Open-Ended Inquiry Learning Vs. Explicit Instructional Practice

I have thought long about what my blog post would be about today. The reason it has been difficult to decide is because I want the blog to be an honest representation of my learning journey. Along with that, I also want to be reflective enough to be aware of my own beliefs about education and how it affects my teaching. Reflection is not easy.

I have decided to reflect upon the ongoing cognitive battle I have had in the last couple of weeks around open-ended inquiry learning and explicit instructional practices.

I came into teaching kindergarten knowing that I wanted to build understanding around the Reggio philosophies and to immerse myself fully into play-based learning. I believe in the idea that educators need to give themselves permission to take the time to observe and reflect on student play.  Over the last two weeks I have given myself permission to trust that this observational time is essential to knowing my students. Sounds like I have it all figured out, right? Well, the other half of me keeps thinking, “what about the explicit language teaching? Doesn't there need to be whole group instruction? Where does that fit? Does it fit? How will I know?”

To answer my own questions I took time to think about what I was learning from my students in the last two weeks. I started to see a trend that pointed to the fact that language development was happening all the time in every place at every time. It became clear to me that the art in the classroom was actually a representation of stories and a representation of language development. Stories taken from students own experiences or interests. Not my stories, driven by my instructional practices, but true authentic stories that students were expressing in pictures, orally and some through written text. The educators had been capturing the picture stories by listening to the students explain the thinking behind the visual text. At this point very oral based.

Mapping

"Children build new understandings from existing ideas and concepts. Starting from what children know and want to know motivates engagement and excitement about overcoming challenges and solving problems. First hand, concrete experiences shape ideas that can be expressed symbolically in drawings, paintings, dramatic play, and in verbal and written forms (Greenspan & Shanker, 2004). Learning proceeds from the concrete to the abstract. "

http://www.cfcollaborative.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/ELECT.pdf

Pictures were not the only artistic forms that helped represent the student thinking and language development. Structures in block play, the light table, the drama centre, the reading centre, geometric shapes. Everywhere stories were evolving and language was evolving. What was even more fascinating was how the language changed and grew as new people joined into the play and the stories.

See the video link to the story of the animal ages.

The Animal Ages

Light table story. 

Creating a scene about a gorilla and a tiger and the middle part was a path. The small glass pieces were babies.

We also started to recognize that without explicit instructions, some students wanted to start writing their stories and would pick up pencils and paper to do so. We encouraged these students to write their thoughts about their work for others to hear their story. Journals were provided to those who were interested. Some journal writers used only pictures and some a few words. All developing their experiences and the educators were naturally recognizing the next steps each student needed to help their language evolve.

Have I answered all my questions about when does explicit instruction happen? Not in the least. This is a year long journey for me and possibly longer. What I have learned is that taking the time to observe and reflect has shown me that the students will show you where they need to go next. I just need to be sure to be listening, reflecting and responding. Small group instruction is becoming a more evident need as I discover the various language levels. I will now continue to "listen in" to hear each child's individual needs so that we can provide the best opportunities for the child to develop and grow in language and personal interest. Will whole group instruction need to happen? Possibly to highlight more complex topics as inquiries evolve. But for now I think I will spend my time digging deeper to understand each child's abilities to verbalize thinking and to communicate his or her messages and/or stories.

The journey continues and how exciting each day is as I discover each child’s abilities, interests, discoveries, wonderings and how their stories tell me who they are as social and emotional people contributing to our world.

"Rather than looking for what is known through assessment, pedagogical documentation invites the creativity, surprise and delight of educators who discover the worlds of children." 

(Carol Anne Wien)http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/Wien.pdf