Quite often, I start off my science units having the kids write one question about it on a sticky note. We then read our questions to the class and poll the students: Is it testable in the classroom, or do we need to research it? Then, the sticky note goes in the correct column.
I jazzed it up by having the kids ask their question in "Shabooyah" form:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qImdxtdJ32Y
They say, "My name is ___________," and we say, "YEAH???" and then they say, "I have a question," and we say, "YEAH???" and then they read the question instead of interesting facts about themselves as the cast of the office does in the above video.
This unit was about ROCKS. Woohoo! I decided to do something
NEW!
DIFFERENT!
SLIGHTLY HIGHER LEVEL OF THINKING ACCORDING TO OUR FRIEND BLOOM!
They Shabooya'd their questions, but didn't take a vote. They just put it up on the chart. THEN, we came up with our OWN categories afterward!
Some questions were about the history of rocks: How did they get their name? Who discovered the first rocks? You can read the rest of the categories and see the questions more easily if you click on the pictures.
The final product!
It used to be that you could just throw up a cute title and some work on a bulletin board, but now you have to add an exemplar and the objective. Less time-consuming than I thought, and actually it's pretty valuable. Thanks, EEF!
Exemplar
I love Post-It chart paper (accepting donations now!) but I always rip it when I tear it off.
Originally, I put this question under the "Tests to Perform in Class" category, but thought twice since this particular inquiry would come back to haunt me at the unit's end.
I teach a number of FLEPs that maybe shouldn't have been FLEPed.
I recommend these simple Total Participation Techniques (sorting) and Bloom's levels (categorizing and inquiring) for any KWL-type unit intro!
