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CULTIVATING CURIOSITY THROUGH QUESTIONS

IVHSA Parent and Teacher Training

September 30, 2024

bit.ly/IVHSAquestions

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Session goals:

    • Inquiry Classroom
    • Power of a Provocation
    • Sample Provocations
    • Question Pencil Routine
    • Question Hexagons Routine

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Sample Provocations

CONCEPT

IMAGE

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PHYSICAL ARTIFACT

VIDEO

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EXPERIMENT

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Ways to share and

display learning

SENSORY BINS

INQUIRY BOX

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INQUIRY

TABLE

INQUIRY POSTER

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INQUIRY MAT

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Question Pencil Routine

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User Reflection

I noticed my level of enthusiasm, as the teacher, increased with all the wonderful inquiries from the students.

-Tara Drazner,

4th grade teacher

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Benefits of the Routine

  • The routine helps learners sort their questions toward specific types of questions
  • Students practice adding more specific language to the questions they generate to provide clarity
  • The outcome of the routine, over time, is that questions allow for greater independence, autonamy, and agency

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Question Pencil Routine

    • Introduce a provocation
    • Provide question pencil stems
    • Students generate questions
    • Students place questions on question pencil
    • Students provide justifications
    • Class co-designs next steps

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Question Pencil Routine

    • Determine your group or partner
    • Choose a provocation and method to display learning
      • Inquiry box or table
      • Group poster
      • Individual question mat
      • Sensory bin
    • Craft questions using a variety of question

stems

    • Share questions and place on question pencil

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Inquiry Next Steps Prompts

    • Which question(s) should we explore first?
    • Who or what could help us in exploring this/these questions?
    • Do we have any experts among us in the room right now?
    • Have you seen or heard of something when look at these questions?
    • How can we share the answers to our questions?

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Question Pencil Considerations

    • Place a large question pencil on an inquiry or wonder wall
    • Use a different color post it each time students engage with the question pencil
    • Provide individual question pencil work mats (11x17)
    • Generate a word bank of 5-10 key terms
    • Introduce the questions gradually over time
    • Provide questions and have students sort them

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Question Hexagons Routine

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User Reflection

Scholars weren’t just asking; they were building on one another’s thoughts. It made the teaching experience feel less like a one-way street and more like a shared journey of discovery.

-Amanda Carroll,

2nd grade teacher

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Practice Making

Connections

    • Group of 3 or 4
    • Choose a deck of cards
    • Pass out the cards - start with 7 cards each
    • Go around the table taking turns laying

down a card and explaining the connection

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Benefits of the Routine

    • Students engage in the complex thinking required

to make connections, transfer their understanding,

and discover more sophisticated ties across their learning

    • Students practice their collaboration skills as they discuss, jusify, and debate their ideas to work through the routine
    • Students are empowered to see both the complex ties as well as easy-to-understand connections in what they are learning

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Question Hexagons Routine

    • Provide groups or pairs of students 15-20 blank hexagons
    • Introduce a provocation
    • Students generate questions
    • Group sorts questions into open and closed questions
    • Group makes connections and connect hexagons
    • Students justify the relationships using Thinking Skills Arrows

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Open and Closed Questions

    • Closed-Ended - questions that can be

answered with “yes” or “no” or one word

      • Quick responses, limited flexibility
      • Are you feeling better today?
    • Open-Ended - questions that require an explanation
      • Detailed responses, allows for flexibility
      • How are you feeling today?

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Thinking Skills Arrows

    • Explain calls for students to describe what was done

or the process that was performed

    • Compare calls on students to identify similarities
    • Contrast calls on students to identify differences
    • Justify calls on students to include one’s reason for what was done or the decision that was made.
      • Justify is the why behind the act, action, behavior, or decision.

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    • Determine your group or partner
    • Choose a baggie of teacher or student questions
    • Sort the questions into open-ended or closed-ended questions
    • Organize and connect the hexagons by similar relationships
    • Use the Thinking Skills Arrows to share your thinking

Question Hexagons Routine

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Question Hexagons Considerations

    • For younger children, provide predrafted questions for

students to interact with

    • For younger children, introduce making connections using OuiSi cards before introducing question hexagons
    • As a scaffold, have groups of students create 4 to 6 questions then come together to make connections as a whole group
    • Conduct a gallery walk to visit other groups hexagon connections
    • Use sentence stems to help students justify their thinking.

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Session reflection questions:

    • What skills are we nurturing by using question routines?
    • How can we bring these skills to our students?
    • What would success look like for your learners?
    • What are your next steps?