Submitted by Syreeta Bennett on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 1:28pm.
Thank you Joyce for your lesson. Your lesson and the disciussion prior to it made me think of inquiry in real world classrooms. Unfortunately most of us teach with a curriculum and they are standards that have to be taught. These realities stifle true inquiry or Level 4 inquiry in most classrooms. I thought about it in the context of swimming. You can't push me in the pool and say swim, it requires some instruction, observing and practicing. This is what I experienced with the this lesson and others. If Joyce told me in the beginning to make a simple circuit I wouldn't have known what to do. Howver with instruction, observing, collaborating with my partner, and then actually making one, I was able to do it and understand what I was doing it. I also thought with required courses in school how is true inquiry happening when students are forced to take classes they don't want to.
Electricity lesson
Thank you Joyce for your lesson. Your lesson and the disciussion prior to it made me think of inquiry in real world classrooms. Unfortunately most of us teach with a curriculum and they are standards that have to be taught. These realities stifle true inquiry or Level 4 inquiry in most classrooms. I thought about it in the context of swimming. You can't push me in the pool and say swim, it requires some instruction, observing and practicing. This is what I experienced with the this lesson and others. If Joyce told me in the beginning to make a simple circuit I wouldn't have known what to do. Howver with instruction, observing, collaborating with my partner, and then actually making one, I was able to do it and understand what I was doing it. I also thought with required courses in school how is true inquiry happening when students are forced to take classes they don't want to.