Inquiry, Grades 4-6
SRA Imagine It! Teaching Examples
In this series of videos, a class using Level 6 of SRA Imagine It! progresses through their Inquiry during the Ecology unit. By conducting research as part of their language arts instruction, the students are able to investigate the themes they are learning about and develop real-world research skills as part of a collaborative environment.
They begin by discussing what they already know about ecology and adding pertinent information to the Concept/Question Board. As their teacher helps them clarify some of their ideas about ecology, he also takes the opportunity to preteach important vocabulary and build background information.
In the next lesson, as students add more to the Concept/Question Board, the teacher models what makes a good research question. The students then form groups to come up with research questions that begin with “how” or “why” rather than questions that can be answered with a “yes” or “no”. As the students work to refine their questions and narrow down their research plans, groups will often split up, reform, and refocus the aim of their research.
At this point, their teacher models creating a conjecture based on his preliminary research. The student-groups reform to develop their own conjectures as their teacher reminds them that not everyone has to have the same conjecture. Once they have all shared their conjectures, the class discusses how and where to find sources for their research.
Finally, as the groups settle on good conjectures, they practice summarizing and paraphrasing information to identify main ideas in their research materials and begin thinking about how they will present the information they gather.
In this series of videos, a class using Level 6 of SRA Imagine It! progresses through their Inquiry during the Ecology unit. By conducting research as part of their language arts instruction, the students are able to investigate the themes they are learning about and develop real-world research skills as part of a collaborative environment.
They begin by discussing what they already know about ecology and adding pertinent information to the Concept/Question Board. As their teacher helps them clarify some of their ideas about ecology, he also takes the opportunity to preteach important vocabulary and build background information.
In the next lesson, as students add more to the Concept/Question Board, the teacher models what makes a good research question. The students then form groups to come up with research questions that begin with “how” or “why” rather than questions that can be answered with a “yes” or “no”. As the students work to refine their questions and narrow down their research plans, groups will often split up, reform, and refocus the aim of their research.
At this point, their teacher models creating a conjecture based on his preliminary research. The student-groups reform to develop their own conjectures as their teacher reminds them that not everyone has to have the same conjecture. Once they have all shared their conjectures, the class discusses how and where to find sources for their research.
Finally, as the groups settle on good conjectures, they practice summarizing and paraphrasing information to identify main ideas in their research materials and begin thinking about how they will present the information they gather.
