Inquiry-Based Instruction. It's innovative, it's rigorous, it's engaging, but man can it be tough!
Over the past few weeks, we have been exploring Inquiry-Based Instruction and this week we had the chance to bring together what we have learned and teach a lesson in IBI. I was excited to try the new ideas I've been learning about but cautious of how to apply some of them. I decided to use a lab activity that I experienced at the National Agriscience Preservice Teacher Program on how hydrangea flower color is affected by the pH of the soil.
The lab was initially set up to have more guidance from the teacher but I wanted to see if I could make it more student-based. I gave the students what I thought was enough information to get them on their way and I hoped that they would be able to complete the lab without much guidance from me. As it sometimes does in teaching, my lesson did not go as planned. Within moments of releasing the students to begin the lab, I knew that they were not on the same page as me.
Seeing the looks on their faces, I decided we needed to take a big step back. I started from the beginning and we worked through each step together until the students were able to work as a team to come to a solution. While the lesson definitely did not go as planned, I feel that I took away more from this failure than I would have if the lesson had gone over perfectly.
The gems and opps that my peers shared with me were helpful in my reflection. They said that it was great that I was able to take a step back and add clarity as well as jump in and explain when I was needed. They also enjoyed my bell work activity which was a new literacy strategy that I came up with and wanted to try. I had the students read their lab packet and highlight three sentences that they found important, underline two sentences that they found interesting, and star one sentence that they had a question about. This strategy ensured that they were engaging in the reading and helped me to check in with them to find out if they were comprehending the text. The main opportunity for growth that they identified was that I needed to be aware of the level of difficulty of the activity to ensure that my students were not lost.
This lab did not go as planned at all and initially, I was frustrated. I had put so much time and effort into creating an activity that would give students autonomy, it all made sense to me, why couldn't my students figure it out? However, in reflection, I learned a lot from this lab and it taught me the importance of flipping the flop and growing from the failures.
The lab was initially set up to have more guidance from the teacher but I wanted to see if I could make it more student-based. I gave the students what I thought was enough information to get them on their way and I hoped that they would be able to complete the lab without much guidance from me. As it sometimes does in teaching, my lesson did not go as planned. Within moments of releasing the students to begin the lab, I knew that they were not on the same page as me.
Seeing the looks on their faces, I decided we needed to take a big step back. I started from the beginning and we worked through each step together until the students were able to work as a team to come to a solution. While the lesson definitely did not go as planned, I feel that I took away more from this failure than I would have if the lesson had gone over perfectly.
The gems and opps that my peers shared with me were helpful in my reflection. They said that it was great that I was able to take a step back and add clarity as well as jump in and explain when I was needed. They also enjoyed my bell work activity which was a new literacy strategy that I came up with and wanted to try. I had the students read their lab packet and highlight three sentences that they found important, underline two sentences that they found interesting, and star one sentence that they had a question about. This strategy ensured that they were engaging in the reading and helped me to check in with them to find out if they were comprehending the text. The main opportunity for growth that they identified was that I needed to be aware of the level of difficulty of the activity to ensure that my students were not lost.
This lab did not go as planned at all and initially, I was frustrated. I had put so much time and effort into creating an activity that would give students autonomy, it all made sense to me, why couldn't my students figure it out? However, in reflection, I learned a lot from this lab and it taught me the importance of flipping the flop and growing from the failures.
Victoria, there is a great quote from Randy Pausch ("The Last Lecture") that says "experience is what we get when we didn't get what we wanted", and it applies well to your experience with your IBI lesson. I commend you on realizing that things were not going to plan and being reflexive enough to take a step back to ensure that the lesson was a positive experience for your students, even if it meant things didn't go to plan.
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