In the Johnson chapter this week she discussed inquiry in the classroom, specifically, as a way to influence every aspect of learning for students. Inquiry is a process to be carried out that begins with asking questions. Students are naturally curious in many ways and this chapter made great points about how to facilitate and "manage" questioning from students. For example, I really liked the FQR chart on page 135 and want to adapt it for my third grade class. Students can work together to synthesize an informational text you provide (or even read as a class), then ask a question they have regarding it, and make a connection to their findings by writing down a response. After that, students could carry out the inquiry process to research their question further. I think that the toughest parts in elementary classrooms will be to teach/model appropriate and effective search strategies and phrases, and also how to evaluate a source for reliability. How do we even model and practice this in an elementary setting?
The articles were very insightful and reinforced the importance of inquiry as a process that needs to be modeled and practiced through classroom activities. Generative synthesis is different from synthesizing for meaning in that it involves inferring and using creativity to contribute something new or different to ideas already established. In this new information age, you can find almost anything on the interest if you use appropriate search phrases. Generative synthesis takes the summarizing of information learned a step further by asking learners to creatively construct knowledge by repurposing and reinforcing existing ideas. By reinforcing, learners are able to background check their own ideas and locate sources that validate their thinking. By repurposing, learners are able to evaluate existing ideas and creatively think of new ways to integrate or modify them to fit their situation, while keeping one important aspect the same. Can you think of ways our students already use reinforcement and repurposing? How can we model, and have students practice generative synthesis through inquiry?
These BABR chapters go into the inquiry process for us again, but Dr. Beach was not kidding about the resources! I have narrowed down a functioning list of elementary and secondary resources that I think we could try out and evaluate on here this week. Choose a few to try out and have at it!
Elementary:
-https://www.choosito.com/ This website filters searches for students and teachers BY READING LEVEL! (sorry, I got a tad excited there)
-http://sp.askkids.com/docs/askkids/ Ask.com for kids aged 6-12.
-symbaloo.com Students can search using only teacher-approved websites and social media.
-http://www.activelylearn.com/ MUCH better than AR!
-http://www.eduwidgets.org/#/
--https://www.proboards.com/
-https://www.mindmeister.com/ Similar to bubbl.us
Secondary:
-http://www.iseek.com/iseek/home.page This is a search engine for academic research.
-https://www.choosito.com This could be awesome for secondary as well!
-https://scholar.google.com/ This is a google search engine for academic research that helps create citations too!
-https://vimeo.com/12861706 This video explains (in a hilarious way) how to use phrases and terms when using search engines.
-http://www.noodletools.com/noodlequest/ This form helps researchers narrow down their search engines by pointing them in the right direction (super cool!)
-http://www.factcheck.org/ Gives them the real scoop on news and facts heard in the media.
-https://educlipper.net/about.html Very cool Pinterest-esque website for the classroom to share.
-http://www.teenreads.com/
-http://www.activelylearn.com/
-http://www.eduwidgets.org/#/
-https://www.proboards.com/ A chat specifically for your class to discuss in!
-https://www.mindmeister.com/ Similar to bubbl.us
That was a lot! Happy researching!
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ReplyDeleteOkay I am still a tad unclear about whether I did exactly what she wanted me to do with the blog post this week, but after reading the email I think she wants me to give just the TYPE of tool and let everyone choose 4 or 5 to explore/evaluate. Does that sounds right?
ReplyDeleteBased on her e-mail, I think we each pick 4-5 tools to explore, and then we talk about the different types of tools that they are and discuss our experiences exploring them.
DeleteI'd like to check out educlipper.net, actively learn, eduwidgets, and noodle tools.
If so, the types are:
ReplyDelete1. Online Search Tools
2. Personal Learning Networks
3. Pathfinders
4. Digital Content Curation Tools
5. Online Surveys
6. Charts, graphs, infographics
7. QR Codes
8. Outlining/Mapping Tools
Symbaloo is a digital content curation tool. You can organize links onto different boards and add (as far as I can tell) as many as you want to each board. I use symbaloo to organize videos for my classroom instruction. I also send home the link to parents so that they can use it for educational screen time. I have thought about using it as part of a research center on an ipad, but I am not sure what that would like that at this point. For the person managing the symbaloo, it can be tedious to add a bunch of links at once. However, for someone using an existing symbaloo page to find resources, it is easy to navigate. If the symbaloo page was already pulled up, a young child could easily use symbaloo independently to watch videos or play games. Upper elementary kids could probably use it both as a manager and a viewer independently for research purposes.
ReplyDeleteAsk Kids is an online search tool designed to be safe and user friendly for children. You use it just like a regular search engine. After you search, a child can filter between answers, images, news, and videos. A child can also click on related questions or searches. However, the page is very busy. Half of the links on the page are ads and they appear just like links to search results, which could be confusing for children. I think it would be great for older elementary children, but it is too much for primary students to use independently.
Do you think that Ask Kids would still provide opportunities for students to practice determining which links are best for their search purposes? How much stuff does it seem to filter out?
DeleteI think it would be great for giving kids practice choosing appropriate links! When you search, it doesn't just give academic links so kids would have to pick and choose sources. It would also be good for practicing how to narrow/broaden a search.
DeleteI ran a couple of different searches and it doesn't seem to filter out a lot other than unsafe/inappropriate material. The results for academic searches mostly came from educational kids websites, online magazines/news, wikipedia, dictionaries, and colleges.
Mindmeister is an outlining/mapping tool. It is a lot easier to use than bubbl.us and other mapping tools I have seen. You can customize the appearance of your mind with fonts, colors, and visuals. You can also embed images, files, and links into your map to make it more interactive. It would be a great graphic organizer resource for upper elementary, middle school, or high schoolers. However, the one drawback is that you can only make three bubble maps for free before upgrading to a paid account.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! In your opinion, do you think it would be worth having a paid account? Do you know if there's an app version, or if it's just desktop?
DeleteYes, I think it would be if you used it regularly. For a personal account, it is $6 a month. There is an app!
DeleteI'm really interested in choosito.com, symbaloo.com and activelylearn.com, so I'll do some further research on those. Neka, would symbaloo work to house different extension activities and content for a book we're reading in class?
ReplyDeleteI definitely think so! Next week we are going to be researching and reading books about leaves. I think I am going to make a board of digital stories/texts, educational videos, and activities related to leaves to email out to parents. Do you think your kids could use symbaloo at a center?
DeleteWell our district has purchased AR with our Title1 funds (UGH), so I have to have that as a center, but I could do something similar to you with what we are reading about in science and we could explore it together! Or I could let them try to get onto it at the end of the day. The only problem is that only 1 out of my 2 desktops work and I have 3 laptops that we have access to, so there are only 4 functioning computers to go around :/
Delete1. When it comes to teaching students how to use inquiry-based thinking and to appropriately use print and digital tools to research their questions, I think it comes back to the gradual release of responsibility. In the beginning, research may look like "I do, you watch" as you model your thinking and strategies. Then it progresses to "I do, you help" before reaching "you do, I watch/help."
ReplyDeleteIn addition to you as the classroom teacher, another potential person to model/practice the inquiry process with your kids could be your school's teacher-librarian. In her lessons with my kids my librarian uses a lot guided inquiry/digital tools.
Educlipper: This is like a Pinterest style site, but with more features. You can “clip” pictures, videos, links (which can be paired with a screenshot), text, or a combination. Like Pinterest, you can have different “boards” to organize your clips. You can also create “portfolios” to organize content, such as pulling together clips for a project or a unit. I think the main difference is that portfolios are meant to be presented or shared. Like a lot of education sites, you can also add and organize classes and students so they can use educlipper, and you can see what they’ve done.
ReplyDeleteActively Learn: This site is geared toward engaging students and providing scaffolding that they need. There is a LOT you can do with this tool! You’re able to create polls and discussion boards for responses, and students can share their class notes online. When you share multimedia, you can also add annotations to supplement or explain the video/picture/etc. Students can take notes online and create responses using just about any form of embedded multimedia they want. The site also has dictionary and text-to-speech features for when students read a digital text. Teachers can also provide real-time feedback and grades, and the website organizes students’ performance into data charts.
Eduwidgets: Eduwidgets is basically a collection of tools that teachers can use. For example, one widget lets teachers create a timeline of events or steps in a process, and students can click on each point to get more information. You can also use a widget that creates a Prezi-style image with “hot spots,” supplementary text, etc., AND it’s interactive so that students can click and type responses (sort of like a PDF form). So cool!
Noodle Tools: This is an extensive program that is helpful for students who are conducting research. It can help them figure out how to create citations (and tells them why it’s done that way, unlike Easy Bib). It proofreads their writing and generates parenthetical references. Students can create online note cards that can include quotes, images, and graphs, and the note cards are hyperlinked to their citations to make sure they match. There are tons of guides for students, and they can also get real-time help from “experts” with their research and citations. The program can also be used for students to share drafts with teachers to get feedback on them, and it automatically generates graphs for the teachers to use to determine if their sources are appropriate, varied, and plentiful enough.
Angela, how user-friendly is Actively Learn for younger students?
ReplyDeleteI was about to ask the exact same question!
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