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InsπreInsπreCuriosityCuriosity5 Activities to Center Inquiry5 Activities to Center Inquiryin the Learning Processin the Learning Process22-23 Inspired Teaching Institutes:USING IMPROV TO GROW RESILIENCEwww.inspiredteaching.org 5614 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 258, WDC 20015Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2023CONTENTSThe Inspired Teaching Approach............................2Building Sensory Awareness....................................3Finding Pi......................................................................4Automatic Writing......................................................5Zoom Out.....................................................................7Documenting History................................................8Additional Resources.................................................9Get #Inspired2Learn!Please visit https://bit.ly/3FUXLYT or scanthe above QR code to access a collection ofready-to-use lessons and activities with full,detailed explanations of each activity andapplicable Common Core Standards to helpyou become an Inspired Teacher!

www.inspiredteaching.orgCopyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2023The Inspired Teaching ApproachThe Inspired Teaching ApproachIt’s a way of seeing our job as teachers. It’s an unapologetic commitment to prioritizingcuriosity—on the part of the student and the teacher. The activities featured in thisbooklet from our February 2023 Institute are designed to do just that!Imagine engaging students in a lesson that is so compelling, that sparks their curiosity sodeeply, that they find it stirring! Imagine how deeply students would delve into thematerial, how hard they’d work, if they felt this way.That’s what the Inspired Teaching Approach is all about. It’s a student-led, curiosity-based approach to teaching and learning that places the student in the role of emergingexpert and the teacher in the role of Instigator of Thought.At its core, Inspired Teaching is a mindset.2There are many synonyms for the word inspire:motivate, encourage, stir

www.inspiredteaching.orgCopyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2023Discipline: A calming way to start anyclass, tool for building self-awareness inadvisories, or even a way to explore thesenses in science!Age Level: AllTime: 15-20 minutes (including debriefing)This guided reflection invitesa pause, a deep breath, anda grounding—all of whichcan be very helpfulthroughout the school day.3Building SensoryBuilding SensoryAwarenessAwarenessYou can use the following script with your studentson a walk around the school or classroom.SIGHT (2 min.)Look around you and notice as many things as you canusing your eyes, your sense of sight. Try to memorizeeverything you notice. Observe how things are placedin the room around you. Notice how the light affectsthe objects you see, and where the shadows are.Notice what is visible and what is hidden. What isbelow, beside, above you?TASTE (1 min.)(Give each student a mint or lifesaver.) Put this mint inyour mouth now and notice how it tastes, but also lookaround and see if that taste in your mouth helps yousee, hear, smell, or feel anything around you differently. SOUND (2 min.)Now close your eyes and just listen. Listen to thesounds in the room. Listen for sounds outside theroom. Listen for things that are humming. Listen toyour own breath. Open your eyes and look around.What more do you notice about the space? TOUCH (2 min.)Lightly touch some of the surfaces you see around you,feel whatever you’re sitting or standing on beneathyou. Notice the temperature in front of a window oraway from it, in front of an AC vent or away from it.What more do you notice about the space? REFLECTIONThink of this activity as an experiment in which we areinvestigating the question, “How does each of mysenses enhance my understanding of a space?” Eachtime you engaged a new sense, you added a variable tothe experiment. How did your understanding of thisspace change with each new focus? SMELL (1 min.)Close your eyes again, and if you can, breathe deeplythrough your nose, trying to smell whatever you can inthe air. Think about the objects around you and see ifyou can pick up their different scents – fresh laundry,perfume, soap, last night’s dinner, this morning’scoffee. Open your eyes and look around. What moredo you notice about the space? What to DoIf you try this activity with your students, share yourjourney via the #Inspired2Learn hashtag on yourpreferred social platform!

www.inspiredteaching.orgCopyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 20234Finding PiFinding PiDiscipline: Math (specifically geometry)Age Level: 5th Grade & aboveTime: 50 minutesMaterials: Lots of sticky notes, chartpaper, markers, several circular objects,and tools for measuring them (i.e.: stringor yarn, rulers, measuring tape, etc.)Understanding where picomes from may not be thekey to understandinggeometry, but it teachesstudents that math actuallydescribes the world around us.Understanding can buildmotivation to learn. STEP ONEPrepare the room with a wide variety of circular objectsand measuring materials. Put students in pairs or smallgroups. Start the lesson with this prompt either spokenor written on the board: “Using the materials in the room,find the diameter and the circumference of at least 5objects.”Give groups about ten minutes to measure thecircumference and diameter of the objects. Be sure notto tell them how to measure the objects. You want themto discover that they can use the string to wrap aroundthe object and then measure its length on the ruler.You may guide them in this direction by askingquestions like, “Is there anything in your set of toolsthat is flexible?” Groups may even come up withanother method based on the tools you give them.As groups are measuring, circulate and ask questions.View sample questions here.STEP TWONow share this prompt: “Using your measurements, findthe relationship between circumference and diameter andwrite the relationship on a post-it.” Do not be specific about what you are looking for.Learners may represent the relationships in manydifferent ways—an equation, a ratio, a number, etc. Asthey are doing this, challenge groups to come up withas many representations for this relationship aspossible. When the energy in the room begins to slow,ask one person from each group to bring up the post-its to the board or to a blank wall and place them.Invite the class to huddle around the posted post-itsand share their thoughts with a partner who was not intheir original group, reflecting on what they learned.During the discussion, you can use the questions hereto start the conversation, but let the students reallyguide the discussion. Eventually you want them tounderstand that the ratio of circumference to diameterfor every circle is pi. This will also lead them to theconclusion that the equation C=(pi)(D) also holds truefor every circle. Finally, bring the class back together as a whole todebrief and discuss the results.What to DoIf you try this activity with your students, share yourjourney via the #Inspired2Learn hashtag on yourpreferred social platform!

www.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 20235Automatic WritingAutomatic WritingDiscipline: AllAge Level: AllTime: 20-40 minutesMaterials: Something to write with(or can be done entirely online) Automatic writing gives our minds the space to relax and let flow uninterrupted with a series of prompts that guide us through a line of thinking that is entirely unexpected.When you do this with your students, simplify your explanatory language (as much as possible) so the creation process is freeto flow. The goal of these prompts is to see where they lead us. Later, students can think about structure, plot, or action. Invite learners to use writing utensils that work best for them, for some this will be pen and paper, for others, it may be a digitalpage. For younger students, it may work best to draw their thinking on a big sheet of paper.Guide learners through the following verbal prompts. Pace the prompts so there is plenty of time to write between them. Let’s begin.Write down the name of a place REAL OR IMAGINARY.Write down a time – it could be a time of day, could be an era in the past, present, or future.IMAGINE YOU ARE In this place, You hear a sound. What is the sound? What– OR WHO? made the sound.Still in this place, YOU SEE A LIGHT. WHERE IS IT COMING FROM? WHAT IS CAUSING IT? (Take several seconds towrite your responses.)You follow the light. Where does it lead you? And what do you discover?What to DoIf you try this activity with your students, share your journey via the#Inspired2Learn hashtag on your preferred social platform!

www.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 20236Automatic Writing (cont'd)Automatic Writing (cont'd)You sense something — or someone — behind you. You turn, and what do you see?YOU SEE A STAIRCASE. NOTICE WHAT’S AROUND YOU – WHAT THE STEPS LOOK LIKE. YOU WALK UP THESTAIRCASE, AND AT THE TOP, YOU SEE SOMETHING SURPRISING. WHAT IS IT?As you look around, You see a door you hadn’t noticed before. SLOWLY, You open it, and you see something. Whatdo you see? WHAT DO YOU DO?You smell a smell. What– OR WHO made the smell? You see a scarf lying on the ground. When you pick it up, you discover it’s magic. Who might it belong to? What canyou do with it?Bring your story to an end…Look at what you’ve written. Now, give your piece a title.After learners have gone through this writing exercise they can go back and refine what they have written. Reflection questions might include: How did you feel at the start of this exercise and how did you feel at the end? Did you write anything that surprised you? Would anyone like to share what they have written? Invite all participants to share their titles.What did you notice about your thinking as you were writing? Where might you take what you have written next? You can adjust the prompts.You can do this exercise over and over with different prompts, and even withthe same prompts which will still, likely, elicit different responses.You can use this structure as a daily or weekly exercise to build imagination,comfort, and skill in writing, etc. You can have students add their own “imagines” after you’ve primed thepump and called attention to their senses the potential for surprises, etc. Youcould do this in the moment or invite students to submit prompts in advancethat you curate into a new exercise. You can situate the experience in the context of what you’re studying withstudents at the time. For example, “We are in the Land of Nouns and Verbs”or “We are in the middle of Pythagorean Theorem Country” or “The year is1865 and the Civil War has just ended.” Or invite students to choose astarting point tied to your curriculum. Consider adding some unexpected physical or emotional reaction into theprompts such as, “You begin to laugh. Why? What’s causing you to laugh?”1.2.3.4.5.6.Activity Extensions

www.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 20227Begin by talking to students about how perspective shapes theway we see the world. One way to do that is by holding up anapple and asking students the following, listening and givingspace for discussion in their responses:Click here for more sample questions to encourage inquiry.Click here for examples of other applications of this activity.Once your learners have grasped the idea that perspectivescan vary based on who we are and our lived experience,introduce the idea that perspectives can also shift based onwhether we’re looking at something close up or from adistance. Share one of these great, short videos that looks atsomething familiar from vastly different perspectives:What is this?What is it for?How do you know?How would you describe its size?How would you describe its flavor?Imagine you're an ant. What would an ant think this is?How might an ant think about its size?Carl Sagan's Pale Blue DotZoom by Istvan BanyaiHey Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah HooseNow have your learners practice zooming their ownperspective out using this reflection sheet. This link willask you to make a copy of the sheet so you can edit andadapt it.Have them choose a small object that is important tothem. It should be familiar—for example, a favorite toy,family photo, or school book bag. They can do thiswhile at home, or bring the object into class to look atand share. Learners will write down a description of the object andwhy it holds meaning for them. Then they will “zoomout,” considering that object in the larger context inwhich it sits (for example: a book bag next to aclassroom desk) and write down why that largercontext holds meaning for them. Then they take thatlarger context (the classroom desk) and zoom out tosee it in its larger space (the classroom as a whole) andwrite down why that holds meaning for them. Studentscan zoom out as many times as they like.Invite your students to share their discoveries with youand with one another. Remember to share yourdiscoveries with your students too!1.2.3.What to DoDiscipline: Literacy, Social StudiesAge level: AllTime: 30-45 minutesMaterials: Writing materials, a handout,a meaningful personal objectConsidering the size of our problems inthe relation to a bigger context can helpus understand the nature of the issuebetter, and sometimes even make theproblem seem less huge!Zoom OutZoom OutIf you try this activity with your students, share your journey via the#Inspired2Learn hashtag on your preferred social platform!

Students choose a historical event that took place within the last 20-30 years during which they know family or friends werealive, and ideally, experienced firsthand.They begin with online research of that event. You may want to provide them with an outline of what pieces of informationthey should gather and how you want sources cited. View examples here.After this preliminary research, students craft interview questions for people who lived during this event. These questionsshould help to deepen their understanding of what took place as well as complicate some of the conclusions they may havecome to from their preliminary research. Crafting these questions is a good teaching opportunity and would work well forone-on-one office hours. As you support students in crafting their inquiry and figuring out who to interview, you might guidethem with some of the questions found here.Once the students have identified the people they want to interview and the questions they want to ask, they schedule theirinterviews and record them. (Again, ZOOM is a good tool for this.) Talk to the students about getting written permission fromall the people they interview for inclusion in the documentary. Then these recordings can be put together with video editingsoftware or plugged into a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation.Consider including a part of the assignment that asks students to reflect on what they’ve learned. Click here for somereflection questions.www.inspiredteaching.orgCopyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 20228What to DoDiscipline: Social StudiesAge level: Middle to High SchoolTime: This is a long-term project and could take about a month to complete.Materials: A digital recording device, video-making softwaresuch as iMovie (there are also many free apps)Some of the most interesting and useful artifacts from history are the first-personaccounts we find in journals and interviews. Students can gather those as theychronicle and attempt to understand an event from the past or the things unfoldingin our present. Using free tools like Zoom, they can record video interviews andcompile them into a documentary that is easy to share with a real audience.Documenting HistoryDocumenting HistoryIf you try this activity with your students, share your journey via the#Inspired2Learn hashtag on your preferred social platform!

Take the Surveywww.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 20229Additional ResourcesAdditional ResourcesThese editions of Inspired Teaching'sHooray for Monday—an award-winningweekly blog and podcast filled withquestions, ideas, reflections, and actionswe can all take to remodel the schoolexperience for students—are all aboutembracing and championing curiosity inthe classroom.The Opposite of CuriosityJanuary 20, 2023If you found this resource useful,please complete a short survey aboutit by clicking the button below.We want your feedback!Join us at our nextFAST-PACED,IDEA-RICHInstitute!View UpcomingInstitutesStirring Up CuriosityChanneling CuriosityWhat Else Might Be Possible?Curiosity = RespectDecember 5, 2022October 3, 2022March 7, 2022October 4, 2021