Growing Inquiry

explanation

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Initiation

At the beginning of my inquiry task I didn't really even know what inquiry learning was!  I began by learning about inquiry-based methods, and saw that there wasn't much information on teaching English, which is my main subject this year.  I felt worried about starting my inquiry research in to English teaching, and felt some self-doubt about this whole task in general!  It felt like a big undertaking.

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Selection

I didn't know very much about using inquiry learning in an English classroom, so this was a good starting point.  My first inquiry questions were long and vague in nature.  How can high school teachers use inquiry learning to engage students in reading and English?  How can inquiry larning be used to teach literature and reading for pleasure?  In what ways does an inquiry approach to teaching English and literature improve student engagement and rigour?  While they were good questions, I had too many ideas and I found difficult to search specific answers with them.  I still felt excited during this stage, as I had settled on a topic and was beginning to learn.

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Exploration

At this point I realised I needed to condense my questions into one idea.  My next inquiry question became: How can high school English teachers use an inquiry learning approach to engage students and add rigour to the curriculum and to enhance students' desire to read for pleasure?  This question worked until I began to feel bogged down in the vast array of search engines and databases I had to research in. I began to feel frustrated with the whole task and doubt about my topic.  At this point I changed my question to: What inquiry learning activities can high school English teachers use to engage students, add rigour and enhance students' desire to read for pleasure?  This question was more specific and more concrete.

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Formation

At this point I made the commitment to change my question to an even more basic one: In what practical ways can inquiry learning be implemented into the high school English classroom to engage students and add rigour to the curriculum?  I was frustrated with all the theoretical information I found, and wanted practical answers.  Once I changed my question to it's final form, I felt much more confident and started to research with a renewed desire to learn.  I started to find happiness in the information I was learning and looking for ways I could apply it in my classroom.

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Collection

Curating my collection was perhaps the most difficult, but the most rewarding part of my inquiry process. Choosing the top most useful sources was difficult, as I found so many that I wanted to curate.  Although I felt tired of researching, I felt fulfilled in the amount of hard work I had done.  I was also excited to go use my new understanding immediately in my classroom!

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Presentation

Because I was making this website while I was going through all the stages of the inquiry process, I felt like the Presentation Stage happened bit by bit the whole way through.  When I was done curating and had finally answered my inquiry question I felt proud at all my hard work and couldn't wait to show other people what I had researched.