5 Days and Counting!

I'm getting super excited to launch this site and this year's book study in just five days! If you haven't heard yet, we'll be studying Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe's Essential Questions. Some of you may have already studied this book, it is a couple of years old. I choose this book to study because it applies to my Professional Development Plan of creating a culture of inquiry in my classroom.  So, if you have studied and are using these strategies in your class I'd love to hear from you!   If you haven't studied this book and want to learn more about essential questions and the role they play in creating a culture of inquiry in your classroom then join in and learn with me!

So I'm going to tell you a little about the book. It is a guide to everyone involved in the learning process on how to use essential questions to build engaging curriculum, guide instruction and create critical thinkers. In the intervention setting, it's become habitual for me to teach to the skill and guide learners on a very literal level. And I've been racking my brain as to why my students were having such a hard time thinking. Well, duh...

This book claims to explain why essential questions are so important, explores defining characteristics of EQs, distinguishes between topical and over-arching questions, gives rational for using EQs in units of study, and shows us how to create EQs working from standards or desired outcomes.

 I have no idea what this is going to look like yet but I hope to transform my classroom into a culture of inquiry.  I look forward to sharing the journey with you!

I will officially start blogging chapter 6 on July 7th. Click the graphic for a copy of the first study guide. It includes the weekly schedule and assigned chapters, a study guide for you to print out if you prefer writing notes as you read,  questions to discuss in twitter chats and forum discussions, and extra resources.  At the end of each post I will include the next study guide.  (these are just tools you can use if you choose to, there are no rules stating you have to use or following the study guide)

For those of you unfamiliar with the way I've set up similar book studies, I created a document on how you can participate in the study. Click the image below to download the file.