Welcome to Clarity’s inquiry assignment, this is my first try.
About me:
My name is Lingjin Liu, you can call me Clarity. I come from China, my hometown is Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province. I just graduated from China West Normal University in June last year, and I got my Bachelor’s degree of Elementary Education and the teachers’ certification of Elementary Education.
I used to be a Chinese practice teacher in a public elementary school in my hometown for half year and I taught grade five students, so I have a little teaching experiences.
My topic is about the nature exploration. I will follow the New Elementary School Science Curriculum Standard.
This being a living inquiry, the best place to start it is wherever one finds oneself existentially. One looks inwardly into one’s own thoughts and feelings, while facing the world, noting how one reacts with conditioned thoughts and feeling responses. Usually we are too busy reacting that we do not stop to reflect and examine our response. Inquiry starts at this point of stop. From this place of stop, we question the necessity of “the way things are,” and address the possibility of seeing the world and the self differently and hence relating to the world differently. “What if I were to…?”
—Heesoon Bai, 2005, p. 47
2 replies on “🌸 Welcome to Clarity’s Assignment！”
HI，Clarity
It is good to read your inquiry project about outdoor learning!
I am so excited to read your clear topic and design. I think your opinion and thoughts are really helpful and practical. You clearly offer outdoor classes to grade 1 to 3 students to improve their language, exploration, thinking, and communication skills. What’s more, You assign classes according to the seasons, and ask students to write different journals in different seasons to deepen their feelings, so that deepening your theme “get close to nature”.
Wish: I think you need assessments to make.
Question: outdoor learning is a good thing to chilrden, but the issue of security cannot be ignored, what is your safety precautions for keeping students stay safe?
Take care,
ZeYu Tian
Hi Clarity,
I think you have a wonderful concept for an inquiry unit, and incorporating place based learning will make this a rich unit. Students will enjoy being outside in the different seasons, and this could be a unit that you can revisit as the seasons change to make comparisons to many things found in nature at certain times of the year.
I think the questions that you pose in the unit align well with the intention you have for the unit. I would consider: how can you incorporate some inquiry questions from your students. Being so young, they likely have many questions about nature and how the seasons turn, it would be a good idea to consider teaching them to formulate a question and providing an opportunity to go through the process as a group.
Something else you could consider would be to have students create a compare and contrast activity to “track” the seasons. What do the seasons have in common and what makes them different? This could further connect students to place, but also highlight the importance of weather and temperature and how each play a vital role in our environment. This may further help them to connect how essential it is to protect and care for the environment and all things in it.
This is a great concept for a unit, and students will really enjoy it. Good luck!
April