Inquiry+Application

Wendy Seitz ECI 430 Inquiry Application  I think that an inquiry project would be a wonderful way to integrate social studies and language arts in one project. Students can use their writing skills to create a socialistic work that answers a question as unique as they are. Allowing students to choose any topic they want provides students will the opportunity to think for themselves. So often students only think about what they will be tested on and what they are expected to know that they leave questions they have unanswered. As teachers we can harness the student’s natural curiosity to teach them how to do more advanced research and cite sources.  In sixth grade my language arts teacher assigned us a semester long project. At first the whole class groaned and talked about how horrible it was going to be. The project was basically an inquiry project. We were allowed to pick any topic we wanted and were required to do the most in-depth research we had done to this point. During this process we had plenty of time to work on it during class. The teacher also taught many mini-lessons on different research topics including MLA formatting, creating an outline, creating research notecards, and citing sources. The finished product required us to make a presentation in front of the class and hand in a document that included a cover page, table of contents, outline, draft, final copy, drawings, and research cards. It was quite a project, but it really taught us all how to really do a research project.  Using my previous middle school experience with inquiry projects I really feel that I can share the experience with my own students. Even before we were assigned the inquiry project I wanted to do some form of research project like I had in school. I think that breaking the project down into mini-lessons and taking the whole semester to do it really allows students to absorb the information. My teacher in school also assigned another research project for the second semester. The second time around allowed us to show off what we had learned and get any help with things we hadn’t mastered the first time around. Using the inquiry project idea in my class is something that I really want to do and really think is important for my students. Throughout school students will be expected to think for themselves and do research to create different papers and other articles of work. Starting to teach the students early in school can really help them because even if they don’t get every idea down perfectly, they have a basis to work off of. They also know what they don’t understand well and can ask future teachers to help them perfect their skills. Using inquiry in my classroom really makes me excited and makes me think about how I would use it in my classroom.