Lots of Learning with The Teachers College

I received some amazing training this past week.
As I included in an earlier post, I am in training with Natalie Louis from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.

One aha moment was Inquiry Lessons.
Have you heard of this?
This was my first time hearing of them and they are complete genius!
Which is to be expected from Lucy Calkins and the Teachers College.

Here is an example of one way you could use an inquiry lesson:

Inquiry Lessons These lessons happen about three times throughout a unit; approximately every eight days.  It is not considered a mini-lesson as it will take quite a bit longer.  The purpose is to assess student progress and monitor what learning from daily lessons they have and haven’t tried. First, the teacher reviews learning from the unit by looking over anchor charts created. Next, using his/her writing notebook, the teacher models rereading entries and evaluating what learning has been tried so far. Keeping the students together whole group, the teacher will encourage them to do the same with their notebooks.  The teacher walks around coaching students. Then have the students discuss what they have tried out with their writing partners. Next, the teacher will look over the charts and reread through notebook to determine what he/she has yet to try from the unit’s learning. After that, the teacher determines a goal as to what he/she would like to try in their writing. Keeping the students together whole group, the teacher will encourage them to do the same with their notebooks.   The teacher walks around coaching students. Last, the teacher will send the students off to work on achieving their goals. This lesson should be repeated about 8 days later and include additional learning since the last inquiry lesson.

In my earlier post, I included a video from Vimeo which the Teachers College shared.  Click here to read the post and view the video.  The Teachers College has 40+ videos on this site and the handful I have viewed are wonderful.  I am looking forward to watching many more.
If you haven't checked out the Teachers College Vimeo channel, you should put it top on you list of todos.  Click the image below to go to their channel.

On a side note- I am new to the world of Twitter and am extremely excited to say that I received a Tweet (I think that's what they're called lol) from the Teachers College, thanking 4321Teach for sharing their video!  I was so excited, that I took a screen shot of the Tweet to share with everyone! :)
I know... I'm a dork! lol

I want to share another Vimeo video from the Teachers College channel.
It is an inquiry lesson done slightly differently than what I described above.  This lesson's focus was to help students transfer learning from persuasive speech to writing a persuasive letter.  Same concept of reviewing and assessing previous learning though.

Hope you enjoy it!

Have you ever taught an inquiry lesson?  What do you do to involve your students in reviewing and assessing learning throughout a unit?

I would love to hear your ideas!

Antoinette :)