Teaching Through Inquiry

Teaching Through Inquiry

One of my favorite inquiry-based teaching strategies is a type of group investigation called a Puzzlement.  A puzzlement is an activity that starts with an observation of some kind, which leads to questioning, research, and synthesis of information.  If can be used for any topic or subject.  This is a great activity to use at the beginning of a unit of study.  However, it doesn't have to be confined to just at the beginning.

Getting Started

Start by showing students something (a picture, video, etc) that is both interesting and new to them about the topic you want them to learn about.  In the past, I have used a photo, illustration, video, excerpt of a text, and even a word problem during my puzzlement lessons.   The idea here is to get the students to think and wonder about the specific topic.  This helps students buy into their own learning.  Your goal is to get them to start thinking about questions they have about a topic.

After students have seen the puzzlement, ask them to come up with questions they have about what they have just seen.  As students are coming up with questions about the topic, list their questions on chart paper.  Next to each question, I like to put the names of the student that asked it.  This part of the lessons does take some time to complete.  I make sure to tell students to think about their questions and look at the list of questions before sharing their own.  This helps the process to go a little faster.  Before students share whole group, I have them do a think-pair-share first.  If there is a repeat question, then I will place a checkmark next to the question and write the new student's name as well.

Once the list of student questions is done, it is important to focus the inquiry on just a few questions.  Sometimes we analyze the questions together to decide which questions would be great research questions and other times I decide for the students.  In that case, I will place a star next to 3-5 questions that I think will guide students in the learning I want them to have.  Even though they will only work on answering the selected questions, I like to leave the entire list up for the class to see.  This is why I prefer chart paper to a whiteboard.  I want the questions viewable throughout the lesson.

Now that students have a set of questions to guide their learning the inquiry begins. Have students work in groups to respond to the focus questions you decided on. Remember students are not going to respond to all the questions on the list, just the selected ones.  How you chose to set up the inquiry groups is up to you.  Sometimes, I jigsaw the learning, giving each group different text sets.  Othertimes they all have the same text.  I usually place students in groups of 3-4, but I have also had students work with a partner as well.  As students are researching, I have them use the prompts of depth and complexity to guide them, I love using a frame with prompts to help them learn.

Finally, when students have finished their inquiry we come back to whole group to share our learning.  I will use a chart again to take notes on what each group learned.  Students always surprise me with what they have learned.  Their insights are amazing and this leads to such rich conversations about a topic.

Have you used a puzzlement in your classroom?  Leave a comment below to share how it went.

Learning and Teaching with Grace,
Alina