Bugbee Quest 5 Update
January 2016 - Holiday Cards, Type III Update, Opportunities
Type III Investigation Update
Hello Quest Families!
We are knee-deep into our Type III Independent Inquiry Investigations! (Say that 10 times fast!) For a nice, simple description of the Type III model created by Dr. Joseph Renzulli, please click here.
What a high-level of interesting topics our Bugbee Quest kids are investigating this year! Here is a small sampling:
- World War II / The Holocaust
- Molecules & Atoms
- Hybrid Animals
- Positive Thinking
- D-Day
- Weather
- Optical Illusions
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy
Strokes
...and so many more!
For the past month or so, you should have seen your children locating resources and "Building Schema" - reading, watching, listening, and interacting with resources to build up their background knowledge on their chosen topics. We started with books from the Bugbee, middle school, and public libraries, and then branched off to locate articles within the iConn databases (recently renamed "Research It!), as well as vetted websites via GoQuest and Destiny WebPath Express.
Students have recently chosen their "Essential Questions" and are developing the "little" questions along Bloom's Taxonomy that will help guide their research path. Ask your child why their "questions" are actually statements! (Hopefully he or she will explain that by focusing on the actionable verbs of Bloom's Taxonomy, they are identifying the thought processes utilized at each level, or something to that effect!)
This past week, your child was given a homework assignment to share their Essential Question with a parent, perhaps on a car ride or over dinner. Did he or she follow through? ;)
To see each step along the way in the process, ask your child to show you our Google Classroom where all of the links and worksheets are posted to guide them along, including some help with Bloom's Taxonomy from some of our favorite characters, like Harry, Ron, and Hermione!
Our next step is to learn how to use NoodleTools to create citations and begin note-taking. It is a quick and easy way to cite our sources - especially if, like me, you can recall typing them up on a typewriter, and having to start over each time you messed up a semi colon!
Do you have any homework tonight?
The students who stay in the habit of working on their Type III Investigation a little bit at a time all throughout the process are less stressed as we approach our Type III Investigation Celebration and feel more successful. Access to a computer and the Internet is imperative to our Type III work. If you have any concerns or questions about this, please do not hesitate to touch base with me.
Opportunities - Click for Info
Sign Up with SENG
You can sign up for the SENG newsletters. There is a page for archived newsletters, only it has not been updated since last summer. I asked about more recent editions, and the response came back that they are not up yet and could not tell me when they would be. I will forward the January one to you all!
Save the Date: Type III Investigation Celebration
Wednesday, Apr 20, 2016, 06:00 PM
AIKEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, King Philip Drive, West Hartford, CT, United States
Mrs. Jeanne Pascon
Email: jeanne_pascon@whps.org
Phone: (860) 929-5500 (2302)