Friday, June 13, 2014

A Party Crasher at the The Burke Inn Parlor, Looking Into the Conversation of Inquiry and Writing for the Science Classroom

I am spending the next few days gathering resources on the use of inquiry and writing in the science classroom.  I am currently meeting with other Writing Project members, and as we began the first day of research, we were prompted by a lesson which revealed the value of The Burke Inn Parlor Metaphor…  

·         Burke's Metaphor for the "Unending Conversation"
"Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress."
(Kenneth Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action3rd ed. 1941. Univ. of California Press, 1973)
I am in the process of discovering who is at the table talking about inquiry, which experts are there, and what has already been said.  I am learning all I can through the study of others' observations and conclusions so that I can join this conversation which has been raging for some time now and which will continue to engage seekers of knowledge for years to come. 

Gathering Information:
Poking Around - Research Sources Day 1- What are they talking about?
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/  (free membership)
                                             
Project Based Learning

Action Research Guide

Real Research – Day 2 and 3 – What are others saying?

Constructivist Model


Complex Learning – Cognitive Load Theory

Paul Kirschner – articles – cognitive load theory, against constructivism

Collaborative Learning

Varella

Writing in Science

Science Writing Heuristic

Betsy Fulwiler
Science Notebooks:  http://www.sciencenotebooks.org/

Books to Read
Writing in Science: How to Scaffold Instruction to Support Learning (2007), by Fulwiler— published by Heinemann

Writing in Science in Action: Strategies, Tools, and Classroom Video (2011), by Fulwiler— published by Heinemann


Read Later – Can this be useful when I share my findings?

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