What Students Say About Inquiry

Last week I reflected on my experience with inquiry in my English 8 classroom. This week I turn this space over to my students who want to tell you what inquiry is like for them. The following reflection was co-written by James Telford, Nathalie Joyal, Andrea Camarena, Nina Gous, Michael Ji, Chaissan Ashcroft, and Alex Wagstaff.

What is inquiry-based learning like?

So far this year we have done several inquiry based leaning [sic] questions. We have enjoyed how using inquiry has made us think deeper in the article and lets us take our learning into our own hands. Some people can’t control themselves because of this independent learning and that hinders others who can. On the other hand this format of learning is more flexible and allows you to learn in your own ways. Inquiry allows deeper connections and thought processes towards the curriculum. A more structured question limits our personality in our work. On the other hand this work can become more challenging because you are playing the part of the teacher and finding the specifics of your question. There are many different ways of looking into inquiries.

We believe that one of the most effective ways to approach an inquiry is to gain knowledge from books and websites. There are always differences between each inquiry and each perspective so all the outcomes will be different. Everyone also has a different way of representing their [sic] findings, which can make more or less of an impact. The inquiry style of a project allows for more maturity from the student/students. Overall our opinion on an inquiry-based project is that while it is exhausting, the finished product is always worthwhile.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Grade 8s! To give the readers some idea of what kind of “product” we’re talking about here, one group agreed to let me post their video which they created in response to their inquiry, “How do people find happiness in the darkest of places?“