Questioning is the heart and soul of any open-ended inquiry-based program, whether it is in an inquiry-based curriculum or a collaborative inquiry. When teaching and learning is about posing questions that are invitations to think and those that come from genuine problem of practice or curiosity, then the learning environment takes on a whole new dimension. Just like questioning is at the heart of any collaborative inquiry, it is also an essential component for purposeful interactions. There are so many effective and well-researched professional resources on questioning. May be the amount of literature out there points to the importance of this skill in a teaching-learning environment. We ask our students all kinds of scaffolding, extending and challenging questions to move and push their thinking. But what role do these kinds of questions play in mentorship? As a mentor, how can we encourage and empower out teacher candidates to ask us questions, if we don't ask them any? As I think deeply about this collaborative inquiry, I can evaluate my own practices as a mentor teacher. I think a lot of my interactions with my teacher candidate are restricted to telling and not asking. Does that mean, that I am not setting high expectations for teacher candidates or that I do not expect them to be able to answer deep, rich questions? When I am comfortable about asking deep, rich questions of my students, I can surely do the same as a mentor. As I mentor my teacher candidate, my goal for this year will be to ask rather than tell, to let them discover through discussion, dialogue and purposeful interactions, the various nuances of an open-ended inquiry-based program.
I would like to extend this invitation to my colleagues, all the mentor teachers who are part of this inquiry.
For Mentor Teachers:
What question will you ask your teacher candidate that will make him/her think deeply, critically and creatively about ___________ (inquiry-based program, assessment, 21st century learning competencies, curriculum, pedagogy, effective physical and/or social environment etc. just to name a few)?
For Teacher Candidates:
Start recording the questions YOU ask your mentor teacher. What kind of questions are these? Do they make you think about any of the above teaching practices in a way you have never considered before?
I will start posting some questions in the comment section of this post. Feel free to post yours. It would be interesting to question our own questioning practices, reflect on them as we refine our mentorship skills and commit to purposeful interactions with our teacher candidates. If questioning is at the heart of an open-ended, inquiry-based program, then our interactions with future teachers of this program should model deep, rich questions that come from genuine curiosity and confusion about this kind of teaching and learning.
As part of a number talk, students discovered the connection between multiplication of decimal tenths with whole numbers to muliplication of fractions. They started to represent multiplication of decimal tenths with whole numbers as multiplying fractions. Students used a variety of tools and models such as concrete models, visuals and number lines to multiply decimal tenths with whole numbers and fractions with fractions. Throughout this process, a student noticed that when we multiply two unit fractions the product is always a unit fraction whose denominator is the product of the two denominators in the multiplier and multiplicand fractions. Multiplication of fractions is NOT A GRADE SIX EXPECTATION. Yet in aninquiry-based classroom, students ask questions that they are genuinely curious about or are wondering about. My question to my Teacher Candidate would be:
ReplyDeleteWhat are you going to do about this student's wonderings? How will your next steps demonstrate your commitment to an inquiry-based classroom while using instructional time effectively? How will your actions demonstrate your commitment to address the curriculum?
Here are the links to the photographs of our thinking:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9RJ6e021fwnMGxZdnBPZnN3Nlk
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9RJ6e021fwnMmdqSUp2LWlqWWM
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9RJ6e021fwncmZ5T1NXNDhwaUk
Today, some of the Mentor Teachers met with the Student teachers to discuss the expectations in an inquiry-based classroom. Some questions that the Student Teachers were asking were:
ReplyDelete1. How do we know what to observe in an inquiry-based classroom?
2. What do we take notes on?
3. How can we maintain consistency and continuation in what the students are learning if we come back after a week and the students have moved on to other tasks?
4. Where can I find professional resources based on certain topics I am interested in?
I asked my student teacher: How are curriculum expectations, learning goals, success criteria and descriptive feedback connected? We moderated an art/literacy task together and my student teacher proceeded to provide his first descriptive feedback on the student's work. See attached pictures.
ReplyDeletehttps://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9RJ6e021fwneFpCQ3JvWEZpQ3M
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9RJ6e021fwnTE9rUF9qMk1hemc
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9RJ6e021fwnUmNyVjNoWE1ZRVE
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9RJ6e021fwnZ2gzdDB4cFQzX0k
What do we value in what we do?
ReplyDeleteThis question was inspired by the professional development session I attended as York Associate Teacher. I will be asking this question of all mentor teachers and teacher candidates and post the evidence in the journal "What do we value in what we do?"