An Inquiry Into Inquiry; Some New Understandings

Learning Log #4

This week's modules and readings really triggered some AHA moments for me and allowed me to look back at some of my experiences and see where I went wrong. These realizations have also helped guide me with how to continue on with my upcoming inquiry project and prompted me to think about planning things a bit differently than I had originally set out to.

Topical vs. Essential Questions
This is something I've struggled with in previous inquiry units and reading the differentiation between topical versus essential questions in Understanding By Design (Wiggins & McTighe) finally helped clarify how to create open ended questions for students. Previously, colleagues and I had for some reason (a Pro-D speaker) been set on creating a "guiding statement or question" when collaborating on a unit, but that's not really inquiry at all if the end result is a statement! When planning my current inquiry unit, I had thought my big question for students to inquire about would be something like, "how did residential schools affect Canada's Aboriginal peoples?" Now I realize that is much too topical and likely needs to be broadened, perhaps to "how have government policies impacted Aboriginal people in Canada?" or maybe even more expansive, to "what is the relationship between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal people in Canada? Both historically and present day?" I think both of these questions leave enough room for student interest to take hold but still achieve a focus on curricular big ideas and learning standards. It might still take some pondering!

 Photo courtesy of https://www.guest.blog/2207/10-true-quotes-inspire-motivate/

First Peoples Principles of Learning vs. Inquiry Based Learning
Reading through Module 9 and the article Indigenous Principles Decolonizing Teacher Education: What We Have Learned (Williams, Sandford, Hopper and McGregor) it really struck me how closely linked Aborginal ideas of learning are to inquiry based learning. I had read through the First People's Principals of Learning (BC Ministry of Education) while collecting resources but never made the connection to it's great value as a "teaching style." Given that my unit will be focused on Aboriginal issues, it seems like a great document to start my unit with. Some concepts I think will be particularly helpful will be emphasizing that:

"Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential and relational..."

"Learning recognizes the role of indigenous knowledge,"

"Learning involves recognizing the consequences of one's actions"

and "Learning involves patience and time."

Reflexive and reflective strategies are both major components of inquiry based learning and are very readily incorporated into formative assessment practices as well. Also experiential learning is where the curiosity that true inquiry is rooted in can really take hold. Wab Kinew's message in Tracy Sherlock's article (Sherlock) that students need to know there is more than one way to think and learn, emphasizes the need to not only incorporate Aboriginal content into our teaching practices but their ways of viewing the world and learning and experiencing it as well. I'm not quite sure yet what this will look like within the unit, but think I need to make sure it's incorporated somehow. 

Photo courtesy of fnesc.ca

Assessment of and for Learning with Inquiry
Fontichiaro's articles on formative and summative assessment as well as other readings from this week's module, really helped solidify the idea that assessment needs to be of learning not products. Teachers spend so much time creating project ideas and activities that often we forget to use them as a measure of learning and rather mark them as a product. Formative assessment comes easily for me and I think most teachers, we know the importance of "checking in," providing feedback loops and scaffolding but I personally often get stuck on the summative portion. What "product" will I base their mark on? How will I grade it? If everybody does something different how do you assess fairly? This week's readings helped take the pressure off of product creation for me and helped to focus more on just the assessment of learning. Can they show me what they learned? Do they have new skills they didn't beforehand? Can they connect their knowledge to the real world? Fontichiaro also described some very simplistic forms of assessment which would be very adaptable for varying formats or mediums of work, such as checklists, rubrics, portfolio's and even just written feedback. When teaching and assessing skills and processes rather than content, flexible outcomes seems to become much easier to evaluate. 

Inquiry Still Takes Planning
I really liked the following introductory quote for the Design Process chapter in Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe) as it helped me reconcile the need for planning with the idea of multiple outcomes.

Architects have the patience to plan. Builders have the savvy to improvise. Improvisation, however, is not a substitute for planning. The purpose of planning is to achieve predictable results. The purpose of improvising is to maintain work progress. —John McClean, “20 Considerations That Help a Project Run Smoothly,” 2003.

 

I struggle a bit with how to plan a unit when the students are supposed to be "uncovering" the content and moving through their own journeys at their own pace, but this quote puts things a bit more in perspective. As teachers we have to start somewhere and beginning with nothing sets students up for failure. It's easier to adapt and improvise a plan as necessary and helps to keep the end goals and skills in mind. If we start at point A and know we need to end up at point E, we can re-reroute and detour as needed and as guided by students through B, C and D, but the map helps us end up where we've designed our unit to go. So far for my unit, I've used the curriculum's big ideas and learning standards as well as my assignment two resources as the "Doorways to Design" (Wiggins & McTighe.) Next I'll start to think about what skills, literacies and technologies I want my students to take away from it and carry on from there!


References

First Peoples Principles of Learning (2015). Government of BC. Accessed at 
http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teaching-tools/aboriginal-education/principles_of_learning.pdf

Fontichiaro, K. (2011a). Nudging toward inquiry – Formative assessment. School Library Monthly 27(6): 11-12.

Fontichiaro, K. (2011b). Nudging toward inquiry – Summative assessment. School Library Monthly 27(7): 12-13.

Harada, V. H. (2010). Self-assessment: Challenging students to take charge of learning. School Library Monthly 26(10): 13-15.

Sandford, K., Williams, L., Hopper, T. & McGregor, C. (2012). Indigenous principles decolonizing teacher education: What we have learned. 18(2). ineducation.ca

Sherlock, T. (May 14, 2015). Aboriginal leader calls for indigenous education initiatives. PressReader.com.


Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design 2^nd ed., expanded version. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Library Learning Commons as Inquiry Catalyst

Learning Log #3

Module 7 struck a cord for me as I've been slowly (sometimes not so slowly!) transforming my library space into a more collaborative and inquiry based place for students, support workers and teachers alike to utilize. My experience was this, I was placed in a temporary job in the very inquiry driven Kerrisdale Elementary School for a year and then was miraculously placed permanently the next year in my own full time, giant, collaboratively functioning glorious library space. It was a Teacher Librarian's dream come true and I was inspired by my previous experiences at Kerrisdale. The library program was already well established at my new school, with some great inquiry based units taking place, but the physical space was sorely lacking as a conduit for such learning. My first year there, with a lot of help from other TL's, we weeded thousands of old books, removed 6 giant shelving units, re-allocated many resources to other locations in the school and began the process of revitalization and sprucing things up!

 Photo Courtesy of http://www.bythebrooks.ca/guidelinesandstandards/

Once we had cleaned up shop, I volunteered to be the coordinator and storage keeper of our new iPad carts which was another big step for our journey to becoming more of a LLC. We also received our district iPad cart with projector last year and I have put the library on the list to receive a new Smart Board. While all of this feels like great progress for my programming goals, I feel I'm a bit disoriented in what to be working towards next. In the article "From School Library to Learning Commons," (Ekdahl & Zubke) the "Performance Standards" section suggests for a LLC to be used effectively it must be physically fluid, with shelves and tables that can be moved easily for collaborative work, and have "technology and media [that] are...intrinsic and integrated," (pg.8). While I was able to banish almost all shelving to wall space, the area still feels a bit static. The iPad carts are split among the whole school so they're very often not available and I'm torn between being the promoter of technology use in classrooms and wanting access to use it myself in the library! I do have a bank of desktops in a library computer lab and was finally able to secure 30 for a class set, but they are cumbersome, old and out of date. Kids are frustrated with their slowness and certainly aren't inspired to work on them. We also have a large space with heavy table and chairs in a "teaching area" which is necessary as a work space but I would love to replace them with furniture on wheels.

So I guess my biggest challenges in creating a better inquiry space are.....money. Plain and simple. I would love to transform our novel set room to a maker space, but need money. I would love new furniture, but need money. It's hard when a vision and the resources to create it are so dissonant. In the Zmuda & Harada article they emphasize the importance of providing resources for diverse learners, in practice it can be a lot harder. For example in a class of 70% ELL students it would be great if they could watch and listen to videos as part of a research method but when your budget doesn't allow for 30 sets of headphones and neither do your school's families, it can make for a very disruptive learning setting. And that's if the desktop will even load or stream the video fast enough to be watchable!

I suppose that's what the LLC article means when it describes a Library Learning Commons as a "never-ending project, always in beta." As TL's I guess sometimes the next step is just making a plan so when the time and/or money comes we know exactly what to do with it!



References

 Ekdahl, M. & Zubke, S. (Eds.) (2014). From School Library to Library Learning Commons: A Pro-Active Model for Educational Change. Vancouver, BC: BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association (BCTLA).

Zmuda, A. & Harada, V. (2008). Chapter 3, Designing Instruction to fit the nature of the learning and the learner, Part 3: Persistent challenges in collaboration. In Librarians as Learning Specialists: Meeting the Learning Imperative for the 21^st Century. (pp. 55-65). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.