Course Relfection: Information Literacy and Online Inquiry

As I reflect back on what I have learned during this course, my most striking revelation about the teaching of new literacy skills is the sheer number of new literacy skills that need to be taught to prepare students today for success. Fortunately, as a result of this course, I have also learned some effective ways to seamlessly incorporate these skills into inquiry-based projects designed around constructivist/constructionist theories of learning. While I have incorporated some constructivist/constructionist projects into my instruction in the past, the projects have been fairly small in scope and addressed only a small number of new literacy skills. After completing this course, I now feel prepared to implement extensive inquiry-based projects which address many content standards and new literacy skills. My future teaching practices will reflect the project-based learning strategies that I learned during this course.

My goal for the future is to develop a cross-curricular project for my students. I will discuss possible projects with the ninth grade English teachers and develop a plan for students to learn and practice new literacy skills in both classes. The scope of the project should include content standards for both English and Biology in addition to new literacy skills. We can develop a rubric to use for each class to address standards specific to each subject area. Approaching the project from both and English and a Biology standpoint will provide students with additional instruction and practice with new literacy skills, reinforcing the importance of these skills.