Week 8: Reflection

Assignment:

• Describe the most striking revelation you had about the teaching of new literacy skills to your students as a result of this course.
• Describe how the knowledge and experience gained in this course will influence your teaching practices going forward.
• Identify at least one professional development goal you would like to pursue that builds upon your learning in this course and develops your own information literacy or technology skills. Describe the steps you will take to accomplish this goal

The QUEST for New Literacies

Throughout this course I have learned and been reminded of many teaching methods that would help me to guide my students’ learning of the new literacies of inquiry-based learning, content information, and many 21st century skills. As I progressed through this course, I began to realize that I have become so used to completing “everyday tasks,” such as searching for things using Google, evaluating resources, synthesizing my findings, etc., I tend to forget that my students may not have the knowledge and/or skills needed to effectively complete these tasks.

The most striking revelation that I had about the teaching of the new literacy skills was the importance of modeling each skill incorporated into the QUEST model of inquiry-based learning, for the students (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). I know that modeling skills and processes throughout the learning process is key to helping students better understand things, but having the teaching technique modeled for me throughout the textbook helped me to comprehend why this technique works. I find this to be rather ironic, learning about the importance and application of modeling in the classroom using the skill itself.

Eagleton and Dobler (2007) stated, “We strongly recommend that you conduct your own inquiry project alongside your students so that you can frequently model the process. Using think-alouds is a fabulous method for helping make explicit the in-the-head process that expert inquirers use” (p. 84). Showing the students how to work through the process of evaluating a webpage or finding the connections among research findings, shows the student how to apply the new literacies rather than just telling the students about the different skills and ideas that are involved.

Teachers are given new methods, tools, and frameworks to apply to their classrooms, but much of the time once the professional development session is completed, there remains the unanswered questions of, “How does this help the student?” or “Why should this method be used int he classroom?”. When reflecting upon my learning concerning the new literacies, I feel that have a firmer grasp on the “how” and the “why” of incorporating these skills into my teaching. As an educator I must remember to be reflective and purposeful in my teaching. The students, in turn, need to be able to articulate the different components of their learning processes using a framework such as the, “Extending KWL Questions for Guided Inquiry” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007).

By placing a greater emphasis on the inquiry processes, I will be able to facilitate the students acquisition of content knowledge and 21st century skills rather than throwing content information at them. Incorporating the framework and thought processes of QUEST into my classroom would be really easy. In fact, the implementation of the extended KWL and the components of QEST will help to focus my instruction of the content material. Beginning each American history unit with an introduction of the unit’s topic/objectives and then giving students a mind-map of the extended KWL questions to establish the key ideas that the students already know and the content the students need to learn more about, thus, directly influencing the material that will be discussed (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007).

Reflecting back on the different topics and technology discussed in this course, the area that I would like to continue learning about through professional development opportunities is the process of synthesis in relationship to the QUEST model (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007). I need a better understanding of the concepts and strategies related to the process of synthesizing research, to be able to explain its importance to my students. I also need tools and/or teaching methods to help the students whose cognitive and/or developmental abilities do not lend themselves to, “...create[ing] a thread linking separate ideas from within a text or from multiple texts and then tie this thread to their own experiences by creating a new interpretation, or a way to view these ideas in a new light” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, 199). To accomplish this goal I will actual be able to use the components of QUEST during this professional development opportunity. Reading journal articles, blogs, and having discussions with my classmates and coworkers would also help me gain more tools to guide the process of synthesis in my classroom.

A second area that I would like to explore more in-depth is that of the technology and programs that connect and foster collaborative relationships among students and teachers on a global scale. One example that was discussed in our course resources that facilitates these types of learning environments is ePals (epals.com). Demski (2008) described how teachers and students are able to connect and collaborate internationally and learn a plethora of information.

Although ePals is only one of many resources that allows for global communication, after perusing other sites listed in the class resources and talking to fellow classmates, I want to learn how to best utilize ePals in my classroom. I will need to read about the different components of the web-based collaborative tool, decide what content classes would benefit the most from the experience of communicating with students both in the national and international, and work this component into my curriculum (Demski, 2008). This process will take time and energy, but the skills and knowledge that can be gleaned from the national and international interactions would be amazing.

References

Demski, J. (2008, November). E-palling around. THE Journal, 35(11), 18-19.

Eagleton, M. B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Kuhlthau, C. C., Maniotes, L. K., & Caspari, A. K. (2007). Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.