Reading Guide

Hacking Project Based Learning: 10 Easy Steps to PBL and Inquiry in the Classroom

Ross Cooper and Erin Murphy

Cooper and Murphy offer a user friendly, step by step resource to implement PBL in your classroom. With chapters that focus on collaboration, assessment, feedback and mini-lessons, this is a great resource for any teacher starting a PBL project.

The Innovator’s Mindset

George Couros

Couros outlines the importance and benefits of encouraging students to be innovative in the classroom and helps teachers see how they can give students opportunities to be innovative. Innovation, creativity and critical thinking are skills that students will take with them.

Intentional Innovation: How to Guide Risk-Taking, Build Capacity and Lead Change

A.J. Juliani

Juliani explains the importance of innovation and provides guidance as you provide students with voice and choice in your classroom. He also includes helpful specific examples of activities.

Students at the Center: Personalized Learning with Habits of Mind

Bena Kallick and Allison Zmuda

Authos Kallick and Zmuda outline how to create a learning community that provides students with opportunities for voice, social construction and self-discovery.

Shift This

Joy Kirr

Kirr’s book is a fantastic resource to help you get started creating a classroom which is more student-led with greater personalized learning. She explores small changes you can make so you don’t feel overwhelmed trying to change everything at once.

The Genius Hour Guidebook

Denise Krebs and Gallit Zvi

Genius Hour allows students to choose any topic that interests them for free inquiry learning. This is a fantastic resource to guide you through the different elements of Genius Time.

Dive Into Inquiry

Trevor MacKenzie

This is an essential resource to anyone interested in inquiry based learning. Mackenzie identifies the different stages of inquiry which are essential to help build student independence so they are ready for inquiry based learning.

Inquiry Mindset

Trevor MacKenzie and Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt

Inquiry Mindset explores how to help students adopt an inquiry mindset that will increase student engagement and learning through students' own curiosities.

Growing success: assessment, evaluation and reporting in Ontario’s schools: covering grades 1 to 12

Ontario, Ministry of Education

This resource discusses assessment and evaluation guidelines for Ontario curriculum, grades 1-12. It includes principles, policies, learning skills and achievement charts, modifications and templates to support teachers in the assessment process. Teachers using IBL projects should use this document as a support and guide to their assessment process.

Inquiry Based Learning

Ontario Ministry of Education

21st Century Competencies

Ontario Ministry of Education

Make Just One Change - Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions

Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana

This book explains the Question Formulation Technique which helps students learn to produce, improve, and prioritize their own questions. This will help students create relevant guiding questions to drive their learning as they prepare for inquiry based learning.

Empower - What Happens When Students Own Their Learning

John Spencer and A.J. Juliani

Empower is a fantastic resource to inspire and guide teachers as they make shifts toward student-driven learning.

Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student

John Spencer and A.J. Juliani

Launch provides a strong foundation for teachers as they switch to student-driven and free inquiry learning. It outlines ways to include design thinking in the classroom and includes lists of questions to help students who struggle to find their interests.

IQ - A Practical Guide to Inquiry-Based Learning

Jennifer Watt and Jill Colyer

Watt and Colyer explain the inquiry process and provide examples of how inquiry based learning can be integrated into lessons. You can read a sample of the book (Chapter 3 - Formulate Questions) here. Just click on Sample Chapter.