C95 (Book Club): Lighting the Spark of Personal Inquiry to Proposing, Pitching, and Planning (3.1-3.3)

This is the section we have been waiting for!  It’s at the heart of how to get started with a personal inquiry, how and what to document, and tons of reflection prompts.  If I were you, I would have my notebook ready to jot down some notes. 

This week would not have been as insightful without the help of our moderator Vidhya G.  She brought her passion for this work by guiding us through this section with thoughtful considerations and enough talk time to digest and reflect on the process.  We love you Vidhya for always supporting this work!

The journey metaphor

I think most people concur that life is a journey full of memorable moments, some overwhelmingly happy while some left us in tears.  These moments have defined who we are today and we will continuously evolve to become better tomorrow.  Kath connects this journey metaphor to learning about inquiry.  “Journeys suggest connection, flow, sequence, and continuity rather than scattered, one-off, fragmented activities.  While a journey may be a meandering one, it is still, for the most part, working towards a destination.  Some journeys are short, others long; some go according to plan while others are beset with unexpected challenges.  Most destinations have multiple pathways or routes to reach them so decisions must be made about the best route under the circumstances.”  I connect to the notion that our journey is not a one-off, rather sustainable over time, so we create a disposition of taking meaningful action. 

​Kath provides some amazing questions to consider before, during, and after our personal inquiries on page 85.  In my breakout room discussion, we all took this differently.  My partner looked at these questions to guide the planning of the shared inquiries and modeling for personal inquiries.  Meanwhile, I saw these question prompts to model with our learners, so they can answer them on their own.  You must check them out, because they really get you thinking.  Here are some questions from each section. 

Before

• Where do I want to go? Why? 
• What other journeys have I been on that are like this and what can I learn from them? 

During

• How am I feeling about this? 
• Is this what I was expecting? 

After

• What’s the best thing about where I have ‘arrived’?
• Is this what I expected? 

Kath reflects on our process as educators, “Challenging yourself to open up opportunities for personal inquiry is undoubtedly a professional learning journey for you…Going into the unknown means being courageous, trusting yourself, and harnessing a spirit of adventure.”  This is my new mantra that I’m going to print and post up on my vision board.  We are all facing an uphill battle with something in our practice.  Take one small step each day to walk around that obstacle, so we can get to the other side. ​

Lighting the spark

​By reading this book, you are lighting your own spark.  Don’t forget this as you progress through this school year.  There will be obstacles, this is the only thing we can count on.  Even still, remember this book club and how it has lit your love of personal inquiry.  

What about our learners?  For some of them, they might struggle to identify their passion and spark.  How can we help them?  Kath provides some invaluable suggestions, “There are numerous reasons why some learners might find it challenging to locate a focus for personal inquiry.  The important thing to remind ourselves i s that learners may well have interests even when they are unable or choose not to articulate them.  It is our job to gently provoke, nurture, and question, and to observe, listen, and trust that we will find a way to help each learner get in touch with their own curiosity.  Or, should I say, to get back in touch with their curiosity.”

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​If we spark our learners, why do many learners fail to move forward with their personal inquiry?  It probably has to do with the systems you have or have not established for them to be independent.  Kath reminds us, “ Simply opening the door to personal inquiry ang expecting all learners to confidently walk through is both naïve and ineffective.”  If you are learning in a traditional setting for most of the day, learners will greatly struggle to pivot towards agentic thinking.  Yet, many of us do this throughout the week and wonder why learners act out during personal inquiry time. 

The shared inquiry or unit of inquiry can be a wonderful time to spark personal inquiries.  This is a highly collaborative time where peers and educators can engage to share ideas that may spark curiosities and wonderings.  Kath suggests, “Whether planned or spontaneous, shared inquiries are designed to build the knowledge bank for our learners and help them develop conceptual understandings about the way the world works…As educators bring big questions to learners in the form of a shared inquiry, they are also broadening the scope of possibility for personal inquiries to follow.”  

As a result of the shared inquiry, we can prompt learners to spark their thinking.  Here are some suggested by the text: 

• “That could be a great thing to inquire into”
• “Sounds like something that would work really well for a personal inquiry”
• “Maybe you could look into that in our discovery workshop”

This section has many ideas on how to spark the curiosity on pages 88-89, including a heart map and a museum of us.  They are wonderful, but it comes from a place of authenticity as you guide the process.  Kath states, “One of the most powerful ways to light the spark in learners is to provide authentic, living examples of what personal inquiry looks like.”  How can we be authentic? We share our personal inquiry that we are exploring at the moment and our process. 

As we have previously discussed, the learning space design greatly supports personal inquiry.  On pages 92-93, Kath provides some learning spaces that will set the stage for discovery workshop.  She has a list of materials that we use each time to transition learners towards the workshop experience.  This reminds me of a conversation with a colleague in my break out room.  In her early years room, they eat their meals, so they set the stage for the experience by putting out wipeable placemats.  This helps her learners to switch gears from learning to eating.  Similarly, we can set the stage for discovery workshop.  Check out the different ideas and concepts that can be explored and the ways to arrange materials.  So amazing!

Example

​Idea or concept:  exploring materials, patterns, and textures

Sample items to arrange:  loose parts - glass bead, buttons, wooden slices of a small branch, shells, seeds, stones, toothpicks, colored matchsticks, pegs, corks. 

Connection time
When I see these concepts and materials, I naturally connect to Misty Paterson's CME (Concepts, Materials, Experiences) model.  You ask learners to express themselves through playful interactions to demonstrate the concept through the use of thoughtful materials and learning experiences.  

To spark your learners further, Kath has provided wonderful visuals to identify big ideas (concepts), determine if the focus is worthwhile, connect with other personal inquiries, trigger our personal interests, sentence stems, and sample ideas.  Please check them out on pages 96-101.  You will be tempted to use all of them in your practice straightaway!

Proposing, pitching, and planning

​Now that we have sparked curiosity, what do we do next?  We need to make a strong proposition, pitch, and plan.  But, this process is going to look differently for each learner.  What will you put in plan, so there are multiple entry points for your learners?  Kath points out, “Personal inquiry is just that -- personal!  So when it comes to ways to organize and plan, we need to acknowledge there is no single or right way to go about it.”  What does this mean for us?  We need to brainstorm with our learners how they might find out and ways they might share and represent their learning to contribute to the community.  An example of this process can be found on page 103.  

The rest of this section focuses on more helpful feedback, initial planning of ideas, preparing a pitch that includes all elements of personal inquiry that we’ve previously unpacked, planning the investigation, reflecting on the process, and questioning tools.  All of this can be found on pages 105-118.  Kath has really curated some amazing resources for us, so the process is well scaffolded while offering learners some agency.  Ack, this stuff is too good. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking by it. 

Well my friends, that’s just a bit to think about as we get into the nitty gritty of planning personal inquiry with our learners.  I need a nap now!