Structuring a guided inquiry: asking, thinking, doing

By Cindy Blackburn

Editor’s note: Put on your detective hats and get ready to dive into the depths of planning an inquiry. Explore strategies that experienced PYP educator, Cindy Blackburn uses to structure a guided inquiry in her classroom.

Confused with inquiry cycles?
Use these tools and process to make guided inquiry come alive.

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A common question that arises while planning an inquiry is how to facilitate a guided inquiry while still saving space for student choice, voice, and action. Is it possible for students to still have agency if the teacher is determining curricular content? Absolutely, and I am here to show you how!

Read on to see examples of inquiry in action from my Grade 5 classroom using a simplified inquiry cycle – ask, think, and do. I’ve also designed an e-book that will support you with strategies and processes you can use as you plan your own unit of inquiry.

Asking

Forming student questions is arguably the most important stage of the inquiry. It is essential that students connect to their prior knowledge and interests to form relevant and engaging questions that will sustain a four to eight week inquiry. Due to the importance of strong and interesting questions in an inquiry, I further break asking into 3 stages: explore, form, and refine.

Here is an example of how one of my students worked through a process of refining his research question:

Ready to plan this part of inquiry for your classroom? Download our detailed ebook for a step by step guidance on how to get started!

Thinking

Most of the time in my unit is spent on this stage of inquiry. Now that students have chosen an area of interest to explore, I, as the teacher, am responsible for helping them find great resources for their research and documenting their thinking process.

Watch to see how we move from forming student questions to structuring an inquiry:

Once I have provided my students with resources to support their finding out process (discover my favourite strategy for structuring this process in my guide), it is now time for me to help them document their findings and showcase learning.

Here is an example from one year in my Grade 5 classroom and the thinking organizers and structures we used for each unit:

Sustainable design: Students used the design cycle to explore a product’s history and design a sustainable alternative.

Ancient civilizations: Students began by researching 2 different civilizations. They then chose a specific research question and compared/contrasted the two civilizations. For example, what were some beauty rituals in Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt?

Narrative: In this unit, students wrote their own stories using the Pixar in a Box framework. The stories were then turned into plays, stop motion movies, or other creative expressions!

Identity: Students explored aspects of their personality and identity and developed strategies for solving common problems they might face in puberty. We also used the TED Ed framework to explore our story worth sharing.

Entrepreneur: In this unit, students chose a good or service to sell to the community. They conducted research on wants and needs, competitors, and the sustainability of their product to design a business plan and create their business.

PYPx: We used the Guided PYPx Student Planner to scaffold the process!

Ready to plan this part of inquiry for your classroom? Download our detailed ebook for a step by step guidance on how to get started!

Doing

To me, this stage can sometimes feel like the most ambiguous part of the inquiry cycle. How do we encourage students to take meaningful action connected to what they have learned? One pivotal thing to understand is that doing can take many forms both internally and externally.

In my classroom, I intentionally created many opportunities for my students to see others take action both in-person, in our community, and globally online. Here is an example of how students were inspired by action we studied in class and took it further:

Now that you have seen a year in my classroom, you are ready to get started with planning your own unit! Remember to have fun and happy inquiring!

Your Guide to Inquiry in the PYP

Confused with inquiry cycles? Use these tools and process to make guided inquiry come alive.

Asking

Thinking

Doing

Confused with inquiry cycles?
Use these tools and process to make guided inquiry come alive.