Contribution by Ms Judith Gerritzen
The two weeks before the holiday, we introduced extra lessons for each class to learn how to reference using the Harvard system. Of course, this is a tricky subject to teach and can be seen as a bit dull. Therefore I asked the students to create their book citations based on their creative book titles. Look for yourself, I have to say these titles reflect many of our students’ personalities and hobbies!
After the holiday, we will focus on research skills. Good research starts with the right inquiry questions. I like to illustrate inquiry-based education through this image: ‘swimming instruction’ of Mackenzie (2018). Interesting to see where the teacher stands and to see the swimmers each in a different section.
In my opinion, this image represents precisely how the IB curriculum is thriving to guide students. Many of our MYP students are now on the ‘controlled inquiry’ or ‘the guided inquiry’ level and eventually, they will move to the ‘free inquiry’ stage. As teachers, we are there to facilitate this transition to the next stage. We do that by asking questions but also by giving guidelines. p100
As a parent, you may be helping your child in this remote learning period, with their research. This can be done by asking them questions about their schoolwork but also helping them with their online search activities.