What are Invitations?

Invitations are an approach to the teaching/learning process that is centered on student inquiry. Students are more apt to become independent and responsible learners when teachers demonstrate that they value and support the questions that emerge fromtheir students. Inquiry, choice, depth of information, as well as depth of understanding are the cornerstones of this constructivist view of teaching and learning. Invitational Learning is intended to provide opportunities for learners to go beyond their current understandings and competencies.

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Why use Invitations?

This type of teaching follows the Chinese proverb on how to feed a person. As the story goes, you can choose to give a person one fish or you can choose to teach the person to fish? Which method is going to come closer to assuring a life of nutrition, do you think?
Invitations provide a way to teach our students to be responsible thinkers and problem solvers, not merely responders to rote-based questions and standardized testing. It's a valuing of how we authentically cognate or think and problem solve. What's really neat about invitation-based inquiry is that it's scientific and it can also reinforce the rote-based test information in a richer, deeper, meaningful context. It's teaching for a lifetime of nourishment, not just one fish.

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Invitation Directory

Invitation to Evaluate Web Sites with Your Own Criteria

Web-based Classroom Management Invitation

Reader Response Formats

Software Evaluation

What Elementary Teachers Need to Know About Language