Inquiry Based Learning: Part Three

Five weeks into Inquiry Based Learning and it has been pretty amazing to look back on the development of ideas and strategies born from this class. The hardest challenge for me so far is not having my classroom. For the first few weeks of class, I was able to take and apply things to the classroom setting. With COVID-19 and all schools being shut down, it has removed a bit of wind from my sails. Still though I persevere knowing that things will carry with me for the next school year. One way I am using the content of this class is with our current work we are sending home with kids. Our school doesn't have the ability to go 100% with digital classrooms, so we have been preparing take home packets that cover two weeks at a time. I decided to give my students some options. One of the options is based around using Inquiry. See my menu below:

The middle column is designed for students who want to try an Inquiry Based assignment. While I cannot make them all do this option, I am hopeful a few will try it out.

This current week was one of my favorite weeks so far. Anytime I get to play around and integrate Web 2.0 tools into a lesson, that really fires me up. One of the things that was a little disappointing to me was a few of the tools were a bit old. I do understand that there are teachers who have never used, but I found a couple of them to irrelevant. I guess I was looking for some new things to try. Personally I try to stay pretty close to what is happening in this area. A great way to do that is through bloggers and podcasts. Two that I recommend are Richard Bryne at Free Technology for Teachers and Cult of Pedagogy with Jennifer Gonzalez. There are also a lot of shared resources on Twitter. I follow a few hashtags and people that share really useful resources.

At this point in the class I am starting to see how each week is building a well-rounded view of Inquiry Based Learning. My last blog post dealt with questions about professional development and teamwork on this concept. While I still hope I can pass some of this to others, I am looking now to how I can efficiently create Inquiry Based lessons from my current curriculum. The questions I am thinking now:
How long does it usually take to design a lesson based on Inquiry? It is feasible to fit two into my schedule per class each week?
Does Inquiry work best for those that have block scheduling? Does a lesson still work well it is must be split into two days of work?