IBL Week 7 Post

IBL Week 7 Post

During the course of this class, we examined the topic of inquiry based learning from theory to practice.  I am now able to describe the inquiry process as well as identify the key components of an inquiry-based classroom.  At first, IBL seemed to fit nicely with science and hands-on lessons and I struggled to see how other curricular areas could be expanded.  However, the introduction of the 5E Instructional Model that was developed by the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS) helped me to see how IBL can truly be implemented into an content area.  The process of backward design is time intensive, but ultimately, helps keep the focus on the learner.  This process has three essential steps:

◦       Determine the overarching concept of the 5E sequence.

◦       Design the "Evaluate" and decide what evidence students will produce to demonstrate understanding of the overarching concept.

◦       Design the "Engage," "Explore," "Explain," and "Elaborate" components of the 5E sequence.

Definitely a process that takes time to become familiar with but can meet the needs of the teacher and learner.  Perhaps the most insightful aspect of this course for me was unit 5.  We explored how technology can be used in the inquiry process to motivate and engage learners while enhancing the product and process.  I learned how technological tools can be used for a variety of activities that can support inquiry-based learning. These tools can be used to develop students' abilities and understandings about inquiry and process skills that were covered in unit 2, as well as integrating the essential features of inquiry presented in unit 3.  Our high school is a one-to-one high school where every student has a laptop and technology is heavily integrated into every class.  I appreciated exploring Edmodo, Blabberrize, and Animoto.  These were sites that the students have not come across in their experiences in other classes and enjoyed using to meet their needs.  They use Moodle and Google Docs heavily on a daily basis, so these sites resources were a nice change of pace for them.

For me, this course also allowed me to explore how technology can be used to enhance student engagement in the classroom. Some of the web-based technologies that I explored have already been implemented in my classroom.  As I mentioned throughout the course, I teach gifted education to students in grades 8-12.  I feel that implementing IBL can positively influence student’s GIEP goals.  As I mentioned above, I feel that the 5E model will be extremely valuable during the goal setting process for these students.  Prior to setting a goal, I plan on allowing students to time to identify issues, ideas, or projects that will engage them.  Based on that information, they will have the opportunity to explore the topic selected in depth, and then explain and elaborate on their findings.  Prior to selected the goal, we will decide how their product will be evaluated using varied types of formative assessments.  

Week 6 IBL Post

Week 6 IBL Post

This unit focused on applying what we’ve learned in the course up until this point to lesson planning process.  We looked at how we could incorporate aspects from previous units including the abilities and understandings of inquiry, process skills, and essential features of inquiry and how we could apply all of these into the concept of backwards design.  The 5E Instructional Model was presented with the goal being to allow teachers to examine a lesson planning/presentation model that supports both backward design and inquiry skills.  Both of these encourage teachers to embed 21^stcentury skills and technology into the process and require the use formative assessments to monitor student acquisition of knowledge and adjust teaching as necessary.

We learned that backwards design is an instructional design method invented by Wiggins and McTighe and is part of their larger Understanding by Design framework. As the name implies, it begins with the end in mind. As such, this model focuses the teacher on asking what students should know, understand, or be able to do at the end of the lesson or unit of study.  The 5E Instructional Model that was developed by the Biological Science Curriculum Study is a model that uses backward design.  The 5E model focuses on engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate.  When used effectively, this model can be implemented by the teacher to deliver the curriculum at the classroom level.  This concept has possibilities, but the template provided in the course was difficult to navigate and could use some improvement.  The picture above  is a screen shot of the 5E model lesson that I created.  It provides a visual aid on the planning process.  I hope to incorporate a modified version of this into my daily planning/instruction.  I feel that the 5E lesson plan template above was confusing and time consuming but feel that with practice, it will become easier and more natural.