There is consistently school reform going on in my district, and specifically within my school. My school is currently working on challenging our high achieving students with a focus on implementing more inquiry based lessons and extension of activities. Duke (2013) argues, “For the U.S. to reclaim its position in the forefront of academic achievement, it must pay more attention to its high achievers” (Duke, p. 48). As an educator, my goal is to get my students to achieve in whatever way they are able, not just focusing on passing a standardized assessment. In my classroom, I focus on growth mindset and goal setting (especially discussing attainable and measurable goals). Duke (2013) states, “Excellence, after all, pertains to what lies beyond standardization.
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49). I couldn’t agree more with Gutierrez (2014) when she stated, “Standardized tests are a limited measure of what students actually know” (Gutierrez, p.21). One of our school goals, and a personal classroom goal is to measure what students know in new and innovative ways. One way we have chosen to measure our students is through teaching inquiry and analytical thinking. Duke (2013) argues, “For U.S. students to compete more successfully with their international peers, they must develop a greater focus on scientific inquiry and analytical thinking, learn better how to find reliable information, and develop greater skill in communicating and working with other people” (Duke, p. 46). My team, in which we teach science and social studies, created inquiry rotations. Each teacher chose three focus topics (2 science and 1 social studies) to become an expert on (topics were selected based on data from a benchmark). Each teacher chose a delivery method and spent time ‘studying’ their topic. Each week the classes would rotate to a different teacher’s
49). I couldn’t agree more with Gutierrez (2014) when she stated, “Standardized tests are a limited measure of what students actually know” (Gutierrez, p.21). One of our school goals, and a personal classroom goal is to measure what students know in new and innovative ways. One way we have chosen to measure our students is through teaching inquiry and analytical thinking. Duke (2013) argues, “For U.S. students to compete more successfully with their international peers, they must develop a greater focus on scientific inquiry and analytical thinking, learn better how to find reliable information, and develop greater skill in communicating and working with other people” (Duke, p. 46). My team, in which we teach science and social studies, created inquiry rotations. Each teacher chose three focus topics (2 science and 1 social studies) to become an expert on (topics were selected based on data from a benchmark). Each teacher chose a delivery method and spent time ‘studying’ their topic. Each week the classes would rotate to a different teacher’s