When students become accustomed to adaptive reflection, teachers can let go of control of student learning.
My students just started a research argument, and it's like I'm teaching again for the first time. That's because my students are in the driver's seat: I'm using an Inquiry Learning Plan model.
In Letting Go: How to Give Your Students Control over Their Learning in the English Classroom, educators Meg Donhauser, Cathy Stutzman, and Heather Hersey offer the Inquiry Learning Plan (ILP) as a tool for students to direct, monitor, and to some degree assess their own learning. In twenty-first century classrooms there is no reason we can't "shift" learning management from teachers to students, and you can visit their companion website to learn more.
I did. And so far, so good. I've adapted their model to create the ILP assignment I've included below to assist students with planning and monitoring their learning and writing progress in their research argument. My own experience so far has been a classroom that feels and sounds more vibrant, with more student voices filling the airwaves. I have one student planning research into the local Rio de Flag watershed, another looking at the impact of the "Gucci blackface sweater" on the company's profit, and still another who is still narrowing ideas of an ethnographic study of the subcultures on her college campus. And this after only about the first 30 minutes of open-ended inquiry. I'm excited to see how their work progresses and to assist them in writing authentically for a professional community; most importantly, so are they!
This experience seems to concur with other educators who use ILP to promote self-reflective inquiry:
"In my AP Research class, students complete a year-long research project on a topic of their choosing; because they have to follow disciplines-specific rules and implement an appropriate research method, they end up having quite different learning plans. One student is currently gathering evidence through interviews and surveys; another is completing a t-test of secondary data; a few are writing the results section of their Academic Paper." - Meg Donahuser, post on Letting Go website, March 12, 2019
I crafted the following ILP assignment to guide students' development of writerly expertise. Feel free to use and adapt. I'll let you know how it goes!
Assignment Instructions: Inquiry Learning Plan
This document will serve as your Research Proposal. It is designed to help you plan for inquiry in this final writing assignment. As a writer in a specific community, you will need to establish goals, locate resources, and monitor progress. This plan will help you to prepare for the successful completion of your researched argument.
Most research starts with a question or problem. Formulate at least three questions about the issue you are interested in studying that can guide your inquiry. The questions should be open-ended and have multiple potential answers. These questions will help you better organize your own ideas and research findings but can and likely will change.
Complete each of the following four parts, which will guide your development of this writing assignment. You are in control of making many of the essential writing choices, and our writing community will assist you with any questions.
Part 1. What will you read?
List the materials and resources you will use to aid your inquiry. Include 8-10 secondary sources for research. These will be narrowed down in your paper. Then, use the “penny principle” and find 2 models of the genre you think you will write.
Part 2. What questions will you seek to answer? Choose questions that have multiple possible answers.
List your essential and guiding questions that you will use to begin your inquiry.
Once you narrow your focus list your revised issue question that you will seek to answer.
Part 3. How will you monitor your learning and progress?
What meta-cognitive efforts will you take to keep track of what and how you are learning, both through writing and about writing?
List 2-3 monitoring activities you will use (ie., journal entries, assessment of your levels of expertise of the “domains of knowledge”, RoCSS analysis, a reverse outline, other SA exercises from class…)
You will turn in two of these completed Reflection Exercises during the writing process for credit.
Part 4. So what? What is the outcome of your research? How will you demonstrate what you learned?
Summarize your take-away from primary and secondary research.
Then, decide who needs to hear your argument (the answer to your question) and which genre type is most effective for reaching this audience. Why is that the appropriate audience and why is that choice of genre likely to meet audience expectations?
For extra credit, design a rubric draft that can be used to evaluate your final assignment. Your rubric should name your categories for evaluation and offer a brief description of how you think each criterion should be judged.
Length: 1-2 pages, formatted with purpose
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