“What are you gonna study?”
This urgent question rings through our classroom every year, signifying the imminent launch of Explorers’ Club, our inquiry-based non-fiction writing unit.
This is one of our favorite writing units of the year. It takes student choice, internal motivation, research skills, paraphrasing, and non-fiction text features and wraps them all up into a creative, meaningful, and informative experience for kids.
Topics this year include such tantalizing subjects as… narwhals, peacocks, medieval times, monkeys, Benjamin Franklin, rhinoceroses, Egypt, Mt. Everest, plastic waste, electricity, hamsters, being deaf, swordfish, and snakes.
What would you choose? If you had total control and could choose a topic that interested you, that you had lots of questions about, that lit that fire of excitement and relevance for you, that you could research, that you could gather information about (in your own words, of course), and then ultimately create your own non-fiction resource for others… then what would you choose?
Writing and Laughing 
This is brilliant! Kudos to you for letting your students take the reigns during this unit of study. I can tell they’ve produced important writing that holds meaning and value to them.
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The sticking factor of EC is one of my favorite parts. The graduating 8th graders all remember what they studied in K, 1st, and 2nd grade! 🙂
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I love how you call it the Explorers’ Club! It just makes the students believe they ARE researchers exploring for new information and discoveries. Hmmm … if I could research any topic? I don’t know. Maybe an animal or a historical event? I’d have to ponder that!
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Totally. We’re big fans of being particular with our descriptors. It’s fun to make moves based on pure inquiry – I always have multiple topics that I have to narrow down each year!
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Oh I love this! Such fun!!! What lucky kids. I’m glad you can get so many books and choices for your students!
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It’s so fun to watch these guys follow their own lines of questioning. I learn a bunch, too! 😁
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This is so exciting! I love the choices your Ss made! My question is how do you go about garnering resources for exploration? Do you have a tub of books from which to choose or do you go on a hunt for them once Ss decide what they want to research? Love the progress! What grade? Thanks for the inspiration!
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It’s a little of both. We have lots of various resources at school, gathered from years of Explorers’ Club topics. When we’re short on books, we hit the local libraries and inter-library loans. I teach first and second grades, but the Ks also do an EC unit. Glad to share!!!
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