Character Strength of Curiosity – Instructional Strategies and Activities

The following are instructional strategies and activities to help integrate the strength of CURIOSITY into the culture of your classroom.

• Classroom Curiosity Corner – A physical and/or virtual place where the classroom learning community posts questions and wonders.

• Curiosity Calendar – Choose a month to post a daily curiosity activity for everyone to try. Here is a kindness example for February.

• Curiosity Pursuit – Building on the Google 20% time, develop a mechanism for students to pursue their interests through research questions and plans to eventually show what they learn. Look at the possibility of employing ICL Project Plans that students work on outside of the regular curriculum. A curiosity pursuit project can be a longer term project.

• Genius Time – There are various approaches to giving students time to apply their curiosity in pursuing a question they wish to answer. Look to design a way to have students inquire, research and report their learning back in a creative way to the class. Here is one resource to help students engage character strengths during their creative time.

• Growing Curiosity from Six Seconds – Adapt this lesson to your needs.

• Inward-Outward – Think of ways to use the strength internally for your own wellbeing. Think of ways to express the strength outward to benefit others. Example: In- Go for a nature walk and engage all of your senses. Out- Be an active listener who engages others with thoughtful questions.

• See-Think-Wonder Thinking Routine – Use the STW routine in a variety of ways to help students develop as a habit when encountering new situations and information. Ask your students how they might apply their creativity as they pursue their “wonders”.

• Talk Moves –  Here are some sample questions and a video that one can use to help students ask each other questions to go deeper in their understanding when speaking with others.

  • What made you think that?

  • How did you get that answer?

  • Why is that important?

  • What do mean by …?

  • What is your evidence?

  • How do you know that?

  • So you are saying …?

  • Can you say more about …?

• What Makes You Say That? – The teacher can model this routine and line of questioning to help students seek to understand as they learn perspective taking. It also can be taught to support active listening for students to use this question in their social interactions.

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