Personal Connection

I suppose I should be completely honest.  Before now, I have never really considered what my approach to inquiry was.  If I look at the process I went through in the past, it is not unlike what I just experience with this project. I suppose if I needed to find information on a topic I would figure out what tools to use and I would search out the answers.   However, now I believe I have a more systematic approach.  Previously, I truly believed I went through most of the steps in the 8Ws, but without realizing each of those steps or having a name for them.  Barbara Stripling writes, "But inquiry is much more than simply following a process.  It is an essence of teaching and learning that places students at the heart of learning by empowering them to follow their sense of wonder into new discoveries and insights about the way the world works." (4)  I absolutely agree with that quote!  It is so much more than a process.  It is a way to truly delve into a topic and discover what you yearn to know about it.    

I think at the beginning of this project all of those Ws scared me.  It was unchartered territory for me...or so I thought.  As the project progressed, it all began making sense.  You move step by step, sometimes revisiting past steps in order to make sure you are heading in the right direction.  These were all steps I had done before when looking for information.  This model has actually helped me fine tune my inquiry skills by giving me steps.  I love when things have order, even if you have to go back and revisit.  Using 8Ws: Information Literacy kind of reminds me of building legos.  I feel like before being introduced to this model and the others, I was building a Lego with no instruction manual.  It was a free-build and I never really knew how it was going to turn out.  Now that I have a tool or model to follow, I am building a Lego WITH an instruction manual.  For me personally, that makes all the difference in the world.  I like knowing that I will have a well thought out finished project when all is said and done!   

Stripling, Barbara K. and Sandra Hughes-Hassell.  Curriculum Connections through the Library.  Westport: Libraries Unlimited, 2003. Print.