Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom Reflection

This past week I had a student who intentionally plagiarized on her project by copying word for word from a specific source. When she was confronted about plagiarizing she asked if she could have a chance to redo the assignment. I allowed her to redo the project; however, I noticed that when she turned the assignment in for the second time she had once again plagiarized from the same source. The only difference the second time was that she had changed a word or two from each sentence, thus she felt she had ‘made it her own’. It was at this moment that I realized she did not understand what plagiarizing entailed and therefore had most likely never learned the ‘New Literacy Skills’ taught throughout the course I am finishing in my Master’s studies at Walden University.

The New Literacy skills taught throughout this course include: Questioning, Understanding Resources, Evaluating, Synthesizing, and Transforming (QUEST). In order to teach these skills, educators must embed them into the content for a more natural classroom experience. The most striking revelation that I have had throughout this course is, “that children learn best when they practice skills and strategies within the context of authentic learning activities rather than artificial ones” (Eagleton & Dobler, 2007, p. 51). Although I have heard this in the past, I never quite understood how to make it work within a middle school mathematics classroom.

This course on Inquiry-Based learning has taught me how to create authentic, more meaningful learning experiences for my students and has provided me with helpful resources that include ways to teach the New Literacy Skills. Rather than having students solve problems with pre-established mathematical algorithms, I will teach my students how to problem solve through questioning, evaluating, synthesizing, and transforming information. It is my goal as a teacher to provide students with real-life experiences and as Dr. Warlick said, “graduate less with a transcript and more with a resume” (Laureate Education, 2009).

In order to prepare myself for this type of teaching there are still some things to learn. One professional development goal I have for the summer is to attend a workshop or class on how to create effective rubrics that assess student knowledge when it comes to authentic Inquiry-Based projects. I will need to call our district office and get in touch with the professional development planner for our area to find out whether or not there are any classes like this offered throughout the summer. If there are not any classes offered within my district, I will need to look on the Washington State Educational Website (OSPI) for more information regarding professional development opportunities.

As I look towards the next school year, I plan to start early by assigning Inquiry-Based projects that teach the New Literacy Skills. It is my hope that by doing so, I will not have students unknowingly plagiarize on large projects towards the end of the school year and into the future.

References:

Eagleton, M.B., & Dobler, E. (2007). Reading the Web: Strategies for Internet inquiry. New York: The Guilford Press.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). Supporting information literacy and online inquiry in the classroom. Baltimore: Author.