highlight the concept of ‘the group’ openly interacting and creatively collaborating with each other without the confines of walls, doors or rooms to separate them, their work and thus their ideas, but also providing a ‘quiet’ space for people to work demonstrates the power of inquiry style learning environments.
Finally, my unit is heavily influenced by Indigenous Ways of Knowing and place based practice. In BC, our curriculum is guided by the document The First Peoples Principles of Learning (n.d.) is a document that is circulated widely in BC Schools. The principles highlight the Indigenous worldview of learning, and ultimately demonstrate a stark contrast to traditional learning in a classroom which educates in dominant culture, capitalistic structures. More significantly, it highlights the importance of honoring other ways of learning and knowing. The principles speak to the importance of culture, land, generational teachings, an absence of the notion of time and the exploration of self. This worldview blends with the very essence of inquiry. In addition to the principles, Gillian Judson’s (2018) A Walking Curriculum is a key resource for my unit. I use a walking curriculum prior to the beginning of the unit, as well as within the unit, to build place based knowledge and connection for students to draw on these experiences to understand storytelling and how place influences identity. Judson asserts that finding common ground among diverse students is at the heart of learning, and by connecting through the power of land as language can be one of the most powerful experiences of connection (p.5).