Inquiry more than a buzz word

At Wairakei Primary School we develop our inquiries for the term and the year around a central idea. This year it is taonga. A successful inquiry is taught across curriculum areas where students practice skills in a variety of ways. The model, Understand, Know, Do gives us a framework to develop learning activities and opportunities.

Integration

Integration is the key to a successful inquiry. The more opportunities across the school day that students have to talk, write, explore, create and recreate, the more they will learn about the inquiry. This is much more powerful than a half hour lesson two or three afternoons a week.

What We Did

Room 12 students enjoy building, writing, and creating. When planning classroom activities I included the concept of taonga in all areas of the curriculum. For example, we wrote about our taonga. (English Curriculum), we created a class waka and self portraits to showcase our differences and similarities. (The Arts curriculum), We used construction materials to create a whare and a photo frame. We reworked our initial ideas and made another prototype (Technology Curriculum). We worked with buddies, in small groups and on our own, developing social skills, building resilience, and coping with disappointment. (The Key Competencies).  We developed an understanding of Time (Mathematics). We worked with students from other classes during our PE rotations so the older students could mentor and support the younger students (tuakana teina). 

There was always an element of student choice as I wanted students to understand that it is ok to make mistakes and to try again. For example, I didn’t show them how to make the whare, merely provided a range of construction materials and stood back while they problem solved, or not, in some cases. We talked about what worked and what didn’t and why and why not. Students then had another opportunity to rework their whare learning from past attempts.