To me, this week’s focus was largely on formative and
summative assessment and how (especially formative) assessment intrinsically
shapes and guides inquiry based teaching. A great visual overview provided in
this week’s reading can been seen below:
I appreciated that the overwhelming trend of continually
changing terms and educational practices, was addressed this week; it is indeed
challenging to not only keep up but also to decipher which of those practices are
worthwhile and while are not.
Brought to my attention this week was the intention of
inquiry and how mindful we must be to ask ourselves, what is our
intention? How will this practice lead my students to becoming greater
questioners, more curious, and more critical in their thinking? "Beginning with
the end in mind" is something I always strive to do when planning with teachers; however, what I find challenging is addressing the formative assessment piece that
should alter and re-reroute that planning, to make it as student-centred as possible.
Of all the weeks, this week’s readings proved to be very informative to me. I
feel that I better understand what formative assessment looks like and the ways in which it can
be effectively utilized as a means to learn and engage in authentic inquiry
practices.
A quote that really stood out to me was by Albert Einstein: “I think and think for months and years.
Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
Although
I believe this quote was provided in our readings to be considered from a student-inquiry perspective,
this quote spoke to me as a teacher, learning about inquiry. It gives me hope
in that I may not “get it” right off the bat – it may take trial after trial to
reach each individual student to understand how to best produce an inquiry “unit”
that speaks to their personal learning needs; however, I must not let the
failure and the re-design get me down, as it will lead to success if I persevere.
I was very inspired by this quote because it made me realize that inquiry into
inquiry will never end – it is a process that will continually change as you
change, and as your class changes. Similar to this sentiment, Harvey and
Daniels posed the question: do real
researchers, investigators, and authors know exactly where they are going when
they being an inquiry? This question will help to guide my pedagogy,
because if I know where I want my students to end up, in terms of what they
will produce and what knowledge they will gain, then it is not true inquiry
that we are undergoing.
Inquiry is unknown, and that is the main message I have
learned this week. The question asked by Harvey and Daniels really resonates
with me; I believe it will be a question that will stick with me throughout my
career.
Some of the articles that stood out to me this week were Amanda
Ronan’s, Rebecca Buerkett’s, and Marjorie Pappas. These articles helped to
deepen my understanding of assessment as an integral part of inquiry based
learning. Ronan’s article, Every Teacher’s
Guide to Assessment gave me a lot of assessment ideas in general, but especially
for the inquiry project I am designing. I liked the diagnostic assessment ideas
because it assesses what a student knows prior to an inquiry unit – determining
what a student already knows is an important aspect of inquiry because it
gives the teacher an idea of where to begin and an idea of what brainstorming
questions the students will be able to ask. If a student has no prior
knowledge, those initial questions will be very rudimentary and they could need a lot of guidance. Ronan suggests two
really good diagnostic assessment types – discussion and categorizing. I like the
idea of categorizing for the Life Cycles inquiry unit I am designing – students
may already be able to sort the stages of life an animal goes through, before
we even begin our inquiry; a card sort would be an efficient, and hands on way
to determine prior knowledge of life cycles.
In Buerkett’s article, Inquiry
and Assessment Using Web 2.0 Tools, she talks about some excellent web
tools to support students in various stages throughout inquiry; before reading
this article, I was primarily focused on the resources to derive information
from, forgetting about resources such as these web tools, that support
learning in terms of organization of information and in terms of collaboration.
Poll Everywhere is a web tool mentioned in this article that I have used before
in math class; however, I never before thought of the ways this web tool could
be used to assist inquiry! Very neat.
Lastly, I really liked Marjorie Pappas article about reflecting
as self-assessment. Reflecting is something I enjoy and connect with as a student in this diploma program, and
it is a skill I would like my students to participate in. Reading genuine reflections
(or listening to oral reflections,) can be an effective indicator of where we
have come from, and where we might go next, in an inquiry project. Webspiration was suggested by Pappas, as
a web tool that stood out to me because it supports collaboration by requiring
multiple students to contribute their information; also, it is a digitally
engaging way to do a KWL chart. I will surely be checking that out with my
class next year.
To end, I am left thinking about the question posed in Module
9: how can we ensure we (as teachers) are meeting the needs of each unique and
individual student? I think this is a never-ending question that will always
continue to develop; however, I really appreciate how collaboration can,
without a doubt, bring us closer to meeting the needs of all students – two teachers,
seeing a child in a different light and bringing their own strengths “to the
table” will certainly help us to provide students with an increasingly enriching and individualized educational experience.
