Week 3 Inquiry

Hello Everyone! This week has been a little hectic! I closed on my very first home yesterday and we moved in today, so here I am back at the apartment working on the Internet:) I wanted to give my last update on my Inquiry Plan, what I actually videotaped was me working with students who were making PowerPoint slides at the computers in my classroom. I had originally videotaped myself in the computer lab, but it was just too hard to hear anything that I was saying in that area. So I re-videotaped me in my classroom with four students. It went very well, we had worked very hard on researching Native Americans, and they were all working on different parts of different groups.

Each student had their research paper in front of them, and they used that information to create the title of their slide, and what information they added to the slide. I asked them to list the information in bullet form, and then they were allowed to add pictures and change the font, text, color, etc. One thing that I am taking away from this inquiry is that I think it really went smoothly when I first presented the information through technology using the Smartboard to watch a video on each group, so they were engaged in the video and they had background knowledge and interest when we read packets on each group. That is where they pulled the info from to list on their research paper. I have tried this before using other content area, where we just read and did worksheets and the engagement level in this project was far more exciting than any other project I have done before. The kids were all so thrilled to be able to make their own slide, and several students kept commenting on how fun it was to be doing it.

I think that technology is crucial in developing our students knowledge and competitive edge in the global world. If I had my way, I would have a wireless lab for just my classroom with a Smartboard! But, that is obviously not an option at this point! So I will keep on showing Unitedstreaming videos as I can, and checking out the traveling Smartboard as I can to keep my lessons engaging and meaningful to my students at all times. Technology really makes a difference and I would recommend to any other teachers to use as much as possible, I am really hoping I can create more lessons like this to bring technology use right into my students hands:)

Week 2 Inquiry

Wow! What a week it has been working on my inquiry! The kids have done a wonderful job researching different Native American groups. Each day we have worked on researching a different group, first by watching a United Streaming video, which we started last week, but this week, we have been breaking down the information into manageable organizers, for the students to be able to make the powerpoints. Everyone took a piece of paper and folded into fours, then drew a big circle on the paper. I drew a circle on the board for each Native American group, and on each part of the circle, we labeled the parts into what the Indians wore, hunted/ate, lived in, and played or did for entertainment.

After having students fill out the pie organizers for each Native American group, I wrote all the groups on a piece of paper, and the kids were able to draw a name out of a box. It worked out so nicely the way each table had a different group. Most everyone was happy about the group they would be doing further research on, however it seemed that Eastern Woodlands was a favorite! Yesterday, I made a research sheet where they logged all of their information about what specific part of the Indian group they will be making their powerpoint slides on. They all seem really excited to go into the computer lab and begin making the slides. I plan on having each group make a slideshow together, but depending on how well they behave, I might have them make the slides individually and save to a common folder and I will try to put them together somehow. They did spend some time looking up clip art to add to their slides, and I saved them to a folder show they can choose whichever one they want when they are ready to add all the fun stuff to their slides. It has been really great so far. I will keep you updated:) Hope you are all having a great inquiry!

Week 1 Inquiry

Well, this week went really well as far as introducing my Pilgrims and Native American Unit. I decided to investigate the Native American groups with my class first, and that is where we started. I also pulled a story from the second volume of our reading text called "The Great Ball Game", that is a Muskogee Tribe Folktale about a lacrosse type game between birds and animals. (By the way, I love teaching a thematic unit this way, I was a little concerned with the difficulty of the story since it would usually be taught in the spring, but I really front loaded the vocab and high frequency words to prepare them for the text). The animals won, and the penalty was that the birds must leave for half the year. That is how they explained bird migration. It is actually a great story, and we will continue with it next week.

I felt as though most of the students were engaged in the lesson, but there were one or two of the students that became antsy after about 20 minutes. This is usual behavior for a few individuals, but I put a lot of enthusiasm into this unit because it is my favorite, so most of the students were actively engaged, asking questions and answering others. I put enthusiasm into my teaching anyway, but I am very partial to Social Studies, so it makes it a little easier:)

We watched KET United Streaming videos on the first two tribes mentioned and their eyes were glued to the Smartboard! They were so engaged in the video, fascinated on how these groups of Indians lived their daily lives. I really felt that the technology was a powerful component to the information I was presenting. They were introduced to the Eastern Woodland Indians and the Great Plains Indians. Next week we will continue on with learning about the Southwest, California and Coastal groups. We have been watching PowerPoint presentations all year, and on Friday I took the kids into the computer lab and they played around with making their own slide shows, which will go into week 2 because the kids will eventually be making their own slides.

Next week the kids will be learning more about these Indian tribes and they will be broken into groups to research information for their slide show. I am planning on taping myself teaching in the computer lab when the kids make their slides; but we still have a lot of work to do this week first to prepare! I look forward to reading on how all of you are doing on your inquiry plans:)

Task Five Reading

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Task Four Reading

I chose Domain 3 as the framework I would like to think more deeply about. I wanted to choose Domain 3 because I started teaching Lucy Calkins Writing Workshop, along with Making Words and FCRR Student Centers this year and I thought one would be a good lesson to focus on for my Individual Inquiry Plan. Since I am teaching in a more student-centered way this year, incorporating everything I am learning in school, I am interested to receive some feedback on how it seems to be going in my classroom. My students seem to really love to learn this way, and I love it because it seems a little less painless than trying to do most lessons whole group.

For example, I like the way Calkins approaches writing as introducing the student to the whole idea of writing and letting them go at it without tying them to one part of the big idea in the beginning. In centers, the kids are really enjoying learning together in an inquiry based way, and they love making words… trying to come up with as many as they can, always trying to discover the mystery word.

I am the most comfortable with Component 3e: Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness. I feel that I am flexible in making adjustments to the lesson when necessary. I feel that I am always trying to capitalize on each teachable moment. Which there are many, I think that technology has really helped advance teachable moments as well... I love to introduce students to things they have never seen before. For example, a couple of weeks ago, we were reading a story called "Mrs. Brown Went to Town" where at one point the animals are judging each other dive and jump off the bed, like in an Olympic match. We started discussing how judges score like this in the Olympics and I discovered one of my students actually went to the opening ceremony last summer. I pulled up the opening ceremony and some other Olympic pictures. Many of the students had never even seen Chinese people. That student brought in his own pictures the next day. This was a great teachable moment. I believe I am targeting this component well.

I feel that all the components in Domain 3 strongly tie to instruction. This is a hard question for me; I have been hearing, learning and working on so much active engagement this year. I believe I will say this ties the strongest to instruction because as Danielson says; active engagement is the"raison d’être of schools". While I was in the KY Reading Project this summer, I started to realize that I may not have been engaging my students as much as I thought I was. Many times I taught things whole group so I could make sure everyone was paying attention and on task, but yet I always had a few that were off task. So I have been really working on intentionally incorporating active engagement into all of my lessons, everyday.

This is why I would like to zero in on active engagement for my own instruction. I have become very aware of how crucial active engagement is and I have a better idea of what it looks like now. I am working towards providing active engagement into all of my lessons. I think I am doing a much better job, and as I said earlier, I would love to hear some feedback on how I am doing. Right now, I am asking the students to discuss different topics during a lesson.

For example, one day during writing I was teaching about the different genres of writing. I was creating a list of things I needed for a cookout at the pool. I started off by mentioning a few things, and then they worked with a partner to come up with all different types of things I could put on my list. In Making Words, the students work in groups to manipulate and form words, making as many as they can, listing them, and ultimately trying to solve the mystery word. They help each other spell and rhyme, and decode, it is really neat to see.

During a guided reading lesson, I always have the kids take a picture walk and come up with questions they have about the pictures before we read the story. Then I have them explain why the author did this or that in the story. Once in Social Studies, I had the kids choose a community helper to draw a picture of and tell how you become one, ex. doctor, and what that person does to help the community. I gave them a big piece of chart paper and they had to work on formulating ideas in group and work together to create their information. There are lots of other things I do like this, and I would like to make sure I am doing enough to engage my students.

My question for others to respond to is: How do you use assessment (other than observation) in your instruction when you are using lots of hands on activities for active engagement?

Task Three Reading

Intelligence is something that can be biological, and I also completely agree with Vygotski that intelligence in children can grow into an intellectual life of those around them. Everyday when I teach, I am assuming that all my students have the capacity to learn because I ask them to think, even struggling students have the capacity to answer questions and actively engage in our lessons. Now, I am working in a general education classroom... however, I truly think that with the proper amount of scaffolding, any student has the capacity to learn. Naturally, I agree that students have innate intelligence at different levels, however, I also believe that students can learn from each other.

My assumptions of learning also includes that teachers and even other students can greatly influence the capacity of students intelligence. I have a few different examples: First, a gifted student can be hindered by their environment if they are not nurtured and challenged to their abilities. Students must receive the same signals from parents, teachers and peers to feel same in being gifted, or they might exhibit detrimental behavior. Also, if a gifted student is not challenged, they will not learn important inquiry behaviors which can also hinder their intelligence.

This can work in the opposite way for struggling, even average students. When they have a teacher who provides a strong learning community, Danielson's Domain 2; students will feel save to take risks, even challenging themselves to push their thought process. When a teacher provides lots of modeling of language and inquiry, students can see firsthand how to ask themselves and others the same types of questions. Also, watching intelligent students model intelligent behavior, they will imitate that behavior, practicing what they have learned. Students will be internalizing socially shared actions of those around them. That is intelligence. Using social experiences to further their own learning. When teachers hold students to high standards, they will learn how to take these risks. Teachers are so crucial to this process, however, I believe that parents must also take their responsibility to provide appropriate actions for their child to share. Parents are their child's number one teacher, and gaining appropriate inquiry based intelligence will start at home.

These assumptions about students (and their environment) do shape the way I provide developmentally appropriate instruction. I provide lots of different types of activities and exposures for my students. I assume that they come into my classroom with all different types of abilities and home environments so I want to give them a meaningful education while they are in my classroom. I set up activities and lessons so students will have to work together, problem solving together to come up with solutions. My hope is that students will model how to inquire for each other, and be able actively join the discussion no matter how well they can read or write.

I also provide lots of modeling of my enthusiasm for the curriculum, sharing my interests with the students, and active engagement. It is so neat each year to hear how excited students get about a unit because of what I have modeled for them. I also love to see how hard some students will work so they can come up with answers like some of the higher leveled thinkers in my room. My favorite part of modeling comes when a struggling reader will start to exhibit abilities that show they are able to participate in discussion, or be able to read a passage that they couldn't before, or able to put together sounds because of what they heard their table members say.

I set my classroom up into tables to allow for discussion and modeling to take place. Although I haven't had any students to date with special physical needs, I believe this setup would be conducive to their needs as well. We have lots of floor space available for movement in the classroom. So in closing, I believe that all students can become part of an intelligent human development.

Lastly, I am interested in Domain 3 for further inquiry:)

Task Two Reading

The purpose of curriculum is to design the learning that takes place in classrooms. Curriculum is set up as a guide for educators to follow as what students should learn. Some districts have a more strict curriculum guide, a top down approach, where teachers are given curriculum maps to design their instruction on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. This is due to to the NCLB mandates that are put in place by the government, and trickled down to the state level, where state officials set up Core Content standards that must be covered for every grade level. At that point, districts set up curriculum maps for teachers to follow that include state standards and their own ideas of best practices.

Teachers have seem to have less control over the curriculum with more control over the actual instruction in the classroom. Again, some districts have stricter guidelines for what type of instruction goes on in the classroom. Last year, in my school, most teachers felt like we had very little control over anything that was going on with our students. This year, we have been given more curriculum timelines to follow, however we are working more in teams to try to design classroom instruction that is best for the kids.

In my district, teachers have very organized curriculum maps guiding our instruction for Math, Reading, Science and Social Studies; and we have been told Writing is on its way. While I think there must be a some sort of guide to help design curriculum and instruction for math and reading that is age appropriate; I believe that if a school uses a program like Everyday Math, which is a research based program, then teachers should be able to follow the program instead of having to chop it up and make it disconnected. This goes with Science and Social Studies as well... these subjects should be able to be taught in alignment with Reading, creating a more meaningful connection to students' lives. Discussion is not always organized, students thought process may not always be organized. I don't want to feel guilty if we are having a rich, meaningful discussion which is not pre-documented in my lesson plan!

I believe as teachers, our role is to take the curriculum guides as we receive them, and create our instruction in a meaningful way for the students to understand. At this point, I agree with the quote Scwartz provides that "As McCutcheon (1988: 198) reminds us: Teachers are the filters through which the mandated curriculum passes. Their understanding of it, and their enthusiasm, or boredom, with various aspects of it, colours its nature" (p. 449). For my classroom, I am working hard towards a backward design approach; "the curriculum enacted in classrooms differs from the one mandated by administrators or developed by experts." I also believe this should be done as a grade level team, a professional learning community. We should sit down and decide as a team what we want the students to understand at the end of the unit. Then, we should design assessments to reflect what students should understand. At that point, designing curriculum and instruction which provides a inquiry-based, bottom up approach where the students are creating discussions and meaningful inquiry to create solutions to problems or questions they are presented with.

I have been meeting with fellow grade level teachers every week this school year, trying to implement all of the new ideas I am learning about. I do still provide direct instruction at the beginning of every lesson, and it seems especially so in Math and Reading, however, I am also using many hands on, group activities for both subjects in correlation with the direct instruction. The children are getting to inquire on their own and try their own strategies to solve answers or problems in the activities. It has been really great to see a shift in my teaching this year. I feel good about what I am doing and I am eager to provide more experiences for my students.

While there are some things that must be achieved in a skill and drill approach like math facts, or sight words, there are many other ways in approaching a curriculum based on understanding and not such a rigid, memorization, teaching to the test method. In reading about Backward Design, it shows that teachers can provide different strategies for different groups of learners in the classroom. While some students may need repetition, even students with disabilities may be given inquiry based instruction through lots of appropriate teacher scaffolding. I have been pleased with the way my students are really thinking this year, given thought provoking questions and activities with my scaffolding. I am very impressed at what they are able to do so far, and I am excited at the things I am learning, and able to try with them in my classroom.

I couldn't agree more with Wiggins statement that "The mission of high school is not to cover content, but rather to help learners become thoughtful about, and productive with, content. It's not to help students get good at school, but rather to prepare them for the world beyond school—to enable them to apply what they have learned to issues and problems they will face in the future." Do I feel that high school prepared me for this? NO- I was very lost when I first started college. I hadn't had to really think or inquire into anything in my K-12 experience. School was always so easy, when I hit college, it took me a good year to really get on track and figure out how to study! How to inquire and think about what I was being asked and how I needed to find an answer or solution. I think that the government is starting to rethink current curriculum design, and if what we are learning in our Master's classes are any indication of what is to come, hopefully more federal and state officials in charge of standards will take current theory into mind when designing our mandates.

Task One Reading

Teachers need to consider curriculum because it is the goal of what students are to learn and be involved in during their educational experience. Curriculum is the vehicle of how educators provide experiences for students to grow as thinkers and learners. Teachers need to be knowledgeable on what they are providing instruction for, and be able to allow students to have thought provoking, challenging inquiry and responses to the instruction. When I first thought about the question "what is the goal of curriculum", I honestly wanted to say that the goal is to design my instruction in alignment with district and state guidelines to meet the needs of my students. We are given a large list of core content for teach subject that is disconnected. Some of you may disagree, however, I will give you an example of how I think my district is not truly considering curriculum in a truly appropriate way.

We met as a district back in June to create a strict curriculum guide for each subject for each grade level. Teachers voted on what time of the year they want each core content to be taught (majority ruled), and there was no thought to "hey, why don't we align our Science and Social Studies or Writing core content with our Reading content which is delivered through stories with specific skills". For example, 2nd grade presents a story called Julius where a little girl gets an Alaskan pig that her family doesn't like because he is messy; which covers skills like predicting and monitoring, persuasion, syllables, compound words, short e, o, u words. Now, you would think we could incorporate Social Studies content about family, 1950's Jazz records, time-era discussion about what type of dress and music people from that time period used and listened to; or Science content about the temperature and weather of Alaska or Alabama (which is where the girl lived), or animal habitats, or even map skills? Instead, we are spending two weeks on this story, weather will be taught next month with stories about nature walks; and plants and animal habitats will be taught at the end of the year when we are teaching stories about families and children's talents.

This disconnected learning, just like what is mentioned in Applebee's article. On p.9, he states that "experienced teachers operate our of such frameworks, reflected in their tacit sense of what is important, what is less so, and of how to create a sense of unity and coherence across a school year". This is not allowed in my district. We have to teach exactly what is listed on the curriculum guide at exactly the same time, to the same core content bullet, and now they are even giving us what unit assessments we should be using for each subject. Are the people from Central Office in our classrooms to know what worthwhile discussions we are having with our students? They just gave us an assessment for our students next week, about a Native American legend. However, on our curriculum guide, we aren't supposed to cover Native Americans until November! It is total madness I tell you! Where is the allowance for thought provoking questions and conversation when you have endless core content bullets to fit in for each and every subject every day of the week?

The model of curriculum that I feel best fits my current role is a mixture of traditional and inquiry based instruction. It is a traditional in the sense that I have to list in my lesson plans, every single thing I am going to do and say, for each subject, every day. If someone from C.O. comes in for a walk-through, I better be doing what my lesson plan says I am going to be doing at that time. How does this allow for a more modernized curriculum where students are meeting and working together to answer questions, or create questions on their own that they want to investigate? I meet all the deadlines, and cover all of the core content bullets that are required, but we are always reminded "don't teach and find core content to go with what you are teaching, you should be using the core content to guide and design what you will teach each lesson".

However, I am working towards a more modern curriculum design this year. I have implemented research-based student centered activities in my classroom, and I am very interested to see what would come from a "walk-through" from C.O. My students are engaged, they are working together and they are still learning. It is not a quiet environment where they are sitting and listening to me lecture all day. Actually every time my principal has dropped in my room this year, my students have been working together and I have not been lecturing. I have started to feel guilty about it, wondering if I should be doing more whole group lecture! I feel that I still have room to grow before I could reach a total inquiry based classroom, but how can I do that with all of these lists and bullets of content that must be covered that are disconnected? Central Office is more concerned with "students who move throughout the district not receiving the same instruction "twice", but yet the content is disconnected, not allowing for a total immersion in a connected curriculum.

Well... okay, what if we used a connected core curriculum method called for by Wraga? We could take core content from different subjects that cohesively went together and produced thought based inquiry instruction where students would truly gain a depth of knowledge. This type of curriculum design would definitely be what I am most attracted to. This would be my preference because every student on every level could learn.

We spend so much time targeting the needs of lower achieving students, rote and memorization, word attacking, etc., because they are struggling in reading and math, and we are missing the opportunities to enhance inquiry for all of the students. I say this because if the students were able to "think and question" statements, they could work together and through teacher modeling and scaffolding, they could begin to think for themselves, and participate in higher level thinking conversations, whether they are struggling readers or not. All children in public school have the ability to think and question; and yes, I say this would be a better approach to curriculum design. Instead of rote memorization and lists, children need a more engaging experience in education, seeing how subjects can fit together and why it is useful to them.

I agree with Wiggins that "students can't possibly learn everything of value by the time they leave school, but we can instill in them the desire to keep questioning throughout their lives" (p.1). Students do not retain a skill they had to memorize in 2nd, 5th or 8th grade later on in life, but they can learn how to dive into deeper thinking with problem solving skills that will equip them for readiness into adult life. If we could shift towards this type of curriculum design, it would benefit all students greatly, and our society because we would be producing more skillful, successful students ready to take on great challenges in life.

So my next question is: how do we achieve this as teachers when we are told exactly what to do by our district and state officials who are not the ones working with the students on a daily basis? I'm not sure what this would look like as a whole, but educators would need resources to provide a modern curriculum for their students, and right now what we are being provided with is scope and sequenced textbooks and disconnected curriculum guides and maps. I think the people who also need to read these types of articles are the people in charge of designing the state and district guidelines that get passed on to the classroom teachers. :-)

My First Post

Well, blogging is something I have never done before, and it is actually pretty easy. Technology can be a scary thing sometimes, but I am enjoying learning new things. I recognize some of the names in our EDG 615 class, and I look forward to working with you again, as well as everyone else. As I said in my info, I am a Second Grade teacher at Summit View Elementary in Kenton County. This is my fifth year at SVE, and my sixth year teaching. I am from Michigan, which is where I spend any of my "vacation" time with my family. After graduating in 2003, my husband and I got married on Mackinac Island and moved to Kentucky shortly after.

I have had lots of hobbies and interests over time, now much of my hobbies and interests focus around my children. Going to the Zoo, Jump Zone, Chuck E. Cheese and the park are my usual hangouts:) I have really enjoyed working on my Master's here at NKU, and I actually want to pursue my National Boards next school year. I hope that this class as well as the other 2 classes I am taking this semester will help me improve my teaching and also prepare me for the course load for National Boards, if I were accepted. I hope to graduate with my Masters with specialization in Gifted and Talented at the end of next summer if everything goes as planned.

In my classroom, most of the technology my students use is Reading Counts quizzes, and webquests that I have made to go along with the stories from our Reading series. They type writing pieces when publishing work, as well as going to computer lab and creating different projects there. This last week I was able to check out our school's traveling Smartboard, and I have lots of Power Points to introduce to the students that I worked on this summer. They are really excited about working with the Smartboard. However, I have to share it with other teachers, so it is not something that I can always depend on having to use. I really hope I can incorporate some of the things I will learn in this class and the ones I take in the future. Here's to a great semester!