Course Description:
This course engages educators in a student-centered, active learning experience using technology resources and tools to promote questioning, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Educators will learn about technology resources & tools that support problem-based, project-based, and inquiry-based learning in all disciplines and design a project- or inquiry-based activity with assessments for the students (or teachers) they teach.
(L. deLaBruere 2020)
In the Fall of 2020, we were headed back to in-person learning with my second graders. I had recently taken EDCI Intro to the Orton-Gillingham Approach over the summer, with the follow-on practicum starting. Although I had read the research and fully supported the idea that explicit, systematic, and diagnostic instruction had to be given for most students to thrive in literacy, I felt there was still something missing-the child. Lucie’s class helped maintain that spark for learning and excitement around curiosity for me and ultimately my students. This course was a necessary balance to the content learning I was immersed in for my profession.
Reading Inquiry Mindset: Nurturing the Dreams, Wonders, and Curiosities of Our Youngest Learners by Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt and Trevor MacKenzie helped show me that teaching and learning can be full of wonderment and joy, despite pressures to teach specific content. The way in which you go about teaching the content can spark creativity and enthusiasm. They spoke to many strategies that Inquiry-led teachers use in the classroom, but one of the greatest points he made to me was relationships and trust matter when inviting kids to try anything new or step out of their comfort zone. It reinforced to me what I already felt, I had to take time to get to know my students in both sections and the only thing I must teach, is that learning things is fun. Bathurst-Hunt and MacKenzie said, "Inquiry teachers playfully approach their practice. They find joy in learning and doing, and they share their delight with others. As a result, they cultivate a natural love of learning in their students," (Ch. 1).
I would love to say I was able to create a whole new curriculum for learning to read, one that employs the studied methods of inquiry and project-based learning. However, that isn’t an available option when teaching in a public school, particularly one that invested in me to learn a specific, evidence-based method of instruction. Instead, I had to be creative and blend the two ideologies together. One might not think there are overlapping structures and natural connections between inquiry-based learning and the stringent scope and sequence of the Orton-Gillingham approach. However, this course actually forced me to contemplate how I might find those similarities and exploit the benefits of both to create lessons that were not only effective but enjoyable. Throughout all of the readings, the recurrent theme was that learning should feel good. Students should not only be taught to ask questions but also how to ask questions. During this course, Professor deLaBruere asked an important question of us-When do students stop innately asking questions? In other words, when do schools teach kids (implicitly) not to inquire, not to question the content or the information they are receiving? It seemed incredibly important that I include inquiry into my daily lessons with my second graders.
Had I not taken this course, I might have been tempted to follow the scope and sequence of the OG lesson plan with very little variation as it was my first year teaching literacy using this approach. However, this course sparked in me genuine curiosity and I began to apply it to my OG training:
-Why do some words follow certain spelling rules while others do not?
-Why are there so many versions of the word “to”? If it is an open single syllable, why do we not pronounce it as such?
In September of the school year, I began by telling my students that I was beginning. I was just learning how to teach them how to read using a brand new approach-to me. I told them that I was learning, just like they were learning, and that there were going to be times I would mess up or not know the answer to something. The 7 and 8-year-old grins were enough to tell me, these children didn’t believe me. But I modeled time and time again that I didn’t really know the reason why a certain phonetic rule applied, or why a certain word didn’t follow the expected rule. Together, we would look up the etymology of the words in question, “travel” to different parts of the globe using Google Earth, and practice writing the words in different colors (sometimes the colors of the flag of the country from which they originated). Our phonics lessons became social studies lessons, and social studies lessons became phonics lessons as we worked to read about the different communities in Vermont. Because we were constantly inquiring, our studies became truly interdisciplinary by nature, and ultimately students started creating their own posters for different word families.
Due to many instances of remote learning necessitating us moving in and out of the building, we didn’t get to complete our Inquiry-Based unit on Vermont (although we did begin to research local points of interest in Central Vermont). However, I believe inquiry-based learning still occurred in my classroom. Although this year I wasn’t able to fully implement inquiry-based learning throughout my literacy lessons, I feel as though this approach has vastly changed the way I approach teaching and learning. My students are partners and detectives in their learning to read with me and I think that makes all of the difference. I will continue to work to bring in purposeful and meaningful experiences that help instill a habit of questioning and curiosity in my students for years to come!
Effect of project‐based learning on high school students' state‐mandated, standardized math and science exam performance -Rating the Study