I have been so pleased to see the response to the Types of Student Inquiry sketchnote. It has reached schools around the globe and impacted countless educators and learners. It has brought much liberation to settings that are all too often confining, restricting, and limiting. In it’s essence, inquiry-based learning is an aspirational pedagogy (thank you Guy Claxton for that language). It gives us and our students wings to find ourselves, explore the world, and embark on new and unforeseen experiences.

I have found, however, that the Types of Student Inquiry sketchnote can also be limiting. It can box up experiences that are meant to be rich in student agency, curiosity, and wonder. Although it is an amazing image to help point our attention to some common ideas and help paint a specific picture of inquiry, it is somewhat limiting in as much as inviting the onlooker into the experience through reflection and exploration.

This new Types of Student Inquiry sketchnote is meant to be just that, an open invitation to the onlooker to reflect and explore. Whether it is used with educators to begin unpacking their own language to what a gradual release of responsibility over learning looks like, sounds like, and feels like, or if it is used with students to begin unpacking their own role in agency in our classrooms, this image is a different entry point to the conversation than the original swimming pool sketch.

Of course, how you use it is up to you. That is the beauty of inquiry, is it not? The learner co-constructs the learning. I look forward to seeing where this new sketch reaches and how it impacts you and your learners.

A massive thank you to Rebecca Bushby for creating this image and a gracious and appreciative thanks to Jessica Vance for the kind nudge to get this resource out into the world.