Hi Everyone!
I love starting and ending my units with the infamous DQ (Driving Question) Notebooks. I am curious to hear from other folks who have used this tool in the past or maybe plan on using it this upcoming school year. How do you use this tool in your classroom?
I typically spend two full lessons on the DQ Notebook in my classroom. One at the start of the unit and one at the end of the unit. Here's how I roll it out in my classroom:
- In the beginning of the Unit before students have learned anything, I have them write an answer to the Driving Question for 10 minutes.
- We then set discussion goals with one another.
- Then, use the remainder of the period (30 or so minutes) to have an open discussion.
- For the last five minutes, students are welcome to add to their writing based on the discussion had in class that day.
- At the end of the Unit, we repeat this process and add in the bit about how our thinking has evolved and/or changed.
These discussions are really magical by the time we get to the second half of the year. We sometimes have to work through some awkward silence in our first couple of DQ discussions. But, it is all worth it by the end of the year when students are pretty much running the discussions all on their own. Here's an example of some of the discussion goals we have come up with in the past:
