Resources

To prepare for this blog post I reached out to my colleagues through our kindergarten Facebook page. I asked them to recommend Twitter feeds as well as blogs that I could read and follow. The possibilities are endless and I wanted to start with resources that other teachers were already using and having success with. Within a couple of hours I already had more suggestions than I need for this post and I am excited to take some time to get to know the blogs suggested. I also looked up a variety of articles and videos. It took a long time to narrow it down for this blog. At any given time I had 15 browser windows open on my PC. It is clear that there is a large variety of sources out there. Here are a few I will be going back to on a regular basis for my own teaching purposes.

 The Curious Kindergarten
This blog details one Kindergarten teacher's class over the years. I like how in the description she says that her blog is about the discoveries made by both her and her students. Each post details an activity completed in the class. There is a list on the side of common topics which makes it easy to find areas of interest. I clicked on the inquiry topic which opened up examples of how this teacher has used inquiry based learning in her class. As a teacher, it is valuable to be able to see how these ideas are put into practice and to read from other professionals what worked and what might be changed for next time.

Play-based learning in a culture of inquiry
This is an online book published through the Ontario Ministry of Education. It is specific to Kindergarten and outlines (in over 360 pages) a kindergarten program. I read through the section specifically titled Play-based learning in a culture of inquiry for this assignment. One of the things I appreciate about this chapter is that it includes charts like this one:

As a visual learner this helps to organize my thoughts and gives me a place to start when thinking about inquiry based learning. It is such a huge topic and this Venn Diagram really breaks down some of the vocabulary I might look at more closely.

The chapter also includes links to a video series focusing on play-based learning. There is a lot of information packed into this chapter. Throughout the chapter there are links to other articles, books, videos, and the Ontario curriculum for kindergarten. It is clear that a lot of research has gone into preparing this document. It is definitely something I will use moving forward.

Inquiry-Based Learning: Preparing Young Learners for the Demands of the 21st Century

In this article the authors look at inquiry based learning as a way to create learners who are "the problem solvers, researchers and critical thinkers of the 21st century." The article states that the jobs of the future will need young people who are able to think outside the box, solve problems creatively, and share their findings with others effectively. The next section of the article defines inquiry based learning and also talks about its benefits. They then go on to document an example of an inquiry project they used which centered around worm composting in the classroom. This is a very accessible article, giving clear information, citing other research, and giving a list of further reading. The teachers involved are kindergarten teachers which gives me a clear picture of how an inquiry can be run in a kindergarten setting.

Inquiry-Based Learning: From Teacher-Guided to Student-Driven
This video shows teachers and students talking about inquiry based learning. The teachers talk about how they are implementing this type of learning in their classes. An explanation of questions they asked, and how they guide the learning is given as well. On the other side, the students are explaining what they are doing and why it works for them. I like how the teachers and students offset each other in the video with the teachers explaining an idea and then the students talking about how that idea was used in the learning. It is exciting to see how the students embraced their learning and worked together to solve problems.

Works Cited:

McDonell, Alexis. "The Super Hero Inquiry Project." The Curious Kindergarten, February 6, 2018, thecuriouskindergarten.blog/category/inquiry/

"Play-based learning in a culture of inquiry." The Kindergarten Program 2016, Queen's Printer for Ontario, 2016. The Kindergarten Program 2016. Web. 17 May 2018.

Fine, Melissa and Lindsey Desmond. "Inquiry-Based Learning: Preparing Young Learners for the Demands of the 21st Century." Educator's Voice, vol 7, April 2015, pp 2-11.  https://www.nysut.org/~/media/files/nysut/resources/2015/april/1_edvoiceviii_ch1.pdf?la=en

Edutopia. "Inquiry-Based Learning: From Teacher-Guided to Student-Driven." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, December 2015. Web. 18 May, 2018.