Reflection on Inquiry
My inquiry question going into this year was, “What happens to students’ thesis paper writing skills when the class proceeds through unconventional units that respond to student needs by targeting argumentative writing and close reading?”
Now, of course, there was no control in this project – I did not introduce unconventional assignments to one class and conventional assignments to another – so there’s no way of knowing if unconventional assignments work better or worse than more conventional ones.
It is also impossible to tell if this is causation or correlation. In other words, I don’t know if my students learned how to write good thesis papers from me and from my various assignments. I don’t know if they exhibited transfer or if they learned from my assignments, though I can make pretty strong inferences.
What I do know is that, after spending a year in my classroom and progressing through a series of unconventional units on argumentative writing and close reading that I constructed to target these thesis paper writing skills, my students were able to wield these skills more successfully.
At least for this group of students, however, the answer to the inquiry question seems to be that, if they are willing to put in the hard work, their thesis paper writing skills improve.
Now, of course, there was no control in this project – I did not introduce unconventional assignments to one class and conventional assignments to another – so there’s no way of knowing if unconventional assignments work better or worse than more conventional ones.
It is also impossible to tell if this is causation or correlation. In other words, I don’t know if my students learned how to write good thesis papers from me and from my various assignments. I don’t know if they exhibited transfer or if they learned from my assignments, though I can make pretty strong inferences.
What I do know is that, after spending a year in my classroom and progressing through a series of unconventional units on argumentative writing and close reading that I constructed to target these thesis paper writing skills, my students were able to wield these skills more successfully.
At least for this group of students, however, the answer to the inquiry question seems to be that, if they are willing to put in the hard work, their thesis paper writing skills improve.