Why Inquiry Based Learning?

I first became excited about inquiry based learning a few summers ago when I read the book Let's Find Out by Sue Kempton.  I was mesmerized by the way Sue talked with her students and how excited they were to discuss a wide variety of subjects.  The thing that struck me the most was a comment she made in her book about how children come to school so excited about life and full of wonder and how it is often squelched out of them.  I have seen that happen many times, and I am sure I have done it myself.  I couldn't shake the feeling I had that there has to be a better way...

Returning to the kindergarten classroom after seven years, I knew I had the perfect opportunity to try something new.  I started small and added a morning sharing time into my schedule.  This is a time when students could talk about things they wondered about or discoveries they had made.  I had many magazines and books near the sharing area, and the students would look at them when they first arrived to school. I practiced asking questions like, "What makes you think that?" or "What clues do you see in that picture that would help you know if it is a mammal or an amphibian."  This became our favorite time of the day and the students and I learned many things together.  Often, we would find a video online or bring in an artifact to help us understand and learn about a topic. I knew I was doing something right when I was observed by a student teacher and she said, "I notice you never give them the answer, rather, you lead them to figure it out for themselves."

This past year, I kept the sharing time and toward the end of the year I dabbled in some inquiry based learning projects.  They were a combination of teacher-led and student-led and the students loved them!  Most exciting for me was watching the level of engagement amongst the students, especially students who struggled with learning in a traditional way.  I was hooked and knew I had to take it one step further by immersing my classroom in inquiry/project based learning all year long!

I ordered these books and have been reading through them since school let out for the summer.

Not only have they ignited an even larger fire inside me to teach this way, but also, each and every one of these books shares research which proves this way of teaching is not only developmentally appropriate, but helps children develop intellectual dispositions such as perseverance, flexibility, problem solving, creativity, and critical thinking in addition to academic skills. Not only that, but teaching with an inquiry/project based approach allows the teacher and students to co-construct knowledge together.

I am very excited for the new year, but I am worried as well.  How will make sure I cover all the standards? How will I balance everything? How will I share what the students have learned with parents and administrators?  I know I will figure out how to do these things because I believe this is a better way, and I can't wait to begin!