Using Key Concepts at Inquiry Stations

Using key concepts to drive my stations or areas or rotations (whatever you call them) was a great way to let kids explore shapes through different lens.

I don't know why, but I don't do this as nearly enough as I should. Using key concepts makes me think about things differently and allows me to come up with ideas that I normally wouldn't have thought of.

FORM: What shapes can you make from other shapes? What will that look like?

Students discovered that you can make a trapezoid using 3 triangles and you can then combine 2 trapezoids to make a hexagon!

REFLECTION: We had already explored properties of triangles. I used this station and the concept of reflection to get kids to think about what they have learnt.




CHANGE: Student had to change shapes using an original shape or by combining other shapes.




FUNCTION: How can I find a shape that has all these properties?

Key Concepts: Breaking down the Central Idea

After gaining inspiration from a blog post by Graeme Anshaw about using Key Concepts, I decided to give it a go myself.

To be perfectly honest, after teaching PYP for 3 years I am still getting used to using them to drive my inquires. But, nothing ventured... nothing gained.

My big take away was that straight away they made me think of different questions... funny that! 

My questions also opened new doors for learning. To my surprise, my students started to see things through different lenses. I was delighted with some of the thinking and questioning that took place. 

Being a Grade 2 class and using these for the first time in a maths setting, I created the questions rather than asking my students to come up with, for example, a 'function' question. My hope is that in the future my students will become more comfortable doing it themselves.

As we continue through the unit, I will reference these questions and continue to add them to our 'Reflection Wall'. 

Key Concepts are not that scary after all. 

Give students choices about how they display their data.

Responsibility was a big one! When creating graphs, what are our responsibilities to ensure that the information we displaying is correct? 

Reflection: Did our graph answer the question? 

Our 'Reflection Wall'