Tag Archives: Inquiry-Based Learning

Defining the Elephant in the Room: What, Exactly, is Close Reading?

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Janet Neyer

After months of research and soul-searching, I’ve come to the realization that I can’t use the terminology of “close reading” in my classes any longer. This has been a long journey for me, as I’ve tried to understand what “close … Continue reading →

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The Value of Talk

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Janet Neyer

The other day, my daughter called and asked me about a recipe. We chatted about its origin, and recalled a funny story that went with it. Our lively  conversation had stemmed from a simple question. Recently, I’ve been paying close … Continue reading →

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Time Well Spent

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Janet Neyer

Time. There’s never enough of it, is there? Whenever I talk to teachers about my efforts to use an inquiry approach to teaching, they almost always ask, “How do you find the time?” To be honest, it isn’t easy. As … Continue reading →

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The Writing Is Small, But the Work Is Big

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Janet Neyer

In my last two blog posts (21st Century Literacy and Alligator in the Classroom), I began to tell the story of a shared inquiry project on the American Alligator that my first grade students and I engaged in last winter.  The … Continue reading →

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Alligator in the Classroom

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Janet Neyer

This is the second in a series of posts about inquiry-based learning in the first grade classroom. In my last blog post  I wrote about the day a student’s dad surprised my first grade class with a preserved alligator head. … Continue reading →

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