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Throughout
the semester, you are asked to write five responses to posed
questions that will facilitate your thinking about your (1)
inspiration for teaching; (2) emerging beliefs about student
learning; and (3) early understandings of educational research and
how each of these three areas relate to your field experience. At
the end of the semester, your five documented responses will be
compiled to create an initial Inquiry Journal that will chronicle
some of your early understandings of teaching and learning.
Each entry should be approximately two pages long and should
relate to the provided guided inquiry questions found below. At
the end of the semester, your inquiry journal responses will be
added to your electronic portfolio. Each entry is worth 4 points;
combined they are worth 20 points (20% of your course grade).
Guided Inquiry Questions for Journal Entries:
Guided Inquiry Questions #1:
What are three learning goals
that you'd like to achieve throughout your experiences in
classes this semester? What are three learning goals that you'd
like to achieve throughout your field experience?
When answering these questions, please take time to reflect on
your own experiences that you've had as a student and identify
goals you would like to achieve as you begin your transition
from being a student to becoming a teacher. Please be
descriptive in your writing so your answer is not just
understood by your reader but is also felt with emotion.
Guided Inquiry Questions #2:
Based on your early observations, how do you think students
learn best? In other words,
What are your emerging beliefs about how students learn best?
When answering these questions, please take time to consider
topics as environment, motivation, and experience. When answering
this question, it may be helpful to provide specific examples
based on your early observations of one or two students.
Guided Inquiry Question #3:
How does the content from the books Common Bonds and Because
We Can Change the World connect with your ideas of teaching
and your field experience?
When answering this question, please be sure to use direct
references from BOTH texts that highlight what you found important
to know. Please make connections from the text to your own
understandings and experiences in the field.
Guided Inquiry Questions #4:
What thoughts and opinions do you have on the topic of
educational research?
What are some educational topics that you would consider studying
based on the observations you have made in the field and why do
you believe that those topics are important to study?
When answering these questions, please be sure to clearly state at
least two different topics that you would consider studying in the
future and make connections between what you've learned in class
and through your field observations.
Guided
Inquiry Questions #5:
What
have you learned from observing the students in the field? What
have you learned from observing the teacher(s) in the field?
When
answering these questions, be sure to identify specific examples
of student and teacher actions that have helped you to learn
something that you did not know prior to your field experience.
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Your inquiry journal is intended to document some of your
initial inquiries on the topics of teaching, learning and
research throughout our course. Although the entries can be
viewed as a personal narrative, your writing does need to
maintain integrity with the assignment and be professional in
composition. All entries are worth four points and will be combined together at the
end of the semester to become an inquiry journal.
The following rubric will be used to grade your inquiry journal
entries:
1 point for responding directly to the guided question(s)
2 points for providing supporting details to explain your response
.5 point for writing a concise and grammatically correct response
.5 point for omitting all spelling and typographical errors from
your response
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