Designing Guided Inquiry units
Do you need help to create a GI unit? Here is the place to get it.
Just create a post with your request!
We invite you to ask for help if you need it with any stage of designing and/or carrying out of a GI unit. Please respond here with your questions, and we will do our best to help you. Feel free to contribute your own already created GI units and scaffolds. Send them to either of the following emails, and we will put them on the blog for you.
- asheerman@gmail.com
- lefitzgerald@csu.edu.au
Thank you, and we look forward to both helping you, and learning from you.
Lee and Alinda
Hi Alinda and Lee,
I’m hoping to teach a GI unit with my Yr 2 students in Term 2-3. They are doing a history unit as part of the Australian curriculum. The students look at their local area and the history associated with it. Outcomes include things like:
– the history of a significant person, building or site in the local area;
– the importance today of a historical site;
– the impact of changing technology of people’s lives;
– sequencing familiar objects;
– distinguishing between past,present and future;
– identify and compare features of objects from the past;
-exploring a point of view.
I’m having trouble coming up with “the big question” … how to get everyone interested and on board. I am in the ACT and I have the students for 45 minutes each week, with teacher collaboration.
Has anyone done a guided inquiry unit based around these areas? Anyone have an ideas to share? Or want to have a conversation to help me get going?
Many thanks,
Gemma Wilson, Burgmann Anglican School, ACT.
Hi Gemma
Last year I helped Year 2 with a unit on people who help us in our community and this was tackled by providing work stations for all the selected areas. But first we allowed students plenty of time to look at books, online Encyclopaedias and some selected videos for each student to learn and write sentences about 5 types of services.
They selected one and went to the ‘station’ for more specific learning. They eventually wrote an information report and the ‘Share’ component was to have a morning where parents came in from all classes and went from room to room to hear all the little experts tell about their 5 slide PowerPoints- which was to achieve their ICT goal as well. The students were ‘dressed up’ and some Mums put on food in the appropriate groups (eg Bakers 🙂
Scaffolds were altered to make them ‘Year 2 level’ but students still gained an overview then selected an area in which to specialise in groups. They did write individual information reports as this was something needing assessment.
I still haven’t finished reflecting and sharing that experience but it will eventually appear in the 2015 Guided Inquiry part of my school library blog bacirc.edublogs.org (top bar)
I can see this working well in your curricular area as well. Hope this helps!
Alinda