I-time | by Mel

We have been having I-Time every Thursday to finish the day. I-Time is a chance for us to learn something we are interested in. Each Thursday we have an hour to work on it and to plan for our presentation. Here are some kids’ reviews about I-Time:

“I like I-Time because it’s fun to do and all we have to do is research and we get to learn new things,” said Breea.

“It’s really fun,” said Noah.

“I think it helps you to learn things that you might need to know in the future,” said Ella.

“It helps our learning because it lets us learn what we want to learn. I-Time is a good way to learn new things. I love I-Time! I-Time is awesome for kids,” said Quinn.

I-time question questions

Today we started planning our next I-time projects. I-time is a time to research questions we are interested in, and to develop a learner skill (like researching, collaborating, thinking, communicating, managing self, etc.). We are trying out using some questions that Yoram Harpaz developed for use in Israeli Communities of Thinking schools to help refine our research questions. We added some of our own questions, and adapted some of his:

What sparked your interest in that question?

What do you mean by _____?

What are your initial ideas about the answer to that question?

Are you and your buddy in agreement?

What other possibilities might be worth checking or looking in to?

How do you think you might go about researching that question?

Why are you asking a question to which you know the answer?

Who do you think might benefit from an answer to your question?

Is your question open or closed?

Do you think you’ll actually learn anything from that since you already know a lot about that topic?