Kindergarteners and Grade 1 students have been extra busy inquirers recently, pursuing wonderings and topics of personal interest resulting from their current unit of inquiry (around Habitats in Kindergarten and around Homes & Shelter in G1) through inquiry circles. (If you missed the introductory post on inquiry circles, click on this link.) While there will be individual blog posts for each grade once each of the classes has completed their inquiry circles, I wanted to provide you with a sneak peek already today. 

TUNING IN - Our students brainstormed what they thought they already knew about their respective topic and what they were curious to find out.

FINDING OUT - SORTING OUT - GOING FURTHER - Our students searched for answers to their questions by looking in books and by exploring online resources (our G1 students also got to interview an expert, Mr. Benson Chang.) They matched the information discovered with the respective questions it answered. The learning often resulted in new questions being asked.

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS AND PREPARING TO SHARE - Our first graders have been busy getting ready to share their learning with each other, and will present this week (our kindergarteners will get to this phase of their inquiries next week). I can't wait to see their presentations, knowing how hard they have worked and how excited they are about what they have found out and learned.

Being part of inquiry circles is always a wonderful experience as our young inquirers' enthusiasm is absolutely contagious! I look forward to sharing more with you soon, stay tuned!

This past week, our second graders embarked on a brand new author inquiry - and they did it with much enthusiasm! I had prepared a big stack of books by Australian children's book author Mem Fox. The books were greeted with many excited cheers as some of our students recognised some of the books in the stack. Our second graders didn't need much invitation to share what they thought they already knew about this author, mentioning that she is a picture book author and that she must be from Australia as Australian animals appear in her books.

Our students enjoyed browsing through some of the author's books to then share some of the things they were noticing; for example
Lots of animals, mainly from Australia
Repetition
Rhyming
Different illustrators
Detailed illustrations
Different kinds of stories
Some stories for younger, some for older readers

Browsing through some of the books and sharing what they were noticing, also brought about some questions and wonderings; for example
How many books has she made so far?
Does she also write nonfiction?
How does she get the ideas for her books?
Is she using experiences from her life in her books?
Does she like animals? 
How does she get different illustrators?

Our first read-aloud - Wilfrid Gordon MacDonald Partridge, which is one of my all-time favorites - was also a big hit, sparking questions and comments after I had finished reading. That we are off to a great start with this author inquiry was also apparent during check out time, as several students checked out a Mem Fox book right away. It is one of our main aims that through the author inquiries our young readers discover authors and books they enjoy reading. I look forward to sharing more books by Mem Fox with our second graders and searching with them for answers to our questions.

Our youngest visitors to the library - our PK1 and PK2 students - enjoy a special treat each week, as they get storytime in two languages. During a typical library time, I start by sharing a read-aloud in English, related to an author inquiry or a skill or disposition we are exploring. After the conversations related to the book, our students have time to choose and check out books. Then they return to the carpet for storytime in Mandarin, led by their respective Mandarin teacher. 

Our third graders have continued to enjoy listening to picture book stories by Oliver Jeffers as well as watching videos to find out more about the talented picture book maker. There has been much interest for his books during check out time and I hope you, the parents, have already had a chance to see one of his books at home.

As part of this inquiry, and in order to ensure that our students can independently locate the books by this author/illustrator (as well as other authors and topics of interest), we also embarked on revisiting how materials are organised on our shelves and how the library is set-up in general. As call numbers are key to locating library books (with and without the use of our online catalog), we started revisiting the make-up of call numbers with the help of the following video (which many of our returning students remembered well from last school year).

Next, we sent our students on a call number scavenger hunt, to allow them to apply this knowledge around call numbers in locating books in all of our main areas, i.e. the Everyone area (where we keep our picture books), the Fiction area (which houses all of our chapter books and middle grade novels) and the Nonfiction area (which houses all of our informational books). 

With great team effort and much focus, our third graders located books based on the given call numbers in the respective areas.

After they had located all books through their call number, they shared some general observations they had made in the process about the set-up of the library, such as all fiction books (in the Everyone and Fiction areas, are organised in alphabetical order according to the author's last name; and books in the Nonfiction are arranged in numerical order, each number representing a topic as defined by the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

In addition to enjoying read-alouds, sharing thoughts and ideas about the stories, and participating in other learning engagements like our scavenger hunt, our third graders love their check out time: searching for books to take home as well as finding a comfy place to read and share books with friends. Keep up the great work, Third Graders!

​As several classes embark on inquiry circles over the next couple of weeks (our first graders have actually already begun this past week), you might hear your child mention inquiry circles or hear us teachers and librarians referring to it – usually with quite a bit of excitement. So, I thought I would share a bit about inquiry circles in general upfront (the what, the how and the why) before sharing more in detail about what they look like in specific classrooms in further blog posts.

WHAT?
Over a total of about six sessions, students inquire into a topic of interest related to their current unit of inquiry, pursuing their personal wonderings and questions.

HOW?
In small groups with other students interested in the same topic and supported by a teacher/librarian (in some classes we also have a few parent volunteers), students go through an inquiry cycle (as described by Kath Murdoch). They first brainstorm and share with each other what they think they already know about their topic, share what they are curious to find out and think of possible ways they might find answers to their questions (TUNING IN).  

Then they begin to search for information on their topic in various ways such as reading books, exploring online resources, speaking to an expert, and making their own observations and experiments (FINDING OUT). As they are finding out, they sort the information according to which of their questions it answers (SORTING OUT) and often ask further questions (GOING FURTHER). 

Next, they look at what they have learned to identify some of the big ideas (DRAWING CONCLUSIONS) to then think of a way to act on what they have learned, like sharing their learning with their classmates and teachers (ACTING). At the end of the process, we reflect not only on what we learned but also on how we learned, identifying what went well and what we might do differently next time (REFLECTING).

WHY?
With inquiry circles, we are honouring our students’ inquiries, what they wonder about, are curious to find out as we pursue individual student questions. This motivates our students, creating high engagement and lots of energy. Through this, more challenging work gets accomplished, as the group also benefits from the individual skill sets and dispositions each student brings to the group, making diversity a real asset. During inquiry circles, our students experience what learning and working together looks and feels like. Overall, it enhances student achievement and provides lots of opportunities for our students to practise a wide variety of skills...
 
… and most importantly, because our students LOVE to learn this way, and so do the grown-ups – teachers, librarians, and parents – who are facilitators and co-learners in the process!

Below is an example from a past grade 1 classroom, with students explaining the process they have gone through. Enjoy!