Turtles and Markets and Birds…What Next?

The main focus of this blog will be the ways that teachers in any classroom in any community can begin to take students out of the classroom to learn in their neighborhood and town. This includes educators teaching from a prewritten curriculum as well as those with the flexibility to develop their own ways to teach content standards.

Very often, I will write about inquiry-based teaching practices and the ways in which they align and integrate with teaching outside of the classroom. Field visits are an integral part of inquiry-based teaching, and the topic you choose to study with your class will rely heavily on what resources are available to you to teach students in real life scenarios on a regular basis.

Inquiry-based studies involve two things; questions and answers. This may not sound like rocket science, but the ingenuity comes not in the presence of questions and answers but who is doing the asking and answering. Quite simply, it should be the students. Inquiry-based studies encourage students to ask questions about a topic and teaches them strategies to find answers on their own. Teachers in this type of classroom act as facilitators, guided by the old “lead a horse to water” adage. Give students the answers and they’ll know only as much as you tell them. Teach students to find answers on their own and they’ll have strategies for overcoming obstacles and solving problems for years to come.

One of the first decisions of an inquiry-based study is to choose a topic. This type of learning requires time and patience, so choosing a topic that can endure 3 or more months of dissecting is essential. In many inquiry-based classrooms around the country, students work with teachers to choose a topic that will incite wonder and engagement in long-term, cooperative learning. However, I do believe its the responsibility of the educator in the classroom to ensure that the topic chosen by the class meets three important criteria, amongst which there is a fine balance necessary.

First, any topic chosen for an inquiry-based study should excite, inspire and engage students in learning about a topic of interest. At the beginning of a school year, classrooms should physically reflect a blank slate, ready for students to fill with their knowledge, questions and interests. Study topics should be the same, allowing space for students to learn about things they question and dream about. Find a topic that resonates with your class based on their age, location and personal interests.

Sometimes studies are truly emergent, rising from unexpected events that take place throughout the school year. Dana Roth, a public school teacher in Brooklyn, NY, delved into a mini-study on custodians after noticing her students’ interest in their school custodian, Mr. Ramon. This was an unexpected look at a topic that emerged naturally. At other times, topics may be chosen by teachers, but should allow space for student inquiries to delve into personal interests as well. I do think there is value in both methods. Teachers may choose a topic of study ahead of time, and some entire schools follow the same studies from one year to the next. This can help build a study into a more thoughtful, integrated and resource rich one, as teachers improve and grow each year. Within these studies, though, there must be room for student questions and personal inquiries. By choosing a topic that is (somehow, magically) specific as well as open-ended at the same time, we can maintain student focus on a study topic while pushing students to find their own passions within this topic.

The second important consideration when choosing a study topic is physical and cognitive accessibility. Is your topic one that students can wrap their brains and hands around? Guiding questions are helpful in keeping a study on track, but students require a simple and tangible topic on which to focus their work, and around which all larger curriculum themes can revolve. “How do neighboring communities rely on one another?” is a fantastic question to help guide a study along, but choosing a focused topic, such as farms, could easily teach the answer to this question in a more tangible way.

I was once taught that a student should be able to see and touch an inquiry study topic everyday when they leave their home. As a teacher, there’s been no better compliment to me than when a family member has expressed how a student discusses our learning topic outside of school. “You know, he just won’t stop talking about different kinds of birds he sees outside!” “She wanted me to send this picture (a photo of a pro-immigration poster) to you when she saw it walking home from school.” Creating this type of engagement with our study topic outside of school isn’t a coincidence or luck. Instead, it’s often the consequence of a careful decision made by an educator to have their students study a topic that they truly can’t avoid in their everyday lives.

It’s imperative to keep your neighborhood and surrounding area in mind when delving into a topic deeply. Cities can offer an array of different study topics, but not all parts of all cities are the same. The fashion industry may be alive and well in New York City, but it would be hard to find sight of it everyday in the area surrounding my school. A study on restaurants or parks may be a better fit. Whether you live in an urban, rural or suburban area matters, and the topic that you choose to study should reflect the environment that surrounds your students on a daily basis. Regardless of your type of community, keep this in mind, if they see it every day, they’re going to think, wonder and learn about it.

The final thing to consider when choosing a topic for an inquiry-based study is whether the content standards of your grade practically align with your topic. Depending on your grade level and location, the standards that students are expected to reach can vary widely. Science and social studies curriculum often focus on local history, geography and ecology, making choosing a topic that is physically near your school more logical. However, it’s important to consult the standards that you wish to reach during your study to ensure that the learning you’re facilitating is genuine, not a far-reaching stretch to make sense. Yes, a study on frogs could technically teach about imports and exports (possibly via the food industry). But considering the standards proposed, a study on a topic better suited, such as markets, boats or planes may reach your students in a more sincere way and create a more genuine learning experience.

Taking all of these qualifications into consideration may seem daunting, and may sometimes feel like a puzzle that just isn’t fitting together. But consider a study that reaches all of the standards expected in your grades, but that doesn’t interest students at all. Imagine a study that students can’t wait to dive into, but that they’ll never be able to experience first hand because of its lack of accessibility. Taking time to really dig into the standards and skills that you’re teaching, learning about your local community and getting to know your students and their interests will all make the process easier with time. Working with your teaching team and administration, bringing together your collective knowledge, resources and creativity, is also always beneficial.

I write about inquiry-based studies and the importance of choosing an appropriate topic because field visits and learning outside of the classroom are so undeniably linked with this type of learning. Choosing a topic of study is often a prerequisite for choosing where you will bring your students to experience the world first hand. In future posts, I’ll write about how to choose and plan your field visit locations, which will highlight both inquiry-based studies as well as teachers working with a fixed, pre-written curriculum.

One of the first field visits that should take place for any class, whether engaged in an inquiry-based study or not, is a neighborhood walk. That will be the topic of my next post, as we look at ways to engage with our local community, both as an introduction to a new year together in the first six weeks of school, as well as a content-based learning experience as part of a larger curriculum plan