Sparking Curiosity

 Sparking Curiosity 

In observing our youngest students, I’m amazed--and frankly overwhelmed--with their questions. With a constant stream of “why” questions, they seek understanding by being curious. For a variety of reasons, student curiosity and engagement wane as they get older. Reflecting on my own teaching, far too often my classroom routine was too predictable with repeated stimuli (1. Review, 2. Direct Instruction, 3. Group work, 4. Individual work), thus lowering the brain’s interest and student learning with little opportunity for inquiry. 

 

How can we spark wonderment and curiosity? 

Novelty

Starting class with an unusual learning experience primes the brain for learning and piques curiosity. When stress is low and learning experiences are relevant to students, cognition is greater. Similarly, when learning is pleasurable, the brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that stimulates memory and promotes the release of acetlycholinem, which increases attention (Judy Willis). 

 

Present questions to your students. 

By focusing on the essential questions of the unit, we engage students with the most challenging and hardest questions. For example, I observed one of our elementary teachers expanding on the traditional K-W-L (Know-Want to Know-Learned) by asking the class with “What’s so amazing about water?” The traditional K-W-L enables us to focus on what students are most wondering about. 

 

Present a problem 

Present a dilemma, problem, task or situation to your students for them to solve. Here’s a great inquiry protocol from AVID. 

 

Ask and allow the difficult and complex questions 

Question asking--by both the teacher and students--should be a social/behavioral and academic goal of every lesson. Strive to develop activities that invite and require students to figure out what they want to know and how they can find the answer. This requires that we provide students with time and scaffold learning for them to inquire, explore and learn. This can be as simple as having students research a question on the internet (and confirming their answer with multiple sources) to figure out how to solve a math problem on their own. 

 

Student Predictions 

Have students make predictions about their learning. This can be subject-specific or as simple as having students predict what questions you might ask on an assessment. Of course, this works better for higher-order questions as opposed to knowledge-based ones. 

 

13 Best Bets 

The following questions come from Tools for Igniting Curiosity and can be used for instructional planning. 
  1. What’s unique/novel/unprecedented about it? 
  2. What’s controversial about it?  
  3. What’s strange/mysterious about it? 
  4. What’s relatable about it? 
  5. What’s humorous/funny about it? 
  6. What’s amazing / hard to believe about it? 
  7. Why do people care about it? 
  8. What’s something about it that most people overlook / don’t know / get wrong? 
  9. How do people react to it? What are some different perspectives or opinions on it? 
  10. What good is it in the “real world”? 
  11. Where are there opportunities within it to create suspense? 
  12. Where are there opportunities within it for students to make discoveries? 
  13. What about it gets you fired up? Why are you excited to teach it?

 

Why is this important? 

Research indicates that students who generate their own questions have better learning outcomes and retention enabling deeper transfer learning (Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2020). 

By creating the opportunities for inquiry and sparking curiosity, we help develop students' social emotional skills and academic skills including problem-solving and critical thinking. 

 

Need to Know and Tasks

Please complete your Kronos today 

Wednesday is a half day for students and DPLC 

  • Secondary teachers: please use the extended office hours to request and work with students 

Middle School Advisory

Tuesday: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15Rmos8e0XLAX5uKIJNQaj7Oe3T8xBBJK9nOEjMXy6wU/edit#slide=id.g106237785a5_0_0 

Thursday: Academic Support Period 

 

Elementary Announcements

Monday: http://youtu.be/YjjcGeGAEzc?hd=1 

Tuesday: http://youtu.be/n0SFX0aLtEg?hd=1 

Wednesday: http://youtu.be/vpkRsnoiljc?hd=1 

Thursday: http://youtu.be/6MdYsE8RizE?hd=1 

Friday: http://youtu.be/yiGlv_Q4oM4?hd=1

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