Session+2

__2.3 Website Analysis__
__**Website #1**__ appears convincing because it is bright, colorful and professional looking. It appears to have much information on a particular octopus. Additionally, it has information bars across the top that indicate that someone must be monitoring the website. Once I clicked on several links, I was brought to a Chris Matthews video. Although students may not know who Chris Matthews is, a teacher would recognize his name as a journalist. This would give additional credence to this website.

First ideas that perhaps this isn't a valid website: Clicking on the FAQs of this first website led to FAQs about the quirky and eccentric creator, not information about octopus. Also, the site states it is not affiliated with any university or educational website. I'm assuming it is a glorified blog.

__**Website #2**__: When I clicked on the hospital to see if it was a true link, my computer blocked it as a potential virus threat! Interesting.... The main website has "fantastic" style storylines like male pregnancy. This should be a warning sign in and of itself. The drop down menus are small, blurry and hard to read. Even if this was a valid website, I would have lost interest and looked for others.

Evaluating Web Pages

Summary: This web page would be extremely helpful for high school and college students. Middle schoolers would have to be taught what all the ideas presented represent. Many students at the midde school level do not understand basic searching principals and will often use the first website presented and then plaigarize at will. This information could be boiled down to 3 or 4 important items that middle-schoolers could look for...like the suffix of the url being .edu or .net. Also students could be advised to look deeply at the site to see if the person running it is qualified to make professional and factual statements about the topic.

__2.3 Inquiry Based Learning Sites__
__Inquiry Based Learning Free Workshops__ This website is a comprehensive and complete encylopedia on Inquiry Based Learning. It takes you step by step through the Explanation, Demonstration, Exploration, Implementation phases so teachers can apply information they've acquired. There is some school bashing, but it is minimal.

Teacher's Network

Teacher's Network is a non-profit organization run by teachers for teachers. This has some terrific "how-to" information. The "How To" articles include:
 * 1) Adjusting Teaching Styles for ELLs
 * 2) Implementing Standards, Curriculum and Assessment
 * 3) Incorporating New Media Into the Classroom (this one Judi will like

Ohio Dept of Education This website has an overview of Inquiry Based Learning and What it Looks Like in a __//**Social Studies Classroom.**//__ As you scroll down you'll find a section titled "**What does inquiry-based learning look like in the social studies classroom?"** This section has interesting subtopics such as:
 * 1) How to Organize the Process
 * 2) Resource Materials for Students (non-fiction)
 * 3) Creating an Atmosphere of Curiosity

__ 2.4: 3 Minute Pause __
Inquiry Based Learning is a teaching style that is more student directed than teacher directed. Students use inquiry to get a deeper understanding of topics. This style of teaching is very old and is based upon a Socratic method of learning which allows students to develop answers to their own questions. IBL is no.t simply a fact finding mission, but a more complex method of understanding ideas and concepts, not trivial pursuit. Students work at their own pace, creating intelligent questions, finding resources that help to answer the question and then creating a fully comprehensible and complete answer. There will be times when more than one answer is appropriate and this style may also generate more questions.

__2.5 Essential Readings__

 * write at least 2 questions and at least 2 comments on inquiry based learning

Q: How do I engage the least motivated learners? Oftentimes it is the special needs students who appear disinterested. However, I believe they cannot formulate a question about the material, even if I've given them time. Even when provided with some basic background info, I've found many students can't take the information to the next step. They don't have the vocabulary, life experience or the reasoning. It is a classic case of not knowing what you don't know. Additionally middle-schoolers are hypersensitive to what their peers think and many times the "disinterest" is a coping mechanism to disguise the fact that the student does not know what to say or feels more "stupid" than his peers. Q: How do I foster more in-depth thinking? Middle-school student work can be highly superficial and heavily reliant on presentation (think bright colors, glitter and pop). I've given students a check-list style rubric and insist that they check it before passing work in. Many students "think" they have completed a requirement, but again, have superficfially covered a particular topic. Comment: I teach using this style very frequently. My biggest problem is what I stated above in Question 1 and motivating unmotivated students or students who want to give the least amount of basic and superficial information. I need to think about how I present the question/s to be researched. I would like to use some of the technological devices I've learned from this course. I don't know if I have time to fit in the obvious learning curve for 12-13 year olds. Comment: This style of teaching dominates graduate level coursework. It is interesting to me that it is trickling down to lower levels. Teacher directed classes are boring to children and adults, yet I've been in many classes where the teacher stands at the front of the room and lectures for hours. These are the same people that insist teachers use student directed style of teaching, yet do not practice what they preach. Comment: Inquiry based learning engages different kinds of learners and projects produced will be highly varied. That is the beauty of this style...the different approaches to the same issue. Inquiry based learning and differentiated instruction mesh nicely. When assigning projects, providing different ways to approach an issue allows students to learn at their own pace, produce meaningful work for them, be part of an entire class, and allows for productive work from all students.