Zohra+Sadat+Inquiry+Application+Essay

Zohra Sadat ECI 430/435 Inquiry Application Essay  Initially starting with the Inquiry Project, I was having some difficulty. I am so used to having my teachers give me specific topics to write about that I almost felt overwhelmed with the fact that I could write about anything. I believe though, that this project would work well in a middle school setting with the proper adjustments. I think that the project should be a bit more structured and scaffolded for the kids, so they won’t get as overwhelmed as I did. Only after completing this assignment do I realize the purpose and benefit of it. I think that the final product speaks for itself; it is something that both students and teachers alike will enjoy. I also feel like the students will appreciate the process of this project because it allows for creative thinking and question-based analysis.

I like both the historical/inquiry and Paul Harvey parts of this project, so I would definitely implement both of these in my classroom. Even though I will probably be teaching either Social Studies or Language Arts, I feel that both parts would work effectively in the classes. It’s all about interdisciplinary connections and this project allows for that. The first step in this project is choosing a topic. Like I mentioned before, this was difficult for me because of my past learning habits. With my students, I would try to help in their topic-choosing process. College students are able to handle the amount of power in choosing their power. I still want the students to have choice in their project, but I will help and guide with this choice as much as I can. This way, they will be able to have a suitable subject for both the inquiry and Paul Harvey sections of the project. I would give them suggestions, like famous people in history that have overcome some adversity or specific themes and events that may be able to work well.

Even though we worked some days in class for our own inquiry project, I feel like middle school students would need more in-class time. They may not have all the available resources outside of class, so I want to provide as much time and resources for them. I think that this project should be about a month-long process (no more than 6 weeks), with many built-in workshop days. On these days, the students will be able to go to the library for books and assistance from the librarians for research aid. I will also have the students work in the computer lab for their multimedia aspect. Of course, I would have ample time for peer and teacher feedback. This would be spread throughout the process, so the students would not get discouraged and know if they are on the right track or not. I would also take time in class to have students learn more about primary and secondary sources and how to critically analyze these sources in order to properly use them in their inquiry project.

This inquiry project would coincide perfectly with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. For 6th grade language arts, objective 1.01 states that students will be able to narrate a fictional or autobiographical account, which uses a range of appropriate strategies and expresses the significance of a certain event. If kids happen to choose a topic about a famous historical person, then this would fit in with this objective. Objective 1.03 states that learners will be able to work effectively in a group setting. This would be established through the student feedback and workshop days. For 7th grade language arts, competency goal 2 works well with this project because students will use a variety of sources and have to synthesize the acquired information into a coherent piece. The same goes for 8th grade language arts; both the first and second objective applies. As far as social studies, it is all about history. So tracing the history and finding the significance of their topic, students will be able to fulfill multiple competency goals.

The aim of this project is to get the students thinking about questions and topics that are important for them. This project doesn’t end with the final due date. It’s an ongoing process as inquiry should be. Hopefully the students will continue to question and develop their own hypotheses about the world around them.