"How MIGHT we..." Stoking the Fires of Student Inquiry UsingConditional Language

How might we HOOK our kids on LEARNING? Encourage intellectual curiosity in & out of the classroom.

This past July, to mark the one-year anniversary of the Ice Bucket Challenge, I tweeted the PEEL template that I developed for our Tuesdays With Morrie unit. Click the link below to download a PDF.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzxBb04r9LK9aXYwVm1FZHRxLTA/view?usp=sharing

Mary Cantwell @scitechyedu proceeded to chat with me, as I tagged the tweet #dtk12chat. Mary & my Head of School, Dr.LisaAbel-Palmieri @learn21tech, founded the #dtk12chat. I'm indebted to Mary, even though she nearly gave me heatstroke... We'll talk about that later. She offered insights and advice for effectively implementing this technique--HMW...

"The 4th word is critical", she remarked. It's true, too: just look at how limiting and scripted my "Ice Bucket Challenge" template appears--full of words like "game-change" and specifics such as "social media campaign" or "fight against terminal disease". Sure--I developed it for a very specific part of a unit. But in doing so, I inadvertently put limits on my students' creativity.

This was "just-in-time" intervention. As I spent my summer traveling between Pittsburgh and Chicago, returning from the Active Learning Summit hosted by Lisa, I was in the right frame of mind to self-evaluate. Mary's observations challenged and inspired me. I had become so engrossed in our conversation, I accidentally got off the red line at the wrong stop. Trust me--an added two mile walk in +90* heat couldn't even slow down my momentum.

I love Pittsburgh... I'm a "Pittsburgh Girl"... But, my goodness--public transit in Chicago is just incredible. We have much to learn, Steel City.

Big Take-Aways:

I did not realize that July's Active Learning Summit would inspire me to resign my position of nearly eight school years and take on the role of Cultural Literacy teacher at an innovative start-up high school founded in the tradition of Catholic schooling for urban youth and families of any means. 

I did not realize that a Twitter brainstorming session would lead me to question and redevelop so much of my digital portfolio.

I did realize, though, on that hot-hot afternoon, that we need to be brave enough to look in the mirror and critically take stock of our work. To accept that the iterative process is ongoing and will have necessary setbacks and failures along the way. These missteps are not deal breakers, but on the contrary they are moments of exponential growth. Personally and professionally... If we allow them to be.

I completed a class in Computational Thinking, too. Talk about a truly inspired summer--quality time to push myself as a teacher and lifelong learner.

I've posted a few templates below--some are in varying stages of the iterative process. By no means am I an expert--but I want to share my work to help you to find your best work in and out of the classroom, too. Let's encourage each other and motivate one another!

The key, I believe, is to use conditional language as much as possible... Let's not lock our students into looking for one solution, but encourage free thinking in all of its varying forms. We can hook our kids on learning by creating relevant and thought-provoking discussion starters and writing prompts that tap into cultural movements. So, let the iterative process begin!

Templates:

PEEL + image/INFOGRAPHIC + writing prompt (PEEL = point, explanation, evidence, link to main idea)

HMW + PEEL + image