posted by Dorie on Apr 30
When starting my Inquiry Based Learning class I didn’t know very much except what was in the title. I am pleased to know that I do some inquiry in my classroom already. I learned that it doesn’t have to be that complicated. I also learned that students enjoy and benefit in many ways: collaboration, research, problem solving, engagement to name a few. I think that inquiry based learning is beneficial for my students and will be looking at the curriculum to find ways in that it will fit. Brenda gave good examples with our plant unit. The Animal unit that Dianne does is similar to one I have done before. One thing that I haven’t used with my students is voicethread. I will be looking for ways to incorporate it along with the inquiry based lessons that my students will be completing next year.
posted by Dorie on Apr 24
The thing that I have struggled the most this week is in following the 5 E lesson graphic organizer. This is because of the way it is set up with the concept and the subconcepts around it. The way our district sets up our curriculum guide is around the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) and that is skill based.
5E_CFG_Template_Example
So, there might be one concept, but not 4 subconcepts. I am sure I am over analyzing this but it has bothered me. I think that maybe completing a mind map might help teachers realize the concepts that go together. I will try that next time.
As I continue to struggle to fill out the template, I am realizing that it could be in part the grade level I teach-2nd. The concepts do not go that in depth in second grade and students are not expected to know much more than the basics. I am learning more about the concept as well. I am sure that will help me teach it better. Maybe a different topic would have been a different experience.
posted by Dorie on Apr 16
This week we learned about web 2.0 tools in the inquiry based learning environment. Discovery education has some great videos regarding web 2.0. I had seen most of them before, but not used all of them. Web 2.0 tools give students the opportunity to share their data in a creative, personal way. Using web 2.0 engages the learner in the assignment at hand. Here is my prezi I created on web 2.o tools and inquiry. Included in the prezi, I describe ways that web 2.0 tools can engage the learner. I don’t have any questions at this time, but am looking forward to looking at the 5e model.
posted by Dorie on Apr 10
Sounds easy. Right? Well, I think it takes practice. An investigable question is one based off facts. They can also be investigated. Non-investigable questions are generally based off concepts. They don’t usually allow for a hands on activity to figure it out. I had a difficult time creating the questions, but it is because I didn’t quite understand it. After completing the paper, I now feel that I have a better grasp of the concept.
I wonder if students will have such a difficult time or will it be easier because they have lots of questions. I believe that it is important for the teacher to be able to know the difference between investigable and non-investigable questions so that she can guide the student(s) in their inquiry. Now, I am seeing that the students will use the information that they glean from the investigable questions to help them answer the concept (possibly the non-investigable) questions.
posted by Dorie on Apr 2
This week in my inquiry based learning class I had to analyze three case studies for evidence of abilities and understandings found in them. Here is what I was looking for:
Abilities Necessary to Do Inquiry
- Identify questions that can be answered through investigations.
- Design and conduct an investigation.
- Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
- Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
- Think critically and logically to make relationships between evidence and explanations.
- Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.
- Communicate procedures and explanations.
Understandings About Inquiry
- Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of investigations.
- Current knowledge and understanding guide investigations.
- Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows us to analyze and quantify results of investigations.
- Explanations emphasize evidence, have logically consistent arguments, and use principles, models, and theories.
- New knowledge advances through legitimate skepticism.
- Investigations sometimes result in new ideas and phenomena for study, generate new methods or procedures for an investigation, or develop new technologies.
The case studies had varying degrees of the abilities and understandings. What I found to be the most interesting was the variation of the analysis’ done by myself and my classmates. I tried to write mine from the description of the cases. I didn’t try to suppose that something was there if I didn’t read it. After reading some of my classmates responses, I saw some qualities that I didn’t see when I did it. I think this is a great example for why we should have team planning! Their findings opened my eyes to connections that I didn’t see. In planning my next inquiry lesson, I will definitely be referring back to the abilities and understandings as I feel that students will be engaged and working at a high level of thinking. What more could a teacher want?!
This week I also had the opportunity to analyze a video in an 11th/12th grade classroom looking at light, lenses, and the human eye. I was looking for essential features that should be found in an inquiry based classroom. They are:
Essential Features of Classroom Inquiry:
- The learner engages in questions that can be investigated.
- The learner gives priority to evidence in responding to questions.
- The learner formulates explanations from evidence.
- The learner connects explanations to knowledge.
- The learner communicates and justifies explanations.
The video is a part of a series of videos on Teaching High School Science. The video I analyzed is #6 The Physics of Optics. I highly recommend that you watch it. The way this teacher conducts his lesson gives an incredible model of how inquiry based learning should look like. You will see that the students are engaged and operating at a high level of thinking. All of my classmates agreed that we would have loved to be a student in that classroom!!
We all need to reflect on how we are teaching and how are students feeling in our classroom, it can only make us better teachers and our students better learners.
posted by Dorie on Mar 27
I was really glad to see some lesson ideas in the Language Arts and Social Studies realm regarding inquiry based learning. Seeing examples always helps to give that “aha” moment.
One of my classmates, Kelita Gehres, does an exploration on poetry. What a great concept! I love the way that students will need to investigate to find out more about what poetry is all about.
from Kelita: Here is an example of the Inquiry Questions
- What makes “poetry” poetry?
- What makes one poem “better” than another?
- What value does poetry have in our society?
Now, I am a little confused as to whether she came up with the questions initially or her students. It seems to me that this would be an acceptable way of doing it. I did think that the students had to come up with the initial questions, though. I might be able to post her lesson here later.
posted by Dorie on Mar 20
This week I have started taking my course on Inquiry Based Learning. I had read a little about the topic before, but nothing in depth. I did know that students were ask questions and these questions would guide their learning. I imagined that when students are involved with inquiry based learning, it could seem a little less controlled than normal, but that is the style of learning/teaching. I knew that the teacher was to be a guide on the side instead of the leader.
What I hadn’t heard of was the 5E Instructional model used to structure the lesson. Apparently one of my classmates, was only allowed to use that model during her undergraduate classes. This was about five years ago. It looks like I will be studying the model during week six of this course. I am interested to find out more about it.
I think that inquiry based learning will fit nicely in my 2nd grade math/science classroom. One example is my unit on insects. This next week I hope to plant milkweed plants with my classes. Last year we planted them and a monarch came to lay its eggs the next day. We had a great time taking pictures and watching the monarch larva grow. It seems to me that for that project I was already using inquiry based learning. We were trying to figure out how many days would take for each stage and how big they would grow. I look forward to finding out if my intuition was correct.
posted by Dorie on Aug 7
Imagine walking into a classroom filled with students working on laptops. Each student is researching a topic of their choice to present to the class. Other students walk by and say, “Wow, I wish I was in that classroom.” Imagine students so excited about learning, they say, “Teacher, see what I found. Do we have to stop?” Raised hands abound during lessons; students all wanting to be next to take part in the lesson and show what they know. This is the Technology Integrated Classroom.
I believe that students should be engaged in learning. While there are many ways to engage the learner, such as experiments, singing, movement, interactive writing, I believe that technology is one of the most effective ways to engage the learner. Students are already using technology at home. Technology is a part of our everyday lives. One of the available technologies is the Internet. The Internet is changing the face of education and the world. We can harness the power of the Internet to bring the world to our students. Teaching about Greece? Get on Google Earth and show them through satellite imagery the location of Greece. Search for pictures and video about Greece. Connect with a classroom in Greece to compare similarities and differences between their country and yours. There are so many possibilities out there. We are limiting our students if we do not use the available technologies. If we want our students to keep up with the world we must teach them to be 21st Century Learners.
I believe that it is important to show our students that they can be Lifelong Learners. I, myself, continue to look for ideas to enhance my teaching to promote student achievement and understanding almost everyday. We can all learn something new everyday.
I believe that students should be taught to be problem solvers and thus able to make connections from the classroom to the real world. We need to make learning relevant to the learner. By making learning relevant, knowledge is gained, and students are able to make connections. Then, students are able to see the big picture.
posted by Dorie on Aug 4
What? Twitter for Professional Development? Now, you’ve heard everything right? I am not kidding. This last March I signed up for twitter. Four days later, I found my Personal Learning Network Karl Fisch’s description of a PLN. Through, Mr.Tweet, I found my PLN. I found lots of people interested in Technology and Education. I was in heaven!! Through Twitter you can follow a person and see what they post about and they can choose to follow you. Educators that love technology were tweeting (talking) about their favorite websites, tools, blogs, upcoming professional development and happenings in education or their classroom. Soon after learning about how to use twitter, I attended a conference virtually in Virginia, went on a safari in Africa, and attended a meeting of educators through Elluminate on Edtechtalk. I was definitely hooked on twitter. I have learned a lot through other educator’s posting their thoughts. I invite you to try it out. Make sure that you follow people that share your interests.
Not only is twitter for professional development, but also for your students. This year my students will be tweeting with other second grade classrooms about their studies. Here is a slide share I found, Twenty-Five Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom. I hope you get some ideas from it.
posted by Dorie on Aug 3
Today, I attended the SMART Regional User Conference held in Katy, TX. There were many sessions offered by SMART users for novice and intermediate users. I attended a K-2 LA session, a K-3 Elementary session and an advanced user session. In the first session, the presenter had used the Lesson Activity Tool Kit to create many lessons geared toward language arts. Here are some examples that she gave us: a word family sort using vortex, graph words (real/nonsense words), and a word match (concentration). I really liked that you were able to put the directions. The tool kit activities are very easy to use. I will be definitely pointing out this tool to my school this year.
The SMART Exchange http://exchange.smarttech.com/ is a valuable resource for teachers. You can ask questions to other users, download lessons, upload lessons, and generally find out information about SMART’s tools. I highly recommend visiting this site. You do have to sign up to become a user.
Lastly, in my advanced user class, the presenter was actually a SMART employee. Her name is Sarah Acord. Here is her site to her delicious links that you might want to check out. http://delicious.com/sacord Here I am going to mention some of SMART notebook’s capabilities that I learned about. She mentioned that there are video’s on you tube about the notebook software. The magic pen is a cool tool that allows you to spotlight and zoom. The smart recorder allows you to record your desktop area, window, or area. You can use the Smart video player to play video from a url and pause the video so that you are able to write on top of the video and then continue. Keepvid.com is a site that helps you grab youtube videos and save to your computer. There is much more I could talk about. In the SMART Exchange/TXuser section they will be updating the section with the notebook presentation that she used. I highly recommend searching for it. Enjoy the learning!
