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Building Outside the Blocks- Inquiry From the Inside Out


Teaching at an IB school, I have been exposed to and an advocate for Inquiry Based Learning for some time. What I hadn’t realized, until recently, was that BOBs promote inquiry, too. It is funny when you are so close to something that you can’t always see all of it. The more I think about it, by using the individual self as the starting point, Building Outside the Blocks projects can build connection from the inside out.

BOBs begin the self inquiry process with individual voice and choice. With a BOB, students first have to ask themselves when the best time would be for them to present within the teacher-determined parameters. Just owning their timeline can help with student engagement and teach self-management skills. Next, students have to think about what they want the content of their project to entail within the scope of the outline. That is where the questions become catalysts for inquiry.

All Building Outside the Blocks projects, whether in one-off or iterative tri-BOB forms, start with a question. This question, although not explicitly written as a question, begins an investigation into the self before leading out to the world of possibility. The chart below illustrates the possible questions that could be implied by the projects:

Those are just a few examples of how BOBs set students up for a self-inquiry. The learners have to reach inside themselves in order to reach out in pursuit of their “answer”.

I truly believe that BOBs allow for deep learning, and I am excited to be making that case at York Region District School Board’s upcoming Quest2016. Debbie Donsky, from whom I try to learn regularly, even if we have never actually met, used Sketchnotes to reflect on and synthesize her learning from the Technology Enabled Leadership and Learning Institute conference that she recently attended (check out her latest post at https://medium.com/@debdonsky/using-sketchnotes-to-synthesize-learning-a553ff8c45fa#.2n3puxxdhabout ). One of the many things I gleaned from her post was about the role of connection in deep learning.

Students connect with themselves through the questions that BOBs raise. This allows them to connect with the inquiry because it's meaningful to them. Links are made to the content and context of a project while doing a whole lot else. BOBs, then, help to build a relationship to the project while connecting the individual to their learning.

BOBs begin with a provocation, sometimes a multi-layered one, that drives individuals to reflect on their interests and explore an aspect of their self. This builds connection and deepens learning. Ask any one of my students and I would bet that they remember each BOB assignment they experienced in one of my classes. They may not recall each aspect of the content, but I believe they would remember how they felt about the work and how engaged they were. Until now, I was unaware that BOBs were helping to initiate an inquiry. I am even more excited that the path is a journey that begins from the inside out. When everything is connected, learning deepens while becoming even more meaningful.

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