Every day for two weeks after Winter Break, 6th-grade students worked with teachers/facilitators to dig into topics of interest and develop inquiry questions that guided research and project development in the first Inquiry Deep Dives! The broad topics included Birds and Beasts of Rhode Island. Providence Architecture, Building Bridges (at the Wheeler Farm), Food, Social Justice and Interactive Storytelling. Afternoons were spent in workshops offered by teachers from the Middle and Lower School Divisions introducing the students to technology apps, interviewing techniques, non-fiction writing, orientation to design thinking and more to build their skill sets as they chose issues and creative ideas to develop and share.
Anecdotally and based on responses through the reflections students completed this week, there was a high level of engagement, a feeling of agency especially for those who were able to work with their first choice topic and many who would have liked more time to get the project piece of the process in motion. My experience with Interactive Storytelling was loads of fun! The students who choose this topic are true storytellers! Each challenge was met with determination, creativity, and thoughtfulness.
Through the process, students were asked to choose an inanimate object somewhere in the Middle School Library Commons and give it human characteristics. Students constructed a story around the inanimate object, constantly revising as they were reminded to help us connect to their character. How do you make us care about a hydro flask or a dust bunny? The students work with character and setting and creating a world for their object helped set the stage for the next week.
The topic theme was Interactive Storytelling so students were challenged to create a story in which the audience needed to make choices to determine the outcome for the main characters. This challenge required research as some of the stories were situated in the Middle Ages or in Greek and Roman mythologies. The students were introduced to several different ways to create a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story through Google Forms, Google Slides, Bookcreator or Twine. Each individual or team engaged with the process, challenging themselves to make the stories more complex and illustrative.
Each day of the inquiry dives students were asked to reflect on their work and to set goals for the next day in terms of revising, researching or learning through the workshops which app would work best for their story. We focused on the idea that everyone has a story tell and these students certainly did! I am looking forward to round two of these inquiry dives; we all have more stories to tell!
Through the process, students were asked to choose an inanimate object somewhere in the Middle School Library Commons and give it human characteristics. Students constructed a story around the inanimate object, constantly revising as they were reminded to help us connect to their character. How do you make us care about a hydro flask or a dust bunny? The students work with character and setting and creating a world for their object helped set the stage for the next week.
The topic theme was Interactive Storytelling so students were challenged to create a story in which the audience needed to make choices to determine the outcome for the main characters. This challenge required research as some of the stories were situated in the Middle Ages or in Greek and Roman mythologies. The students were introduced to several different ways to create a "Choose Your Own Adventure" story through Google Forms, Google Slides, Bookcreator or Twine. Each individual or team engaged with the process, challenging themselves to make the stories more complex and illustrative.
Each day of the inquiry dives students were asked to reflect on their work and to set goals for the next day in terms of revising, researching or learning through the workshops which app would work best for their story. We focused on the idea that everyone has a story tell and these students certainly did! I am looking forward to round two of these inquiry dives; we all have more stories to tell!