Gina Morgan (EDIM 513- Inquiry Based Learning)

I have enjoyed this class and learning from my peers. I learned that I do use inquiry-based learning already, but I need to make some tweaks to fully embed this style of learning into my daily tasks. One thing I am going to start reflecting upon is my questions. I am going to make sure that the wording meets the needs of being an investigable question. I do not want questions  that can be answered by "Asking Alexa", but instead questions that students have to explore and think about on a higher-level. I have developed many insights by exploring resources and lesson formats of my peers. Although I cannot relate to all of the subjects, I was able to take bits and pieces from each student in this class and think about how I can tweak my own lessons and teaching.  I will implement inquiry- based learning into my classroom by rephrasing questions to become more investigable, finding the concepts and facts I want students to learn, but then allowing them to find ways to explore...

I have enjoyed learning about the 5E's for lesson planning. I never really thought about it, but I actually use the method more than I realized without calling it the 5E's. It is nice to think about the method to be sure you hit on the different areas allowing time for the students to explore on their own, but also then doing some teacher-led explaining. I feel that my lessons often have these components. Usually each day my lesson ends with some sort of task that shows if the students know or do not know the material. This year I began starting each class with bellwork, which is typically a review from the work the day before so that students can see the flow into the next day. My burning question is how to motivate the students that sit back and do not contribute during collaborative work? I try to "reverse" roles and such, but the "leaders" always tend to step up, and the other students sort of sit back and allow the leaders to take on the majority of the...

 My thoughts on inquiry based learning have not changed a ton over the past 5 weeks. However, I am excited to continue to see the Google Sites of the developing inquiry based units from my peers. I enjoy developing units and lessons that I will be able to use in my classroom when I am taking a class. I also love seeing what twists other educators put on units that I may use.  A question I do have is how to get those students that are just not motivated to engage in inquiry based learning? I have some students that just rely on the teacher way too much. I can never decide if this is just certain students, if this is students not getting this type of education in younger grades, or if there is another factor I am missing. Some students struggle with collaborative groups and being a part of a group to inquire. Often one or two students take a leadership role, and the rest sort of coast along. I am curious if we will learn strategies to reach this type of student.