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