Just before the October break, G1 students started an inquiry about children's author Robert Munsch. Listening to one of the audio books (Roar!), which the author narrates himself and generously shares for free through his website, was a powerful provocation. Students were immediately excited about the idea of finding out more about the author. It took just a few moments for our inquirers in both classes to fill up an entire poster with questions. We could hardly keep up with writing as students shared their questions. Not only was it exciting to see their enthusiasm but fantastic to begin the inquiry based on such a wide range of questions. There were questions related to him as a person, as a writers, and as a narrator. I could tell that students were especially impressed by the way he roared (and there is a quite a bit of roaring in the story - very funny, you should check it out). |
There are lots of animals in his stories.
He writes about many different things.
His stories are funny.
His voice is funny.
He reads with a lot of expression.
He likes to use repetition in his writing.
He does not draw the pictures but writes the stories.
He works with an illustrator called Michael Martchenko.
Over the next weeks, we will continue reading Robert Munsch books and also look at other ways that might help us answer our questions. In the process, students will experience a sequence of search strategies that guide them to kid-friendly information sources. Further, they go through an inquiry process while being introduced to a new author, whose books might become a favourite.
While the video below features only 1ai students as it was prepared as part of 1ai's assembly on November 1, 2013, it is a snapshot of what both grade 1 classes have done so far in this inquiry - stay tuned for more upcoming news!