Learning Log 1.4

Learning Log 1.4 ~ The Conclusion

It seems a bit strange to be writing the title of 'conclusion' to this blog since our final project isn't due for weeks yet; however this is the conclusion of learning logs. I wish in a way that the final learning log was actually due after our final project so we could reflect on the process in its entirety. I understand the need for the schedule as is - I suppose I will just have to do my own reflection!

Module 9: Access to Inquiry for All Learners

This is something that I am passionate about, but have been terrible at in practice. I always thought of myself as presenting a Universal Design approach to my lesson and unit plans, allowing access to different materials and choices of representing their knowledge to students of all abilities and interests. However I think in reality I was not doing a good job of this. I really want to be a Universal Design kind of teacher and I believe that integrating more of an inquiry approach is a great way to get there. 

I feel that in some respect, inquiry is by its nature a universal approach for learners. What I mean by that is students are able to pursue what they wish to learn, how they wish to learn it, and represent their learning in a manner that is comfortable to them. Students will still need scaffolding as certain skills are new and unpracticed, but they can choose to learn the material in a manner that is accessible to them. This may mean watching videos, reading some lower level material, or using visuals. 

In doing the readings for this week I came across an article that discusses the Inquiry Learning Plan or ILP. It was introduced in Donhauser et al.'s article "From lesson plan to learning plan" where they discuss the context for creating the ILP and the four stages. I'll admit, when I first read the article I didn't really see with how it would fit with my current plans for my unit. I was thinking I would either have to rework the unit plan or just not use the ILP this time. However, once I read the instructor notes for this unit (a bit backwards I'll admit - don't blame me!) I was able to look at the ILP in a different light. 
I have copied the appropriate section below so I can refer to it again in the future:

For this team, the ILP is quite different from a lesson plan. It is a living document that personalizes the learning; it provides a means for teachers to give feedback and for students to submit frequent updates as they move from one section to another:

• The Starting Point: Students select materials for their own learning.
• What I Will Learn: Students use divergent thinking and their own interests, as well as some preliminary exploration of the topic to generate a number of questions, one of which will be chosen as the focus for deeper inquiry. The question can show change over the duration of the inquiry.
• Student Growth: Students determine how they plan to learn new information, as well as content and “process” skills, based on what they know they need to improve. They also design how they will demonstrate movement towards answering their own focus question and growth in their skills and understandings about the topic.
• So What? Here, the final project or artifact of the student’s learning is “the most compelling take-away,” derived from reflections on deeper meaning of the texts, the essential question, and/or the newly acquired skills and knowledge; it is presented to an authentic audience. (Ekdahl 2017).

Honestly I had previous thought of inquiry (even to this point....our minds take awhile to adjust I guess) as a different kind of research. And while it is that it's also a completely different way of learning - student driven. I like the idea of using the ILP as kind of the student reflection document throughout the inquiry. I appreciate that this document gives students the chance to think about how they want to guide their approach - they create the plan - instead of us saying here is your next step. It takes the student-led approach just one step further!

In regards to working this into my inquiry project I am struggling a bit with how this project will land in the year; what I mean by that is - is this the students' first taste of inquiry? I'd rather not teach the inquiry process with this unit - that seems a bit too much to tackle. So perhaps this unit is farther on in the year when we've already experience some inquiry lessons? That being said, if this isn't the first dose of inquiry then I can assume that students will be familiar with the ILP document. Hmm...this learning log is proving mighty handy - the ability to type things out sometimes brings clarity to my thoughts. 

Module 10: Formative Assessment as Integral Component of Inquiry

I am always doing things I can’t do; that’s how I get to do them.

Pablo Picasso 
What an excellent way to start off the discussion on formative assessment. It is through our willingness to take risks, and not just the possibility of failure but the promise (at some point) that allows us to succeed in the end. First off I just want to discuss how essential it is to create a learning environment where students feel safe enough to take the kinds of risks that allow true learning to happen. To really step outside of our box, engage with material and the process is so risky!! Now, we can multiply that by at least ten when we enter into the inquiry process because the product, process, journey is an unknown! The students and the teacher don't really know where things are going to go so they have to be willing to risk to step out into the unknown to have the payoff of learning! How do we get there? Formative assessment is a big help as it gives students an indication of whether they are headed in the right direction or not. If you aren't familiar, formative assessment is simply assessment that is used to guide learning rather than measuring the product of learning (my own definition - if you would like another then Google is a great help). 

It makes a ton of sense that formative assessment is essential to inquiry; inquiry, by its very nature is a new process for most students (and admittedly, teachers) and requires some student and teacher check-ins along the way to see how things are going - calibrate - and readjust. This is, in a nutshell, formative assessment. I think it's important to build the formative assessment directly into the inquiry unit so that it is not forgotten and missed. I appreciated Kristin Fontichiaro's article on formative assessment from her Nudging Towards Inquiry series (2011), as she discusses what formative assessment is, the different forms it can take (informal/ formal, graded/ungraded etc.) and some tips and various tools for incorporating formative assessment. She mentions using such tools as Google Forms (an easy to generate survey tool that compiles results nicely), however as this article is US based us Canadian teachers can run into just a bit of an issue with FOIPPA (Google Forms is stored in the US, meaning that BC schools can't use it without express permission from parents - even then it gets a bit iffy to be honest). Although we cannot directly translate all of her tips into our classroom, the article itself is helpful in giving good suggestions for bringing formative assessment into our daily practice and different ways we can do so. 
I know that with my inquiry unit I have built in some reflection points for students to check-in with their own progress and report to the teacher. Aside from these built in check-in points, actual delivery of the inquiry unit would include daily formative assessment through quick discussions with students, and other tactics such as entrance/exit tickets to see how students feel about the project so far. I honestly don't think that students can have too much formative assessment as it allows them to re-calibrate themselves and hopefully make the learning experience a successful one! 



References

• Donhauser, M., Hersey, H., Stutzman, C. & Zane, M. (2014a). From lesson plan to learning plan: An introduction to the inquiry learning plan. School Library Monthly, 31(1), 11-13.

• Fontichiaro, K. (2011). Nudging toward inquiry – Formative assessment. School Library Monthly 27(6): 11-12.

Learning Log 1.3......Becoming Unstuck

I'll be honest, I wrote the title partially in hopes that it would become true. I've found myself a bit stuck in terms of the big inquiry unit plan for this course and have focused my energy on the other aspects of the course instead - weekly readings, selecting resources, and have jump started our moderation discussion group. I'm not sure if it's because of the other areas of focus that I've become stuck in my big project....I suppose calling it a 'big' project is not helping matters either. In any case, I was really struggling to start this learning log because I will come face to face with my lack of progress. To progress with the hopes of getting 'unstuck' I am going to start with the weekly readings...

Module 7: Inquiry Learning by Design and/or Re-Design

I really appreciated this topic as the notion of simply designing everything inquiry is a bit overwhelming. I feel like inquiry is like most things teaching in that once you do it a few times it becomes a lot more manageable. I really appreciated Kristin Fontichiaro's Nudging Towards Inquiry series as it provides excellent stepping stones for those of us who are looking to incorporate more inquiry into our practice but are unsure of how to start. I really enjoyed reading her "Building Inquiry Understanding with Classroom Colleagues" article because I think using collaboration to drive the move towards inquiry could be very powerful. If teachers make the move together it can be a little more comfortable as we will be navigating uncharted waters together. I really like the idea of doing a staff in-service day where everyone makes the move towards inquiry together - and Fontichiaro provides some excellent resources for the inquiry such as coming up with an idea of what inquiry 'looks like' and 'doesn't look like' first. That being said, I get frustrated when I'm forced to do an in-service when I would rather focus my energy on another aspect so I would probably prefer this be a small-group in-service - or a 'those who choose to come' in-service.

There were other interesting parts of module 7 (I really appreciated the instructor notes honestly....I'll have to figure out a way to save those for later too...), but the 'nudging' series is probably my favourite.

Becoming un-stuck from the Muck....

So I had a bit of an aha moment. I've really struggled reporting on my project in the learning log lately because there hasn't been much....progress. Now it is our second to last learning log and progress must be made in some form or another so I decided to think hard about why I am stuck. I came to the realization that my next step (really, next step awhile ago) should be the assessment piece: begin with the end in mind after all! I understand the importance of envisioning what you want students to be able to do at the end of a unit so you work on logical steps to get there - that makes sense to me. However, I could not truly marry the idea of beginning with the end in mind with inquiry (even though our wonderful Professor told us to!). It just didn't make sense that I would know how things would end while still having the students experience true inquiry. Realizing this I thought that maybe I was looking at 'the end' the wrong way. I'm used to very specific tasks such as write a five paragraph essay, or write and perform a speech. With inquiry, though, I want students to have choice. So how could I know where they are going to go if they are truly choosing their path? That's when I remembered the focus of the inquiry: How does social media affect our lives? And I started to think...maybe, just maybe, what students will get out of the inquiry won't be so much a specific task such as essay writing as it is an understanding or an ability to synthesize ideas. It's early yet but looking at the curriculum these points really stood out to me:

• Access information for diverse purposes and from a variety of sources and evaluate its relevance, accuracy, and reliability

• Apply appropriate strategies in a variety of contexts to comprehend written, oral, visual, and multimodal texts, to guide inquiry, and to extend thinking 

There are certainly more curricular areas that would work with this project but these two points really stood out as great 'doing' skills. I think a good next step could be to think about what 'knowing' and 'understanding' I would like students to get out of this project - see if I can create one single-point rubric (love this!) that could work for multiple ways of demonstrating understanding....and go from there!

..more on this to come...but I think it is safe to say that my fire is lit again!

Module 8: Driving Inquiry with Questions

In the instructor notes on Module 8 the use of Socratic seminars was brought up through Casey Cuny's article "What is the value of life? and other socratic questions." This piqued my interest because I have used Socratic circles in my English classes before with minimal to moderate success; the students and I both tended to 'enjoy' these classes and I came back to this technique because it encouraged class discussion in a more student-driven format - but it still felt a bit forced. I dug into Cuny's article a bit further to see how she had used the socratic seminars in her class and to my delight she offered a simple four step approach to the seminars that I had been lacking. First, a list of prior questions should be created; that is, if the seminar is focused around one big essential question, what questions need to be answered to get there? Let's follow this with the social media unit:

Essential Question: "How does social media affect our lives"
Prior Questions: "What is social media? Do we use different kinds of social media differently? How do we use it? When do we use it? etc"

The second step is to give the students guidelines for the seminar. Here are Cuny's:

•  All students must answer each question in their notes. 
• Students raise their hand to be added to the speaking list. 
• Students must wait until their turn before speaking.  
• Students must take notes on their peers’ responses. 
• Everyone must be respectful and tolerant. 
• Everyone must use evidence from texts to support claims (Cuny 2014).

These guidelines are a great starting point but could be altered depending on the group; for example, if the discussion is flowing well I wouldn't want to force students to stop and take notes.....so it is important to be flexible I think. I usually add a soft ball to toss gently as the 'speaking ball' to make the seminar ever so slightly more dynamic so a guideline around ball tossing would have to be on the list as well. 

The third step Cuny suggests is to guide the discussion; Cuny gives some good tips on this such as reminding students to provide evidence for their claims. I think if this is done well the first few times then students can start to take over this role too. Which leads us to the final step: let go. This is the magic in the seminar - when students are invested in their own learning enough that they start to take ownership over their learning - which is what inquiry is after all, isn't it?

I connected with quite a few articles in this unit that I have stored for safekeeping such as Wilhelm's "Essential Questions" that focuses on what makes good questions and tips on how to alter questions so they are stronger and less about data retrieval, and Koechlin's one-page reference that gives students support on how to "Power up inquiry questions". However it was Cuny's article that I connected the most with as I have grappled with socratic seminars before and now I feel like I may actually have the tools to lead them properly! 

References

Cuny, Casey. (2014). What is the value of life? and other socratic questions. Educational Leadership. 72(3): 54-58.

Fontichiaro, K. (2015b). Nudging toward inquiry – Building inquiry understanding with colleagues. School Library Monthly 31(5): 49-51.

Koechlin, C. and Zwaan, S. (2007). Power up your inquiry questions. Q Tasks: How to empower students to ask questions and care about answers (p.73). Markham, ON: Pembroke.

Wilhelm, J. D. (2012). Essential questions. Scholastic Instructor 122(3): 24-27.

Selected Student Resources - The Next Stage of the Inquiry

For this next step, our task was to curate ten resources for student use during the inquiry assignment. I believe that I have selected a nice range of resources as I would hope to do in the classroom as well; I have included print books such as textbooks, novels for a literary take on the topic, blog posts, social media analysis sites, a peer-reviewed journal, and TED talks. At this point in the inquiry process I feel that these are the best resources to meet students' diverse learning needs as well as appeal to their interests. However, once I come closer to finalizing the inquiry unit, things may change. As with all things inquiry -- it is a work in progress.

1. 
   

Anderson, M.T. (2002). Feed. Somerville: Candlewick Press.

Feed is set in the near-future where the internet has been hardwired into the vast majority of the population’s brains. The protagonist, Titus, and his friends find themselves in the midst of a hack where their feeds have been compromised and are now unavailable while under repair. The novel chronicles the youths’ journey as they struggle with the desire to stay connected to their feed for every moment each day.

Feed has won multiple book awards and has garnered much popularity amongst youth and adults alike because it does what dystopian novels do so well - reflects and amplifies the quirks of our world. I chose this novel for possible study because it looks at what our world could be rather than what currently is. Students could study the effects of social media through a literary lens as Titus and friends become “unplugged” and find that they struggle to exist in their new world. Suggested for older teens, Feed comes in at just over three hundred pages making it a manageable read for students at grade level.

2.

Broadbent, Stephanie. (July 2009). “How the Internet Enables Intimacy.” [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stefana_broadbent_how_the_internet_enables_intimacy on October 11, 2017.

The TED talk comes in at less than 9 minutes and Broadbent uses real-world examples to present her research. This talk provides a slightly different perspective to the connections that the internet has brought to our lives. Broadbent argues that the internet and social media tools such as Skype, have actually provided closer connections that were not possible previously. Many of the resources that students will use will cast social media and technology in a very negative light; however, it is important for students to also be provided with the alternate view so they have a broader perspective of the topic. While the talk may be considered slightly dated in the technology world, the information provided is still relevant and is presented in a very accessible manner.

3.  

Freitas, Donna. (2017). The Happiness Effect: How Social Media is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost. New York: Oxford University Press.

Freitas’ latest book has been constructed through surveys and interviews with college students. Its 350+ pages feature student interviews framed with assertions by Freitas. The book centers on how social media forces a sort-of perfect life syndrome whereby individuals only see the perfect life of others and feel that they can only share the positive aspects of their own lives. This leads to feelings of isolation and low self-worth as one’s real life can never compare with the perfection portrayed online.

The appeal of this book is that Freitas’ conclusions come through discussions with young people making it easy to digest and relate to. While the book is quite lengthy, Freitas narrows down a theme for each of the eleven chapters that students could focus on rather than reading the book in its entirety.

4.

Hall, M., Elliott, K., & Meng, J. (2017). “Using the PAD (Pleasure, Arousal, and Dominance) Model to Explain Facebook Attitudes and Use Intentions.” Journal Of Social Media In Society, 6(1), 144-167. Retrieved from http://thejsms.org/index.php/TSMRI/article/view/230/118

This article discusses the use of Facebook with the framework of the Pleasure, Arousal, and Dominance Model. A scientific study is conducted to determine various reasons for using Facebook. The article is twenty six pages in length, includes a hypothesis, results and areas for future study. As such it provides a much more concrete approach to the study of social media than some of the other sources. This resource would be particularly useful for those students who appreciate a more scientific approach.

It should be noted that this entire journal is freely available online, accessible for students, and is a peer reviewed source. Realistically, rather that one specific article, I would recommend the journal as a whole for students’ use demonstrating how to search within the journal by topic, or to browse through each issue. This journal allows students to dig deeper into their specific focus on social media using current research, which would provide a nice complement to some of the other sources.

5.

Homzie, Hillary. (2016). Queen of Likes. New York: Aladdin.

Queen of Likes is a fiction reader that demonstrates both the power in popularity on social media through the adolescent population, as well as how addicted we can become to our phone and the social media apps it holds. It follows the story of Karma Cooper who is very popular online. After misusing her phone Karma has her phone privileges revoked and she must learn to adapt to her life without her phone.

I had multiple fiction resources on my list but wanted to narrow it down to two - one lower level and one grade level. This one made the list because it covers not only how all encompassing social media can become in our lives -- driving our popularity and our behaviour -- but also how we find our world changed when we remove the presence of social media. I appreciated that this resource is accessible for lower level readers while engaging in the topic in an interesting manner.

6.

Kerpen, Dave. (2011). Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (and other social networks). New York: McGraw Hill Companies.

A book geared toward those looking to use social media for marketing, Likeable Social Media also demonstrates how individuals use social media to garner success in both their personal and professional world. Kerpen provides eighteen strategies to get social media working for you. Each chapter focuses on one of the eighteen strategies in an engaging manner. While the book as a whole would be too much for students, the eighteen strategy chapter division would allow students to hone in on areas of Kerpen’s approach that appeal to their inquiry. The book is very strongly reviewed both by marketing executives and other authors in the social media field. Its readability and clear focus would make it a good resource for students hoping to focus on the business end of social media.

7.

Newberry, C., & Dawley, S. (2017). “How to Get More Instagram Followers: The Ultimate Guide.” Hootsuite Social Media Management. Retrieved 6 October 2017, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-get-more-instagram-followers-the-ultimate-guide/

This article provides a clear eleven point strategy to tailor your instagram account for maximum popularity. Through the use of subheadings, visual examples, and concise explanations, the article provides an uncomplicated guide for readers to follow and implement. The post stays as concise as possible using one line “do’s” and “don’ts”. Geared towards those in the marketing world, the tips provided would generally work for anyone trying to increase their online following.

The article is published by Hootsuite which is a social media management platform, that also offers free social media education in the form of webinars and blog posts. I would use this article to introduce students to Hootsuite itself - which they could then use to follow their inquiry in their desired direction. As a class we would discuss the inherent bias and purpose behind the Hootsuite articles so that students would view the content with a more critical lens. The blog and webisodes are very user-friendly full of neat visuals to accompany key points about their chosen topic. The content should be accessible to all levels in the classroom with those students who prefer to learn visually making use of the webinars.

8.

Probst, Caitlin. (2015) “10 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Health.” Degreed website. Retrieved October 11, 2017, from http://blog.degreed.com/10-ways-social-media-affects-our-mental-health/.

This blog post written by Probst narrows down the ten main ways that social media affects our mental health. It discusses both positive and negative aspects of social media on our mental health and cites scientific studies to back up its claims. While there are many blog posts written on this topic and the vast majority of them are very readable and nice to look at, this blog post stood out as it wasn’t heavily swayed towards one side or the other (both positive and negative aspects? This was a rare find!), and it cited reputable sources such as Medical News Today and Science Daily. It is nice to see a blog post actually supporting its claims with sources which allows students to investigate the sources even further.  

9.

Raatma, Lucia. (2013). Cyberbullying (True Books: Guides to Life). New York: Scholastic.

Cyberbullying is a nonfiction reader that focuses on the bullying aspect of social media. It discusses the various ways one can be a victim of cyberbullying, as well as giving tips on prevention and how to deal with cyberbullying if it does happen.

I chose this resource because it is a very accessible lower-level non-fiction source. It talks about some of the various negative aspects that social media can bring into our lives in a way that is easy for students to understand. This resource would be suitable for all students in the classroom but is mainly geared to those who struggle with comprehension skills.

10.

Turkle, Sherry. (February, 2012). “Connected, but alone?” [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together on October 11, 2017.

A twenty-five minute TED Talk on the paradox of how technology provides us a new level of connectedness, while remaining more distant than before. While this talk doesn’t focus on social media specifically as it looks at technology as a whole, the conclusions drawn are certainly applicable to social media connectedness.  

Turkle provides examples of people texting while in the company of others at important events such as at board meetings, and even at funerals. She provides context for herself by stating that in 1995 she was on the cover of Wired Magazine for authoring a book about the exciting new world technology is bringing us into; she comes back to the present about the isolating world technology has actually created for us.

This resource would be appealing to all students as it is a quick, digestible talk in language that is accessible to a variety of levels. Turkle speaks at a nice pace, provides good examples to demonstrate her relatability, and summarizes her conclusions well. Students can use this resource as a reference for how our intended use of technology has changed over the years, and how we have changed as a result.

Right in the thick of it.....Learning Log 1.2

Module 5: Selecting Resources for Inquiry

"Does a school district have an obligation to provide more than the booklet? How should districts and/or teacher unions ensure that teachers are familiar with these new conditions for respecting copyright? What are the consequences of violating the terms, wittingly or otherwise?"

I really appreciated this prompt as it gave me some focus for this Module's Learning Log. In looking at the resources for this module including the ERAC, the Copyright Matters booklet, and other blog posts, I am quickly feeling overwhelmed. The next assignment in our project is creating the Annotated Bibliography - ie. resource selection for our inquiry unit. This now feels like a daunting task with all of these guidelines that I wasn't quite aware of before.

Image Retrieved from Cayman News

Like many teachers, I was aware of the basic copyright restrictions through the Copyright Matters Resource. The one that stuck in my head is the 10% rule: for educational purposes copies could be made of up to 10% of a work for classroom use (Noel & Snel, 2016). This resource is a very handy tool for understanding basic copyright guidelines when it comes to print resources, but does not begin to touch digital resources. As many in the discussion board have already posted - this is an area that we hadn't really considered before. For example, I was unaware that I could use my personal Netflix account in the classroom as it violated the Terms of Use agreement with Netflix which is for household use only (Netflix Terms of Use, 2017). Additionally, any music played in the classroom is to be for educational purposes only - ie. it is not allowed for a teacher to have music playing in the background while the students are working (Noel & SNel, 2016). I am learning these guidelines as a result of this course - not through any effort on the part of the district(s) I belong to.

As so many of us are unaware of all of the guidelines surrounding copyright, I think it prudent that district's provide more than just the booklet to inform educators. I believe this topic is worthy of an annual Pro-D (though one wouldn't necessarily need to attend annually), allowing educators to brush up on the topic. This would allow teachers to have designated time to brush up on any changes that may have occurred since they last familiarized themselves with copyright law. Though the Pro-D could be presented annually (for the benefit of any teachers who may be new to the system), teachers should only be required to attend every 5 years (or so - depending on when major changes come about).

Continuing On.....Beginning the Bibliography

So, assignment two is fast approaching and it is to complete an annotated bibliography. I truly appreciate how in this course the assignments build upon themselves and we end up leaving (hopefully) with a completed unit ready to use in the classroom. I knew that I wanted to come at the annotated bibliography intelligently, that is, use a bibliography that I could use within my inquiry unit. That means jumping into my inquiry unit earlier than I was hoping -- who doesn't love to procrastinate on that big project after all? As I am currently on maternity leave I was struggling with how to come up with a list of resources that I would make available to students; not being attached to a school library at the moment does pose a few challenges - but I am very grateful for this one - I learned a lesson!

I decided to come at the resource curation from the point of view of students outside the classroom. Yes, I agree with our instructor that teaching how to use search databases is a much more intelligent way of going about resource selection; however, I also feel that if I am teaching students how to learn, then why not teach them with the tools I know they have available to them? Namely, Google. So, simply with the use of Google and some out of the box searching, I have managed to select seven resources already that I think are pretty great. My first excellent find was a published journal exactly on the inquiry topic: The Journal of Social Media in Society. This journal is a scholarly publication that is freely available and fully accessible online! Aside from this excellent resource that far surpassed my expectations I have selected novels at varying reading levels, non-fiction resources on my topic, as well as blogs by experts! I am getting jazzed up about the possibility of putting this unit into place with these excellent tools for students! Who knew resource selection would help me feel that this project is possible?

Module 6: Curation - continued!

There were two articles in this module that I found particularly helpful, and I am noting here for the sole (well, almost) purpose that I can easily refer back to them at my convenience. I have noticed that during my TL Diploma I have come across so many excellent resources through course readings, the professor's specific recommendations, or other students - yet in the busyness of the course I have lost track of so many! I am hoping that this blog will help in that regard, yet I digress.

The first article that I have found to be exceptionally valuable is Abilock's "How can students know whether the information they find online is true -- or not?". The article points our four key aspects in judging online resources - importance, trustworthiness, accuracy, and info-graphics - and gives advice on how to judge each part. The article also points out the usefulness of Wikipedia and how to teach students to use it effectively; ie. how to judge which pages are more trustworthy. I enjoyed the overall readability of the article as well as the clear points to look out for when judging an article's usefulness.

The second article from this module that I am noting for safekeeping is Bromann-Bender's "You can't fool me: Website evaluation". This article provides a comprehensive approach to teaching website evaluation including how to effectively introduce the topic (with some example website), and some pre-search tips such as using boolean search phrases, and also includes an excellent handout for students to use during their evaluations. I appreciated that the authors acknowledge that teaching this lesson to students doesn't eliminate all poor website choices, but it does open a dialogue regarding website evaluation. The one negative aspect of this article is that it is slightly outdated. In the pre-search tips Bromann-Bender suggests using the Internet Public Library (www.ipl.org) for student searches as a way of narrowing the search to better resources. However, while the IPL is still available for use it is no longer maintained and no new articles are added. However, the remainder of the article was useful and and well worth keeping a copy of.



References Used

Abilock, D. (2012). How can students know whether the information they find online is true – or not? Educational Leadership 69(6): 70-74.

Bromann-Bender, J. (2013). “You Can’t fool me: Website evaluation.” Library Media Connection 31(5):42-45.

Hall, M., Elliott, K., & Meng, J. (2017). Using the PAD (Pleasure, Arousal, and Dominance) Model to Explain Facebook Attitudes and Use Intentions. Journal Of Social Media In Society, 6(1), 144-167. Retrieved from http://thejsms.org/index.php/TSMRI/article/view/230/118

Netflix Terms of Use (2017). Help.netflix.com. Retrieved 4 October 2017, from https://help.netflix.com/legal/termsofuse

Noel, W. & Snel, J. (2016). Copyright matters! (4rd edition). Ottawa, ON: Council of Ministers of Education (CMEC), Canadian School Boards Association (CSBA), and Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF). Rertrieved 4 October 2017, from http://cmec.ca/Publications/Lists/Publications/Attachments/291/Copyright_Matters.pdf

Thursday September 7, 2017 - The Beginning... (Learning Log 1.1)

In approaching this course I knew that the smartest way to go about things is to have at least a fuzzy notion of what I wanted to do for my inquiry unit; if I had a general direction then the readings and bibliography would be much more focused than if I just ambled through the course. However, not having any experience whatsoever with inquiry, I had no idea where to begin.

The brief times I had heard inquiry referenced previously it was always with a Science unit where students could explore a topic of choice from their unit. It sounded great - but I had no idea how to take that principle of self-exploration and apply it to English. So, when approaching a new topic and unsure of how to start I did what I usually do - I turned to Google. A very quick Google search brought me to this article by fellow English teacher, Tina Barseghian.  Maybe it's not one of our required readings but before I could dive into the readings and acquire information, I needed to be able to have a context for my learning. I could be ashamed of the fact that I feel I need examples before I can move forward, or I can simply acknowledge that that's how I work best. I'm choosing to do the latter and remind myself that my students may need similar accommodations to be able to participate in the messy world of inquiry. The article itself chronicles one English teacher's use of inquiry in the classroom and a few examples of what it looks like for her and her students. The student-led aspect of inquiry is particularly exciting to me as I find that students become much more engaged when they feel involved in their own learning.

Module One - Why Inquiry?

I think the inquiry approach has been necessary and on its way for some time. I remember sitting in a high school classroom memorizing a Social Studies textbook of facts and wondering...what's the point? Why do I need to memorize these names and dates (memory is not my strong suit) when I can simply reference them in this book? This was taken a step further with the invention of the Internet (just really taking off when I was in school), and compounded with the tremendous power of Google. Now I have wondered myself - why am I asking students to memorize names and dates when they can look them up in two seconds with their phone? Why aren't we teaching students what to do with the information that is at their fingertips?

Well, one simple reason that inquiry had not yet become part of the standard teaching method is that change is hard. Making such a drastic change from a structured to teaching method to an inquiry based approach can be daunting. Our curriculum is now being revised to consider a more inquiry based approach which can be seen in the Core Competencies which place a strong emphasis on Creative and Critical Thinking, as well as in the individual subject areas. In Senior English, for example, there is not one set course for all students; instead, the course is broken down into five separate strands that allow students to pursue their interests. Within these strands there are Big Ideas which guide the student and teacher to pursue much larger ideas within the topic. When the draft curriculum was first proposed I was excited about the idea that students could be able to pursue their own interests - yet daunted as a teacher about how this would work. Considering the new curriculum through an inquiry lens allows me to see that this change is much more possible.

In considering my Inquiry unit I was baffled at how to begin. So after conversation with my husband who is also a teacher (collaboration is good!) I decided to start with one of the Big Ideas from the draft of the New Media English 11 course. The Big Idea that I chose is: People understand text differently depending on their worldviews and perspectives. I'm not quite sure where to take it yet but at least I have a start.

Module Two: Parameters of Inquiry

One key point of inquiry is to adjust as you go along; it seems that this blog post is getting rather lengthy so I started taking notes on the course separately so that I could reflect on the most important aspects to post here. I probably should have started this way but at least I am learning as I'm going.

In Ekdahl's "Points of Inquiry" article, I was struck by the assertion that “Students need to find the right resources for their purposes, including books, journals, and databases; how to evaluate sources critically”. (Ekdahl, "Point of Inquiry", 2014) I connected with this quote in particular because it is no longer important to just remember information that is presented, but how to sift through the wealth of knowledge that is so readily available to them. Connecting this to my Inquiry unit - there is so much false news and misinformation being spread through social media like facebook that people are taking at face value. We need to teach our students to be critical of the information that they are presented with.

Further in this article (I found this one quite useful), Ekdahl provides a chart of what inquiry based reading and learning should look like in each grade range. I found this to be a particularly useful tool as it not only provided concrete examples of what inquiry should look like at each level, but also offered up instructional strategies for implementation. This article, along with Barbara Stripling's "Inquiry-Based Learning" have been saved for future reference for this inquiry unit, and others to come. Stripling's chapter also provides an excellent chart connecting inquiry strategies and skills, to literacy skills and teaching strategies. I find these tools particularly useful in navigating the murky water of inquiry - though the water is getting slightly clearer each day.

Module Three: The Inquiry Mindset

What I've learned throughout Module Three is that my personal teaching philosophy is very connected with the idea of inquiry. My personal philosophy has been centered around the idea that all students are capable of succeeding when the optimal conditions are present. I have always believed that students needed to feel engaged in their learning (Connect and Wonder), and confident to make leaps (and mistakes). I always struggled with how to provide this opportunity for all students, settling for presenting the material in a few different ways, as well as providing options for students to present their learning. Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk "Escaping Education's Death Valley" connected to me here; Robinson used the metaphor of death valley being not dead, but dormant - and our students are the same when optimal conditions are provided - this was somewhat of an 'aha' moment for me. The inquiry approach can provide students with both the desire to learn and buy in to what we are teaching (or facilitating), as well as give them the confidence to take risks in their learning. The more I learn about inquiry, the more excited I become. Now...to get more of a handle on the process itself!

Inquiry Project Status Report

Since the Learning Log is meant to keep track of our learning I thought it would be important to not only chronicle what I am learning about inquiry in the course, but how the inquiry unit project is going, the process I am taking, and where my roadblocks are.

My current Inquiry Unit plan is a very very rough outline. I started,  as mentioned above, with one of the Big Ideas from the New Media 11 curriculum. This led me to draft my overarching Inquiry question: How does social media impact our lives? So, I had a question - now what? Well I didn't really know, so after drafting my question I watched Wright's YouTube video on "The Model of Inquiry" to get a grasp of the inquiry process according to Stripling's model. This video was a good introduction with a real-world example (purchasing a new tablet) of the inquiry process. Through watching this video I was able to create this rough outline of my unit so far:

6 phases of inquiry:

• 1. Connect to yourself - what do I already know about social media / when do I use it? Which ones do I use?
• 2.Wonder - create questions you want answered: What are the other uses for social media? How do we alter ourselves on social media? Is it true or a misrepresentation? How often do we check sites like Facebook and Twitter? What do we use it for?
• 3. Investigate: What resources use? The sites themselves, personal interviews, blog posts,
• 4. Construct - connect new knowledge with previous knowledge...???
• 5. Express - share knowledge with others - present somehow - the before and after effect - how we change ourselves for social media? Our Facebook/Instagram life compared to reality - poster, Prezi, YouTube video, skit, common craft video,
• 6. Reflect - on the inquiry process itself - what did you learn, how did you go about it, what would you do differently, which resources worked, which didn't - can use an online journal tool or something to present reflection - or have students brainstorm how they want to reflect - create handout for future students?

As you can see - this is really just a skeleton of an outline. I had this outline for a few days and was a bit stuck on how to proceed. Thankfully, I have a wonderful Professor who is guiding our Inquiry course with a lot of support; she recently posted in the Discussion Forum a post on Tips for thinking about Assignment 3. In this post she mentions that one of the first things we will want to focus on is what we want students to know, do and understand from this unit. Now, instead of spinning rudderless, I have been given a clear direction of what to focus on next. I am starting to see through my own experience in Inquiry, and with a great role model, how the teacher can be a supportive facilitator. Now to get working!

References:

• BC Ministry of Education. (2013). BC's New Curriculum. Victoria, BC: BC Ministry of Education
  Barseghian, T., & Wright, S. (2017). Life in a 21st-Century English Class. MindShift. Retrieved 8 September 2017, from https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/12/21/life-in-a-21st-century-english-class/
  Ekdahl, M., Farquharson, M., Robinson, J. & Turner, L. (2010). Points of Inquiry: A Framework For Information Literacy and The 21st Century Learner. Vancouver, BC: BC Teacher Librarians’ Association (BCTLA) and BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF).
  Robinson, K. (2013). Ken Robinson: How to Escape Education’s Death Valley. TEDTalks. YouTube. Retrieved 23 September 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc
  Stripling, B. K. (2003). Inquiry-based learning. In Curriculum Connections through the Library. Eds. B. K. Stripling & S. Hughes-Hassell. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.
  Wright, M. (2014). The model of inquiry. YouTube. Retrieved 18 September 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnqNFl-BDfE