Inquiry Units

I really like the idea of incorporating inquiry units in the classroom. I feel like the students would enjoy doing them. In Vanessa’s classroom inquiry unit project, she let her students choose the country they wanted to do research on. Her students thoroughly enjoyed it because they had a say. They were able to choose something they had interest in and they got creative with it. I think it is a good way to incorporate two subjects together in a creative way and it’s useful in all subjects. It also teaches them how to research and use different sources. They can gather information about their project through articles on the internet, newspapers, books, etc. The sources are unlimited.

There are also many different types; Mini-inquiries, curricular inquiries, book club inquiries, and open inquiries. All of these go through the same steps of research; immerse, investigate, coalesce, and go public. During these steps students build background knowledge on the topic, develop research questions and search for information, narrow their topic and dig deeper, and most importantly, they share what they have found and learned to an audience. I especially like this because students get to present all their hard work to the peers around them. I think for this reason that they will want their presentation to be the best.

All in all I would love to do an inquiry unit in my classroom. It gives students a chance to have class discussions, it can boost their confidence when going in front of a classroom to speak, and it gives them a chance to show their creativity.

266 words