How can we get students to become more comfortable with unfamiliar topics? Introduce them to different genres. Teach them the "methods" behind dissecting genres, and then allow them to try it for themselves. This will absolutely create some wobbling. As the topic is unfamiliar to begin with, students will inherently feel as they are out of their comfort zone. They will probably resist at first, as most people do when they are forced to do something they have never done before. I feel like students will go through the process that Beth, Nicole, and Amy did in our reading last night: they will resist, go through some "crisis" (as it was described a couple times), and eventually walk away with a new perspective.
How does this fit in with inquiry? It is essentially the backbone of inquiry. When you participate in an inquiry-driven activity, you are not given rules. You are free to mess and muck around and see what happens. Although the students will have the process, they are not given the parameters of their different genres. They have to mess and muck around and find out how different parts fit into their genre (things like purpose, audience, etc). This will cause an incredible amount of wobbling at first, especially for students who don't like to feel out of control. The students who tend to be a bit more OCD and, for lack of a better phrase, need the "cookbook style" of teaching will absolutely have a hard time with this. Again, I feel this wobbling will decrease as the project moves on.
The last part is motivation. How can we get students to be motivated to participate in such a "wobbly" activity? I think the answer is that we allow them to choose. The students must absolutely be taken through the process with some known genres, but once it's time for them to embark on their own project, it's theirs. They have ownership over their project, and they control where the project goes. This tends to motivate students to maybe try a little harder and do a little bit better.
Although the process is not always linear, I think this sums up what I have said:
For me, the most relevant piece of this is motivation. Finding ways to motivate students is an essential piece of today's education process. One issue I would have in my classroom is that one person would decide on a great inquiry piece and numerous people would just follow suit. Originality and motivation are equally important.
ReplyDeleteI love your linear process. This helps students to understand the importance of questioning and wobbling to understanding the process. All of these points are needed pieces to looking at unfamiliar topics. I see this as a process for so many different types of curriculum.
I agree with your comment about the students taking ownership. I think some of the activities we have been doing that start to involve students in the processes will help the students take ownership. Showing them the whys and the hows of what they are doing an pd why those things are important
ReplyDeleteI really honed in on your part about motivation. When my students have to write their research papers, I give them a huge list of "famous" people to try to give them a choice in their project so that they feel they have a vested interest. It really works because those who are interested in sports pick an influential athlete, my history-loving kids pick a political leader or a well-known president, and those who like pop culture tend to pick a contemporary artist or public figure. I like this because I think it is important to allow for an atmosphere that lends them to some sort of internal motivation like you are saying. I know I need to find more ways to get them motivated by presenting situations like this.
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