One of the greatest gifts of teaching is being able to inspire, ignite, and satisfy the curiosities of our students. We are always striving to instill the need to ask questions, craft them well, and seek to find the answers. We will be offering Wonder Wednesday posts to provide strategies and creative ideas on how to incorporate inquiry-based learning and literacy into your classroom using the Write About This app. So in celebration of February’s most popular holiday, this week we offer a Wonder Wednesday on the topic of love.
Every child’s first relationship is that with his or her family. Family is our first experience in feeling comfort and fear, sadness and joy, and other emotional highs and lows. Family is the first training ground in communication for a child. So in honor of Valentine’s Day, let’s get students to explore the feeling of love through the lens of their family.
Students can find the above visual prompt in the Write About This gallery by searching for “love”. Have students select the picture and choose an appropriate prompt to start their planning.
- What are seven things hanging on your refrigerator?
- I love my family because…
- What can you tell about this family from everything in this photo?
Have students share their responses and discuss any similarities they hear from each other’s responses. Many of the responses may involve reflections of how family members relate and appreciate each other. Tie this in as possible examples of showing love.
Students can now work to generate their own investigative question for further research. This can include investigating why love makes us happy, how the brain processes love, why is the shape of the heart a representation for love, and so forth. The possibilities are endless! For younger students, there is a great Wonderopolis wonder on “Is There Such a Thing As Love At First Sight?” (http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/is-there-such-a-thing-as-love-at-first-sight) that you can use as a whole group investigation! Once students have decided on their investigative question, have them complete a KWL chart. They can then generate their research questions/topics from the “What I Want To Know” column in an I-Chart (http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/printouts/Inquiry%20Chart.pdf). This is a great way for students to organize the evidence they gather during their research! They can take notes in the Write About This app and add their own audio interpretations to their notes as well.
Finally, have students review their original writing response from the Write About This prompt and write a report on their chosen investigative question in the Write About This app. They may want to build upon what they originally wrote and/or tie it in to the investigate response.
It should be interesting to see what students come up with. Have fun investigating and “spreading the love”!
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.