Stage 3
Please read and make use of the Inquiry Chart for this stage (in 'resources').
'We must abandon the belief that we always know what is right for students to learn; that it is democratic for all children to learn everything in the same way and that the sign of a good teacher is how much s(he) knows in advance of what s(he) has to do and how to do it'.
1. Post a quote or image that represents your understanding of the role of the teacher in an inquiry-based classroom in terms of emphasis and/or de-emphasis of certain practices. Explain.
In the role of a teacher, the inquiry-based classroom is complex. A teacher wants to motivate students, make students successful and ensure that everything goes smoothly. This is problematic though as inquiry is not always a smooth ride for students or the teacher. The teacher is trying to incite deduction, research and exploration in an inquiry-based classroom. I choose a quote from the end of Andy Weir's The Egg as it resonates a lot with me and my understanding of what I expect of myself in an inquiry-based classroom.
"'Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.'
'Whoa,' you said, incredulous. 'You mean I’m a god?'
'No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.'
'So the whole universe,' you said, “it’s just…'
'An egg.' I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.'
And I sent you on your way."
(Weir, 2009)
As a teacher in the inquiry-based classroom, I hope that I inspire my students to become more experienced and knowledgeable in more than the specific content that they are investigating but in the exploratory measures and procedures undertaken to identify what it is they are looking for.
2. Based on your experience, and in drawing upon the Inquiry Chart (in 'resources'), especially the websites at the beginning of this inquiry chart (these are outstanding!!), share one inquiry-based practice you feel you are doing well currently and one practice you would like to work on.
I believe what needs to be done in the way of responsibility as a teacher is being done on my end, I create more responsibility on the the student as the learner to experiment and rely on their own understandings of their assessments/evaluations with the structure I provide. I report to them detailed rubrics to foster a very relective practice structure to tasks. There in lies the rub though, in order to create more independence to foster growth in this area, I need to sacrafice the comforts of expert guidance that so many rely on to develop other attributes.
I have attached an example of how I try to foster reflective practice in my students through a project (still in its infancy of development, but mature enough to illict positive results), please note this is something I personally developed, I know its not perfect but I would ask if you like it, that you visit the link provided to the product on TpT and leave a positive or at least a follow, thanks!
If interested, you can check out some exemplars I have from the past, as I mentioned, its still a project I am refining to really get the outcome I envision, there is a great deal of scaffolding I need to include in my unit plan to ensure that it can be initiated by the teacher without a second glance.
Initial use was in the HFN4U/Culinary Arts
This is the audio introduction, I no longer have a number of documents, but the idea was that this was 2017 (If I remember correctly, I was just learning how to manage "Podcast" projects,
This was the recipe book a student created for the same project, I no longer have their personal write-up on it though.
After an initial Refinement, I applied it to my P.E. Class
HPE Exemplar:
I have long since applied it to my ENG4U and EWC4U students as an Autoethnography assignment rather than a portfolio based-essay, if interested I can introduce the autoethnography assignment another time. I don't know where I stored these files at this time.
You can access the TpT for this portfolio-based product here:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/resources-by-bono
Likewise, feel free to check out some of the freebies in the "reflection" area of assessment and evaluation:
1. Learning Skills/Work Habits Reflection (OSSD): https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Student-Learning-Skills-Reflection-Page-10992757
Core Competency Rubrics (BC Province): https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Core-Competency-Rubrics-Unabridged-British-Columbia-Curriculum-4262644
An area I would like to prove on contradicts a little bit with what I put in my last assignment only because the idea is that the procedure may be well articulated by students, but it is still very much an inquiry process that I am creating for students to articulate, rather than have them authenticly create the process themselves. Facilitating Student-Led Planning and Investigation in Literary Studies is seemingly difficult for students to avoid spoilers. In the 21st century, so much of what we do has alreayd been done, and we are the ingredient, "originality" that flavours our work uniquely, however in a high-stakes learning environment, it is normal to seek quicker results. Points of reference are not a bad thing to develop, but what has been seen, cannot be unseen and for some this marks a point in thier writing where they lose that ability to identify where their original ideas begin and end. Thus, I try to facilitate a procedure, but this is something of a balancing act if I am trying to follow the criteria of an inquiry-based classroom closely.
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