Process Page for Inquiry Project

Small-Group Inquiry Model For Inquiry Project

Stage Teacher Role Student Role

Immerse
Invite curiosity, build background,
surround with materials, modeling,
thinking-aloud

The Teacher will plan instruction
centering on the movement of water,
and bodies of water in our world.
Provide resources and collect a
variety of materials on the topic of
water movement and bodies of water
and flooding.
Build background knowledge by
introducing read alouds Comparing
Bodies of Water and A Drop Around
the World and conducting think alouds
throughout the text to demonstrate
inquiry
Model making comparisons by
completing a comparison chart
Model inquiry throughout read aloud
through completing a Thinking Journal
where she will brainstorm, predict and
record learnings after reading.
Demonstrate how to ask questions
about the water cycle, water
movement, and bodies of water.
Form small groups and pairs that are
balanced and work well together.
Meet with individuals and pairs to
discuss progress and hear their
responses in their Thinking Journal
Facilitate Word Splash Activity
before reading the read aloud texts.
Activate prior knowledge on flooding
through the use of a KWL

Students will work in small groups
to respond to the text by making a
poster showing the features of a
specific body of water based on
the read aloud. Posters will be
displayed and students will use the
posters to complete a comparison
chart that describes the
characteristics of various bodies
of water.
Students will discuss in pairs or
small groups their current
understanding of how water moves
throughout the world. They will
record questions they have about
water movement and potential
sources they could use to find
answers to their questions.
Students will respond to reading
Comparing Bodies of Water using a
Thinking Journal.
Students will respond to the read
aloud A Drop Around the World
using the Collaborative Listening-
Viewing Guide.

Investigate
Develop questions, search for information,
discover answers, modeling strategies,
guide discussions, conferring
Teacher will display national
geographic video on flooding to build
background knowledge and model
thinking aloud as she creates a cluster
word web about the video.
Teacher will model how to record
information during the inquiry
investigation
Teacher will demonstrate using web
based sources and the types of
information to collect through think
aloud and note taking.
Teacher will pose inquiry question on
flooding in our community and
introduce the task.
Teacher will show Diane Sawyer News
clip on causes of floods and model how
to form a hypothesis and gather
information about the topic.
(Research and record)
Teacher will work to supply students
with resources for their research in
response to the task
Teacher will divide students into pairs
and allow teams to research and
record information.
Teacher will demonstrate how to use a
web to organize various causes of
flooding and information surrounding
those causes.

Student will utilize a Cluster Word
Web to gather information and record
interesting and important words from
the video to develop vocabulary about
water movement and flooding.
Students will share their clusters
in groups and report out to the
group their most interesting word,
and the word they dont think any
other group found.
Students will begin the inquiry
process by developing hypothesis
for what could be causing the
flooding and recording it in their
learning log.
Students will conduct research in
pairs utilizing online resources to
seek out answers and information
to support or disprove their
hypothesis.
Students will record information
gained on a graphic organizer.
Students will discover answers to
their question and find specific
facts and details to support their
opinion of why the flooding
happened in Grand Rapids.
Students will Read, Remember and
Retell a web based article.

Stage Teacher Role Student Role

Coalesce
Intensify research, synthesize information,
modeling organization and evaluating
sources, identify key ideas, conferring
Teacher will model how to
synthesize information and
demonstrate how to select one
main reason (or combination or
reasons if applicable) that the
flooding is happening and list out
specific facts and details from
their research that support that
reasoning. (Identifying key ideas
from their research log and
graphic organizer on flood causes)
Teacher will model how to use
graphic organizer containing
synthesized information to create
a final presentation product.
Teacher will model various
examples of project types and
share rubrics for how the project
will be graded.









Students will select the one (or
two) main causes they believe are
responsible for the flooding that
happens in Grand Rapids each
spring. They will then use a graphic
organizer to summarize this cause
and list out several facts and
details that support their
reasoning.
Students will confer and share
their consolidated information
with a partner and in small groups
and will use peer feedback to
continue to develop their ideas and
research
Students will conduct more
focused research on the one cause
they believe is responsible for the
flooding to find greater support
for their reasoning using text and
web based resources
Students will utilize graphic
organizer information to develop a
final presentation tool to
communicate their findings to the
Grand Rapids council.
Students will practice presenting
their information to a partner.


Go Public
Share learning, demonstrate learning in a
variety of ways, understand, reflect, create
new questions
Teacher will model the sharing
of learning with the class,
demonstrating proper volume,
pace, and preparation.

Teacher will model reflection
and how one inquiry can lead to
another through think aloud
and specific examples from
web based resources that lead
to further questions and
peeked curiosity.

Teacher will record new
questions in learning log.







Students will conclude their
research by centering on how
to prevent or prepare for
flooding. They will use a
graphic organizer to log their
top three most important
things to do to be prepared or
prevent a flood.

Student will formulate a final
presentation using Gloggster,
Powerpoint, a poster or a word
document to display their
information.

Student will use a rubric to
ensure they have included all
necessary information and
ideas to answer the inquiry
question.

Student will present their
findings and final project to
the class City Council