Principles of Inquiry Based Learning- Blog #6

Part 1:

Teaching English as a Second Language is an area that most definitely requires both the teacher and learner to be engaged and inquisitive about the instructional process. The teacher must provide instruction that is relevant to the students and grabs their attention. Of the many ways teachers can do this is through meaning questions and authentic learning experiences. Since many of my students are from different countries it helps to establish background knowledge and develop a foundation for understanding. Therefore inquiry learning, in my own personal definition is providing meaningful learning opportunities that enhancing problem solving and questioning. Students must be provided with opportunities that challenge them and authentic learning experiences via questioning, problem based learning, and instruction that is relevant to their lives.

Part 2

Authentic Learning and Teaching

Through my mini-lesson, it will focus on providing students with various choices of involvement. Students will be given options during the work period. This encourages student flexibility to be independent learners.  In Authentic Learning and Teaching, the lesson will encourage relevant and practical problems.

Teaching for a Deep Understanding

Engaging students through concepts that are relevant to their lives instills the curiosity to discover and learn more. By providing the foundations teachers drive students to explore and learn. Experiential learning opportunities are those that provide students with the opportunity to learn through projects. More especially, project based learning task allow students to create experiences that are meaningful and authentic learning.

The Importance of Assessment

 In the mini-lesson, students will be assessed through group and peer activities. Students will be provided rubrics to evaluate their own learning and the learning of their classmates. Students will be encouraged to focus more on the learning experience versus the percentile score of their work.

Appropriate Use of Technology

Within the mini-lesson I want to provide students with necessary computer literacy skills. Students are to behave in a responsible manner, in accordance with the school systems acceptable use policy. Students are encouraged to use all applicable technological tools to present content in a efficient manner. Students are encouraged to explore learning tools, web 2.0 tools and sites that will positively contribute to their learning success.

Student Success

Do not dismiss students for making mistakes. Encourage student learning and opportunities for them to develop their own learning schemes. In fulfilling this lesson, students are open to making mistakes, in no way should students feel that their mistakes result or conclude in failure. Asking questions is encouraged. Students will learn through their own mistakes, thus the teacher should not provide overwhelming scaffolding or assistance.

Connecting with Experts

The mini-lesson will provide opportunities for students to interact with professionals through pre-recorded media content.

Performances of Understanding

Celebrate student success. Motivate students in the fulfillment of the learning objectives and learning tasks. Students should feel a sense of accomplishment and self-fulfillment in their learning experiences. Rewards and achievement is an important principle, students should know that their work is appreciated that a sense of fulfillment from the learning objectives.

Ethical Citizenship

This concept along with technology will be discussed in detail in the opening of the lesson. Students must be aware of the expectations and ethical guidelines set aside and expectations of their performance. This covers aspects of digital citizenship, ethics and plagiarism.

Blog Post #5 Initial Goals Reflection

Blog Post #5:

According to Napoleon Hill, "A goal is a dream with a deadline."  My initial goal in module one focused on learning strategies to improve and positively contribute to student learning and instruction. Also to explore effective methods of research and information discovery.

Thus far, the resources used have enabled me to incorporate different programs of technology and applications. Exploring new innovative methods of teaching and learning assists in searching for more effective and accurate resources. Learning about information fluency encourages and motivates learners to find more information that is more relevant to various concepts.

In an article published by Edutopia entitled, Resources for Growing Your Professional Learning Network it states, A personal network doesn't eliminate the need for high-quality professional development, but it does offer a powerful antidote for classroom isolation. Like many teachers I find myself sharing ideas, resources and strategies that I found effective and engaging for learning. Professional Learning Networks (PLN’s) allow, us as teachers, to expand our horizons and increase our learning. Taking advantage of the opportunities to connect and communicate with other professionals allows me to engage in discussions and receive relevant feedback.

Increasing our awareness in 21st century teaching and learning allows us to create an environment that is challenging, rigorous and relevant to our learners. Based on this week’s readings, Even Geniuses Work Hard, the author advises “When presenting learning tasks to students, the teacher should portray challenges as fun and exciting, while portraying easy tasks as boring and less useful for the brain.” This in turn involves the teacher being creative and innovative, trial and error based on the student's’ interest level. These opportunities create authentic learning tasks. Thus learning should be challenging, provide opportunities for progress, growth and praise.

Letting Go

Great Teaching Means Letting Go

My initial thoughts from reading this title is that effective teaching happens when teachers allow students to learn without restrictions. If teachers are to control the terms in which students are learning, then they are not independent of the teacher. Students should be encouraged to be autonomous learners and independent thinkers. Grant makes an interesting statement regarding the transfer of knowledge, students ought to be able to draw upon and apply what was learned. Grant refers to this as “not scripted behavior”.

A great deal of his article constantly reminds me of the importance of metacognition. Students ability to think about their thinking. Students should know what strategies are most effective in getting through and analyzing certain problems. Grant states, “ students gain practice from their repertoire with no teacher prompting.”  When students develop their own molded form of thinking, analyzing, problem solving they are able to make great strides towards independence. Students should not be drilled with practices exercises that they are not able to apply to situations out of context. In retrospect, it is sort of dealing with “if….,then…” scenarios. Being able to decide the types of strategies to use, and how to best solve or understand content in situations should be a focal point in student learning.

Further in the article, Grant discusses a very common term that teachers hear, “The Gradual Release Model”.  Teachers are supposed to provide the 3-2-1 framework of learning. The concept involves everyone participating and practicing together, “I Do, We Do, You Do.”  The first step is direct instruction, secondly is guided instruction, and third is based on independent feedback or practice.

Personally, I believe Grant makes a valid argument for increased student and learner independence. Teachers must learn to provide students with resources and strategies, and have the confidence in them apply these strategies to the necessary problems that arise. Learners deserve to be able to think on their own, and develop their own methods of thinking and solving problems. Grant unequivocally states “unless you back off completely, on a daily basis, in scrimmages as well as games, to see whether or not students draw appropriately from the repertoire in a timely and effective fashion in challenges that demand it, you really have no idea what they can do on their own.”  In order for our students to thrive and be successfully independent learners, teachers must provide them with the freedom to discover on their own and develop their own ways of learning and thinking. Scaffolding can become overbearing if not served with an even balance of challenge, independence and support.  

Blog Post #3

Google searching is an indefinite practice of mine. Whether it is searching for quick factual information, searching for relevant daily information or beginning a search for research related information. Google searches have become a common practice of mine throughout instruction and learning practices. In fact, my Google patterns are relative to the Information Behavior of the Researcher of the Future in that in casual conversations when a question arises that we are not aware of the answer to, we stop and Google the answer.

I’m not entirely sure what I have in common with teens in my web searching behavior. However, it depends on the nature of the task. If I am preparing research material, I would reference and search resources that are more effective in supporting my purpose. Google search have tiers of relevance and appropriateness. It is not appropriate to use “quick” Google searches to support data in research. However, if we are searching for flight information, or weather then it is quite harmless to engage in Google searches.

Your search inquiries alter your filter of results. Thus, to avoid creating your own filter bubble it would be helpful to alter the strategies you use in searching for content. Once a filter bubble is created it closes a user off to potentially new ideas, information and subjects. It is highly encourage for users to develop frameworks of searching and filtering the content results.

Blog Post #2

Technology is constantly changing and evolving with multiple dimensions. In this week’s readings, the articles and resources presented various strategies for increased technology productivity. In particular, the article The Journey from Digital Literacy to Digital Fluency and My daily info-wrangling routine focus on developing routines, which essentially contributes to using tools that are effective and disregarding, or discarding tools that are less rewarding.  Also, the article Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning and the video InfoWhelm and Information Fluency focus more on the importance of information fluency. I personally relate to the author’s view in Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning, “being digitally fluent means using the tools of technology to do things completely differently than I’ve ever done before.” Thus, by taking an innovative approach to technology tools and using these resources in various contexts, challenges the fluency of learners. Though the articles have different ways of approaching and presenting the information, I believe they all have the same central message. Digital Literacy and Information Fluency is an ongoing arena of context and changing knowledge. I believe the idea of using PLN’s contributes to my learning goal of implementing strategies for language learning. This learning goal is especially important for me in that it challenges me to discover new methods of instruction and delivery.

Blog Post #1

Through this course I am interested to learn how I can implement strategies of inquiry learning in ESOL education focused on English Language Learners. In addition, to learn extensively how these strategies improve or positively contribute to student learning and instruction. Also to explore effective methods of research and information discovery.Technology is a wonderful tool to have in teaching and learning, so to see the contribution it has in the content area of English language learning is a dimension I am interested in learning more about.