JeanMarie+Inquiry+Activity

JeanMarie Dimitratos **__Activity:__** Utah Education Network - à 7-12 Interactives à Language Arts à Types of Text [] 1.) This activity teaches students how to differentiate styles of text: persuasive, informative, descriptive, and instructions. In this activity, students choose a style of writing that they are most interested in learning about and then proceed into an interactive game. The game begins by debriefing the students as to what to look for in a particular style of text. From there, they are given writing samples and asked to indicate which sample demonstrates the particular text type they originally selected at the start of the game. Once the student has answered correctly, they are then given a series of higher order thinking questions to see if they have synthesized the information about the test type they are learning about through the game. Some of the higher order questions ask what the purpose of the text is, what kind of style the text is written in, and who the text is written for. From there, the game prompts the student to highlight words within the writing sample that hint at the type of text is given. Once the student highlights the correct amount of hints, the questions become more specific towards the type for the text. For example, I answered questions on persuasive text. The writing sample was in the form of a car advertisement. The questions I was asked were to find and highlight information, differentiate information from advertising, and then find how the writing provided reasons for wanting to sell the car. Once the interactive game was completed, the students could go back and answer questions on the text types that they haven’t yet answered questions on.

2.) **__Standards__** // a. NYS English Language Arts Standards // i. Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding ii. Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation // b. ISTE National Technology Standards // i. Standard 3: Research and Informational Fluency ii. Standard 4: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making

1. **__Inquiry__**: Inquiry is a form of knowledge acquisition that does not follow teacher centered instruction in which one obtains learning. Inquiry seeks out truth, information, knowledge, and understanding through the required applications: questioning, investigation/discovery, discussion, creating, and/or reflection. Inquiry requires an individual to synthesize material and continue on the journey of learning without the guidance of an educator after they have achieved this process.
 * __ 3.) Revised Inquiry Definition and Rubric __**

2. Inquiry Based Learning Rubric: 0 || ** Partial ** 1 || ** Exemplary ** 2 || Score ||
 * || ** Not Evident **
 * Student poses higher order ** questioning ** to express understanding of knowledge/information || Student does not pose questions that are related to the task || Student poses basic questions that somewhat relate to understanding || Student poses several truth-seeking questions that demonstrate complete understanding ||   ||
 * Student engages in ** discovery ** in which he/she finds related knowledge to better his/her understanding || Student does not engage in furthering his/her knowledge through seeking answers for his/her self. || Student attempts to further his/her own understanding through applying his/her new set of skills or knowledge to exploring other topics that are related to the unit || Student fulfills complete understanding by searching for new ways to apply their acquired skills or information by exploring how other information or topics relate to the unity ||   ||
 * Student engages in a related ** discussion(s) ** with his/her peers || Student does not converse with his/her peers || Student briefly speaks to teacher and peers about the topic throughout the class || Student speaks openly and comfortably to teacher and peers about knowledge throughout the class ||   ||
 * Student is able to ** create ** new ideas or projects based on the learning from the task || Student does not continue learning through creating new ideas || Student begins to think about and outlines ways to create new ideas || Student is able to create new ideas in the form of written/visual/verbal work and put these ideas into practice ||   ||
 * Student poses a form(s) of ** reflection ** from his/her own work or the work of his/her peers || Student does not reflect on his/her own progress of the task || Student is able to but cannot insightfully critique his/her own work. ||  Student comprehensively critiques his/her own thoughts/ideas/work and can compare their progress with others using insightful suggestions .  ||

JeanMarie I certainly agree that Janie's was probably the best example of inquiry-based learning, but I felt we picked some good ones too and dealt with the definition in a different way. I tried hard to look at it through a young student's point of view instead of someone on our level who would see this as way too easy. Our activities would be way more challenging for a younger student and require a lot more high-level thinking. We both admitted that we got a couple of them wrong anyway so imagine what it would be like for them. I don't think recalling previous information strays too much from the inquiry-based definition because you need to start with some basic facts anyway before moving forward. Your activity was very challenging and required a lot of synthesis so I think you hit it on the head with this one. For example, the ones that featured the ads are very important because everyone deals with those in the newspaper at one point or another and they need to separate true facts from rhetoric. That is definitely a form of problem-solving. Good job! Brian JeanMarie~ I thought this activity was really interesting, but like I said to Brian, finding an inquiry based activity in language arts is really difficult. However, with the students choosing their own writing styles and things this activity could be formed into inquiry if it used a little more higher level thinking, like creating their own short story or something. Your rubric is very well organized and detailed, but I think we all need to reflect more on the activity than the students in the rubric. But really nice job!!! ~ Janie