Blog Post #6: Student Inquiry and Mini-Lesson Ideas

Why do kids come to school? I’ll be honest with you, most of my kids come to school because they have to, their parents make them, for the social life, and sadly (this breaks my heart) for two meals a day. I don’t think many of my kids wake up in the morning and say “Hey I can’t wait to learn something new today at school!” For smaller kids, they actually might do that, but I teach high school and that love for learning and questioning just isn’t as strong at that age. I discussed this in my blog post from last week. Dr. Gerstein stated that: “Questioning comes naturally to children and seems to become a lost art and skill as people age.” The resources in this week’s module would help to give a reason for kids to want to come to school other than just because they have to. Inquiry learning is the key to making kids WANT to come to school to LEARN. Neil Stephenson discussed in his blog that kids are changing. We now live in what he calls the “knowledge society.” Kids today want to know why they are asked to do something. They don’t just want to do it to please their teacher. They want to know the point or purpose of it. That’s great! However, if their teacher says “Because we have to,” that’s not really inspiring. Stephenson pointed out that inquiry learning can, “…increase intellectual engagement and foster deep understanding through the development of a hands-on, minds-on and ‘research-based disposition’ towards teaching and learning. Who doesn’t want that for their students?!?!? I also loved his comparison of some classrooms to learning about baseball and the history of the game, but never actually getting to play! (so sad!)

Also, I want to add that I absolutely love Diana Laufenberg. I loved her Ted Talk. After reading the article by Tina Barseghian and the other resources linked in this module, I really started reflecting on my own teaching practices. Next school year I definitely want to put these ideas into action. I want my classroom to be inquiry based! With all the excitement that I have to start this journey, I also have some fears. However, after reading Barseghian’s advice to realize that failure can and will happen, I’m not as freaked out. I feel like if we, as teachers, try to get our students questioning things, creating things, extending their brains, etc. we have succeeded. Inquiry learning means students can and will fail and that we will too. Everything is not always going to work out like we want it to. We’ve all had that lesson plan that we thought was so jam up, then we implemented it and said to ourselves, “I will never do this again!” If you haven’t then your lucky. I could share my failed attempt to make the Nullification Crisis super fun, but that’s a whole other story! 

I do believe that technology is a key component in creating an inquiry based classroom, but I don’t think it should be used as a crutch. I loved that  at the end of the Langwitches blog she included a quote from Dr. Gil Perl “First of all, we learned that it’s not necessarily the teacher who tweets the pics uploaded to her Instagram account from her iPhone and remixes 3D animation with Khan Academy videos and soundtracks ripped from YouTube, then Snapchats herself doing it.” That’s definitely not what inquiry learning is about. 

Teachers by now should realize that the world we live in is becoming totally dependent on technology. When my kids get to college and into the real world I want them to know how to research using Galileo, how to use a blog for their benefit, how to embed things, how to create a website, etc. I also want them to know how to use the plethora of information out there to their advantage, not be overwhelmed by it. So, if we as educators want our kids to be successful when they leave us, we can’t do that if they are still dependent on us. As much as some educators hate it, the world has changed. Technology should not be used just to excite kids, (because some of them don’t even like it because it’s more challenging) it should be used to enhance and extend learning. Whether we like it or not it’s here to stay.

My Definition of Inquiry Wordle:

Rough Draft Ideas for my Mini-Lessons….Advice and Ideas Appreciated :)

I will be using the following standard from the U.S. History Georgia Performance Standards:

SUSH25 The student will describe changes in national politics since 1968. 

g. Analyze the response of President George W. Bush to the attacks of September 11, 2001, on the United States, the war against terrorism, and the subsequent American interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

1. Authenticity: I figured a great lesson to implement inquiry learning would be SSUSH25g since it deals with terrorism. I remember my last classes of the year were super curious about ISIS and 9/11. Everytime I teach 9/11 I have to remember this years’ kids were like 2 and 3 years old when it happened so they really don’t remember it. It’s really easy to get kids interested in terrorism because it is an ongoing topic.

2) Deep Understanding: We will discuss the topic and discuss together what they will need to learn in order to master the topic. I will have  the students create their own learning targets. If some of them create learning targets that don’t exactly hit the mark, we (as a class) will try to perfect them. I can try to lead them in the right direction also.

3) Performance of Understanding: Students will be set into a real world situation. I haven’t quite figured out what I want to do here. I want them to maybe pretend they are an advisor to the president, or something along those lines. I want to force them to have to see why the terrorists/ISIS believe the are right in their actions and how our nation should respond. I want them to be forced to see the repercussions of every action that the US would take. (Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :) )

4) Assessment for Learning: Once again, not 100% sure what I’m doing in this part either, but I definitely want them to self-reflect. How are their ideas changing? How do we deal with terrorism? I would like them to create a plan to deal with ISIS/terrorists today. Something that would have short term goals and long term goals, how would they attain those goals?

5) Appropriate Use of Technology: To start out (after they have established their learning targets) I would like to use a curation resource like Pearltrees to have articles, readings, video links, news stories, etc. linked for them to dig through before they start their own research. They need a base of information on terrorism. After they have achieved a level of understanding on what terrorism is I would like for them to create a Twitter account or some sort of social networking account so that they can discuss terrorism outside of school. The reason I picked this standard is because terrorism and ISIS are always in the news today. So, I would expect them to research on their own and hopefully watch the news and tweet/discuss what is going on with terrorism today. How is our nation responding, what are we doing, what are our plans, etc.

6) Connecting with Experts: I have a cousin who is currently stationed in Afganistan and his role is to advise the Defense Ministry. I would LOVE it if we could Skype with him and allow the kids to ask him questions if that would be possible(not sure). If that didn’t work, we could always invite a college professor in our town who knows more about the subject than I do or someone who has served and is willing to discuss it. I’m not sure if this would work, some veterans don’t want to talk about it and others do. Even if we got a veteran from another war, they could at least give the students the aspect of what it’s like to be in a war zone, something that none of them have ever experienced or maybe even thought about.

7) Student Success: I will try to make sure that resources are readily available for students who learn in different ways. I could set up a website and link articles and news reports/videos every night or ever so often and have them respond to one of them through their social networking account they set up. I would encourage them to respond to one another. Instead of making them all read, they could watch a news clip. If they don’t have wifi at home, they could do it in the library. Our school has wifi that they can connect to also. I could give them time to do it during class on their phone if we had to. (BYOD policy)

8) Ethical Citizenship: I feel like I lucked up on this part of the mini-lesson. I feel that if we (me and the students) can do this right, then they should feel more knowledgable on an important current event/topic. I also feel that if done correctly they should be forced to reflect on their ideas on terrorism and what the US should do about it. Did their opinions change?

Note: I have a lot of kids who say, “We should just go blow them up!- obviously it’s not that easy nor is that how modern day war is fought. Sometimes they’ll say we did it to Japan during WWII, why not? and we have a discussion. But I feel as though if we do this right and everything goes smoothly (fingers crossed) they could not say these things. They would be forced to really think about the actions the US should take and the consequences of those actions. 

Also, any suggestions or ideas are greatly appreciated!!!

Blog Post #5: Reflection and the Growth Mindset/Essential Questions

My learning goals from blog post #1 were to gain confidence in my tech skills, to develop my PLN to the best of my ability, and to share new ideas with others and gain new ideas from classmates. I would definitely say that I have gained confidence in my tech skills. I don’t freak out when I hear the words Web 2.0 tool! I know that I can figure it out eventually. I also feel like my PLN is developing nicely. Although, I don’t think you’ll ever be “done” with a PLN. It needs to be an ongoing professional project! I also feel as though I have accomplished my third goal, which was to learn something from my classmates. I definitely feel as though I am learning from my classmates and through the module assignments (which make me learn something new every week.) I don’t really feel like I need to change my goals, and I don’t think they are 100% attainable. They are a work in progress, you can never learn everything about everything!

I already knew a little bit about the growth mindset because we had a guest speaker at our school discuss it with the teachers in each department. I really enjoyed looking through all of this week’s resources. I feel as though the growth mindset is something that was instilled in me as a child. My parents always pushed me to try hard no matter if I was good at something or not. They never made me feel dumb or “not good enough” for not doing good if I tried. I’m glad they instilled that in me, because had they not I would feel dumb every time I had to create something for this class. Take this week’s assignment to create a curated resource list using a Web 2.0 tool for example. I created a Pearltree account never having used this Web 2.0 tool before. If I had the fixed mindset that Carol Dweck discusses in her article Even Geniuses Work Hard I would never have even started this masters program, much less been able to figure out Pearltrees! In Dweck’s  article I loved that she included ideas to use in the classroom for helping foster a learning environment focused on the growth mindset. Too many kids shut down just because they think they can’t do something. If you implement some of Dweck’s ideas in the classroom no child should feel bad about themselves for not understanding something. I loved that she said teachers should use the word “yet” all the time! A student might say “I don’ get this.” Your reply should be “Yet!”

Dweck's video interview below was very insightful. I liked that she included the idea to include a workshop on the growth mindset for students. I don’t feel like this should be hidden from students, they should know so they can try to change their fixed mindsets if they have them. I loved listening to her talk because it is very motivating. At the beginning of every module, a small piece of me wants to freak out, because I know at that moment I probably don’t know what Dr. Green wants us to do. But, with my growth mindset, I am able to tell myself that I can figure it out. Once I do figure something out, it feels so good!

I feel like I need to do a better job in my classroom rewarding students for choosing to do challenging tasks, even if they don’t succeed at first. Instead of rewarding the kids who always do good on assignments, I need to also reward and praise the kids who tried really hard, but may have come up short of success at first.

I like the idea of having students create their own essential questions or learning targets. The article Learners Should be Developing their own Essential Questions had some very interesting facts that made me question what I do in my own classroom. Sometimes I find my students are more interested in spouting out answers instead of thinking and then asking a good question. I definitely need to allow my students to think about what they need to be learning. I like how Dr. Gerstein pointed out in her article that, “Questioning comes naturally to children and seems to become a lost art and skill as people age.” It’s true- small children ask tons of questions, but the older kids get it seems as though the less they ask. I need to try to turn this around in my classroom and encourage questioning and inquisitiveness! 

In conclusion, the growth mindset and the student-creation of essential questions all tie in together. If we, as teachers, can encourage students to challenge themselves, try new things, wonder about the world, and ask questions, then that means that we have done our job. As teachers, we want our kids to be life-long learners, not to get stuck in a rut and be happy to stay there. We want them to be confident life-long learners!

image credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/562035228470436929/