Inquiry Lesson Plan

            For our second lesson we taught using an inquiry/indirect lesson plan. We began today by reminding students of where we're at in the movie making process. We told students that they had about 5 minutes to put the finishing touches on their commercials and then we'd be performing them in front of the class. Luckily everyone was prepared well and the commercials.The commercials were so cute and adorable and made me so proud that the students were able to create them on their own and perform them in front of their classmates.
           Since this lesson is through inquiry steps, we reviewed the inquiry steps and showed students how they would use the inquiry steps to connect with their movies.

We gave each group a "Forecast Form" that they were to use to predict how much money their company would make off of their movie.

The estimations the students came up with were pretty reasonable and I know that made my cooperating teachers and me very excited that students were grasping the concepts that they were learning.
           Teaching through the inquiry steps was something I was definitely not used to. To be honest, I wasn't even really sure of the inquiry steps until my previous teachers had taught the students it. I don't think I've ever been taught through an inquiry process, or if I have, I have little to no recollection of it! It was definitely a little different and challenging at a point, but I can see why it's important. When we taught through direct instruction, we were teaching the students the whole time, lecturing them almost, while they sat there and took it all in. Sitting for a forty minute period listening to someone talk is a struggle for anyone, but even more of a struggle for young students who are doing their best to focus but simply can't. With the inquiry lesson plan it worked well because students had the chance to work together and work the problem out themselves without being told how to do it. This put more of the responsibility on the student, which is necessary. Students seemed to understand what was being asked of them during the inquiry process, were able to comprehend what was being taught, and each group was able to provide us with an answer to the question.