Peer Feedback
peer feedback #1: https://catchingtheinquirybug.wordpress.com
Kimberly,
I really enjoyed reading through your blog, as I had a lot of the same questions you did. It was interesting to read that you have already immersed yourself in inquiry learning, yet you still find yourself having questions. Your blog is easy to read and I enjoyed metaphor for catching the inquiry bug!
I particularly enjoyed your use of the "next step" column in your search results table. This helped me to see your thought process more clearly and to be able to see why you decided to change your boolean operators or words. I also appreciated reading your analysis of the databases/search engines in the "advantages" and "disadvantages" columns. I agreed with much of what you wrote and it was interesting to see another perspective as to what is good and bad about a tool.
Perhaps the thing that I liked most about your blog was how candid you were. In your initial post you described frustrations you have with inquiry learning and how you want to overcome them. I can relate to these as well, as not all students are the 'ideal' students that theorists speak about. It was refreshing to read your changing questions over time, and how you continued to have new questions. I particularly enjoyed your sentence about A+ Education where you wrote, "this is not a database I would use again." Your honest evaluation of the database created a genuine reading experience that I appreciated.
I learned the most from your response page, where you described some practical ideas for making task authentic. I enjoyed reading the ways in which teachers can create interest for students and make assessments more meaningful. Authentic tasks are difficult to create, and reading some examples made me feel less daunted with the task!
Though you had a lot of great questions and ideas, your blog felt as though it wasn't centred around a specific theme or idea about inquiry. Though you ended up discussing three main strategies in your response, the rest of your inquiry questions felt unrelated at times. If you had narrowed your search more in the beginning, it may have been more helpful for you to find results.
peer feedback #2: https://whatisinquirylearning.wordpress.com/
Natalie,
Your blog is easy to follow and I enjoyed working through your questions along with you as I read. You used the same Wordpress 'theme' that I did in a unit last semester, so it was fun to see it redesigned by someone else!
I enjoyed reading your authenticity while you were searching, and the honest questions you asked yourself. I too have had worries about doing 'full inquiry' in my English and history classroom, and it was nice to read that you do too! Perhaps after this unit we will become more brave? Your inquiry question, 'where can I use inquiry where I have not used it before' was interesting as well. It is easy to box inquiry into science or history/geography, but I was interested in seeing the results you had for a subject like PE.
The evolution of your questioning was easy to see as well. I especially loved when you recognised that you had forgotten one of your inquiry questions, but evaluated it and decided that this was okay--that inquiry is not always about following specific guidelines and thought processes. I learned through your blog that I need to let myself become more 'free' with my research process as well. If I had missed a question in my search, I probably would have gone back, but I learned from you that recognising WHY I forgot to think about that question is almost more important.
As a suggestion, have you thought about adding your final thoughts about each search engine or database, describing what you liked and didn't like about the tool? This may help you to identify later whether you want to go back and use it again, or what searches or types of sources you remember it being especially good at or especially frustrating with.
Created by author