Mandy Irick Class 3- Blog Post #3 Researching

Essential Learning from my PBL

PBLs are a definitely a way to humble you as an educator. For me being the control freak that I am many of the times, I plan everything out from top to bottom. With a PBL, you can plan, organize and construct all you want to but you will inevitably change and have to modify. I recently began a PBL with Tyler Kirby who teaches an eighth grade financial literacy class. After doing some research to present to ELA teachers about the power of choice in literacy and looking at the data trends, one over-arching question became prevalent. The question was how can we better prepare our students to be successful in life finding excitement in reading. I then modified it into the driving question of "how can a high school student effectively transition into a successful college freshman?" I mapped out the PBL to contain how I want them to derive at the question. A work contract was created by both of us to determining how the students were going to embark on this process. We decided that this would be the most effective way to help them navigate the process, management their time while providing them choice and chances for agency. Mini-lessons would be provided for core content such as constructing formal emails, formulating questions for interviews, and gallery walk protocols. It was at the beginning of the process after students had read the replies back from high school students on their surveys that they began to research. With research in general, you work with them on establishing a focus. Yes, their driving question was what they were suppose to be working on but they are needed something concrete as well. This developed into five to eight essentials that every student needs to possess to be successful in college and in life. I had pulled example articles that they could use and were part of their contract however I still wanted them to have free range to determine others they would like to incorporate. So students began their research. Unfortunately, I was out one day attending a conference and could not make it back in time for class. When I came back the next day, the first thing that my co-teacher said to me was "These kids do not know how to research!" The class is a mixed ability level group of eighth graders. It is disappointing to think that at this level, they still do not know how to properly research the information and utilize it effectively. The first question I thought of was "why is it that this students do not know how to research effectively?" One of the core components of my PBL and really any is being able to effectively research the driving question. When you can not use research to grow and develop your understandings and support findings, how can you really do an effective PBL? As I begin to think about the whys, I realized that through conversations in the past and reading research papers, students do not know how to support thoughts, identify reliable resources or even for that matter what is fact verses opinion. In a conversation with my eighth grade team, they talked about using two particular articles. The students were quick to point out that a statement was a fact just because it was written in the story. However, it wasn't a fact but an opinion the author expressed. When you think about this, it makes since why students struggle with research because they take everything for face value. They want to copy what they see rather than question is this a fact or more of a helpful opinion. With the driving questions our class focused on, it required information that was more opinion based then fact. After spending time reflecting, I posed to the class two questions: 1) How do you go about effectively researching? 2) What is the point in using research? From their responses, I learned a great deal. Many couldn't give me an answer while others gave me a simple yet textbook answer. None of them truly understand the value of research. My goal then became making them understand how valuable research is to us. The first step was building some mini-lessons so that I could transition into guided groups to really go more in to detail. The first mini-lesson was helping them to understand that identifying the big topics and then finding pieces of information to build off of. I gave them a simple article about how to be successful in college. There were 6 key topics they determined were essential. I connected this with their essentials. The next thing was a jigsaw activity where each person in the group was responsible for one of the essentials. They would then chart down a least three pieces of information one could be a direct quote, the others had to been in their own words. After so many minutes, they shared with their groups. Then they shared with the whole class. We focused looking at the information gathered to see if it supported their essential and explained why it was important. The mini-lesson then led into guided groups while the other worked independently on the research component. While in the small groups, one point that I wanted to drive home was just because someone says it, broadcasts it or writes it, does not make it fact. Many times, if it is read on the internet, it becomes a fact. This is not the case. With the type of information they were gathering, it was okay if it was based off of opinions or personal experiences rather than in-depth research. However, we did discuss reliable sources like college professors, college students past/present, college support services and articles that did do research on this topic. It was important for them to know that this was applicable to the topic they were researching but it won't apply to other topics. They needed to understand how to tell them differences between when you could use opinions to support your thoughts and when to use facts. Pulling the small groups and listening to them from the jigsaw activity really helped me to better understand my students' level of understanding when it came to research. I learned where they need support and the areas that they had some understanding of. Scaffolding became a must for us in this PBL. Breaking down how to began to learn how to research, record information and then apply it had to be done in steps. Since most of the students had difficulty with getting started, I took they learned from conversations and small group sessions to address those needs. From the start of the PBL, I learned so many things. It helped me reflect on what I had naturally assumed my students were able to do or complete. Listening to students was key as well to make sure that I provided what they needed instructional wise. It is safe to say that this PBL opened my eyes and helped me to understand the deficits that students are struggling with. It is easier to cite from memory information rather than apply it. The PBL helps clarify the the disconnections, lack of understanding and deficits that can't necessarily be determined in a traditional setting.