Once you understand the purpose of an “I Wonder” board, beginning one in your classroom can be intimidating. No matter the method for implementing your board, you will find these three steps helpful in ensuring the success of your “I Wonder” board.
1. Re-Teach Students About Curiosity
Children are naturally born with curiosity and a tendency towards inquiry. They thrive in environments that cultivate their sense of wonder. However, somewhere in the nurturing process, that sense of wonder is often squelched. Children become more concerned with procedure and pleasing than asking questions and seeking answers to their own curiosities.
To effectively implement an “I Wonder” space, we must first teach students how to wonder again. Within my classroom, I modeled for students how to articulate their curiosities and encouraged them to write their thoughts down. I frequently did this using “I Wonder” by Annaka Harris and an “I Wonder” PowerPoint lesson, in which students get the opportunity to practice verbalizing their curiosities.
By modeling how to “wonder”, we encourage students to reconnect learning and curiosity. This is a lifelong skill, that will help them grow into investigative problem solvers and active participants in the learning process.
2. Teach Realistic Procedures
I believe strongly in nurturing and cultivating a sense of wonder and curiosity. I also believe in the importance of whole group instruction in areas like Orton Gillingham, math, and ELA. When these two meet, I find my need for effective “I Wonder” procedures. In order to avoid students standing in the middle of a whole group lesson and going to the “I Wonder” board, I discussed and modeled acceptable times to write down wonders, while still encouraging students to keep their wonders in their minds until time to write. Procedures are an important component to an “I Wonder” board, as it will be up all year.
3. Show it Matters
What happens to the “I Wonders” once they are posted? As the facilitator, you get to decide how effective to make your “I Wonder” spot. I always draw my students’ attention to materials or plans derived from their “wonders”.
“This article is about dinosaurs. I saw that many of you posted “I Wonders” about dinosaurs last week and thought you would enjoy reading this article”.
Student engagement increases 10 fold when they feel they have a say in the material within the classroom.
Here are a few suggestions for use.
- Organize “I Wonders” by topics to help determine trends in student interest.
- Look for “I Wonders” that lend themselves to standard threads.
- Use “I Wonders” to talk about topics during morning meetings.
- Keep “I Wonders” organized and pull them when topics come up in your scope and sequence
- Choose “I Wonders” that lend themselves to Project Based Learning units.
- Align “I Wonders” with STEM/STEAM challenges
- Create a list of “I Wonders” and implement a Genius Hour or Passions Time when students can choose from the list of their “I Wonders” over time
If implemented and maintained over the course of an academic year, an “I Wonder” board can reinvigorate student interest, curiosity, and sense of wonder all while increasing classroom engagement. So, what are you waiting for?!
Post a picture of your “I Wonder” space in the comments below.
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