Butterfly Inquiry: A Curation of Resources

Introduction

Every spring, our class orders Painted Lady caterpillars and watches them grow into beautiful butterflies. It’s an amazing provocation to get students wondering about caterpillars and butterflies! This curation of resources is designed to accompany a grade 2 butterfly inquiry unit.

Selection Criteria

For this curation, has I have gone through two selection processes: one for the individual resources and one for the curation as a unit.

Individual Resources

Individual resources have been selected according to the ALA and BC ERAC recommendations. To make the suitability of each resource clear and succinct, I’ve taken these guidelines and created a three-star rating scale. The resources listed in the following pages also includes the rating for each of these categories:

Criteria	–	★	★★	★★★
Curriculum fit	The resource is not relevant to the curriculum goals for this inquiry.	The resource is only relevant to part of the curriculum goals for this inquiry.	The resource is mostly relevant to the curriculum goals for this inquiry.	The resource is fully relevant to the curriculum goals (content, skills, and/or big ideas) for this inquiry.
Inquiry Pedagogy	The resource does not encourage students to pose open-ended questions, think critically, develop unique interpretations, and connect to real life.	The resource somewhat encourages students to pose open-ended questions, think critically, develop unique interpretations, and/or connect to real life.	The resource encourages students to pose open-ended questions, think critically, develop unique interpretations, and/or connect to real life.	The resource fully encourages students to pose open-ended questions, think critically, develop unique interpretations, and connect to real life.
Content	The resource content is not current, has inaccuracies and is not from a reliable source.	The resource content is not current, has minor inaccuracies and/or is not from a source known to be reliable.	The resource content is current, accurate and from a reliable source.	The resource content is current, accurate and from a reliable source. Content is Canadian or relevant to a Canadian context.
Accessibility	The resource is not accessible for diverse abilities and needs.	The resource is accessible for some diversity of abilities and needs.	The resource is accessible for diverse abilities and needs.	The resource is very accessible for diverse abilities and needs.
Representation	The resource contains inappropriate representations, perspectives, and/or stereotypes.	The resource only contains one representation or perspective.	The resource contains a representation or perspective different from the other resources in the collection.	The resources presents multiple representations and perspectives.
Design	The visual design is not at all engaging and/or the physical design is not appropriate for the students.	The visual design could be more engaging or the physical design may be difficult for the students.	The visual design is interesting and engaging. The physical design is appropriate for the students.	The visual design is very interesting and engaging. The physical design is fully appropriate for the students.

Table 1: Selection Criteria for Individual Resources

Note: The idea for a rating scale comes from my classmate’s “Evaluation Criteria based on BC’s Proficiency Scales” (Chu). This is an adaptation of Chu’s evaluation rubric and contains some direct wording from her rubric.

Curation

For the curation as a whole, I also took into consideration two additional criteria:

Viewpoints: As Donham explains, collections should “provide multiple perspectives on complex issues” (p .5) so students can “analyze examples and conclude how they fit together” (p. 5). For this topic and age group, it would be appropriate to have resources from scientific, social responsibility (especially environmental), First Nations, and multi-cultural points of view.

Variety: The ALA recommends that a curated collection “include a variety of resources in physical and virtual formats” (ALA). I have organized this curation by resource type to show the variety of resources in this collection.

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