In Introduction to Inquiry Based Learning, Neil Stephenson identifies eight elements of strong inquiry-based practice. In my mini lessons for my high school English students I want to incorproate these elements into our study of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. My main goal is to use technology and promote inquiry that will make the reading and study of the piece of literature more relevant and engaging for my students. I want them to use their voices to show what they learn through this experience and I want to incorporate the eight elements from Stephenson's article.
Standards:
ELACC9-10RL6: Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work
of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
ELACC9-10RL9: Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a
specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how
a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare).
1. Authenticity
I want students to see the reasons that Julius Caesar is important for them today in today's world. I would use anchor questions such as: What truths concerning loyalty and power from Julius Caesar are still relevant in our society and world today?
2. Deep Understanding
I want students to know where Shakespeare got his information in writing the play and how they can research how that information applies to leaders today or in recent history. What happens when one person has too much power? How is our government set up to prevent one person from having too much power? What does that mean for me as a citizen in today's world? They can take these deeper understandings and apply them to other situations.
3.Performance of Understanding
I want students to have some flexibility of their performance that shows their understandings of the concepts and goals. I think and interactive website for their findings and research and more importantly for their expression of their own voices in addressing the questions would allow them to collaborate and extend beyond the classroom.
4. Assessment
I want to engage them in reflecting through this whole process, so I plan on using reflective journals and self assessments. Also, to define the completion of goals and track progress through the process, I will use rubrics.
5. Appropriate Use of Technology
Students will use Chromebooks and Ipads for making their websites and for doing any research. They will also use various online tools to make polls or interactive components for their websites.
6. Connecting With Experts
Students can use the Folger Shakespeare Library online to connect with experts and also use online information from various current resources to look at issues of today.
7. Student Success
I can set goals for the students and I can also help them set goals and reflect upon meeting these goals. These goals will be clear and easily recognizable so that students have a clear picture of what success in this inquiry will look like.
8. Ethical Citizenship
Because the main focus of this inquiry is loyalty and power, I can see many opportunities for a study of ethics to extend from this exploration and it can be exhibited on their performance or product. As far as ethical use of photos, articles, websites, this inquiry provides the perfect opportunity for
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Inquiry Learning: How I See It
Inquiry learning encompasses many facets of letting go with students by setting them free in a sense, but continuing to guide them toward goals. I see teachers as mentors and facilitators as students create answers to their own questions that engage them and spark a natural curiosity concerning various subjects rather than simply consuming information. I think it is important to guide them as they discover who the experts are and even more importantly who they are not. It is a learning journey for our students and for us. They can continue their journeys anytime and anywhere on any devise, but they need guidance. Diana Laufenberg uses the term "praiseworthy failure" and I think there is power in allowing a student to learn from mistakes. As mentors, teachers can be there to guide them when they fail- guide them through the evaluation of "where things went wrong." What a powerful experience we will be giving our students!
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Goal Reflections
My goals for the course Information Fluency and Inquiry are:
- hone my skills in developing a classroom that incorporates Inquiry Based Learning
-build my PLN in an organized and accessible way
-refine the tools I use and methods I use to teach research to my own students in my high school English class
I have to say that I need to devote more time and energy to the first goal on Inquiry Based Learning. I think that as the course progresses, I will encounter more assignments that help fulfill this goal. I have a book I purchased that is on my to read list:Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action by Harvey and Daniels.
As for building my PLN, I have been an avid twitter user for several years now, but my goal is more on curation and organization. Learning to use Symbaloo to organize resources has been a huge help. Also, I am using Rebelmouse and Paper.li for the first time. I want to compare the two of them and will most likely stick with the one I like the best.
All of the assignments and activities for this course thus far have helped me to be more mindful of how I use various tools and methods to teach research in my classroom. I have read so much and gathered so much information, that I know how my own students feel now. It is a process that I believe I will continue to build upon, reflect, and then rework constantly. I want to stick with these goals and continue to have the growth mindset to move forward with them.
- hone my skills in developing a classroom that incorporates Inquiry Based Learning
-build my PLN in an organized and accessible way
-refine the tools I use and methods I use to teach research to my own students in my high school English class
I have to say that I need to devote more time and energy to the first goal on Inquiry Based Learning. I think that as the course progresses, I will encounter more assignments that help fulfill this goal. I have a book I purchased that is on my to read list:Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action by Harvey and Daniels.
As for building my PLN, I have been an avid twitter user for several years now, but my goal is more on curation and organization. Learning to use Symbaloo to organize resources has been a huge help. Also, I am using Rebelmouse and Paper.li for the first time. I want to compare the two of them and will most likely stick with the one I like the best.
All of the assignments and activities for this course thus far have helped me to be more mindful of how I use various tools and methods to teach research in my classroom. I have read so much and gathered so much information, that I know how my own students feel now. It is a process that I believe I will continue to build upon, reflect, and then rework constantly. I want to stick with these goals and continue to have the growth mindset to move forward with them.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Letting Go
I think I am not the only teacher who struggles with letting go and leading students see the value in failure. If I "let go" as Grant Wiggins susgests in his blog post Great Teaching Means Letting Go, then I have to relinquish a little control and let my classroom "get messy". It is so easy to have a one size fits all step by step process in lessons. We have so many learners who are on so many different levels and have so many different needs that we have to keep some type of commonality or order. But kids do this all the time in sports. They scrimmage. They practice for the big event or the big test where the coach or teacher can only stand on the sidelines and maybe offer some advise, but can't change or control the game. I see Dr. Wiggins point. If scrimmaging is the formative assessment for sports, then scrimmaging for the big test is a must in all classrooms. Students would then have the opportunity to discuss and analyze strategies and yes, failures as well. Meta-cognition: isn't that what we really want our students to do? Don't we want them to be able to do it on their own and transfer skills and knowledge to the real world? Can we let the messiness begin in our classrooms?
Chris Lehman of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia says yes to the questions above. In fact he says we must. Students should learn through inquiry and failure. Students should learn in a school where it matters in the real world. I like his point that school is so regimented and that while students typically go to seven different teachers a day in high school, we as adults would not accept a condition where we would have to report to seven bosses. It seems to me that this type of school where teachers are mentors and facilitators is an ideal place for students to learn and to learn from their failures, but the whole school must be structure in that way for it to work. We would have to change the data we collect and use to measure growth because standardization in testing does not even fit this paradigm. Technology, inquiry learning, and great teaching are all interrelated. Technology is the vehicle through which students can demonstrate what they know and how they solve the same problem in different ways. To me, it seems that a whole shift in structure would be necessary.
Chris Lehman of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia says yes to the questions above. In fact he says we must. Students should learn through inquiry and failure. Students should learn in a school where it matters in the real world. I like his point that school is so regimented and that while students typically go to seven different teachers a day in high school, we as adults would not accept a condition where we would have to report to seven bosses. It seems to me that this type of school where teachers are mentors and facilitators is an ideal place for students to learn and to learn from their failures, but the whole school must be structure in that way for it to work. We would have to change the data we collect and use to measure growth because standardization in testing does not even fit this paradigm. Technology, inquiry learning, and great teaching are all interrelated. Technology is the vehicle through which students can demonstrate what they know and how they solve the same problem in different ways. To me, it seems that a whole shift in structure would be necessary.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Reflective Searching
As an educator, I have constantly monitored the search habits of my students and tried to help them navigate the onslaught and availability of information since the early nineties when I first stepped into the classroom as a teacher. I have witnessed first hand their reliance on the Google search browser and their eventual abandonment of the school librarian as a helper and navigator of information for research. Students would rather hit the search icon on a web browser than even sort through suggested search engines and databases on our school media center website. The word "research" for students today does not even conjure the thought of a physical library. And why would it? Instant information is available to them on their cell phones. This information is abundant, everywhere, and easy. I find myself sending them back to square one and forcing them to slow down and take the time to evaluate the information they find. I see the behaviors mentioned in several readings from this week- skimming information without considering its depth and breath, power browsing, and (a term new to me) squirreling away information by saving it or printing it for later. Students do not spend much time at all reading the content they find online. I would say they spend most of their time, as the articles, suggest navigating around and searching. Even though contained in a source right in front of them, they claim they cannot find the information they need because they have skimmed rather than thoroughly read the sources they find.
These observations lead me to a realization about myself as a searcher; this member of generation x has slowly evolved into one of the Google Generation. I employ many of the same behaviors as my students when beginning to research anything- even when I resort to looking it up the old fashioned way and even then in a virtual library resource. I am even willing to admit that yes, I do browse and skim Wikipedia first before consulting other sources. I have unknowingly created my own "filter bubble" just as they have. One difference is that I do know that I need to check a reputable source afterwards, but I still start with the same methods that my students do. How do I avoid having an algorithm filter my results for me or for my students for that matter? We need to think about how we search for information. Apply the principals of meta-cognition to our browsing and searching and gathering of information. -Something librarians did for me when I was in school. Sometimes I wonder if any of my students think about their approach to searching for information at all. Could they make an info graphic of their own search pattern? Do they employ different patterns for different inquiries or always the same? These are issues we should ponder in these times when we are all bombarded with information. Having immediate and abundant access does not improve their information literacy.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Four Resources: One Theme
In which I review four resources....
Oxford English Dictionary Word
PLN and Twitter
WordPress
EduBlogs
As a teacher of literature, I have the habit of viewing most of what I approach in terms of its theme. Therefore when asked to identify commonalities of the above mentioned resources, I see a common thread of "connection". All four serve to connect people in some way. For example, every human born in the year of 1966 can look up his or her birthday word and find that computernik is a newly invented word during the year in which he or she was born. The blogging platforms connect people with like interests as do the various PLNs such as RebelMouse, PaperLi and Twitter. I see them all as connecting people who are looking for or are willing to share interests and information on the same topics. The birthday word site from Oxford English Dictionary would be the one resource here that does not allow for any sharing within its own platform, so it does not connect people as the other do. Above all, the resources make learning personal by providing a means for any person to share how the information she acquires applies to her experience and her prior knowledge.
For my learning goals, these resources set a stage or present a platform that allows for others to engage in inquiry. When a student or person can scroll through a feed on twitter, or search for a blog post and find millions of resources that anyone can post, the idea is overwhelming. I have one particular goal in my desire to introduce Inquiry Learning into my classroom in an organized and systematic way. I want the experience to be manageable and fairly easy to navigate for my students and for me as well. The most prevalent thought that pops into my head is that not only do I need to find a way to sort through and digest the information coming in, but I also need to provide a way for my students to organize it, apply a meaning and use to it, and have a means to share it and express it.- A way that connects them to other learners. It is almost like a never ending cycle, search, find, sort, compose, share...and then the process starts all over again.
Oxford English Dictionary Word
PLN and Twitter
WordPress
EduBlogs
As a teacher of literature, I have the habit of viewing most of what I approach in terms of its theme. Therefore when asked to identify commonalities of the above mentioned resources, I see a common thread of "connection". All four serve to connect people in some way. For example, every human born in the year of 1966 can look up his or her birthday word and find that computernik is a newly invented word during the year in which he or she was born. The blogging platforms connect people with like interests as do the various PLNs such as RebelMouse, PaperLi and Twitter. I see them all as connecting people who are looking for or are willing to share interests and information on the same topics. The birthday word site from Oxford English Dictionary would be the one resource here that does not allow for any sharing within its own platform, so it does not connect people as the other do. Above all, the resources make learning personal by providing a means for any person to share how the information she acquires applies to her experience and her prior knowledge.
For my learning goals, these resources set a stage or present a platform that allows for others to engage in inquiry. When a student or person can scroll through a feed on twitter, or search for a blog post and find millions of resources that anyone can post, the idea is overwhelming. I have one particular goal in my desire to introduce Inquiry Learning into my classroom in an organized and systematic way. I want the experience to be manageable and fairly easy to navigate for my students and for me as well. The most prevalent thought that pops into my head is that not only do I need to find a way to sort through and digest the information coming in, but I also need to provide a way for my students to organize it, apply a meaning and use to it, and have a means to share it and express it.- A way that connects them to other learners. It is almost like a never ending cycle, search, find, sort, compose, share...and then the process starts all over again.
Learning Goals
I am excited to be taking Information Fluency and Inquiry Learning this semester as I pursue a Masters Degree in Instructional Technology. In my job as an educator I have had the privilege to work with many teachers in helping them navigate technology for their classrooms. The resources and possibilities are vast and overwhelming. I have several learning goals I hope to achieve by the end of this semester in this class. First, I want to hone my skills in developing a classroom that incorporates Inquiry Based Learning. I am looking forward to concentrating on this area of learning. My next goal is to build my PLN in an organized and accessible way. I feel as if I am bombarded with information and I hope to use the activities,tools and learning opportunities presented in this course to filter and fine-tune that information and make it more organized. My last goal is to refine the tools I use and methods I use to teach research to my own students in my high school English class. I am looking forward to a great learning experience.
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