Inquiry-Based Learning

 Students rather than learning passively from the teacher and memorizing facts, they instruct their own understanding and knowledge. The concept of IBL is something that all of us experience throughout our lives. Growing up, children are continually asking questions in an attempt to make sense of the world. We all want to understand the world around us and try to figure out how it works, and we do this by asking questions. For example, how are engines able to make cars move? There's a natural urge to inquire and during this process we are continually thinking in order to make meaning. Essentially, IBL starts with a question. This is different to what we are used to. Many of us are grown up through traditional teaching methods. In this approach, teacher provides all the information, asking information from the textbook to the students in a step-by-step process. Students then recite this information. The focus on reproducing one correct answer. IBL is more dynamic than this. As it actively involves students in their own learning. IBL derives from Constructivists Theory where students construct their own knowledge of the world through experience and then reflecting on those experiences. In other words, students learning is not based on teacher directed activities rather they are learning the skills to synthesize, interpret, and evaluate information.

Example on a Teaching Cycle

 After recognizing that grade 3 students are not familiar with many of the keys words related to the reading lesson “How to Plant a Tomato Seed in Six Steps”, Ms. Sarah decides to conduct learning activities designed to have students master the vocab words and match them with their correct meaning. At the end of this lesson, students are supposed to define each vocab word in their own words.During the first learning activity, students observe pictures, previously prepared by the teacher, displayed on the active board and describe those using open-ended questions. In the meantime, Ms. Sarah distributes students into groups each with different tools. Each group would relate their objects to a picture and then guess the vocab words. For example, group 1 will use pencils to make a hole in the paper that is “poke” and so on. Each group demonstrates their vocab word and shares it with their classmates. At the end of the unit, a quiz is given where students are supposed to match each vocab to its correct meaning. Ms. Sarah decides that 18 out of 24 scored high marks, and the other 5 scored  average marks.

The Misbehaving Kid

 During one month, I examined the misbehaviors of an elementary school student. From my perspective, Mohamad’s behaviors were unacceptable. The most likely occurring misbehavior was being hyperactive, disobedient, and stubborn. Such misbehaviors involve rule-breaking, violating classroom norms and settings, and being disruptive and out of seat. Mohamad’s behaviors were usually intolerable and stress- provoking. Whenever Mohamad is present, I have a hard time and energy to manage the classroom. The first thing that grabbed my attention was his hyperactivity. Although Mohamad sat right  on the first seat, he could never sit down. He used to stand for a long time leaning against the wall. At other times, he gets distracted with his stuff. At such times, he is off-task but not disruptive. I noticed him picking up some pencils and rulers from his blue pencil case and playing with them. However, Mohamad often becomes off-task and disruptive as he interrupts the teaching and learning process which drove me to give him continuous comments. He made paper scraps and threw them on his classmates which in turn disrupted other students from staying engaged in the activity. Also, he pierced the cap of his plastic water bottle and threw water on his friends Hasan and Karim. Hysterically, I remember the day I assigned for my students a dictation for the next week. On the assigned day, all students as well as Mohamad prepared their dictation copybooks, underlined the page, and wrote the title. Unfortunately, the moment I started reciting the dictation, disrespectfully Mohamad started imitating my words out loud. Although I gave him comments, he didn’t stop speaking and laughing which made me nervous and stressed. Moreover, Mohamad was headstrong and temperamental where for no reason sometimes he disobeyed my instructions. Sometimes he refused to copy what’s on the board on his copybook other times he even refused to open his book to a certain page. For instance, each two weeks students have a library session and the teacher used to read a story for students. However, I decided to make it more interesting for all students to be engaged in this activity. I assigned a story for students to read, and I asked them to bring stuffed toys with them. In the library session, the students and I formed a circle on the carpet to read and discuss its events. The stubborn Mohamad neither followed my instructions nor he participated in the activity. I tried my best to ask him to join us, but provocatively he refused and sat all the session behind as if we were not present. I noticed that his classmates feared him because whenever he gets teased from any kid in the class, he scowls and threatens them that he will beat him at recess. Furthermore, he often bullied Adam, a calm innocent boy, by mocking and laughing at his shallow thinking. This is a short description of Mohamad's annoying misbehavior in my class.

Selected Response Assessment

  I believe that if I want to assess my students' knowledge and their ability to reason, I should use the Selected Response Assessment. First, I should plan for my test that is known as the blueprint in the assessment. This blueprint is also known as the table of test specifications. In turn, this blueprint will allow me to specify the objectives, content, and type of questions that will design my test. Also, it will help me check if my students can apply the knowledge they have in different situations. Let me say that I want to design a comprehension test for my 3rd graders. The content of the test will include genre, setting, characters, synonyms, and analysis of the story’s events. Then, I will specify high-quality test items. In other words, how many questions I need to assess knowledge and understanding of the story and how many for reasoning and analyzing its events. This table will help me assess a student's knowledge and ability to comprehend. As a result, I will end up with three multiple-choice questions about the genre and setting with 1.5 points each. Four short answers questions about the events and characters of the story with 1 point each. Three true/false questions with 1.5 points each. Four matching questions about sequential events with 1.5 each. Two fill in questions about synonyms with 0.5 points each. In this case, the student needs to have knowledge and understanding. So I’m able to assess both content knowledge (retrieved from the memory) and reasoning (cognitive act) through selected-response assessment. For example, the genre is based on content knowledge while sequencing needs analysis that is reasoning. I believe that this blueprint puts me as a teacher on the right track to develop a clear assessment along with a clear target and purpose. To sum up,  these blueprints permit me as a teacher to reveal the meaning of success to my students as well giving them a visible target to shoot for.

Specify Your Learning Target

 To be able to choose which assessment method best suits the designed lesson, I should specify the learning target to be assessed as a first step. Let’s say that I assigned “Best Friends” as a speaking topic where my 3rd graders have to prepare it and present it orally in front of the class. Thus, the target to be assessed is “performance skills” which in turn best matches with the “performance assessment” method. Here the students will carry out the specified activity, and I will observe and evaluate his performance. Therefore, I will watch the student’s performance and judge its results according to a set of criteria previously specified by me. To clarify, I will set a table for grading the speaking/oral domain. To start with, 3 points will be given for the content and 3 points for the organization. Other 3 points will be given for using appropriate language. Also, 3 points will be given for originality and the other 3 for delivery. In total, there will be 15 points given for the speaking activity. When the student presents his speaking, I will be able to go through the table and find out all the criteria that should be available in his presentation. Then, I will count 1 by 1 and give him a point for everything he adhered to. In this case, I would be looking towards the process (oral presentation) and product (grade). I can either score him by putting for example 10 out of 15, or I say he is in the 10th percentile in his classroom. These criteria will help me to provide students with descriptive informative feedback that will reflect positively on students and help them improve. Here my students will be engaged in the learning process through interaction because I am listening to them as a participant in the class. I am pleased to say that by matching the assessment method with the target to be assessed, I designed a quality classroom assessment.

Sound Assessment

   I believe that sound assessment arises from clear and appropriate targets, and there exists 5 types of targets. Those 5 kinds of targets are equally important which in turn form a solid foundation for effective teaching, learning, and assessment. I have confidence that I can implement these targets into a grammar lesson for 3rd-grade students to achieve a sound assessment. Let me say that this grammar lesson is about “Subject and Predicate”.The first target is the knowledge target, and here I am going to use the brainstorming strategy to check whether my students have the needed prerequisite. At this level, students are supposed to know that any complete sentence is made up of the “naming” part and the “predicate” part.  After displaying a plethora of examples and sentences to the students, they will be able to use this knowledge to reason that the naming part is known as the subject and the telling part is the predicate. Furthermore, they will be able to relate this info to complete sentences and fragments. Not only that but also, they will be able to analyze any sentence and divide it into its main components without even memorizing any single word. Then, I will hit the performance target where I will distribute flashcards to each pair of students. Each pair will unscramble the flashcards to make a complete meaningful sentence and highlight its different cards using colors. As a result, I will go over the product target where I will do a formative assessment. Students will solve an exercise about the lesson, so I will check if my objective is successfully achieved. Finally, if students turned in the papers with no markable mistakes only then I can say that the disposition target is also achieved because this reflects that students were positively influenced by the learning process. I would like to note that using these 5 targets, I will be able to take into consideration the different learning styles of the students.

Teaching Syrian Refugees Students

   Dealing with more than 30 Syrian refugee students in the same class, it was challenging for me to teach them English as a second language. The one gap I faced was to assess that huge number of kids. I guess what I did was a real disaster. After accomplishing one theme in the book, I usually prepared tests or quizzes to evaluate students to take grades and submit them to the administration. I wasn’t conscious that all that I’ve mentioned was called the assessment of learning or summative assessment. Later then, I became aware that I should implement the following concept in my student’s assessment. First, I must set a clear assessment purpose by indicating who will use the assessment results and how it will be used. I believe that to have a sound assessment, I should have a clear and measurable purpose. The refugee students are usually really weak in the English language especially for their speaking skills, so my main concern is to improve that skill. For me to do that, I will count on assessment for learning or what is known as a formative assessment. For example, if I’m teaching my 1st graders about the steps they should perform when “Waking up To School”, I will perform an oral pretest to figure out what students know before I start my lesson. Next, I will provide them with the necessary material by displaying posters, videos,... Then, inquiry-based learning will take place through open-ended questions and oral discussions regarding the material. At this point, I will be using the lesson’s information to help students improve their learning skills during the learning process. After several sessions of oral practice, students will prepare a 1-minute speech about what they do when they wake up as an assignment. This formative assessment will help me identify if the students were able to improve their speaking skills or not. If some didn’t, I will keep my eyes open towards improving the speaking skills of those students in the upcoming lessons.