As I think about the mini-lesson assignment, I get a little overwhelmed. I am currently working as a Media Specialist, so I believe that means that I can choose any grade or content level to complete my lessons. I have taught grades 3,4 and 5, as well as 8th grade social studies. I am leaning towards either social studies or reading for my mini-lessons. My thoughts for social studies are evaluating primary source documents or maybe political cartoons. This lesson would be authentic because students would be asked to view historical sources of information and then discuss the documents. Using prompts from the teacher, students will develop a deeper understanding of the documents. Technology can be used to view the documents instead of running off printed copies. I could also use this lesson to teach students about digital citizenship. These are the first thoughts that come to mind for this assignment, but I would like to consider some reading and literacy lessons as well.
After reading and reflecting on this week’s resources, one quote really stuck out with me. Laufenberg said, “Get them curious enough in a subject to do research on their own”. I feel like this is inquiry learning. Developing the inquiry skills in students that will help them become lifelong learners and gatherers of information should be every teacher’s goal. I think inquiry learning takes place when students are so excited about learning a subject that they seek information and data on their own. However, as educators, we still have to guide students through the process of evaluating the massive amounts of data that they find and help them decide what information is actually reliable and valid. Most teachers in my school still feel that they need to be the “controller” and the “dispenser” of all information. It seems to be very hard for them to utilize inquiry learning with their classes. These teachers are still so focused on the curriculum and what they need to teach in order for students to do well on standardized tests. They are afraid to give up their control. Also, they seem very apprehensive about the technology itself, and they do not know how to incorporate it into their lessons. I hope as a Media Specialist, I can help my teachers feel more comfortable integrating technology and moving toward an “inquiry learning” based classroom. After revisiting my learning goals for this semester, I think that I should probably make my goals more specific and more in line with a growth mindset. My original goals were to learn more about new technology resources that I can share with my teachers and students. I would like to help teachers integrate technology more effectively into their classroom curriculum. Also, I wanted to learn more about Web 2.0 tools. After learning about growth mindset and being a critical consumer of online resources, I think that I need to make research and professional development a consistent part of my professional responsibility. My original goals of learning, sharing and integrating new resources cannot effectively be achieved without a growth mindset. For example, the use of Twitter as an educational tool to follow, share and collaborate is a resource that I would not have found and used if it were not for this class. I believe that this is an example of pursuing a growth mindset because many teachers that I know would never consider a social media site as an educational resource.
It is hard as a teacher to "let go" of students. Teachers should scaffold their lessons when teaching new concepts, and then provide time for students to become "autonomous learners". It is hard for teachers to take a step back and allow students to make mistakes. Part of this problem lies in the way teachers are taught to teach. We are introduced to Bloom's Taxonomy, and we know that the upper levels are analysis, synthesis and evaluation. However, even knowing this, we still want to guide our students in the learning process. I also believe that teachers are so worried about standardized tests that they feel they must continuously lead their students in the learning process. Finally, it is hard for teachers not to be the center of the classroom and the one who holds the knowledge. When we teach students how to think for themselves and become inquiry based learners, teachers feel that they are not needed as much anymore. This, however, is incorrect. Not all students are going to be ready for inquiry-based learning at the same time. In an inquiry based learning classroom, the teacher becomes the facilitator and the classroom becomes very differentiated. The teacher has to know where each student is in the process of gaining new knowledge and applying that knowledge.
I believe that instructional technology can be a wonderful tool used in the process of inquiry-learning. However, it does not have to be the only tool used. Using instructional technology allows the student to learn in a way that allows them to become digitally literate in this world. Great teaching can be accomplished using technology as a tool to get students excited about inquiry-based learning. |