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| Word Cloud Definition of Inquiry Learning By: Michelle Colquitt created using ABCYA |
The meetings I have with my first offender youth invariably follow a certain script with the juvenile offender stating...."I just wanted to see what would happen." At its heart, inquiry learning keenly reflects the idea of "I just wanted to see what would happen IF, X, Y, and/or Z happened" OR to frame this in the form of a question "What would happen if I broke the law?"
This is where I step in and become the child and family's steward to help them navigate the inquiry learning processes that can arise in the juvenile justice system. My ultimate goal is to empower the child and family to gain enough self-awareness and self-efficacy to not ever require the assistance of the juvenile justice system again. I am hopeful that the youth and family will not need my assistance any longer. I am helpful to the best of my abilities in navigating this often tough and confusing process. I can only hope that I am as helpful as teachers in delivering their inquiry-based learning instruction.
Neil Stephenson, in his Introduction to Inquiry Based Learning, relates that there is a cohesive eight element inquiry-based rubric to outline effective inquiry-based learning. The eight elements are:
1. Authenticity
2. Deep Understanding
3. Performances of Understanding
4. Assessment
5. Appropriate Use of Technology
6. Connecting with Experts
7. Student Success
8. Ethical Citizenship
For this class, we are tasked with creating a mini-lesson set conveying the ideas of inquiry-based learning that we have learned thus far and we are asked to apply these principles into teaching practice. I am busily brainstorming ideas for this mini-lesson. I am not employed as a teacher or in the educational field YET (I'm claiming my growth mindset here) but when I am employed in this setting, I would prefer to work in a High School (first choice) or Middle School (second choice). One of my passionate interests has always been history of any time period or place, but particularly American History and the topic of World War II.
As background research for this assignment, I consulted the Georgia Performance Standards for United States History to determine if there was a specific area in which I was interested. The area that I found most interesting relates to the following standard:
SSHUSH19--The student will identify the origins, major developments, and the domestic impact of World War II, especially the growth of the federal government.
In brainstorming and determining how this topic can be articulated into a mini-lesson, I have thought about the ways in which the eight principles of inquiry-based learning can be utilized.
1. Authenticity--To make history an authentic experience for students it needs to relate to the life of the student in a meaningful manner. Stephenson provides some very interesting consideration questions at the end of this section. The two that especially resonated with me are:
a. How might students access or create authentic sources of data on this topic?
b. Where will students have the opportunity to solve problems, test ideas, recognize patterns, or invent build or design a solution or product?
2. Deep Understanding--students need to have more than a superficial understanding of the topic. They should be able to deeply relate to the topic at hand. One question that Stephenson (through Perkins) suggests is:
"What do you want your students to become better at through this task?"
Rather than jut being able to regurgitate materials back for a high-stakes standardized test, I would like for my students to have a deep understanding of the events surrounding World War II, and even the events that arose as a result of WWII (the Baby Boom, the Cold War, etc.).
3. Performances of Learning--once the student has become deeply immersed in thinking about learning and acting there are several ways in which they can demonstrate their understanding. Two particular ideas that resonated with me were the ideas of:
a. Democratizing Ideas--every voice is encouraged and respected
b. Discourse--students are encouraged to share differing ideas and also to debate about ideas. Again, all voices and opinions are encouraged and respected.
4. Assessments--once students have learned an authentic lesson with deep understanding they have the opportunity to perform what they have learned. After the performance stage comes the "dreaded" assessment stage. During this stage, the teacher has a responsibility to prepare their students for the stress of a standardized test.
Students should be assessed in a variety of ways: group presentations/projects, classroom discussions, multimedia projects, self-assessments, and a variety of other formative evaluations.
5. Appropriate Uses of Technology--Technology should be utilized in a meaningful way, rather than just "throwing" technology at students for the sake of using technology. In Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's Langwitches blog, it is related that in order to impart 21st-century learning skills, Teacher Librarians must be willing to embrace technology and become fluent in using these various technologies. Therefore, we must be comfortable with technology, to include its successes and even its hiccups.
Technology can be implemented in a United States History class in a variety of ways. For example, a simple timeline could help students learn about the events of WWII. However, in order to deepen their understanding of WWII, students could be encouraged to create a highly skilled project such as a propaganda podcast that could possibly emulate "Tokyo Rose."
6. Experts and Expertise--Students can learn from experts in the field of study. While we more than likely would not be able to have a WWII veteran present in the classroom (simply because the population of WWII veterans is dwindling), we could possibly still have access to multimedia interviews of WWII veterans. For example, I know that the Athens-Clarke County Library's Heritage Room has digitized copies of interviews of WWII veterans that were taped in 1994 and 1995 (because I interned there and classified these interviews). I would love to show my students these videos so that they could hear about firsthand experiences that local (Athens area) WWII veterans experienced. I would also love to find other ways to utilize multimedia technology into these lessons: radio broadcasts, viewing both primary and secondary sources, and listening to other interviews.
7. Success--Within the success area, teachers are encouraged to utilize technology to have students demonstrate an understanding of the topic at hand. For example, if students were asked to complete a podcast group project, then they would be responsible for creating a script, recording the audio of the podcast (to include any extra sound effects), and then upload the podcast to a hosting program such as YouTube or iTunes.
8--Ethical Citizenship--Students must be taught to effective rules of 21st-century communication. Students must be positive citizens and, therefore, should understand about topics such as plagiarism, copyright, and netiquette, among others. Students should be able to associate ethical citizenship with the larger topics of this WWII unit by associating their communications with the freedoms that WWII soldiers fought for.
Of course, this is a brainstorming session/jumping off point for the creation of my mini-lessons. To be honest, I am very excited and also very trepidacious about this process since I lack the background that almost all of my fellow classmates have. I am excited to learn more about the lesson planning creation process and know this will be beneficial for my future Media Specialist days.
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