*Project Design Activity

• 1. Define inquiry in your own words (share out: what are the key themes?)

     1. Take a look at the lesson or unit you brought. Why do you feel that it is really important to teach it?

     2. Where does the idea for this lesson come from? What is the motivation? Why is it important?

     3. How can we make our important learning goals more student generated?

  2. How do you get students to engage in authentic inquiry?

     1. What are the opportunities? What experiences can you expose them to that will prompt the types of questions that are worth investigating?

     2. How can you structure this? How do you make it accessible to all students?

     3. What are the challenges?

  3. Take a look at the difference between PBL and “doing projects”: identify one thing that you think might be difficult for you.

  4. Important precursor to designing a project is thinking about what you want students to know/be able to do beyond strict content knowledge.

  5. Where do project ideas come from?

1. What is the role of the teacher in the inquiry driven classroom? 

2. Work time: to get started on designing your project, you can try THIS to start your work if you are looking for support of your brainstorming process. Otherwise, try working in the "transfer tasks" section of a UBD template or whatever unit planning tool you typically use. 

For an example of the Inquiry Process in a Social Studies classroom, check out the "Inquiry Examples" page to the left.