Inquiry Project Process Page

Stage
Immerse
Invite curiosity through a
motivational approach (activity,
strategy, text, video, etc.)
Set up an engaging environment;
surround with materials.
Modeling and/or thinking-aloud

Small-Group Inquiry Model For Inquiry Project

Teacher Role
Student Role
The teacher will take the students on
the planned field trip to the Fredrick
Students will go to Fred Meijer
Meijer Butterfly exhibit, in Grand
Rapids.

Teacher will assign students to a

chaperone, 4-5 students per parent
chaperone. These will have already be
assigned as notes to parents went 1
month ago.
Teacher will ask give the chaperons a
list of things to have the students look
for, and questions to ask while on the
trip.
After the trip the Teacher will have the
kids come to the carpet and make a
graffiti board on a large white sheet of
paper to use throughout the lesson.
The teacher will show the video
http://sciencenetlinks.com/videos/whygarden-wildlife.
The teacher will ask the students to
pair and share with a partner what they
think about habitats, and why they are
important.

Butterfly exhibit. They will listen to

their chaperone and look for and answer
questions prompted by the chaperone.

Students will get back to class and

share ideas and knowledge learned about
butterflies for the teacher to write
down.

Students will watch video:

http://sciencenetlinks.com/videos/whygarden-wildlife.

Students will be asked to think and talk

to a partner about habitats, and why
they are important.
Students will engage in discussion about
living things. Students will use tools
(paper, pencil, white boards, dry erase
markers) to jot down questions or ideas
about living things.
Students will actively listen to the read
a-loud through the guided listening
strategy.

The teacher will talk about habitats, and

tell the students that the focus of their
lesson will be specifically on the habitat
of butterflies.

The teacher will talk to the students

about basic needs of living things.

The teacher will read a-loud Its a

Butterflys Life by Irene Kelly (2007).
The strategy used during this reading
will be Guided Listening.

This strategy will be used because the

students are beginning readers. This
strategy will help the students build
knowledge, organize their thoughts and
ideas, and write or draw their ideas to
share with the class, or group.
The teacher will model the strategy
with the students, using the first page
of text to do so. The teacher will use
drawings, and words to make a
connection with the text. Using
pictures, or simple words to make
connections with the text, and focus on
questions they may have during the
reading.
After the reading the text to the class,
as a whole group we will discuss what
they have written down, or drawn during
the guided listening strategy.

Students will look through texts,

explore websites in the shared folder,
and watch chosen videos that are in the
shared folder. Students will work in
groups and compile their findings into
their groups scrapbook.
Groups will choose school areas to
investigate.
Students will listen to the read aloud
and guided listening to jot down notes
and sketches to refer to the text and
new material learned.
After listening to the read a-loud and
using the strategy to keep notes of new
material learned. Students will share
their ideas in a whole group discussion
about the needs of a butterfly. Teacher
will record all ideas on the board.

The teacher will ask the students to

share what they think butterflies need
to survive? The teacher will refer to
the text and ask the students to share
any ideas about what they heard in the
text about what butterflies need to
survive?
The students will share thoughts and
ideas about the needs of a butterfly,
and the teacher will write all ideas on
the board.
The teacher will group students into
pairs. Teacher will put students
struggling readers or ELL students, with
a strong reader. Teacher will give each
group a copied page to the book Its a
Butterflies Life, and students will write
notes and highlight ideas that are
important (Hoyt, Chapter 6, 2002).
The teacher will tell the students about
the task. The task will be that we are
going to research about butterflies and
their needs to survive. Students will be
working in groups to collect all their
ideas, and place them in a scrapbook.
The scrapbooks will be brought
together in a whole group session, where
we will be making a power point
presentation. The groups scrapbook

Students will read and make notes, or

draw pictures to reference and
remember the reading.

Students will listen to the presentation

of the task. Students will be
researching and compiling information to
present to the butterfly
conversationalist committee, for the
prize of a butterfly garden at their
school.

ideas, and research will be put into a

collaborative power point, which will be
shared with the butterfly
conservationists. This will be voted on,
and a school will be selected to build a
butterfly habitat.

Investigate
Develop questions, search for
information & discover answers.
Modeling strategies (teaching),
thinking aloud, while collecting
information from websites & texts.
o Guide discussions

The teacher will read Incredible Insects

Q&A, By Sally Tagholm (2009). The
teacher will use the reflect thinking with a
drawing of a visual diagram of a butterfly
and what it needs. (Vacca, Chapter 3,
2008). This will be a simple diagram that
will be modeled to the students using
boxes, and either pictures in the boxes or
simple words, that can be added onto later.
Pictures will be allowed and students that
are higher linguistically will be encouraged
to add words and sentences to their
pictures. This strategy will give students a
guide, to build upon in their researching.

After students have discovered what a

butterfly needs and created their
model, students will get into teacher
created groups.

The teacher will discuss and model the

tools and resources the students are
able to use for their researching.

Students will prepare a drawing of what

a butterfly needs diagram. This will be
a simple chart the students creates and
reflects and builds upon all throughout
the activity.

Within groups, students will listen to

the teachers presentation on
researching tools.
Students will utilize websites, texts,
and videos to gather any information on
butterflies and what they need to
survive. The students will collect and
keep the information in their groups
scrapbook.

o
o

Computers, iPads (class folder

will encompass all researching
tools).
Books, magazines, journals.
(zoobooks, national geographic,
selected text that is shared in
the class folder)
A class folder will be created
with online journals, books, songs,
videos, and websites for the
students to safely use.

The teacher will walk through each

resource that is available for the
students to use for their research. The
students will also need to bring their
scrapbook with them during the
research process, to note and keep all
information learned together.

Teacher will tell the students that they

have a starting point with their
research, using the diagram they made
with the butterflies needs chart. They
are encouraged to dig deeper and get
more information from the resources
that are available to them during their
researching.

The teacher will walk around the

classroom and computer lab while the
students are researching. Engaging

Students will research using all the

available tools made available to them.
Students will have computes, IPads,
books, magazines and resources
compiled by the teacher in a researching
folder for the project.

Students will engage in with the teacher

them with questions to further their

research, and increase their interest
and focus. What did you find? Is your
finding about butterflies, or related to
the butterflies habitat? Can you find
out anything more about that?
o Teacher will also be walking
around the computer lab to help
students print off anything they
want to add to their scrapbook.

Stage
Coalesce
Intensify research, synthesize
information, model, organize and
evaluating sources.
Engage in effective group
discussions, organize findings, and
information together.

in a purposeful conversation about their

research.

Teacher Role

Students will research butterflies and

their habitat. If groups find something
that they would like to print off and add
to their scrapbook, teacher will need to
authorize and print the requested
material.

Student Role

As a whole group, student groups will be

called on to share their research.
The strategy Graffiti table will be used
to gather all information shared in group
discussion. Teacher will write down all
students ideas on the board as groups
begin to share research with the class.
The teacher will have the students
group pair and share. They will share
their scrapbooks and what they have
found out about butterflies and their
habitats. The graffiti table and the pair
and share will help ELL learners make
connections, and build on vocabulary.
The teacher will walk around during the
think pair and share activity. Teacher
will be listening to make sure that all

Students will engage in discussion about

their research as a whole group. A
graffiti table, will be used to collect and
record all information.

Students will then pair and share their

scrapbooks about butterflies and their
habitats

Students will be able to answer the

teachers guided questions and show
their findings if requested or asked by
the teacher.

groups have the categories needed to

support their butterfly needs chart.
This was a simple chart, but has all
necessary components to help aid the
students in their researching topics.

Go Public
Share learning with others, reflect,
and create new questions, while
demonstrating what has been
learned.

Scrapbooks will be shared as a whole

group activity. Teacher will begin to
collect and organize information by
topic. Teacher will write down the
butterfly model that the students
created before researching. Then will
write down all ideas, and organize them
into a power point presentation.
Teacher will edit power point before
submitting it to the habitat
conservationist team that will be voting
on the power point.
The winner of the butterfly habitat will
come in the upcoming weeks.
As a closing activity, I would ask
student groups to present their
scrapbooks, and talk about what has
changed in their thinking and knowledge
from the beginning of the unit. Make a

Students will share their scrapbooks as

a whole group activity. Teacher will
collect all information and write it onto
the board.
The students will help the teacher
organize and collect all information and
suggestions for a power point
presentation.
To close students will work present
their scrapbooks to the class. The
teacher will write their knowledge from
the beginning to the endo of the unit in
a t-chart on the white board. Prior
knowledge and new information will be
written down into the appropriate
category.
Students will record how their thinking
has changed from the beginning of the
unit. This will be written down and

T-chart on the board and label then and

now, writing down all ideas in the
categories that are appropriate.
The teacher will make adaptions and
corrections to the project for use in the
future.

placed in the back of their scrapbook.