Nurturing Agency Through Inquiry

Kath Murdoch- 2019 












Handout given

Photo wall with questions from stds, post its for answers.

What words come to mind to describe this young learner? Curious, investigator, explorer, trier, resilient, driven, imaginative.
Image of child has an impact on how we view learners and how we see ourselves.

Provocation- into making creating and designing- uncovered a pile of bits. Set up a pile of stuff, revealed with a cloth, children sitting in circle. T planted a seed and waited for the children to lead, T role to listen and step back and trust where the students make sense of ideas. Offer theories and see where it goes. Helping kids uncover big ideas and questions.

Pg 13 of handout- how can we release more responsibility.

Learn, Create, Share

Sticks to show how we view the learner- 

How do I see this idea? How can I represent it? How can I explain it? How can I share it back? 
Columns, thinking, second thinking. What is it that the learners are revealing at this moment? Formative assessment as we tune in to what they are thinking.
We activated our first thinking, when we spoke- where did our ideas line up and overlap. Both thought about learner agency, cyclic, 

Value learners theories and ideas. Value what they bring.... and build from there. 
What can we do about the waste in our school.... Tune in what do we think about the concept of waste? Provocation- brand new packet of felts, writing names to get to know them then throwing away the felts after each name... eventually kids said why are you throwing them away... What do you mean? What does waste mean to you, what do you already know about waste? 
Share your first ideas about waste drawing or writing. 
Think 1 (room for think 2 on paper)
I think that waste means....

Take your thinking, share with someone else, notice what is the same, notice what is different.
Questions start to bubble up. 
When we do this we say: We know you bring something to this- we value the way you think about this, let's do this together.

Sharing circle- T asks How does where you live, influence how live? 
Do you have any theories? What can we do to show what we already know? Eli- shares with the group using a whiteboard and diagrams. How can we share what I know. Practice trying to make sense of their big ideas, take snap shots and what we know- where do we go next? 
Verify their theories. 

How do the choices we make influence our health. 6 questions in envelopes, children each answer and put in the envelop.
Children collect responses to questions- then kids analyse the information gathered from the class. What is this assessment of their understanding telling us. 
Bring the answers together- some people think this, some people think....











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