My Findings.
Within the course of the New Literacies program at NC State University, I watched as students were able to allow questions to drive their learning. From whole group lessons to small group thinking, students were given the Voice and the power to engage in their learning in a whole new way. As a teacher I watched students take control of their learning in multiple ways. First of all, students became more familiar with the standards driving their learning because THEY were creating questions surrounding those standards. They were able to explain the end goal of the unit or lesson with ease because the end goal drove the questioning process. Second, I found engagement to be at an all time high. When students were the ones creating the questions, they were passionate about what they were doing. They took ownership for their activities. They were the interested. Finally, I found that students remembered what they were learning. When students chose questions relating to the standards and to their end goals and when students were passionate about the learning they were doing, the learning began to click for them. Students would talk about their projects, research, and texts in the hallway, at lunch, and in free time. When units would end I would find students continuing their learning through individual research. "Inquiry Reading" has become a staple in my room as a way to extend the inquiry questions we have completed but students still have a fire to learn about. Units that I have done in years past that end and are forgotten are now revisited with excitement because the students bring them up. Inquiry takes student learning out of the teacher's hands and places it into the student's hands.