ABSTRACT
Sharing happens all of the time in an inquiry-based classroom. Sharing requires having something to share, so this chapter focuses on collecting data as an important context for sharing among students. Through sharing, the whole becomes more than the sum of the parts. The teacher can model summarizing what was said or what happened before, predicting how the book will evolve. All of the literacy, thinking, listening, and collaborating strategies are relevant to sharing, and especially data collection, within inquiry. Sharing can be extended to keeping a class notebook or log. One common lower elementary grade activity to promote sharing is to have each student lie down on a section of brown paper as long as their body. Students must also consider whom to interview, such as other students, teachers, the school head, parents, relatives, athletes, professors, community professionals, or members of city council, congress, or parliament.
