LLED 469: Final Reflection

 

"Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to the truth"

Thomas Jefferson.                    

1. Re-visit Learning Log 1.

Now that you have completed the course, is there anything you would change about your response to "where does inquiry live within the activity you undertook", or "what would you need to put in place to support this kind of inquiry-based learning with students"? 

Examine your list of three personal learning objectives.  Have these been met?

2. Write a one-page summative reflection on the process of your own inquiry into inquiry. 

You might discuss new learning (skills, strategies, tools, and resources) and personal change, and what you might apply to future inquiry.  

1. Re-visit Learning Log 1

Looking back to my first reflection log and discrepant event, I can better understand all the stages of inquiry my children and I went through as we explored the states of matter by making candles.  After reflecting on my response using all this newfound knowledge, I felt pretty confident about what I wrote in regard to where inquiry was found within our experiment.  The one thing that really stood out to me, and I would certainly go back and modify, is the questions we wrote prior to starting our experiment.  Wilhelm taught me that an essential question is “the principal component of designing inquiry-based learning that requires student contributions and creativity and applications…it cannot be answered through information retrieval, cannot be too generic/narrow/specific, and it must be intriguing and compelling to students.” (2014, p 39-40) 

Going back to week two, I was so sure our questions were very good but once I looked at them through the “red light/green light question strategy” I realized that most of them were Red Light questions, meaning that they only scratched the surface; however, after we did the experiment and saw the results more questions followed, and these required deep thinking and needed us to follow up with further investigation.  Moving forward, I will certainly plan to use this strategy to teach my students how to develop questions prior to engaging in inquiry units in order to spark their curiosity from the start.  As Heick states, "if there are no questions, or no good questions, there is no curiosity, without natural curiosity, students face meaningless interactions with texts, media, and tasks." (Heick, 2014)  

The last part of my first learning log mentioned the three goals I wanted to work towards throughout the course.  I was really happy to see that not only did I achieve two of my goals, but I have also started to plan ways to continue to create a collaborative culture within our school.  

Let me backtrack and explain how I have achieved or are working towards those goals.

Goal 1: “start creating a collaborative culture within my school.  I want to start working with teachers in creating a learning-centered environment where students are given the opportunity to develop “an inquiry stance with more emphasis on asking good questions than finding the answers.” (Stripling, 2008)” (Vernon, 2022)

I know this goal will take time and that no change will happen in a fortnight; however, that does not mean I can make small changes and go from there.  I have already started talking to teachers to see what units they are working on; this has usually happened during lunch in casual conversations.  One particular discussion comes to mind, my colleague was asking for a First Nations story with the theme of “belonging.”  I had just read Module 5, in particular the package on “Weaving Ways.”  I started talking about it and was so excited to share the information with her she came back after school to talk again.  By then, I had already found a couple stories in our First Nations Picture Book section and had printed an extra copy of the package for her.  The following week she told me how much the students had loved the stories and was now looking for other books to use for her weekly SEL lessons.  I have made it my mission to always be on the lookout for books with SEL themes and started a bin, sent an email to all staff about it and am happy to report that these books have been circulating a lot more the last few weeks.  I see this experience as one step towards my goal of building successful professional relationships “that are built over time on trust, flexibility, creativity, understanding of best practice, knowledge of curriculum and assessment, good planning, and the willingness to share teaching, decision-making, and professional growth.” (Staenberg, 2009)

Goal 2: “learn how to provide as many tools as possible to further close the gap when it comes to equity and inclusion.  I want to be able to reach all my learners and to do so, I need to be able to provide information that is easily accessible by all learners, whether it be at home or at school.” (Vernon, 2022)

I have always been a strong believer of the saying “no child left behind;” however, these past few courses have made me reflect and realize that although I was always trying to adjust my teaching to be able to meet the needs of my students, I was going about it the wrong way.  Equity is not about adjusting something to make it easier, is about adjusting my teaching so everyone can benefit from it.  It’s about using multimodal resources and compiling them in pathfinders, so everyone has access to them, not just my complex learners.  I have learned how important it is to “build bridges of possibility between what (I) teach, and the diverse learners (I) teach by: seeking out my students’ strengths, developing flexible teaching routines, creating learning options for varied needs, coaching for success, and monitoring individual growth against individual goals.” (Tomlison & McTighe, 2006). I am really excited to continue to work towards improving my teaching practice to be able to reach all my learners.

Goal 3: learn how to properly select resources that will encourage deep thinking.  Is there a criteria I must follow? How can I create a list of resources that can be accessed by everyone? (Vernon, 2022) 

Modules 6-8 really helped me work towards achieving my goal and understanding what I need to look for when choosing learning resources.  One of the most important documents I used was the BC Ministry of Education learning resource guideline.  The list provided me with a starting point when I had to create a set of questions I would use when curating the learning resources I would use for assignments 2 and 3. You can access my list of questions in the blog titled “Assignment 2: Curation” by clicking here.  I also found the criteria for selecting First Nations resources very useful not only for my assignment, but also a few weeks ago when my job share partner and I had to purchase a few First Nations books for our LLC.  As for creating a list of resources, I have discovered many great tech tools to use.  My favourite one by far is Symbaloo because it is very easy to navigate and has great features like colour coding and the ability to search for premade Webmixes which can further help me find other resources I may have overlooked.  You can check out the Web tools Webmix I made to use at my school by clicking here; I divided this webmix into four colour coded categories: Curate (pink), Publish (green), Create (salmon), and Collaborate (blue).

2. Summative Reflection

I can’t believe that I am writing my final blog for LLED 469.  It certainly has been a journey full of ups and downs, but most of all, full of self-discoveries as I worked through my own insecurities when it came to Inquiry.  

You see, I do love inquiry and had tried to do it in my classroom; however, I realized that what I was implementing was more of a “Bird Unit” type of project, rather than a true Inquiry Unit.  “Inquiry is a process of learning that is driven by questioning, thoughtful investigating, making sense of information, and developing new understandings.” (Strippling, 2008). I was clearly under the impression that as long as I gave my students hands-on learning experiences, I was doing inquiry.  Realizing that I was wrong, was a very bitter pill to swallow.

Another thing that almost sent me running for the hills in the opposite direction during week 2, was realizing that as a Teacher Librarian, I need to not only collaborate with my colleagues, but also need to create inquiry units with them…how could I, after realizing I was doing it wrong, even consider creating units they will be happy with?!  

As the weeks went by and I engaged in the reading materials, videos, TEDtalks, and class discussions I started to understand better what inquiry is really all about.  I knew before that Inquiry is a way of learning that requires active engagement, but now I realize that it is so much more than that.  One of the quotes that will stay with me for a long time is from Fontichiaro’s article on makerspaces, she states that “hands-on does not necessarily mean minds-on.” (2019) One of the biggest learning moments for me was realizing that giving students hands on experiments will not necessarily engaged them in inquiry-based learning, we need to make sure that these experiences spark their curiosity and provide opportunities for them to tap into prior knowledge to create “intriguing questions about what (they) don’t know, investigate the answer, construct new understanding, and share those understanding with others.” (Strippling, 2004)

Module 4 was also very crucial for me as I learned the importance of not only creating a participatory culture in the school but also how important it is to collaborate with my colleagues.  I found Jenkins criteria of a participatory culture to be a great starting point for me to start making changes in our Learning Commons.  I was pleased to see that I’m heading in the right direction when it comes to creating a “yes, you can!” learning environment for our students; however, I now know that I still have work to do when it comes to helping create a collaboratively culture amongst our staff.  I now know that “successful collaborations are built on successful professional relationships that are built over time on trust, flexibility, creativity, understanding of best practices, knowledge of curriculum and assessment, good planning, and the willingness to share teaching, decision-making, and professional growth.” (Staenberg, 2009)

I have also learned the having the right resources is essential to inquiry and “how important it is for educators and students to develop skills that ensure that a rich and balanced array of learning resources are the foundations for inquiry.”  This term, I was able to experiment with curating tools like Symbaloo, Scooplt, Diigo, and Padlet. 

Having the right resources is important but so is having the “right questions.”  One of the most valuable tools I discovered this term is the strategy called “green light/red light questions.  One of my biggest fears when it came to inquiry was not knowing whether or not my students were asking the right questions.  After learning about this strategy, I feel more confident in teaching my students how to develop essential questions in a way they will understand and be able to apply right away.

The last thing I would like to mention is that I am so thankful this course explained the various inquiry models.  Prior to this term, I knew what inquiry was, but I had no idea how to structure it to ensure my students benefited from beginning to end.  The BCTLA “Points of Inquiry,” is the one I relate to the most.  I like how the process has been broken down into stages and each stage gives not only the learning outcomes students will be working on, but they also give skill strategies and tech tools to use as well as assessment suggestions.  I used this model for my inquiry unit and found it very informative and not as intimidating as I first thought.  I’m very excited to be able to use this unit in the Spring!

As a final thought I want to thank my instructor and classmates for teaching me so much this term.  Thanks to them, I feel more comfortable now when it comes to inquiry, and I feel that I have acquire valuable tools and strategies I can use to create meaningful student-centered learning.  My learning does not end here, after all, as DaVinci once said, “learning never exhausts the mind,” it only opens more doors to worlds we must explore and learn from.

Until Next time,

The Duchess of Bookington

Works Cited:

An Introductory Guide: Weaving Ways Indigenous Ways of Knowing in Classrooms and Schools. Created by the Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortium (n.d.). https://empoweringthespirit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Weaving-Ways-Introductory-Document-10-09.pdf

Assessing questions. (2009). School Library Monthly 25(5): 2. Accessed from

https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=2a19f24d-58d8-4e55-b7bb-0a98aa024fc3%40redis

British Columbia Teacher-Librarians' Association (BCTLA) The Points of Inquiry: Inquiry-Based Learning for Classrooms and School Libraries Links to an external site. (2010).  Accessed from https://bctla.ca/resources/point-of-inquiry/

Care, M. of E. and C. (n.d.). Learning Resources - Province of British Columbia. Www2.Gov.bc.ca. Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/legislation-policy/public-schools/learning-resources

First Nations Education Steering Committee. Authentic First Peoples Resources for Use in K-7 Classrooms. (2011) Accessed on November 30, 2022 from http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/PUB-LFP-K-7-Authentic-Resources-for-Web.pdf

Heick, T. (2014). The characteristics of a highly effective learning environment.  Accessed on November 28, 2022 from https://www.teachthought.com/learning/effective-environment/

Staenberg, L. & Vanneman, S. (2009). A collaborative conversation. School Library Monthly 26(4): 15-17.

Stripling, B. K. (2008). Inquiry: Inquiring minds want to know. School Library Media Activities Monthly 25(1): 50-52.

Tomlinson, C. A. & McTighe, J. (2006). What really matters in teaching? (the students). In Integrating differentiated instruction and understanding by design: Connecting content and kids (pp. 12-23). Alexandria, VA: ASCD. [in LOCR]

Vernon, K. The Book Kingdom. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://thebookkigdom.blogspot.com/search/label/LLED%20469?updated-max=2022-09-26T20:57:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=4&by-date=false