Visiting Schools Engaged in GID

What Fun…

Last spring I had so much fun visiting the schools as the librarians, teachers and gifted resource teachers (GRCs) implemented the GID units they created in the Spring GID Training Institutes.

I saw Kindergartners delightfully engaging in Explore during a social studies unit on recycling.  The teachers modeled the activity for the students by first showing them as a group a picture book about recycling pointing out items that could be recycled.  As they flipped the pages, the teachers introduced the concept of browsing to the young learners.  Next the students worked in pairs to travel from table to table browsing books on recycling and completing their inquiry logs. The teachers’ careful planning, modeling, and practice of the the procedures helped learners understand the concepts.

I watched middle schoolers excitedly engaging in the Immerse phase during a 6^th grade Language Arts unit on Civil Rights.  The teachers skillfully guided students as they compared the musical lyrics and poetry of the Civil Rights era to the those popular today. After the comparison, learners collaboratively produced questions that were elicited by the poetry and music.

I’ve seen high school learners immersed in the era of To Kill a Mockingbird as they explored cultural and historical events of the 1930s, 5^th graders using digital and print resources to explore and generate questions about jazz musicians, 4^th grade learners taking the yearly states research project to a whole new level, 10th grade leaners investigating social justice issues by exploring articles, infographics, videos, and public service announcements while working toward a research paper proposing a solution for the issue the learner is most passionate about, 3^rd grade learners sharing their learning about Oklahoma history through Chatterpix and Google Slides, and so much more.  Needless to say, my district GID tour has been so rewarding.  Seeing learners engaged in deep learning that matters to them is the best!

The survey we did those teachers and librarians who participated in the units confirmed my impressions of the impact of the GID process. Here are just a few of our stats:

• 94% of survey participants saw an increase in student engagement in GID units as compared to other research units
• 86% saw an increase in student outcomes in GID units as compared to other research units
• 78% of teachers agreed that the students involved in the Guided Inquiry unit met their highest expectations for the learning, while 51.8% agreed that the students exceeded their highest expectation
• 97% reported that the guided inquiry unit met the standards for the unit of study
• 6% of our teachers reported that compared to other research units, the questions developed by students as a result of Guided Inquiry were more open-ended and that 61.8% were at a deeper level of learning

So what is happening now and for 2016-2017, check out my post tomorrow…