Process Page for Inquiry Project

Andrea Hall- Natural Resources- 3rd Grade

Stage

Small-Group Inquiry Model For Inquiry Project

Teacher Role

Immerse
o Invite curiosity through a
motivational approach
(activity, strategy, text,
video, etc.): Launch
o Set up an engaging
environment; gathers &
organizes curricular
materials
o Build background/activate
schema
o Modeling and/or thinkingaloud
o Strategy work (teaching)
o Create passion & curiosity
o Modeling of inquiry,
thinking aloud,
demonstrating asking
questions
o Organizes small group
formation
o Confers with
groups/individuals

Launch: Deliver letter from Michigans

Department of Natural Resources asking for
their help
Create small groups students will work in for
the remainder of the project
Compile slide show of Earths natural
resources that have been destroyed or damaged
to shock students
Activate students prior knowledge of natural
resources and how they can be destroyed by
showing pictures
Introduce Graffiti Board Strategy
Model strategy
Introduce text for guided practice with Graffiti
Board
Jo
in
http://studyjams.scholastic.com/stud
yjams/jams/science/energy-lightsound/natural-resources.htm
groups as they share to confirm students were
able to grasp the idea of the graffiti board and
apply what they learned from the text to it

Student Role

Read letter and discuss with

group
Watch slide show and turn
to talk with group about
what they are seeing
Share their thoughts whole
group
Watch how to do a Graffiti
Board
Complete Graffiti Board
Share with small groups

Investigate
o Develop questions
o Students search for
information & discover
answers
o Modeling strategies
(teaching), thinking aloud,
questioning
o Modeling gathering
information
o Students collect information
from websites & texts
o Guide discussions
o Confers with
groups/individuals

formative assessment
Introduce Research notebooks to compile
information learned
Show to prep for field trip:

http://www.pbslearningmedia.or

g/resource/ess05.sci.ess.earthsys
.recycleplant/visiting-a
recycling-plant/

Class field trip to Kent County Recycling Center

Model how to navigate websites from resource
list as well as what information not to trust (ex.
Wikipedia) This is where students will have
time to explore all site on the research page.
This may take many class periods.

http://pbskids.org/eekoworld/

https://www.nrdc.org/get-involved

https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/basics/index.html

https://www3.epa.gov/recyclecity/mainmap.htm

http://www.eia.gov/kids/

http://www.childrenoftheearth.org/

http://www.earthmatters4kids.org/main.html

Add findings to research

notebook
Watch Video as a prep for
the field trip. Take notes in
research notebook
Attend field trip with
research notebook and write
down anything learned or
that could be useful for the
project
Explore websites to find
information about natural
resources and how to
protect, extend, and restore
them
Practice 10 important words
Strategy
Explore text with group
Add to research notebooks
as texts are explored
Explore Newsela text set to
see if any articles will help
with the topic the group
choose
Discuss in groups what why
have learned about natural
resources and how to
protect, extend and restore
them

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr

http://www.miwaterstewardship.org/youthstewards

http://www.michigan.gov/kids/0,4600,7-24746693---,00.html

Model how to use strategy: 10 Important words

Introduce -How much water do you use?
Americans aren't sure, survey shows . Article
from Newsela Text Set
for guided practice with 10 important words

Share/introduce the texts

One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women

of the Gambiaby Miranda Paul , Elizabeth Zunon

Basher Science: Climate Changeby Simon Basher

The New 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the

Earthby EarthWorks Group , The Earthworks Group

You Wouldn't Want to Live Without Clean Water! by Roger

Canavan, David Antram

Repurpose It: Invent New Uses for Old Stuffby Tammy Enz

Green City: How One Community Survived a Tornado and

Rebuilt for a Sustainable Futureby Allan Drummond

The Earth Book

by Todd Parr

Books are introduced one by one and groups

choose a few to read though and gather
information into their research notebooks
students do not need to read all but they are
there for perusing
Introduce text set on Newsela- students may
choose a few articles for use in their group if
they wish
Circle room as students work through sites and
texts to gather information (many days spent
on websites and with books)
Meet with groups to check in on understanding
and progress (formative assessment)

Stage
Coalesce
o Intensify research: websites,
texts, videos, articles, etc.
o Synthesize information,
answering questions
o Modeling organization

Teacher Role

Student Role

Model how to use an I-Chart

Guide students in completing I-chart with:
Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of
People Who Are Helping to Protect Our Planet
by Harriet Rohmer , Julie McLaughlin

Choose service project topic

to focus on
Work on/Complete I-Chart
Complete research- students
continue to research their
project with the use of
provided websites and texts

o
o
o
o
o

synthesizing information
Identify key ideas; relate
back to standards
Effective group discussions
Groups organize their
findings
Teaching strategies to pull
information together
Confers with
groups/individuals

Go Public
o Share learning with others
(who is audience?)
o Demonstrate learning in a
variety of ways
o Reflect, create new questions
o Learning to be an audience
member
o Summative Assessment
o Self-evaluation

Approve service project

Meet with groups to help guide through
finishing research and creating service project

Create Powerpoint or Prezi

Practice presentation as a
group

Introduce representative from DNR

Evaluate Presentation and Service project with
the rubric Summative assessment
Asks questions of presenters

Small groups present their

PowerPoint or Prezi to the
class and rep from the DNR
Presentation includes
information on what natural
resources are, how they are
threatened, and how they
can be restored,
In presentation students are
presenting a threat to
natural resources in our
community and a solution
through a service project
Students not presenting
listen, ask questions at
appropriate times, and
applaud at the end
Complete self-evaluation on
their level of performance
in the group as well as what

they gained from the project

Strategies

I-Chart- Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of People Who Are Helping to Protect Our Planet by Harriet Rohmer , Julie
McLaughlin

o I chose this strategy because the I-Chart is a great tool or organizing thinking. I wanted to choose 3 very different
strategies so I could reach as many different kinds of learners as possible. This one is for the student who needs to
organize their thoughts and learnings into charts.
o Because the end goal is to create a service project that will help protect natural resources this text will help
students organize what they lean about protecting our planet. They can then apply this to their final project.
o I would model this strategy with a different text so students can understand how to fill in the chart. The chart
could be very overwhelming without clear modeling. Next I would read the text and we would fill this out
together as a class. This will create a great source for students to use while creating their own project.
o This would benefit students who need or like structured information. It would also benefit students who struggle
with learning from this sort of strategy. Because we are doing it all together all students will be able to use this
tool to help with their final product.

10 Important Words-How much water do you use? Americans aren't sure, survey shows . Article from Newsela Text Set
o I chose this strategy because word choice is important. I love how I am not picking out the important words from
a text and telling students about them, but they are taking the time to decide what ones are most important.
o This article contains many important words, such as drought, related to natural resources and gives a good way to
get students discussing these words from a real life perspective. This strategy supports the text well because there
are many key and important words found within the article we will be discussing.
o I would first model this strategy with another article. Showing students how and why I am choosing words I feel
are important. I would them introduce the text to them. I would ask them to work in groups and choose 7-10
words that are the most important words to the article. We would then graph the words on the board/wall. This

would lead to discussion about why the words are important in the text as well as how we relate these words and
the article to our study of natural resources.
o This would be a great benefit to students as a way to enhance their vocabulary, help them focus on key words and
point in a text, and help them explore words they may not have much experience with.

Graffiti Board- Video- http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/science/energy-light-sound/natural-resources.htm

o I chose this strategy because the video provides words as well as pictures that will get students thinking. This is a
great source to have students share what they are thinking as it progresses.
o This strategy supports text because the words are on the screen as well as beautiful pictures. It also has soft music
playing in the background. All of these together create feelings, emotions, and thoughts. Students have the
opportunity to expresses what they think, wonder, and feel on paper with color, words, and pictures. This will
create a great experience for sharing.
o I would first model this strategy by showing a short clip or video on my back T.V. While this is playing I would
create by graffiti board on the document camera so students can see how I create it as the video plays. I would
then talk about why I wrote what I did, what I drew and why, and even what colors I chose and why. I would then
pass out large paper to groups as well crayons, markers, and color pencils. Then as the video plays I would read
the text aloud to them, stopping every so often so students had time to complete their thoughts on the large paper.
This would then be used for whole group discussion about the video.
o This would benefit students because all would be able to express their thoughts and feelings in their own way. I
feel this strategy is especially important for some students who are visual, or who struggle to express their
thoughts in more traditional classroom ways.

Differentiation
Differentiation occurs often in the inquiry process about. Below you will find it listed as well as above in the process.

Paired learning- students are often working in small groups, allowing them to learn from each other as well as tackle
things they may not have been able to do alone

Visuals- visuals are used such as videos and document camera work
Hands on learning/Field trips- Field trip to Kent County Recycling Center
Encourage drawing and writing- graffiti boards and research notebook