03 June 2011

Tips for applying inquiry based strategies in Social Studies

Most people associate inquiry-based learning with the science classroom. But experimentation and real-world problem solving does not have to be limited to science alone. There are many inquiry-based applications specifically relevant to the social sciences. Here are some tips on how to facilitate inquiry-based learning:

1. Present students with real-world problems. The best problems are connected to their daily lives in one way or another.

Example: "Mapping the Impact: TEKS-relevant Geography Lesson" Pass out mini-candy bars to your students, ask them to keep the wrappers. Split them up into groups based on their candy brand and ask them to list all of the ingredients. You can have them look at the label or use taste alone to determine ingredients. Next, ask students where they think that each ingredient came from and what was involved in it's manufacture. Finally, have students trace each ingredient back to it's source and the resources used to produce it. For example: peanuts in snicker's bar came from a peanut farm that used water, land, fertilizers, etc.


2. Find ways, short of actually "telling" students, to scaffold their learning. Use hands-on as much as possible. Actually getting students outdoors or at least, out of their seats, is ideal. Barring that, however, technology is a great resource to provide student learning experiences that help mediate their knowledge about a given topic.

Example (hands-on): The Web of Life: Understanding the Importance of Biodiversity (TEKS- relevant for Geography).
Give each student a picture of an animal or plant. Have student tape the picture on the front of their body. Take students outdoors and have them stand in a tight circle. Take a roll of yarn and hand it to one student. Whatever they are, ask them to pass the yarn to someone whose plant/animal is either consumes them or is consumed by them. For example, if they are a deer, they could pass it to the grasslands (they consume) or to the wolf (consumes them). Continue until there is a complex web that connects each and every student to someone else. Ask students to spread the circle out to make the web tight. Randomly remove a few resources from the web. Ask students if they noticed any change in tightness. If only a few are removed, only a few will notice. Remove more resources. Students will begin to detect a real difference and will loose their connections to other and no longer be able to survive. This lesson can also apply to Geographic issues of income distribution and resource management.

Example(technology-mediated): Internet Sluething. There are some great pre-made internet resources for "piecing together" what really happened using a variety of sometimes conflicting primary documents and asking students to figure out what really happened. One great example is the "Do History" curriculum from George Mason University --> http://dohistory.org/ <--. You can also use a WebQuest or WikiQuest to create your own by collecting a series of primary resources and asking students to piece together actual history.

3. Give students an oppurtunity to experiment with ideas, make mistakes without reprecussion, express openly their thoughts and recieve feedback from both yourself AND their peers.

Example Strategies: 5E Inquiry, Graffiti, Classroom Discussions/Debates.

4. Finally, collaborate with your peers for instructional support and don't be afraid to reach across departments. The best inquiry-based teaching extends concepts across content areas. Geography and Science is a great connection as is History and Literature.

Below are some on-line resources to help you design inquiry-based instruction:

EdTeachers: http://thwt.org/USinquirysites.html

WebQuest: http://www.webquest.org

QuestGarden: http://questgarden.com
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

My Philosophy of Teaching

My Philosophy of Teaching:

I just finished my masters in Curriculum and Instruction. I have a firm commitment to my continuing education and strong love of teaching. My greatest draw to education is the opportunity to work daily with students, particularly students for whom success has been elusive or who struggle in the academic setting. I strongly believe in preventative behavior management and, as a student teacher, I have turned the success of lower performing students around using differentiated instructional techniques including collaborative learning, project-based learning and service learning. I do not accept the notion that some students fit a profile of failure and should be side-tracked. I am committed to the success of each and every one of my students. I believe no student should be given up on. I love that none of my students are the same and I value their diversity, linguistic, behavioral, cognitive or otherwise. I do not accept the notion that a student's difference is, necessarily, a hindrance towards their learning and hold the onus upon myself to find ways to facilitate learning for all of my students. Finally, I am aware of the importance of collaboration between faculty and staff. Cross-content instruction is not only important for the student's cognition, but is also important for a teacher's professional development. I believe strongly that a teacher's classroom is a place of constant innovation and improvement, and the sharing of ideas between faculty and staff, as well as the close cross-content collaboration of teachers, is important in improving the overall success of teachers, and, by proxy, our students. We are all responsible for the success of every student in the school, not just those who are in our classroom.