This fall graduate students in “IS516: School Library Media Center” are participating in bimonthly Twitter chats. The chats are based on the pull quotes from chapters in Maximizing School Librarian Leadership: Building Connections for Learning and Advocacy (ALA 2018).
We invite you to join us our chat on Monday, September 23rd from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. Central Time. Chat questions are posted on this blog on the Wednesday before our Monday chats.
September 23, 2019: #is516 Twitter Chat: Inquiry Learning
When students engage in inquiry learning,
they “build new knowledge by inquiring, thinking critically, identifying problems, and developing strategies for solving problems”
(AASL 2018, 34).
Inquiry learning can spark students’ curiosity and ignite their passions. Inquiry puts learners in the driver’s seat and leads them to invest in and care about the literacies, skills, and dispositions they develop during the process. As students pursue the answers to personally meaningful questions and engage in real-world projects, they learn how to learn and build their confidence. Hands-on, minds-on inquiry learning experiences help prepare young people to problem solve when confronted with the inevitable learning challenges that will characterize their futures.
Educators are responsible for creating the conditions in which inquiry learning can flourish. Inquiry doesn’t just happen; it must be expertly designed.
Building connections between required curriculum and students’ interests is essential. When two or more educators plan for inquiry, they increase the resources and knowledge at the collaboration table. They push each other’s creativity and codevelop more engaging learning experiences for students. When school librarians and classroom teachers coplan, coteach, and comonitor students’ inquiry learning process, they create opportunities for students to increase their content knowledge. They help students develop their ability to comprehend all types of texts and build future ready skills and strategies that are transferable to other learning contexts—both in and outside of school.
Comprehension strategies are essential for success in our personal, educational, and professional lives. Throughout the inquiry process, students (and adults) access and use information for which they have little, incomplete, or no background knowledge. “Regardless of the content and whether ideas and information are communicated in print or multimodal texts, students begin and progress on their literacy journeys by learning and developing their ability to effectively read and write” (Moreillon 2017a, 87). The traditional literacies—reading, writing, listening, and speaking—are called into service during inquiry learning.
School librarians can be leaders in codeveloping, coimplementing, and sustaining a culture of reading and inquiry in their schools. When school sites or entire districts adopt and practice a single inquiry model, and teach and reinforce reading comprehension strategies, students will have multiple opportunities to achieve successful deeper learning.
#is516 Chat Questions
These are the questions that will guide our chat (for copy and paste):
Q.1: How is research/inquiry currently taught in your school?
Q.2: What is/could be the connection between inquiry and #makerspaces?
Q.3: What common beliefs about literacy learning do classroom teachers and school librarians share?
Q.4: What is the relationship among inquiry, information literacy, and reading comprehension?
Please respond with A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4 and bring your ideas, resources, experience, questions, and dilemmas to our conversation so we can learn with and from you!
For previous chat questions and archives, visit our IS516 course wiki page.
Thank you!
Works Cited
American Association of School Librarians. 2018. National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. Chicago: ALA.
Moreillon, Judi. 2017. “Literacy Leadership and the School Librarian: Reading and Writing—Foundational Skills for Multiple Literacies.” In The Many Faces of School Library Leadership, 2nd ed., edited by Sharon Coatney and Violet H. Harada, 86-108. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.