My colleagues at Salvado Catholic College in Western Australia and I have been working on how we might support the teaching assistants in the early years spaces to nurture curiosity in the children and model more inquiry thinking. The teaching assistants are AMAZING at the school. They love the children and have entered the classroom to make a difference. However, one missing piece in their training is what it means to foster an inquiry mindset.
To help in this regard, the team of teachers at the school have created these lovely question resources that are placed at the various stations in the room. As children are engaged in rich play and meaning making, the teacher assistants can access these helpful questions to shape their interactions and enrich their observations.
By using question resources like this, we have noticed that …
- the teacher assistants feel more confident, comfortable, and competent in facilitating and observing play. They feel honoured by this new and enlivened role in the classroom.
- the children’s play as well as their conversations with the adults shift. The evidence of connections and thinking and language development as well as social development are clearer.
- our communication to parents about what is happening in their children’s learning has strengthened. The team further developed a new observation document to accompany the question resources. All around, we are seeing more of the experiences of agency and curiosity that we all value.
Teachers have also redesigned their template for observations looking for ways their observations and documentation more intentional and to ensure that all adults in the learning space are actively contributing to noticing, listening to and recording children’s thinking. As a result, they developed a simple observation/jottings sheet that can be used by all adults throughout the day. The aim is to create a shared responsibility for capturing those valuable moments, conversations, interests and questions that can help inform their planning and next steps within the inquiry.
Click the image to download the PDF.
A massive thank you to everyone who had a hand in building these helpful resources and for their generosity in allowing me to share them with you all. Well done Jess and everyone at Salvado Catholic College!