Wonder Wonder on the Wall

When I think back about my education experience, all I can remember is being assigned worksheet after worksheet, sitting in rows, and not working with peers to figure out our work together. My education was my problem and no one else’s. Even in university, we sit and act as a sponge to soak up knowledge from the teacher. When I learned about inquiry based teaching methods for the first time, I knew right away that I wanted to use this method when I became a teacher.

Inquiry teaching is an instruction method adopted in the 20th century that was brought to attention by the philosopher John Dewey, that allows students to investigate, solve problems, issues, and come to terms with learning in a creative manner (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014; Özdemir & Isik, 2015). The students use the world around them to form questions and gather evidence to comprehend their environment (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014). Bosse et al. (2009) states that young children have a natural curiosity driving them to question, explore, investigate and hypothesize.

Jennifer Brokofsky (2011) outlines in her blog that since children are all born with a sense of wonderment, it is the teacher’s duty to provide opportunities everyday to allow for their wonderment to take place. Letting the students know that their questions are valued and important allows inquiry based education to take place. Brokofsky builds a culture of wonder in her classroom by implementing ideas such as a Wonder Wall, Wonder of the Week, and a wonder center.

A wonder center is an area in the classroom that allows the students to write down their questions during center time or writing workshops during the school day (Heard & McDonough, 2009). The students write their questions on a sticky note and post it to the center. Later in the week, the teacher goes through the questions with the class and forms a discussion. In the discussion, the teacher encourages the students to explore and research their questions. An example from Heard and McDonough (2009) on how to incorporate these questions into daily curriculum is to have the students write a nonfiction-writing piece. This will allow the students to incorporate their language arts skills from the curriculum and allows the students to discover and unpack a topic they are interested in learning about.

Latham, E. [Erin]. (2011). Wonder center [Pintrest post]. Retrieved November 2, 2015, from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/265149496780945606/

Wonder of the Week is a center in the classroom that Heard and McDonough (2009) describe as an area for students to think and respond to a posted question during free time that week. These questions are taken from the wonder center questions that are posed by the students themselves. Students write their answer on the chart paper provided. For effective practice, it is the teacher’s duty to provide pondering time allowing the class to research, discuss, and write together about the question. Class research includes reading and looking in books, looking into television programs, reading and looking in magazines, and various computer pages (Heard & McDonough, 2009). I think this is beneficial for all students because it forces them to work in groups, learn research strategies, and use higher order thinking about the various topics that they are interested in and can relate to.

Finally, Brokofsky’s wonder culture also incorporates a wonder wall.  A wonder wall is a place in the classroom where groups of questions are recorded, and shared. As students discover the answers to the questions, they can be crossed off and more can be added (J Brokofsky, 2011). I think this would be most beneficial to use at the beginning of a unit for any subject. Ask the students what they know, and what they want to know. This will also allow the teacher to gauge where to focus their attention in the curriculum, and how to make the unit more exciting for the students.

C Anderson. (2013, July 10). Wonder wall. [Web long comment]. Retrieved from http://welcometofirstgraderoom5.blogspot.ca/2013/07/wonder-wall.html

For the past three years, I have worked at a science and engineering camp based at the University of Waterloo, where their philosophy is to foster the camper’s natural curiosity and interest through hands-on experiences. While working at this camp, I have learned first hand about the diversity that every child possess and how to incorporate their diverse learning to meet camp requirements. Last summer, I watched another camp implement a ‘wonder wall’ into their room. Over the summer I witnessed the success and triumphs that occurred in that camp room compared to others. They promoted and encouraged their campers to think critically about the topic they were going to learn. I found the students to be happier and more excited to come to camp because the students began to believe in themselves and that they could exceed the leader’s expectations.

This is similar to the TEDX talk by Shelly Write. In her talk, she discusses the importance of having the student’s guide where the learning is going (Write, 2013). The teacher does not have to be the ‘all and powerful’ knowledge-filled person in the room. In fact, she stated that she was only there to help remove obstacles that prevented the students from meeting their goals. It is the teacher’s responsibility to allow school to be a place to set fire to all children’s hearts, toward curiosity and to allow them to find their passion in the world (Write, 2013). This is why I think that a using an inquiry based teaching method, and in particular wonderment, should be a key aspect in all classrooms.

References

Bosse, S., Jacobs, G., & Anderson, T. L. (2009). Science in the air. Young Children. 64(6). 10-15.

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

Heard, G., & McDonough, J. (2009). A place for wonder: Reading and Writing nonfiction in the primary grades. Georgia, ATL: Stenhouse Publishers

J Brokofsky. (2011, June 19). Building a culture of wonder: Inquiry in primary education. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from https://jenniferbrokofsky.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/building-a-culture-of-wonder-inquiry-in-primary-education/

Ozdemir, O. & Isik, H. (2015). Effect of inquiry-based science activities on prospective elementary teachers’ us of science process skills and inquiry strategies. Journal of Turkish Science Education. 12(1). 43-56.

Write, S. (2013). The power of student-driven learning [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fMC-z7K0r4