An+Inquiry+Into+Class+Learning+Rules

While there are often whole school rules, what do your students see as important in their ro om? Are there any particular "rules" that they believe will help improve the way they learn within their own learning community?
 * How Can We Help Each Other To Learn? **



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 * Teachers need to consider the learning stages below prior to an inquiry in order to set students up for success in their learning. That doesn't mean that the way is made clear and students have no problems to solve. It means that the barriers whichcould detract from the important lessons are minimised. Ask yourself: **
 *  Why would my children need to learn this?
 *   How will this make an effective difference?
 *   What are the possibilities that could arise at each stage?
 *   What are the barriers? How can I set my students up to succeed in the learning process? What do I need to do, make, prepare? i.e. for the content, the process, What skills will students need and how can they develop and practice these prior / during the inquiry? What resources will meet their inquiry needs, What just in time learning tools, Why would they want to be involved in this inquiry? How might they be hooked into this learning?
 *   How could I increase student independence in learning? How can I assist students to know what to do, when and where to go to next? How can we all become learners and teachers together?
 * How does this learning experience relate to student's needs as 21st C learners? Where will ICT be used? What is the role of digital technologies, web 2.0 tools, team work, collaboration and global awareness?
 *   What i mportant learning outcomes will become our learning intentions?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> What will "we" assess and how?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Do I have the camera ready throughout to photograph the process e.g. the brainstorming activity, the actual brainstorm, children involved in the process etc This helps with the reflection and metacognitive processes.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> How will I at each stage, have the chn discuss and reflect on their leanring e.g. What was I doing? ... Thinking, helping, talking, writing etc. Ask them What is thinking etc. Record their answers or have them do it. This will help us evaluate ourselves as learners.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How will we know if we have been successful. What will the success criteria be? How can this be shared with the students so they know what success looks/feels/sounds like?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> How will this make a difference to each of the students? How will this make to other people? What benefit will occur for others? (Service product, encouraging empathy in our students)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Prepare the Planning Template.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Access & Prepare Resources.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Develop a timeframe

The immersion stage triggers student thinking and stimualtes an interest in what is to come. It could be a video or a photograph on the 'wondeirngs wall' asking children to write up their observations of questions. A class debate....A general discussion around "Classroom rules" - Do we need them? could stem from going over the school rules.... A newspaper cutting about someone breaking a rule could trigger a discussion..... An icecream container filled with objects could be used like a lucky dip. Ch n could be asked to examine their prize and consider how it relates to learning. What are the connections?...... Tony Ryan’s Thinkers Keys around the theme of classroom 'rules' could help here. e.g.
 * §<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Reverse Listing Key: What 10 things could we not have as our learning rules?
 * §<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> What If Key: What If there were no rules in our class?
 * §<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Disadvantages Key: What are the disadvantages of classroom rules?
 * §<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Variations Key: How many ways do rules help people? Etc

** “HOW COULD CLASSROOM RULES HELP US TO LEARN?” **
=**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">STAGE 1: DEFINING: **= This stage of the inquiry is the most complex and involves an overview of what is to follow. Considering the following aspects at the beginning of an inquiry sets us up for success and allows us to focus with an awareness of the process to follow.

** RULES: ** **“What do we know about Rules?”** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">2. Sort ** Brainstorm into Groupings: eg Purpose / Outcome / Examples / Types etc <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">3. The Keys : <span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">3 <span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">a. Key Questions **<span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">: If that is what we already know what would we like to find out? Why? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">3b. Key Concept: **If we find that out, how could it make a difference? Why find out? Who could it make a difference to? Discussion as students need to know what they are learning, why they are learning it and what difference it could make. **<span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">3c. Keywords: ** Relook at the brainstorm grouping. List or circle keywords. What words could help us find information? What words would we find in an index? Explore some words in an index. What type of words are they? <span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">**Reflect:** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">**4. Finding:** Where can we go to find out? What resources and skills could help us? How can we infuse ICT? E.g. emailing other people and classes, accessing blogs to inquire, using the phone book/phoning, faxing, interviewing, writing letters etc <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">**5. Product & Audience:** What will we do with what we find out? What is our Product? Who will be our audience? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">6. Timeframe: ** How long have we got for this inquiry? How long could each part take? Develop a timeframe. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> **<span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">7. Evaluation: ** How did we do? This is a two part evalaution i.e. we evaluate the outcome (the product) and our expertise with the process of inquiry. What would we do differently next time? What did we learn about ourselves? What new learning goals etc.? How can we record this?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="color: rgb(48, 0, 255);">1. Brainstorm: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Revise the Brainstorming Rules
 * Discuss the purpose of brainstorming: To Find out everything we know about …
 * Do the Brainstorm (suggest groups of three, 3 minutes):
 * What group are we interested in? Could we divide the class into groups to find out about…. ?
 * In our groups, do we need to brainstorm that focus area again so we drill down what we already know? Group into subgroups?
 * Our Key Questions come from the sub groups i.e. If that is what we know, what would we like to find out?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Relook at our big key question?
 * Will our question help us in our quest?
 * Do our questions contain our keywords?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> Could use MS Word - Type in a keyword and right click to find "synonyms" that could be used instead of our keywords.

<span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">STAGE 3: SELECT & ANALYSE
Organising what we've found. What is useful? What don't we need?

<span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">STAGE 4: ORGANISE & SYNTHESISE:
Now that I have this information, how can I use it? What can I do with it to make a difference?

<span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">STAGE 5: CREATE / SHARE / PRESENT / COMMUNICATE **
==<span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">**<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">STAGE 6: EVALUATE: Product and Process ** <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">. ==

How did I do as an inquirer? What stages could I do better & How. What outcome has occurred? What difference has our product made? etc.