Yolanda's Reflection

EDUC 6712 I-4 – Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom


At the culmination of this course I have gained a deeper understanding of how to teach more effectively the new literacy skills my students need to learn. Although I do technology integration in my classroom as much as I can (which I know is not enough, due to TAKS preparation), I know my students are behind on the skills they should already know. One of the things I would like to emphasize more in my classroom is doing research and synthesizing of information, as well as creation of more digital products. I believe what stroked me the most during this course is that most of my third graders struggle to put main ideas together to show their understanding of a subject, thus synthesizing is a difficult skill to accomplish. Although this reality is disappointing it is pretty much the norm in most schools as students are not challenged to think outside the box and to construct meaning. They are basically trained to do the traditional paper and pencil drills; multiple choice questions; or even worse, true or false answers.

My plan for the future is to continue teaching my students the new literacy skills they need to learn to become effective learners and producers of knowledge in this century. I would like to integrate more hands-on-learning opportunities, where I can guide them to construct their inquiry questions and synthesizing, which are two of the skills I learned in this course. I think one of the challenges in today’s education is keeping students interested in the subjects they are required to learn. By taking the approach of having my students answer their own questions, I believe their interest will be sparked, their creativity will be enhanced, and they will get a sense of ownership in their learning.

My professional goals related to Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom include attending the Texas Computer Education Agency conference in Austin, Texas, in February where I will be attending seminars to learn how other educators are integrating technology in their classrooms, as well as presenting with my school district our technology summer camps curriculum and projects. Additionally, next summer I plan to teach at the next technology summer camps, where some of the new skills I learned in this course will be added to my curriculum.

This course was very helpful to me because the unit overview we constructed for our applications is something I can use as a base for constructing future lessons. The knowledge I gained from this course, is knowledge I can apply to my teaching. I enjoyed it!