In the comments of my first post this week, I explained that the open and immerse primarily take place in the English IV classrooms as students address social issues through companion texts and other medias related to their curriculum. In November, seniors are ready to explore social issues, which takes place the in the library. Teaching middle school, we easily spent two to three days for students to explore topics, jotting down ideas of interest, usually using stations. In a high school, especially when there are twenty or more sections of one course, scheduling can influence the number of days assigned to different phases and assignments. Understanding that the explore phase significantly impacts student interest and commitment to the long-term project, the English IV teachers scheduled one or two days in the library where students could jot down ideas of interest for their Senior Research Project (SRP) with a focus on a social issue. Over the last four years, we have tried three different methods for exploration, which I share below.

YEAR ONE: PATHFINDER GUIDES
I selected a few social issues that were common interests of many students based on an interest survey completed in the classrooms and created pathfinder guides on our SRP LibGuide. Each pathfinder provided an overview of the topic, possible perspectives, articles from multiple databases, print and digital books from the library collection. Students were provided with a Stop and Jot form for their note-taking.

PROS:

• Students realized there are more “sides” to an issue than yes and no, or left and right. They were able to see the opinions and perspectives of social issues on a spectrum.
• Students gained quick exposure to a range of resources.

CONS:

• Assembling the pathfinders was very time consuming. I felt like I did more work than the students. A seasoned colleague once told me, “School is not a place for young people to come watch old people work!”
• Students were exposed to depth of the topics but not breadth. The pathfinders provided too much in-depth information rather than an opportunity for exploration and discovery.
• Students were limited to exploring the topics provided. While they were the most popular, they weren’t for everyone.

YEAR TWO: DOCUMENTARIES
Considering the appeal of YouTube videos to teens and recently popular documentaries on Netflix, we provided links to PBS documentaries that related to a range of social issues on a LibGuide. Students were provided with a Stop and Jot form to notate their interests and reactions to the videos.

PROS:

• Students were highly interested in the documentaries, even the brief clips.
• Students benefited from the passionate perspective of the filmmaker.

CONS:

• Students needed more time that what was provided during class. Some continued to watch the documentaries at home, but not all.
• Students were still limited to the social issues addressed on the list.
• Some documentaries did not present multiple perspectives of the issues.

YEARS THREE & FOUR: TOPIC WEBS
Eight topics were selected based on the issues grouped in some of our databases. Students chose five of the eight topics to visit in 4-minute rotations. During each rotation students discussed examples of issues and events related to the topics, and documented their conversation in a web-like format. Remaining time was spent for students to revisit the topic webs they found most interesting so they could notice new contributions and jot down their ideas.

PROS:

• Aligned perfectly with information in the databases but still allowed students to explore their interests.
• Webs were visual and were displayed for students in other classes to view for topic inspiration.
• Students learned from other students by asking questions and holding conversation.

CONS:

• Absent students missed the experience. Some students chose to come during their lunch the following day to participate with a different teacher’s class but rarely.

Seniors explore social issues for research topics #guidedinquiry #wearereagan #neisdlibs #rrhslibhub #gopublic pic.twitter.com/jOav1Q5OOy

— Reagan HS Library (@RattlersRead) November 28, 2017

Christie Gudowski
Reagan High School, San Antonio, TX

Hello, my name is Christie Gudowski, and I serve as the school librarian at Ronald Reagan High School in San Antonio, Texas. Reagan enrolls approximately 3,600 students in a suburb of the city with a predominately hispanic and white population and 12% SES, according to the state report card.

I became interested in Guided Inquiry Design as an 8th grade reading teacher. Members from my school district attended the GID training at Rutgers, including my planning partner at the time. Our incredibly compatible work relationship made the venture into GID approachable and successful. We were looking for a new research method and our students were willing to take the challenge with us. Our approach was to follow the framework and not be afraid of adjustments in our implementation as needed. We planned closely together and debriefed sometimes between class periods if we felt the need to tweak the lesson. Though we initially struggled with question-writing, like many others, the benefits of GID were apparent with on-level and advanced classes. The process made so much sense because GID was a way of organizing research in a manner that would scaffold our students’ metacognition, differentiate the process, and guide our students to success. It was what we were unknowingly looking for to deepen our student’s curiosity about the world around them and love for learning. Utilizing students’ excitement and curiosity about the 2012 Olympics, we invited Josh Davis, a local Olympian, who willingly addressed our students and shared his story during the OPEN phase of the process. This was a synergistic opportunity to share GID with our 8th graders!  We were extremely pleased with the results. Our students voraciously researched, read, and shared their newly found knowledge about Olympians, Olympic sports, or Olympian history. Students’ reflections demonstrated their pride in their inquiry journals and the project overall.

After becoming a high school librarian in 2014, I strongly believed that I need to incorporate GID into research projects as I collaborated with teachers. In middle school, it is acceptable and common for teachers to spend 3-4 weeks on a single project. For factors that would take up an entire blog of their own, our high school teachers do not have that sort of flexibility in their scope and sequence. I could not abandon GID, so I found ways to introduce it to teachers in small bites throughout the school year. During my first year I asked a lot of questions like:

• Can I help your students find that information in the databases?
• What introduction would make this topic more appealing to your students?
• What questions do your students have about that topic?
• Where do you see students doing the most thinking in this lesson?
• Do you want your students to write a research paper or a report?

Reagan’s English teachers quickly realized the benefits of critical thinking required by GID process for students in their future post-secondary education. Understanding that college and career readiness is imperative for our students, the English IV on-level team worked closely with me over the last four years to take our seniors through the GID framework. Incorporation of other resources, such as Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog by William Badke, helped us create Research Road, on which we travel from November to May, as a visual for students to understand the pace and process. Research Road is an on-going work in progress, however I believe we’ve needed fewer major changes as our experience grows.

So, that’s what I’ll be sharing with you about this week: some of my experiences on how to bridge GID from middle school to high school.

Christie Gudowski

 

Hello everyone! My name is Rachelle Johnson and I am the guest blogger this week. I am a Secondary Science Teacher in Norman, Oklahoma. I teach Biology and Zoology at Norman High School (GO TIGERS!). Not only is it my first year doing a Guided Inquiry unit; it is also my first year at NHS and my first year in Oklahoma, needless to say this is turning out to be a very fruitful year!

In the past I have struggled with student engagement and am constantly met with the “why is this important?” question. So I love finding new ways to engage my students in meaningful scientific discussions. Guided Inquiry sounded like the solution to all my problems. It offered an opportunity for my students to discover why the things we learn in Biology are important to them as  individuals.

I first learned about Guided Inquiry through our Librarians during a professional development day in the Fall. Not really understanding what it was and just hearing the word “research” I instantly thought: Not for my Freshmen. That was definitely closed-minded thinking on my part. Luckily my district values student lead learning and sent me along with other colleagues to training early this spring.

The first thing I learned is that any student can do this. It doesn’t matter what grade you teach or whether you have English language learners or you have a group of special education students integrated in with your general ed kids. Everyone is capable. The second thing I learned was that I was already doing some of the stages in Guided Inquiry! Minor changes to my tried-and-true lessons and they fit right in.

And here it is the cherry on top of an already irresistible sundae — it helps students delve into ideas they are interested in, things that we wouldn’t normally have time to cover in class.

I am definitely sold on the effectiveness of Guided Inquiry. I love it. I can’t wait to share how our unit went!

Rachelle Johnson

Norman High School

Yesterday I attempted to discuss this wiggly topic of how GID is not lockstep.  In GID, our job is to guide students to find their own direction for inquiry in this fluid flexible process.

So, what are some key concepts that you can keep in mind as you try to follow the students and stay true to the process.

Think slime not concrete.

Maybe I’ve been hanging out with my 12 year old daughter and her slime too much, but it’s not a bad mental image for the difference between flexibility and rigidity. Slime vs Concrete

Being flexible takes deep understanding of the process. In order to deviate from the norm, we have to fully understand the norm, first.  So knowing the process deeply from a theoretical standpoint and a practical “in the classroom” view helps us to be confident in our variations from that norm, to know what is in bounds and out of bounds. With that knowledge, we can balance trusting the phases of the process, with following the students  as we get to know our students in the process.

Know the phases.

Knowing the process phases and the intention of each phase help

s you to know when we are ready to move on.  The bullet points for each phase are a great checklist for you. The more practice you have guiding the process with students, the more you know how it feels, how students interact, and what they need from you at each phase.

 

Know the research.

The more you understand the research behind GID, the more fluid and flexible you can become, in the moment. Here’s a link to some of the core research on the ISP – remember it is a user-centered design, meaning it came out of a need to better the experience for students who were learning through information in school. It doesn’t come from another industry, but is focused in education and on student learning.

Have an Inquiry Stance (or mindset)

Too much adherence to the plan, you’ll get concrete – and less learning. Inquiry learning requires us to Listen to our students, where they are struggling, where they are becoming inspired, in what direction they are leaning, will help you to “go with the flow” within the process.

In Guided Inquiry Design the learning team designs and plans activities that support students to accomplish each phase.  Having an inquiry stance or mindset is critical to your flexible use of the GID process.  Your inquiry stance is evidenced as you

• observe students (kid watching),
• talk with them,
• ask questions about their ideas,
• read their journals with an open mind and heart.

The results of those observations and interactions takes the form of shifting and differentiating conversations, groupings, lessons, and directions as needed by students. That’s how we become flexible within the model, by paying attention to how our students are engaging.

Use the Inquiry Tools

The Inquiry Tools inform you of students’ needs. The example I described yesterday shows when you put in the work at each phase, you can be confident of your forward motion. In this case, the students had spent ample time in Open and Immerse and at the end of Explore they each had detailed their own individual ideas for the direction of their research all mapped out. Proper use of the Inquiry Tools will help to guide you and the process in flexible forward motion.

Continually reflect on the work.

Conversations with your colleagues, coaches, and teammates can also help you to think through where you are and what students might need as compared to what was originally planned. Just going through the motions of your plans won’t help you to be flexible within the model, that might even solidify the flexible process into a lock step (concrete) approach. But reflecting on each phase, how the students engaged, and the intention of each phase can drive your flexibility within the process.

With that, I invite you to join us with your reflection here on this blog. That’s what this blog is for. It’s for you to have a space to reflect within our community and with my support!  Because Guided Inquiry is better through reflective practice we created this space for you to practice, try and reflect.  Here we are not looking for perfection, but an inquiry stance, that you’ve tried something and are learning from each attempt!  Through you we can all learn and improve.  Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll give it a go.

Leslie Maniotes, PhD ( leslie@guidedinquirydesign.com )

Author/Professional Developer for Guided Inquiry Design