We have had some great news from some of you and wanted to open the conversation up so that you can share all that good news!  We are each others' support system!  2012

Spreading learning centered approaches across the globe

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NEWSLETTERFOR DESIGNERS OF INQUIRY LEARNING IN SCHOOLS TODAY

Message to Participants: CiSSL Summer Institute on Guided Inquiry

As I think back on our summer session, I am so inspired by all of you and how you embraced the ideas of Guided Inquiry and began the shift required to take an inquiry stance in your teaching. 

In my consulting role as well as my role in Denver Public Schools as a Teacher Effectiveness Coach, I am seeing that many many educators are struggling, in a good way, with the idea that we need to create a constructivist learning environment for our students.  This is a critical component of inquiry

and it is at the core of the thinking you did this summer.  When we let go of teaching as telling and consider the inquiry stance we work on getting students to ask real questions and enter that third space. 

I am so excited to see the seeds of this shift happening.  You are leading the way in this shift!  That has its challenges and benefits.  If you ever want a think partner on your struggle with that, please don't hesitate to contact me. 

We wanted to touch base with you now that school has started back and you are putting the finishing touches on your inquiry unit plans. We

would love to share all of these as well as your news, so please keep them coming. - Leslie

lesliekm67@gmail.com

In this issueBaltimore News & Links 2GI Design CD 2Other News 3We want to hear from you! 4

CiSSL Summer Institute: The map of our teams reaching across the globe.

Links to some of

Baltimore’s units:

As you begin to design more units- these are an AWESOME resource. I've Been Working in the Neighborhood (Kindergarten)http://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/community_helpers/index.html Curriculum Alignmenthttp://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/community_helpers/teacher.html Essential Question: If you could spend a day helping a worker in your community, which kind of worker would you choose and why?

Disaster Strikes! Survival and Relationships in The Cay (middle school)http://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/cay2/index.html Curriculum Alignment http://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/cay2/teacher.html Essential Question: How are people and their relationships affected by a disaster?

I Declare! The Founding Fathers Sound Off on Contemporary Issueshttp://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/declaration/index.html Curriculum Alignment http://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/declaration/teacher.htmlEssential Question: How would a founding father respond to a contemporary American issue?

The Awakening (high school)http://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/awakening/index.html Curriculum Alignment http://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/awakening/teacher.htmlEssential Question: How are changes in the role of women in American society at the turn of the century portrayed in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening"?

There are 30 unit on the website! Feel free to poke around! http://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/aboutmodels.html

News from Team BaltimoreI hope you remember how Della and Kelly shared their website with you over the

summer, please go back and look at their web page*.  It is FULL of units in GI Design format. These will be enormously helpful to you and your learning teams as you roll out more units of inquiry. Della is graciously making all of these resources accessible to any teachers, anywhere, via the web. Lucky us! We all get to benefit from their hard work and learning. Big thanks! Della is also including book club using Guided Inquiry Design in their district wide professional development with 175 library media specialist. We are so excited to help them impact student learning in Baltimore County using the GI Design!

It’s helpful for us to share our challenges as well as successes. Della shared her wisdom and some challenges they face as they move forward with inquiry at the center of teaching and learning. Della said, "Inquiry requires a major shift in teacher interpretation of how kids learn, how they teach, release control, time constraints, the testing machine is driving teaching and learning, you name it! HOWEVER, we will work through these real and perceived obstacles and use the Common Core State Standards as our "carrot" and GI Design as our "guiding light."  These are things we are all struggling with as we implement this new shifted approach. Thank you, Della for this juicy update and inspiring forward thinking.

* (See left yellow column for links to Baltimore County’s units designed using GI.)

CD of GI Design templates and posters on the way!

Della and Kelly at the CiSSL Summer Institute

It's coming!A CD is in the works of

Guided Inquiry posters and all the figures in the book that you might want. It will be out with Libraries Unlimited soon. Thanks to all of you for suggesting this. 

Other News:

Stacey from AustraliaStacey is tweeting and blogging about her experiences using Guided Inquiry Design. Check it out.

Stacey on twitterhttps://twitter.com/staceyt

Stacey’s blog http://librariansarego.blogspot.com/

Team Newport News, VA

Is gearing up for their forensics unit and planning on including the Pair Share from the Explore chapter in their students’ inquiry notebooks. The team is excited to get going and has shared their planning template with us all. Thank you Patty and team for following up and sending your plans! Good luck on your unit in November! We look forward to your reflections.

Next Summer?CiSSL is considering the Summer Institute for next summer. Stay posted for more details.Follow them on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Center-for-International-Scholarship-in-School-Libraries-CISSL/237828622917384

Rachel in Revere, MassRachel shared some great news with us!First, Rachel published an article about

the Summer Institute for Massachusetts librarians. Thank you for spreading the word Rachel!  Here's a link to the article. 

http://maschoolibraries.org/content/view/1043/651/ 

In other news, she has reconfigured her library as a learning commons and is having a grand opening November 7th  for the new Learning Commons at Revere High School in Revere, MA!  Congratulations, Rachel!

We need your help!

Reflections on your DesignSLIM3- As you complete your units or

preparations of them and are ready to fill out the SLIM 3 please follow this link. 

http://tinyurl.com/CISSL-SLIM-3We will be looking forward to your

reflections on your work and how we can better our institute to meet your needs!

Social Networking for GIFacebook Page- if you're on FB, come

and "like" Guided Inquiry Design http://www.facebook.com/GuidedInquiryDesign?ref=hl !  I’m microblogging there.

I am continuing to explore ways that we might be able to share and keep in touch.  Twitter is not effective for the high level of

sharing we would want to do, documents and so on.  FB might not be either.  I am considering creating a google site or a group in Classroom 2.0 or TL Ning or a wikispaces wiki...  If you have a preference, please let me know.  Any help or suggestions would be appreciated on something that is easy for all to add and contribute to, and that could be sustainable and easily work into our own workflows. I invite you to help me think on this one.

Guided Inquiry in JapanOur friends from Tamagawa and the

University of Tokyo have invited Prof. Kuhlthau and I to come to their Anniversary of School Library Law. We are excited to spread the GI word to the Pacific Rim and look forward to making connections with the people there. Our Tamagawa team was so impressive at the institute, we are excited to follow them there and share Guided Inquiry with more schools and librarians in Japan.

We would also love to hear from Team Tamagawa about how the unit impacted student learning! It looked like such a powerful unit on ultraviolet rays..

Rachel, Eunice and Mary Ellen after the Institute

We want to hear from you!Team Pennington, NJ

Team Metuchen, NJ & Eunice

Team Havergal, Ontario!Nicole and Tony, we have no picture of

you! Send one in with your inquiry news and you’ll be in the next news letter!

Team Glenbrook, IL &

San Antonio, TXWe need pictures and updates from you

all! How is it going on your end?

Team HCRHS, NJ

Team Alexandria, NJ

Future Publications of

this Newsletter

Sharing news of GI Design keeps us on track and opens to more sharing and cross pollinating our inquiry thoughts and ideas. Please send me photos of your students in action, of you and your team in action and your reflections and ideas as you process out further.

As news comes in about Guided Inquiry and its varied implementation I will continue to share the information. The newsletter seemed to work this time. I’d love your feedback, what was useful, helpful, inspiring. What did you connect to? What more would you like?

Together we are stronger and we want to keep the momentum alive and moving in a positive and forward direction, together.Happy Inquiring!

Leslie Maniotes