Eighth+Grade+Free+Choice+Inquiry

=Background:=

This was my first fully collaborative project as a school library media specialist. I was excited to find a willing partner in Mrs. Wise. We had an informal conversation in January about the traditional research project she does with the eighth graders during second semester. She shared that she was dreading starting it because it always felt like pulling teeth to get students to research. At the time, I wondered how I could help ease her stress and work with her on a collaborative unit, but I didn't feel prepared to offer my services quite yet.

With this conversation in mind, and a bit of course reading completed, I approached her about collaborating on the research. I offered to co-teach and assist in any way needed to help make it a success. With her quick agreement, I set off looking for better ways to lead students in research. I didn't have to look far since in the next week of readings for S574 I read about a variety of models, including the Pre-Search developed by Virginia Rankin. Her process focuses "on building a solid foundation prior to materials exploration" (Lamb b). Having discovered a weakness I had in leading the research process with junior high students, I thought I would include this as part of our collaborative unit. I was especially excited when I was exploring the Exploratorium samples and found the "The Freedom to Choose" Inquiry for Grade 7 (Lamb, Preddy). Once again I thought of our eighth graders' needs and thought this was an answer to prayers. They needed more time to think about their topics and find reliable resources //before// beginning the actual research!

I shared the Pre-Search idea and a link to the "[|Freedom to Choose]" Inquiry lesson with Mrs. Wise. She was excited about starting our research unit with the Pre-Search. She agreed that we (teachers) often gloss over steps that end up being more important than we make them. From her enthusiasm, I set out to start planning my portion of the inquiry project.

=**Planning:**= Planning with Mrs. Wise through some informal discussions and numerous emails, led to a balanced collaborative unit. She shared the English standards she wanted to focus on, and I added the information standards. We divided the activities between the two of us, giving each time to lead, co-teach, or assist the other. The overall plans are laid out on the following collaborative planning sheet (I designed for S571 using several examples listed at bottom of sheet).



=**The Lessons:**=

**Pre-Search Activities**
The first lesson includes a brief introduction to the inquiry project, followed by guided brainstorming and narrowing of the topic. The full lesson plan (teacher instructions) can be seen by clicking on the link below.



The main part of the instructions are contained in the Google presentation. Tis presentation was adapted from the "Freedom to Choose" Inquiry (Lamb, Preddy).

Inquiry Part One Presentation

One possible adaptation would be to provide a handout rather than having students use their own paper for the brainstorming and topic narrowing activities. This would help students who struggle with following directions, have visual impairments which make viewing the screen difficult (the worksheet can be enlarged easily), or for students who are absent on the day of these activities. The handout is included below:



**Student Examples**
The following links will take you to student examples.





The assessment tool for this activity is a checklist. Students will self-evaluate and then the SLMS and/or teacher will verify their evaluations. The assessment checklist is linked below (handout would be cut in half vertically, so each student received half of the sheet).



**Feedback** **/ Review**
In discussing this lesson, Mrs. Wise and I agreed that overall the lesson went well. We needed to allow more time for her second class, since many of the students needed extra time to complete the related terms and sentences. We also needed more explanations for some students in both classes.. The brainstorming handout would have been a good choice for several students, but it was developed after reflecting on this lesson. It will be handy for next year's projects.

Mrs. Wise loved having another "teacher" to assist with the research process. From our initial discussions concerning not spending enough time on this area, we were both pleased with the results. We noticed some students were writing so many ideas down that they were writing in the margins! Other students needed a bit of prompting, such as switching to another category, but overall the majority of the students were actively working. They even chatted amongst themselves bouncing ideas off each other and helping each other expand their lists.

One pitfall was students losing their brainstorming sheets and forgetting what their top choices were. This only happened for a couple students, but we decided we should have kept track of students' top choices just in case.

We also decided (after the fact) that having students self-evaluate using the checklist would've been beneficial. Instead, all the evaluation was on us. So, we changed our lesson plan for next year (as presented here). Another beneficial hindsight was the idea of having the brainstorming handouts for students who were absent. We discussed the possibility of distributing these to a whole class, or having a better illustration of layout to help those students who struggle with organization.

Resources Activities
The resources activities include whole class, small group, and individual components. These activities took place over 4 days, allowing enough time for browsing resources and determining a final topic before the individual component could be completed. The full lesson plan (teacher instructions) can be seen by clicking on the link below.



For the second class, the group activity was more scaffolded. We started the concept map together, going beyond the four categories with a couple examples of each. Then, each group took our whole class ideas and expanded them.

**Group Concept Maps:**
Examples of concept maps are included below. Notice the four main areas with more specific resources for each.





The rubric for the concept maps can be found at @http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1885517&.

**Student Handout (Individual)**:
The individual portion of the resources evaluation included a handout for the students to fill out. Since they had already noted resources that would work for their top 4 topics, some of these resources were already discovered. Click on the link below to see the handout.



**Student Examples (Individual):**
The following links will take you to student's resource evaluations. Not only did they tell what resources would and would not help, but they also noted //why//.





**Feedback and Review:**
Reflecting on these activities, we felt they went well overall. It seems that large paper and markers are all we need sometimes to get students rolling! Some groups needed guidance expanding their ideas (not just "Internet" but specific search engines, websites, and databases that could help with research in general). Many groups came up with some great community resources as well. The groups were chosen by the students, and all groups seemed to work well, writing down each others' ideas. The groups self-delegated scribes in some instances, and in others each person had a different marker color to show what they contributed.

For the individual activity, we felt the students did a good job overall determining which resources would be helpful for their projects and which ones would not. A few students became frustrated as they tried to find reliable sources on the internet. One student was considering researching Michael Jackson, but with Jackson's recent death and the numerous fan sites that the student found, he decided to try a different topic. He felt there was too much to sort through to find reliable sources.