Reflecting on our Statement of Inquiry

I was just invited to attend a theatre class, where Grade 10 students reflected on their statement of Inquiry. This lesson was put together by Atlanta International School's fantastic theatre teachers, Sherry Weeks and Simon Bell.

The session used Ron Ritchhart's Micro Lab protocol, (as described about in Creating Cultures of Thinking). Students started off by silently journaling their reflections on the statement of inquiry "Innovation is Key to Keep Texts Alive". Sherry and Simon put some prompts on the board to help them. Students were asked to write for the full five minutes, and not to worry about spelling, handwriting, etc

After this students were asked to move into groups of three. The guidelines for the next session were that each student would speak for one continuous minute. The other students were asked not to ask questions, but could write notes. At the end there was time for some silent reflection, then finally a chance to discuss, in their threes, any new ideas and the key themes that emerged!

While this was happening, Sherry and Simon were busy writing up things they had overheard on the board! After all the groups had finished their final discussions, the class were invited to view the board, and silently read and reflect on the things Simon and Sherry had overheard! The class did this in two groups.

Next, the first group came back up, and circled the points they felt were most important. They erased the other points. Then the second group came up, and drew connection lines between the circled statements. Here they wrote next to the lines, the ways in which they were connected!

The class then had a discussion about the key themes and connections that were emerging, and reflected on the statement of inquiry further. Students made connections between other plays they knew about, including discussing various adaptations of Shakespeare! They were also asked to think back to their first five minute reflection, to see how their thinking and ideas had developed. I was very impressed with how deep the students went, how many connections they uncovered and just had much they had to say! They could easily have continued the discussion for another hour...but...as they were running out of time, they ended by doing a one minute essay, reflecting on how the lesson had helped them develop their thinking!

This activity worked beautifully in this theatre class, and could easily be adapted for wrapping up any MYP unit!