Book Tale and Giveaway: Dive into Inquiry

Re-posted from Tale of Two Teachers

Disclaimer: We were provided with a copy of the book in return for an honest review. All opinions and reviews are our own.

We are so excited for this post about an amazing book from an inspiring educator in our district, Trevor MacKenzie.

This book has made our list of ‘must read’ books for teachers. It is engaging and informative, plus it’s a relatively quick read. There is so much practical, use right away advice in here that Karley even said, “I feel like I’m stealing treasure reading this!” How many workshops have you been to or books have you read where you are left feeling like “yeah that’s awesome but how/when/etc?” This book was just the opposite – the steps to implementing are clear, concise and there are so many easy places to start.

“Student agency begins by creating strong relationships built on trust.”

We don’t need to be sold on inquiry, it’s a teaching practice that completely respects the interests and experiences of students. Respectful teaching is right up our alley so of course we are in, but the HOW piece is always that intimidating stepping stone to something new. We have both done inquiry based units in the past and tried to incorporate it into some of our planning but honestly, reading Dive Into Inquiry was the first time we felt like we could successfully make our classrooms inquiry based.

Having tried Genius Hour and other personal inquiry projects in the past, there are some parts of free inquiry that we had trouble grasping when picturing the overall “inquiry based classroom” but Trevor explains exactly how to overcome these barriers through scaffolding, careful planning, and supporting students one on one. He gives clear, understandable examples throughout the book of how to manage so many of the different facets of managing an inquiry based classroom.

Our favourite parts of the book:

• Outline for creating syllabus as a class (student agency!)
• Description of the scaffolded “Types of Student Inquiry”
• Examples of multi-age and community connections
• Clear ways of guiding students through the research process
• Examples of inquiry in different subject areas
• Commitment to publicly sharing student work
• QR Codes with examples of student work – so cool!
• SketchNote graphics throughout the book
• Plus it’s really cool to see the names of people we know in a book!

We have a GIVEAWAY for you to win a copy of Dive Into Inquiry.

There are two ways for you to enter:

1. Write us a comment telling us your experiences with inquiry or why you want to read this book
2. Follow Trevor MacKenzie (@trev_mackenzie) and Tale of Two Teachers (@taletwoteachers) on Twitter and leave a second comment telling us when you do

Giveaway ends on Sunday January 15th. Winner will be announced on the blog and contacted via email.

Please note: Maximum two entries per person. Entries must be in the form of separate comments with email provided.

Good luck!

Passionate educators
#sd61learn
Victoria, BC
taleoftwoteachers.com
@taletwoteachers

 

 

 

Get your own copy of Dive into Inquiry HERE!

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