Strand2_Inquiry

 **Strand 2: Inquiry-Based Learning** How do we help teachers get beyond the idea that their subject matter is a Rolodex of facts to be taught before students can begin to inquire into the essence of the content? Inquiry-based learning engages both teachers and students. Inquiry-based learning captures the natural curiosity of the adolescent and holds his attention as he makes knowledge his own. Inquiry-based learning includes problem solving in a variety of ways: formulating hypotheses, imagining, using deductive and inductive thinking, and constructing meaning from content. For this to be accomplished, research methodology must be at the forefront of inquiry based instruction. Good research methods must be established before hypotheses can be formed, possible solutions to problems outlined, and suitable experimental designs developed. At Millbrook High School, teachers will use the International Baccaulaureate Middle Years and Diploma programmes to transform instruction into tactile- based inquiry learning through which students become independent learners. Students will learn how to incorporate research and observation into development of methods and procedures. Teachers at MHS will require extensive training and resources in order to master cross-curricular instruction and to transform instruction at MHS to inquiry-based, interdisciplinary teaching and learning.  Teachers will be trained to create units steeped in inquiry activities that meet the needs, interests, and growth of students. Teachers will also be trained to design instruction that provides students with a canvas on which they demonstrate mastery of the content and delve deeply into critical concepts through teacher facilitated learning opportunities.  Teachers also need training and ongoing professional development in the multiple aspects of 21st Century Skills - from technology integration to themes like global awareness and environmental literacy to learning skills like critical thinking and student collaboration. To teach research methodology teachers have to be exposed to and involed in research relating to their specific area of expertise. //Teacher Training/Professional Development: // Teachers will require extensive high level professional development and support in order to transform instruction at MHS into cross-curricular inquiry based learning. Ninety percent of the MHS faculty will attend authorized IB training in order to master the constructs of the MYP and DP. At the MYP level, the unit planner is the primary tool enabling teachers to deliver interdisciplinary lessons. MYP teachers will learn how to use the MYP Unit Planner to guide instruction and how to incorporate the Areas of Interaction (AOI) into lessons. For example, through the Areas of Interaction, teachers will devise purposeful connections between content areas that enable students to understand the relationships between subjects and to use that knowledge to personalize learning. In an art class, students studying 2 point perspective through building design would use the lens of Human Ingenuity to connect to slope, plane and gradient in their math classes. When students make significant connections between content areas, learning becomes relevant. Transforming the primary method of instructional delivery will also require significant follow up and support so teachers can become facile in the creation and delivery of interdisciplinary, inquiry-based instruction. Led by the MYP coordinator, interdisciplinary teacher teams will have release time throughout the year to collaboratively develop cross-curricular units utilizing the MYP Unit Planner tool. For example, the healthful living and algebra 1 teachers have explored creating a project using data from the health course to teach data matrices and usage of different equations - the release time can be used to bring these to curriculum teams together to refine and create lessons used across both areas.  Teachers will observe each other as they teach using the Unit Planners and provide each other with constructive feedback to enhance instruction. At the DP level, teachers will attend authorized training in order to learn about the specialized curriculum and its implementation. Teachers at Millbrook High School will learn how to pose problems in their discipline that have relevance to students. They will work with each other to find the primary concepts in their discipline and focus on the essence of the content for their lessons. They will learn to seek out and value students’ points of view; teachers will learn to facilitate learning rather than leading it. Teachers will learn to incorporate students’ suppositions into classrooms, allowing students to build their own bridges from present understandings to new, more complex understandings. Finally, teachers will learn to assess student learning through the context of teaching. Leading students through criterion-referenced assessments that are more than right-or-wrong responses, teachers will foster confidence in thinking. They will enable students to learn ahead of time what needs to be learned and how to internalize the knowledge. These aspects of becoming inquiry-based teachers will bring all students into a high level of learning, providing a scaffold for future academic success in post-secondary endeavors. Inquiry-based learning has long been a cornerstone in science instruction, but through the implementation of the International Baccalaureate programmes, all teachers will learn how to ask good questions and teach students to ask good questions. For example, a Civics and Economics teacher can guide students to ask questions about how important supreme court decisions affect their daily lives and allow students to discover the cases and the ramifications of the decisions using a variety of information resources - rather than provide facts about supreme court cases in a direct instruction lecture.  Teachers will find ways to help students connect content with lived experiences. They will integrate skills and content, rather than isolating them, so that a student can transfer knowledge from content area to content area, using her understanding of how she learns best to ensure authentic learning. Constantly, teachers will be expected to motivate students to think by defining and clarifying, identifying central ideas, biases, stereotypes, and assumptions. Students will learn how to collect data in all subjects. The students will learn to use various methods of organizing and publishing data—charts, graphs, diagrams—so that they can analyze and reflect on data collected. In technology, students will use the design cycle to create a finished product. Although the design cycle will be taught within technology, students will implement the cycle throughout other courses during their MYP and DP years. The design cycle will allow students to display their creativity through practical solutions. For example, students in Geometry will use SmartBoard technology to display significant concepts to peers, such as using the Geometry Sketch Pad program where they can show topics like transformations of shapes. As students learn to harness 21st century technology tools to teach other students, their own skill set and knowledge acquisition is intensified.  21st Century learning includes many different skills and themes including information, media, and technology skills to help students "live in a technology and media-driven environment, marked by access to an abundance of information, rapid changes in technology tools and the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an unprecedented scale" (Partnership for 21st Century Skills - The MILE Guide). Teachers will collaborate with teacher librarians/media specialists to create and implement lessons and projects that use new technology skills and implement information literacy skills across different curricular areas. For example, students in Algebra will research data sets to use in matrices when learning a variety of skills in beginning Algebra. Students in 10th grade English classes ask research questions about global problems (AIDS in Africa, the U.S. Role in Iraq, causes of global economy problems, and so on), use quality resources via online databases and books to answer those questions and communicate their results and ideas through current technologies like VoiceThread and MovieMaker. Every curricular area can be served by implementing project-based activities that implement information, media and technology skills. These technology and muli-media projects require equipment to support students completion of the work both in and out of classes including subscriptions with home access to multiple online databases and ebooks, computers - desktops and laptops, peripheral computer equipment (headphones, microphones, webcams, etc.), and so on. Teachers also need appropriate professional development/training to implement integration of these ever-changing skills and technologies including: [these are just ideas for training - from MILE guide by Partnership for 21st Century Skills: IntelTeach, New Literacies Teacher Leader Institute (through Friday Institute) - other thoughts: David Warlick sessions at school with PLTs, release time for collaborative planning and technology instruction (media specialist/teacher together).] Additionally, teachers will use writing in all subjects as a way to assess student knowledge and understanding as well as to allow students self-reflection about their learning. Teachers will also learn how to allow students some choice in the way they learn rather than holding all of them to the same methods. Finally, teachers will be encouraged to demonstrate their own desire to be lifelong learners and to be models to their students. Through teacher visits to IB World Schools, both within the confines of the United States at sister schools in other nations, teachers will see best practices in action. They will be able to observe master teachers using the IB strategies to craft relevant lessons and through these professional exchanges, teachers in all disciplines will increase their ability to deliver effective instruction to students.  A visit to a school outside of the United States will provide a teacher with a unique professional development experience - global awareness experienced first hand can be integrated into the teacher's lessons as well as overall understanding of educational principles. A Spanish teacher can visit a school in Peru and leave with an understanding of cultural differences as well as language differences to apply to lessons and activities at Millbrook. //Resources for Inquiry-based Education // In order to provide inquiry-based education at MHS, additional resources in several areas are required: creation of language labs, upfit of existing classrooms, research and tech stations; <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">upfit of library media centre <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, an IB professional library, increased IB resources for students and teachers, outdoor classrooms for authentic science instruction, additional lab equipment (an exact list of equipment and materials will be provided), user friendly laboratories. Four language labs will be created so that students can attain language acquisition. These labs will be established in the existing Language B building. Each lab, or Global Language Classroom), will include a classroom set of computers, a Smartboard (including peripherals) and videoconferencing capabilities so students can interact and learn from other students at sister IB Schools through out other countries. A language lab facilitator will assist teachers and students as they use these labs to explore a second language, ensuring that students develop both cultural and literary fluency in a non-native language. Students will communicate with students in other countries and will have access to international language experts through videoconferencing. Language B teachers and students will form partnerships with students and teachers in sister schools in Peru and China as they share cultural ideology. MHS students will share American customs with their peers in other countries and through these experiences will develop an appreciation for cultures that, though different, have value within the global community. With access to these resources to interact with students from other countries, Millbrook students will prepare themselves to successfully function in the global workforce. <span style="color: #008000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12.5pt;">For IB science labs, a suitable and user friendly layout will be established and derived. Equipment will be purchased that is appropriate for a variety of different inquiry based labs and development of inquiry based research projects. Classroom design will include a clear distinction between areas where theory presentation occurs and areas where laboratory studies are executed while providing the connection between both. A variety of modern lab equipment is a necessity to ensure that problem based questions are approached from a variety of different perspectives using a variety of different methods.

SMART boards will be purchased for each classroom to upfit existing classrooms and increase the interactive instruction that SMART boards encourage. Each classroom will have at least five networked computers to allow teachers to integrate more technology in daily lessons and provide students resources in the classroom that may have been previously only available at the school or public library. Additional teacher laptops will be needed to work along side SMART boards. Some classrooms will also use Student Response Systems in conjunction with SMART boards to increase formative assessments for quick understanding checks and increase responsive remediation in the classroom.

Research and Technology Stations: Classroom use of technology will be enhanced by addtional desktop stations and a SMART board; in addition, carts of wireless laptops will be available on each floor of our campus (six carts) to allow teachers more access to a flexible use of technology within their classrooms making it easier for teachers to integrate technology. Science Classrooms........................... As part of the MYP design cycle, all students in the MYP programme will take courses in Technology and these classrooms will need a class set of desktop or labtop computers with the latest software, printing stations, and SMART boards. The library media centre will have upgrades in both technology and print/information resources as well as physical needs. __Technology Hardware:__ Three SMART boards will be added to the teaching areas of the media centre, additional wiring will be added to the media centre to allow for additional desktop computers and a computer lab. The wireless laptops housed in the media centre will be upgraded to current standards. Handheld ebook readers and student laptops will be added that students are allowed to check out and use during the school day and at home to provide more access to all students regardless of what they have access to at home. Further peripherals to support multi-media technology projects that can be checked out to students and used with classes i.e. USB Flip cameras, microphones, etc.) An additional server will be added to provide space for students and faculty to save multi-media presentations and portfolio work. __Print/Information Resources:__ the media centre will purchase subscriptions to additional academic databases (like JSTOR, Questia, ABC Clio World and US History, CQ Research, Gale's Science Resource Center and so on), ebooks (particularly online reference and those with print versions that can be used for research), more print material to support new and existing course offerings i.e. DP programme classes, icluding but not limited to Math Studies, TOK, the extended essay, as well as new electives and language B offerings, and periodical subscriptions to support curricular areas and student reading needs. __Physical Needs:__ moveable shelving to allow more flexibility in the media center in terms of merging classes for guest speakers, large group presentations and small group teaching; more current/new soft seating to provide an inviting environment, a new 3M security system to protect new resources, and more modern shelving to highlight separate sections of the collection at different times based on various curricular areas. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';">