Weaving

I'm having a hard time distinguishing between the stages. They seem to overlap. For my inquiry, I guess this is where I would decide 1)how to organize my information, 2)what I will use and what will be discarded, and 3)whether or not I am missing anything.

I am not a very organized note taker. I use a notebook and scribble down facts as I go through each resource when I really should have pages for each subtopic and record the information systematically. However, I do teach my students how to use index cards for their notes and to use topic headings. :-) They often rubberband cards of the same topic together or use topic envelopes. I should do that myself!

The How Can We Improve Crawfordsville PBL is a persuasive piece so students are shown an example. We break down the piece and discuss how the most powerful arguments should be made first, supporting details, and how to anticipate objections to the proposal and address them in the presentation. We also discuss the aspects of an effective PowerPoint.

Wiggling

Annette says that that wiggling is often the toughest stage and that students are "often uncertain about what they've found and where they're going with a project." I can definitely relate to the uncertainty aspect of this stage. For one, I have no idea what my final product will be.
In our PBL unit, some of the things that I do to help my students through the "Wiggling" stage include rubrics, project checklists, sample questions to use in an interview, plus mini-lessons on paraphrasing, how to conduct an interview, citing resources, evaluating websites, among others. I don't let my students print off or cut and paste info from websites; they must paraphrase as they go.

Here are some documents that I use to help my students along with inquiry projects:

Questions for Consideration - Chocolate Unit
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AeXtw-TmoTjiZGNtNng0ajRfMWhtY3Q0NGZr&hl=en

Bibliography Format
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AeXtw-TmoTjiZGNtNng0ajRfM2Z0bjlza2M2&hl=en

Website Evaluation Form
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AeXtw-TmoTjiZGNtNng0ajRfMmdyZmo3amZx&hl=en

Planning and Record of Work
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AeXtw-TmoTjiZGNtNng0ajRfMHRmd2J4OGc3&hl=en

Webbing II

I copy and pasted the resource info (website address, book info) onto a Word document to keep track of all the possiblities. Some of the websites that looked promising at first glance turned out to be duds upon further review. To narrow down the book list, I went to the library to look at the books' table of contents.

Here are the resources that made the cut-

Books:

• Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey: A Journey to Music's Heart & Soul by Bill Wyman


• Blues Journey by Walter Dean Myers

Websites:

• www.pbs.org/theblues/roadtrip.html


• www.scaruffi.com/history/blues.html

Here is a link to my Diigo social bookmark listing additional websites of interest:

http://secure.diigo.com/user/michellevan

In a PBL project we do on how to improve our community, we have our students interview an expert as one of their resources. They also might use newspaper articles, state publications, city and county documents, and real estate publications as well as internet sites.

Webbing

Search Strategies

The first place I looked for resources was the online catalog of our public library. It may be my age, but I tend to go for print before the Internet. I found plenty of promising resources, plus some that were on other topics from my web that I had decided not to pursue. It was hard not to get sidetracked. I wrote down the titles of 10 possibilities. Then I went to the Internet and found a half a dozen promising sites. I'm sure there's probably a good video out available somewhere, but keeping the time factor in mind, I'm not going to pursue looking for one.

This would be a good place to use Rankin's Pre-Search with my students. They're not very good at keyword searches or skimming material to find relevant information. For them I might model a keyword search- first using broad terms and then narrowing the terms (being more specific) or adding qualifiers. For example, using our library's online catalog I would type in "the blues" and show that there are 22 results- including books about depression. Type in "the blues" +"music" and you get only 11 hits. "The blues" + "history" only gets you 4.
For research/inquiry assignments, I require that students use at least 3 different types of resources. We spend time talking about how to analyze websites and how to cite sources. To help students who are overwhelmed by the Internet, INSPIRE would be a good resource. If students all have the same general topic, a Pathfinder could be created to narrow the choices.

Done Wondering

Narrowing and Contemplating

First of all, I revised my web, so here's the new one:
http://mywebspiration.com/view/311043a25d50

Secondly, I've decided on on my "managable chunk." At least, I hope it's going to be managable. In both the "Selecting a Topic" and "Formulating a Focus" stages of Kuhlthau's ISP model, she suggests that students consider task, time, interest, and availabilty of information in their decision making process. As a result, I'm going to investigate major events in Blues history/the evolution of the Blues. I chose this strand of my web because I don't have a burning desire to do a bio on an artist, and I thought the other two strands probably didn't have much depth to them. I've already done some checking into resources and that's definitely not going to be an issue.

What is going to be an issue, however, is the time facor. My students are submitting their essays this Thursday, so I will have 70 500+ word essays to grade, plus do all the homework for this class, plus I have a student teacher starting next week, plus I am going to the Reading Recovery Conference in Columbus, Ohio Feb. 6-9. Oh, and the Super Bowl is the 7th. (And this is blogging project is due by the 8th!!) Yikes! I am feeling overwhelmed. As for the affective aspect of her model, Kuhlthau would say that I am in need of a teacher "Zone of Intervention." :-)

Wondering

I see that I jumped the gun a little by revealing my topic choice in the Watching post. I also already generated a list of research questions, created a web, and started a list of resources! Hmmm, jumping right in without reading all the directions sounds like something my students would do. But after going back and reading the information on Wondering, I see that there is still much I need to do here. First off, I need to state my purpose, so.....My purpose for choosing this topic was purely for my own pleasure- an extension of my love of all kinds of music. And then there's......

Background Knowledge

Attitudes: I love the blues!

Experience: I grew up listening to the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughan- all of whom have roots in the blues. My first live experience with pure blues was in college. I went to see the Marshall Tucker Band (or was it the Charlie Daniels Band?) and the warm-up act was Muddy Waters. His performance was the better by far - which may be why I don't remember who the opening act was! In the last several years I have listen to the blues more and more. When we're in Chicago, we go to Buddy Guy's Legends to listen to live blues and we attend blues concerts at Purdue as well as attending the Jazz and Blues Fest here in town.

Knowledge: What do I know about the blues? Not much. I know they started in the south. I know the lyrics often contain symbolism and certain lines are repeated. I know the songs are usually about life struggles and the tempo is usually slow. I know the names of a few of pioneers of the blues. I know that Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago are "blues cities."

Finding Your Focus

Here's the link to the web I used to organize my questions about the blues:

http://www.mywebspiration.com/view/305312a9771

I would tell my students that this is way too big of a research project, so I guess I need to narrow my focus. This is going to be a tough decision.

Watching

Coming up with a list of topics took me awhile. Even in high school, it was difficult for me to write a paper in just a few days because I needed time to "incubate" my ideas before I could begin. I can sympathize with many of my students because I know I would not do well on the ISTEP writing prompt! Anyway, I started thinking about the possibilities last Thursday and came up with only two -

• the Underground Railroad - I have always has a fascination with this topic and would like to know more- especially Indiana's role in it.


• the blues - the older I get the more I like and appreciate this style of music

Since then I have come up with several others:

• cruises - I've never been on one and all my friends say they're amazing


• how to write a picture book - One of my goals in life.


• seabirds of Florida - We spend a lot of our vacation time in Florida and I enjoy watching the various birds - especially the pelicans.


• seashells of Florida -Shelling is very relaxing and the variety is amazing .


• shade plants - Several 100 year old oak trees in yard= no sun for plants. Have conquered the "problem" in some areas but not others.


• for sale by owner - Love the idea of selling our house w/o having to pay the huge commission.


• photography - Got a 35mm camera a few years back. Would love to become a "pro."

As you can tell by my blog title - I decided to go with the blues. I've been working on a poetry unit and recently purchased Walter Dean Myers' Blues Journey for my classroom. I absolutely love it, so I'm calling it my inspiration. Plus Memphis is on my list of cities to visit. Not to mention, some of my other topics would require some kind of follow-through and I don't need another project right now. :-)