Clint Tanner

 Mini-Lesson #3: Reflection Presentation (Answering their questions through research) Description: The students will be working in groups of 2-3 to do research on questions they brought up during the first mini-lesson, Manifest Destiny Photo Exploration. They will narrow their focus down to 1-2 questions to research and answers or find explanations. Students will present their findings through a web 2.0 tool i.e. Google Slides, Prezi, PowerPoint, PowToon, or another approved digital resource. Students will learn different factors that played a role in westward expansion and hopefully discover a deeper understanding of the content.  Information Fluency/Inquiry:  On the first day of the mini-lesson I will show my students the  Manifest Destiny  picture by John Gast. I will have students take about 3 minutes to individually analyze the photo. Then I will call on students to take turns coming up to the board and highlight on different aspects of the painting. ...

 Paet 1:       The past three years I have taught 8th grade social studies. The inquiry process in my classroom is centered around unit DBQ's (Document Based Questions). This expands on the content and helps students use questioning as a way to sharpen their understanding and dive deeper. This has proven useful to drive students to learn more and my role in this process is to facilitate their learning. I will be switching over to teaching science next year and that means endless possibilities for inquiry based learning assignments!! I grew up loving science through the lens of inquiry and I cannot wait to spread this insight and discovery to my students.  Part 2: Mini-Lesson: Manifest Destiny In this lesson I will display the classic painting American Progress  by John Gast on the board. I have students spend 3 minutes silently analyzing the picture to themselves. I then get a clipboard and put a blank sheet of white paper on it and have the students...

My Goals: I want to understand how to better use technology to lead students through inquiry based learning. I want to develop a better understanding for information fluency.  Thought the past 3 modules we have discovered strategies for building our information fluency. From "Tips for Searching Google Effectively" in Module 2, in Module 3 where we discovered how to better search the Galileo site to find creditable sources, and in this weeks Module where we discussed the importance of mindset. These recourses and lessons have widened my understanding of evaluating information, as stated in my second goal. I am really looking forward to incorporating some of theses strategies and recourses in the future modules. I have always strived to be a teacher through inquiry, but am looking forward to seeing how I can blend it with my new knowledge.