For the past few years I have picked a focus word to meditate on for the year in my classroom, this idea was inspired by the incredible Sally Haughey . This year I decided on the word wonder. My hope is to spark more questioning with my students. One of my unwritten goals of the year is to be more explicit in modeling my thinking by using specific language. So I have started using the word wonder more explicitly.
Although my school is pretty traditional in most ways I am given a bit of freedom about how and what I teach. I am always looking for ways to give my students more ownership over what they are learning in K5, so the other day I had the idea of what if they chose what we learn in March. I thought I would just ask them what they want to learn about, what could go wrong?
Here is where theory and reality collided. I laid it out and told my students, they will get to choose what they learn in March, pulled up a blank page on the SMART Board ready to write down their answers. Here is what they said, nothing. Then someone offered, "I want to learn how to read." (Great, we are already working on that.) I rephrased my question and asked things like, "If you could learn about anything in the whole world, what would it be?" and "What are you curious about?" This produced the answers, "how to do hair," "train a dog to catch a ball," and "math." I asked a clarifying question, "great, what do you want to learn in math." "Just math" said my student. These answers did not satisfy me, so now I am thinking on why this is. Is it because they have never been given such freedom? Is it because of their limited language being English Language Learners? How can I find a way to give them more ownership over their learning? I generally keep an keen eye on their play and use that to help me plan lessons and scaffold learning, but I really want to find an area that they are curious about and dive deep into that.
What are your experiences with promoting wonder in your classroom? How do you get your students more control and ownership over what they learn?
