Inquiry

Part 1: Inquiry defined through creation of a word cloud

Part 2: 8 Principles of Inquiry 

1) Authenticity - In my opinion all lessons should show authenticity. If a lesson is not authentic then chances are your students have not participated in an activity that gives them a clear understanding of the material taught. Authenticity can be taking a topic and relating it to the real world, discipline at hand, or discipline -based. To determine the best use, it would depend upon the content you are trying to teach. 

2) Deep Understanding - As I read about deep understanding from Neil Stephenson's Introduction to Inquiry Based Learning I couldn't help but think about Backward Design lesson planning. I remember having to use this way of planning lessons or units in college, however, it didn't make the transfer to the real world of teaching. Mostly, this is due to time constraints and I honestly don't teach Inquiry based lessons. I know, I know, you're probably gasping for air right now! However this is true, most teachers don't because they are too caught up in getting the standards taught. Even though backward design is time consuming, I really want to get back into the mindset of using it for my lessons. Stephenson states in his article, "As teachers are in the planning stage of a learning task, they should consider what learning goals will be at the heart of the study, and how these goals might be explicitly stated and publicly visible." I think that by doing so, this will help me make sure I am really giving my students a deep understanding of the content by discovering their prior knowledge and misconceptions to help determining learning goals.

3) Performances of Learning - A goal I have for my class next year is to be more involved as a community of learners. This can be be implemented by using inquiry in the classroom. Stephenson states, "In addition to emphasizing deep understanding of concepts, inquiry provides opportunities for students to engage in, wrestle with and ultimately improve their own ideas and the ideas of their peers. Framing inquiry this way begins to move a classroom into a knowledge-building space, where ideas are treated as objects and made public to be refined, revised and connected to other ideas by the learning community." In order for me to achieve this in my classroom I need to plan with the mindset of deep constructivism not shallow constructivism. I can include a performance of learning that allows students to truly show what they know by allowing them to explain, provide an argument for or against, or to make a product that resembles their learning. I can see myself using these types of performances in my classroom. 

4) Assessment for Learning - While reading Stephenson's article on Assessment Learning for Inquiry this statement really stood out to me, "Strong assessment practices must be woven into the continual practices of an effective learning environment... It is assessment practices that form the bridge between the learning goals and the tasks, making clear to students and teachers what should be learned". After reading that statement the first thing that came to mind, which is something that I use frequently throughout the day in my classroom, is formative assessments. This could be share what you know on a sticky, work out a problem, show me, etc. I think this is a great tool to measure student progress. Another topic that stayed on the tip of my mind while reading is feedback. I truly think students want to hear how they did and where they can improve on their tasks. This is an area that I think I need to improve on. We expect student to be able to explain their thinking, so, teachers should be expected to share their insight with the students on how their thinking is either aligned with the learning goals or needs to me rethought and built to align.

5) Technology - Due to the overabundance of information that can be found on the internet and the web tools available there is no reason for teachers not to challenge their students by enhancing and extending their learning. As Langwitch refers to it in her article Get Over It!, "for the technophobe amongst educators, it is time to GET OVER IT!" 

Liz Keren-Kolb explains in her article how to use technology by engaging, enhancing, and extending the learning of our students. She says that in order for us to accomplish this in our classroom we need to be able to define and differentiate between them. Liz defines them as: "Engagement. The teacher is trying to find a way to motivate or interest disengaged students. Enhancement. This is using technology to develop understanding of learning goals that could not have been accomplished without those tools. Extension. The technology brings learning outside the classroom walls and into students’ everyday lives, where they can continue to grow after they leave school." 

Out of these three, I think that extension is probably the one that will be the most difficult for me. I attempt to engage all of my students daily and enhancing their learning will come with incorporating inquiry. So how will I use technology in my classroom to build in the 3 E's?

I really want to begin using google doc and google classroom in my classroom. I will have a class set of ChromeBooks this coming up year. Technology won't be the issue, it would just be me trying to figure it out and implementing it. By allowing my students to use these tools they will be able to collaborate and work as teams to create a product or record data, etc. This is a great way to enhance their learning. Another way I hope to use technology in the classroom is by using virtual field trips and allowing students to navigate through web quests. I recently came across a web quest that was about the water cycle, which is a unit I teach, it included information about NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission. This idea alone would have students engaged in learning more. Student could then research this mission put on through NASA. They not only would learn about the water cycle but they would also be learning about, NASA, satellites, technology, oceans and lakes, temperatures, time spans, etc.  I think that this web quest would also allow for enhancement along with engagement. As a performance piece I could also allow for students to chat through google classroom about their thoughts as they are learning about the water cycle and GPM. 

The groups could also create a questionnaire about freshwater uses in our everyday lives. They could go home and question their parents or siblings and then post their responses or reactions to google classroom. They could use their responses as survey data and then work as a team to make a chart representing the responses. This would allow for extension of knowledge by allowing them to work outside of the classroom to collect data, they would also be using math skills in order to decide which chart or graph would be best to use. 

I'm really excited to do this unit with my students.

6) Experts and Expertise -  Since I teach young children (ages 7-9) I feel as though they really enjoy having visitors come and talk with them. I think having an expert in a specific field would really engage them into learning. 2 years ago my grade level had a meteorologist come and explain his job as we learned about weather and the water cycle. The students were blown away by how much that job included and all of the tools they had to use just to present the weather to the viewers. The students were learning and the teachers were learning. I really want to include this into out unit this year. I also think that video Skype with an author would get students really engaged and motivated to write and read. This would allow students to see the steps it takes to actually publish a book and that authors use the writing process too.

7) Success for All Students - Tina Barseghian author of Creating Classrooms We Need  states that, "It may be hard to do with 140 students, but if you consider all the available tools at your disposal, ideas can start to take shape." I agree with this and it supports why I am an avid supporter of small groups for learning. I feel like you can reach and help all of your student in a manageable way. Small groups also allows for more learning styles to be incorporated. While the teacher is working with a group, another group may be o the chrome book working on a product or researching, another group may be doing something hands on, etc.  Using small groups allows you not only to reach all of your students but to incorporate more modes of learning into your lesson. This allows for students to enjoy the areas of the strength while still working on areas of weakness. 

8) Citizenship - Not only do students need to be citizens of their school and community, they also need to be digital citizens. I will incorporate this part of inquiry into my lessons by using the curated source of ethics. This is an area that students need to be aware of before taking charge out into the digital world. In my opinion this should be taught at the beginning of the year as a procedure and referred to throughout the year. 

Using these ideas to guide my planning of inquiry into my lessons will make my students life long learners and get excited about learning. 

How do you implement these principles into your classroom?