And After All, it’s the Wonder Wall

At the second F2F, I heard such a wide range of ideas from my fellow ‘cohorters’ on what they could possibly do for their action plan, and it was amazing to begin to see some of these plans come to fruition by the day’s end.  

For me, I decided to look at the gifted learner.  So often we hear about how to support the learner’s who may be struggling, but it is equally important to challenge those learners who have been identified as gifted or have gifted tendencies, in a meaningful way.  I posed my question of ‘how might we challenge our gifted learners on a day-to-day basis?’ to the Cohort community during our last F2F, and the feedback I got was overwhelming.  One idea that I kept coming back to was Genius Hour, where students have the opportunity to explore an idea that they are passionate about.

This is where I introduce the ‘Wonder Wall.”  No, not to be confused with Oasis’ hit song from the 90’s!

Although…perhaps some of the lyrics could ring true.  “Today is gonna be the day that they’re gonna throw it back to you.”  That is exactly what I’m going to do; place ownership of the learning on the students themselves to dig deep into the questions that they are interested in knowing more about.  As Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s cube said, “Teaching [children how to ask] questions is more important than [teaching the] answers.”  The Wonder Wall will give students a place to ask questions about what they have always wondered about.  From there, they can use project-based learning methodologies to begin the process of finding their answer.

The Wonder Wall will be open for all students in the class, and there will be opportunities for students of all abilities to ask their own questions and seek their own path to finding the answer.  While my action plan was focused on the gifted learner, I can use the Wonder Wall as a tool for all my students to critically engage with their own ideas.  The directions where this could go is endless, and I am confident that this will engage my gifted learners in a way that is meaningful for them.