I heard this comedian (Tim Hawkins) talking about analogies once.  He said, “You ever get stuck in an analogy you can’t get out of?… like ‘Hey man, that line at the post office was longer than a….. a…. a…. normal line normally is…. uh.”  (I’m sure it’s a bit funnier with his voice).  Well, I’ve tried to use some sort of narrative analogy in all my writings to make it more interesting for me to write (and hopeful for you to read).

And, now that I’m at the end… I’m out of analogies (except for this analogy about analogies).  I’m also very tired.  But I’ll just jump right out of it and into the curriculum connection.

As a Language Arts teacher, There are tons of ways this project could connect in my classroom.

Here are few that would relate to my sixth graders:

• 6.2.4 Clarify an understanding of texts by creating outlines, notes, diagrams, summaries, or reports.

In the searching and gathering phase students could be taught different methods to taking notes and use of different graphic organizers to help compile and analyze their information.

• 6.4.1 Organization and Focus: Discuss ideas for writing, keep a list or notebook of ideas, and use graphic organizers to plan writing.

At the beginning of the process when they are still Wondering and Webbing, they could practice this by again using different graphic organizers (like a KWL or an online outline maker).

• 6.4.2 Choose the form of writing that best suits the intended purpose.

Of course students would practice this standard when choosing the form of their final product.  With more emphasis on the process, students will probably have more depth in this standard (even if they don’t choose a written final product).

Here are a few that would relate to my ninth grade students:

• 9.2.2 Prepare a bibliography of reference materials for a report using a variety of public documents, such as consumer, government, workplace and others.

Of course this bibliography would probably be a little broader in types of materials as the students would be encouraged to use some non-traditional sources like interviews or movies.

• 9.4.1Organization and Focus: Discuss ideas for writing with classmates, teachers, and other writers and develop drafts alone and collaboratively.

If students were asked to work on helping other students (as we were to do for this project with the blog comments), they will get plenty of discussion to fulfill this standard.

• 9.4.10 Evaluation and Revision: Review, evaluate, and revise writing for meaning, clarity, content, and mechanics.

Of course this standard would be met before the final product is turned in, but I also think this is done with the Wishing phase.  How valuable it will be for my students to evaluate something after it’s submitted.

The students would probably have the same types of frustrations I had with this project.  I just did not have enough time.  I thought I paced myself pretty well, but they, like me, would probably want more “in-class” time.

I know I read about the multiplied amount of time it would take to do this in a classroom somewhere in our course readings (I don’t even know where to search for that), but how beneficial this type of learning would be even though it would take a lot more time than the traditional research project.  I know my students would want that time.  I also know it would be beneficial (and I plan to do an inquiry project soon).

I doubt my students would be as interested in my topic (unless one of the 9th graders was pregnant).  But, if they were able to choose a topic that they genuinely wanted to know information about (as I did), I think there would be motivation to plug on through the more frustrating parts of the project.

I started out with an idea that the project would be easier for someone so close to the Language Arts skills associated with this type of assignment.  I thought the initial phases would be a little redundant (thinking and rethinking the project as you search for information), but I ended up wishing I had more time for that part.  I was still running through the middle part of the cycle when the deadline for the final product came upon so fast (especially with unexpected events during the weekend before it was due).  Then, I found myself wishing tonight wasn’t tonight and that I’d have more time to do a good job on my final project.  I chose to do a PowerPoint just because I haven’t worked with PowerPoint much and I want to get more used to it in the slight chance that my school actually installs a projector into my room.

That has, however, led me into my next inquiry project… PowerPoint.  I want to learn about the new features and how to use the different effect on the slides.  The newer version of PowerPoint seems to have a lot more options than the one I used to work with for my classes.

But anyway, I found myself wishing for more time at the end… Or maybe I just need to pull out of the mid-cycle with more time before the deadline next time.

What would I do differently?  I would probably limit my information (especially the information that repeats itself).  I found a lot of the books and advice said the same things.  Of course, this is how I formed my final product (by formulating all the advice that agreed with the people I interviewed.. it just also happened to agree a lot with the other print and Internet sources too).  It took a while to sift through the different articles and ultimately I didn’t many of the ones I was holding onto anyway… so that just made it harder because I had a lot of material to sift through.

I also might narrow my topic more.  I found that discipline seemed to be something all the books and articles and website had information about.  Maybe I should have limited it to that.  Though the other sub-topics of training and nurturing seemed to go hand-in-hand with discipline.  It just seemed like I had too much to cover to do a good job.

I also might give myself some more time for the interviews.  The people I interviewed were somewhat vague in their answers and I didn’t have a whole lot of time to follow up (though I did follow up some).  I will probably still follow up more even though project is over, but I wish the real-life comments could have been more specific.

I imagine my students would find the same types of wishing if it was a project they were really interested in knowing.  And that would be great because it would probably cause them to do a little more searching… continued inquiry.

I would guess that my students wouldn’t be as versed in searching through the journals and databases, but hopefully (just as I will probably do a little better job at finding good sources now) the students will learn from the process to make the process more beneficial to them the next time through.  The cycle of learning more would hopefully contribute to the first four Information Literacy Standards for Student learning by helping them to access information more efficiently and effectively (standard 1), evaluate the new information more critically and competently (standard 2), and use it more accurately (standard 3) while continuing to pursue personal interests (standard 4) as lifelong learners.

As I hope that for me I still pursue information on raising my son, I hope that for my students as they complete this non-traditional research.

This projects was as difficult (and beneficial) as……….

Have you ever noticed that when someone walks past you with an angry look (or a happy look.. or a confused look), that you seem to take on their expression no matter how you’re feeling.  Or maybe that’s just me.  The person doesn’t even have to say anything, but if they look at me with angry eyes, I find my eyes seem stuck on angry after they pass.  And I wonder why that happens.

Well, that’s what I imagine this project will be like for others.  Their projects will be looking my project in the face, and those other projects will get the exhausted look from mine.  But, It is still February 9th and I have posted my final project.  Wave bye-bye.

Once, when I was in my teens, my brother and best friend gave our mutual friend a big purple birthday present.  The box was about the size of dormitory laundry basket.  He went to opening to find yet another box wrapped inside of it.  Then, another one.  And then, another and another and another… until he got down to a tiny little purple-wrapped box that had his actual gift in it.  And actually, I don’t remember what that gift was.  Maybe that wasn’t the best part of the gift anyway… it was friends who had a sense of humor and cared enough to spend time wrapping twelve boxes up…. it was friends who gave some fun for a birthday… some memories… unique? no.. it was a familiar ‘prank.’.. but it was just for him.  That was our gift… it was in the wrapping.

So now I wrap up my project (hopefully just once).  I originally set out thinking my final project was going to be a paper.  I like papers… or at least I can whip one up okay enough and quick enough (which is important as I’m running out of time).  But, in thinking of how to give this gift to others, I don’t think they will appreciate going into layer after layer of a paper’s paragraphs to get the simple facts I’ve found.  And in the end, this gift is mostly to myself and my wife and my son (and my new baby that is on the way… we just found out yesterday).  It will serve me and them better to have something simple and direct.

So, I’ve decided to wrap it up in a PowerPoint.  One reason for that is to have a simple presentation of my hours of searching.  Another is because the only times I’ve used PowerPoint is when I’ve had to for the technology classes (like L401) I’ve taken from high school on (it seems like I taken a ton of those sorts of classes).  In The Blue Book, Callison and Tilley state: “Media merge to create multimedia, where written, spoken, and visualized images bring both improved clarity and new complexities to the communication process” (69).  With this happening, and with what I learned about myself after doing Trailblazer 3 (that I don’t use visual aspects in my classroom like I should), I’ve decided to use something that can be a more visual presentation.  If for no other reason than getting familiar with PowerPoint, that’s a beneficial reason enough for me to use it (even though it’s turning out to be pretty textual anyway).

I have my information, but I haven’t finished my final product yet… and I think I may think of some items from different books as I’m polishing it, so I will list what I used in the works cited for my final purple product.

Weavings

My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I may choose the colors
But He knows what they should be.

For He can view the pattern
Upon the upper side
While I see it….
Only on the underside.

Sometimes He weaveth sorrow
Which seemeth strange to me
But I will trust His judgment
And work on faithfully.

Tis He who fills the shuttle
For He knows what is best
And I shall weave in earnest
And leave with Him the rest.

At last when life has ended
With Him I shall abide
Then I may view the pattern
Upon the other side.

Then I shall know the reason why
Pain with joy entwined
Was woven in the fabric of life
That God designed. –Shawnee Kellie
I’ve heard my preacher use this tapestry of life illustration before.  If we look at the other side of the tapestry we see a mess of knots and fabrics all jumbled together, but when you look on the flip side, you see the purpose of the Creator.  His point was that we don’t know all the reasons God does things in our lives, but He does.
That’s kind of how this Weaving phase went for me.  I am trying to put everything together so that it makes sense in the Waving phase.  But if I step back and look… I see the jumbled mess of information somewhat knotted together.  I guess that just proves I’m not omnipotent.
I started by comparing my main sources, the interviews.  At the time I did this, I only had two, but I thought it would still be beneficial to compare how these parents with completely different personalities raised their kids.  So I made a simple Venn diagram.  The outcome was:

In the middle… The things that are the same.

• Both didn’t use a specific method or teaching.
• Both gave advice to express love to him always and make sure he feels secure.
• Both used spanking, time-outs, and yelling (not on purpose)Both said there needed to be consistency or follow-through in the discipline.
• Both taught appropriate behavior by modeling it.
• Both trained their kids to respect everyone (especially adults) and modeled this behavior.
• Both nurture by being involved.
• Both mention educating and training them by keeping consistent with what you tell kids.
• God is important to both families and they teach about God by being involved in church and living out godly lives at home (praying, reading).

On the outsides… The things that are different.

• J. used different books and classes, C.  just used prior value systems that they had before kids.
• J. was more purposeful about when to use each type of discipline, C. didn’t have a specific plan
• J.’s idea for what’s appropriate came from a heart for others,C.’s came from a conservative value system
• J. mentions understanding that each child is different and to treat them accordingly.  C. doesn’t mention this specifically.
• J. gives specific advice to listen to kids when they are young and chatty (because they will still ask you questions when they are older). J. also mentions letting imperfection show and apologizing to kids when you’re wrong.  Also to let them know they have a voice (the parent isn’t always right.  C. doesn’t get as specific in this area.
• J. is of the opinion that her children are their mission field “we have souls that we need to have saved and then help to grow.”  C. has the children live the godly life “with” them everyday.. “God will always be a part of our lives.”

Next, I used an online outline program to create an outline (I’m a little traditional like that… I like a good old fashioned outline).  The site I used is the one suggested by Dr. Lamb: http://www.2learn.ca/senior/compass/senoutline.html.

This is what my working outline came out to be:

Thesis statement:
There are many good tips to raising a toddler to be a person of good character.
First topic sentence.  Its relationship back to the thesis should be apparent………
	How you nurture a child will relate to how he loves others later.
Ideas that will help develop and support the first topic sentence………
		* Listening * Quality time * Physical affection
Second topic sentence.  Its relationship back to the thesis should be apparent………
	How you educate a toddler will affect how he applies wisdom to his life.
Ideas that will help develop and support the second topic sentence………
		* Modeling * Teachable Moments (living real imperfect lives) *Godly training
Third topic sentence.  Its relationship back to the thesis should be apparent………
	How you discipline a child will affect their self control.
Ideas that will help develop and support the third topic sentence………
		* Consistency * Letting them know they are loved * Methods – on spanking, time-outs, and verbal methods
Concluding point or restatement of the thesis:
Raising each child will be different, but there are some proven suggestions if you desire your baby to grow into a person of good character.

In the five elements of information inquiry provided in Callison’s Blue Book, I beleive parts of this phase fit into the “assimilation” part of that cycle.  Callison says, “Inquiry, properly applied, turns learning into more than a gathering of facts.  Assimilation through inquiry leads to consideration of a wider range of perceptions and options than simply those assumed by the learner” (7).  To keep myself from just selecting “data or opinions that serve to “confirm” what the searcher believes to be true from the beginning of inquiry process” (7), I did a “What If” to analyze the information.  I’m not exactly sure if I did it right, but I just asked.. “What if a parent didn’t follow these tips… would it really result in a worse kid?”

For example, what if a child is disciplined without any physical form like spanking of smacking of the hand?  I had one source that pooled data to prove that the greater the corporal punishment in a region the greater the violence in that region.  However, multiple other sources gave multiple examples where children exhibited more aggression when not disciplined in physical methods (as long as there was love and consistency given as well).  So my interpretation based on my sources is that a child will exhibit more aggression and less respect for others if corporal punishment is completely abandoned.

What would happen if a child was not educated in any of the ways of God.  The sources for this is very mixed bag.  Even though most of my sources are from a Christian point of view, there is not a clear-cut answer on this.  There are examples of kids with no “churched” upbringing that end up doing great things to glorify God (I, myself, am an example of a kid that wasn’t really brought up with a focus on knowing God… but now I try to live for Him) and others that were taught godly things while young but rebelled to become pretty bad citizens.  In my interviews, however, all three families thought it important to instill godly values into their children (and that’s not why they were chosen… they were chosen for the outcome of how their children turned out).  Still this is one of those knots on the back of the tapestry that can’t exaclty be explained out.

Or what if you didn’t spend a lot of time with your toddler… will that really affect him when he is older (if say you spend time with him then)?  I don’t remember when I was three.  I don’t know how much my dad or mom spent with me then.  Will it really make a difference?  My sources don’t seem to think it’s irredeemable.  There are some cases of some adopted kids (who spent a lot of time alone) that seem to be able to be loved into becoming loving people.  However, I wonder if making that time is more of a training for parents to be involved later when the child has more lasting memory.

These are three issues that would challenge my assumptions.  It’s hard not to try and argue for what I beleive to be true already.  But it is positive for me to think outside my own box.

I have already been citing my sources by keeping a running word document of all the sources I deemed useful.  So that part of the this phase is ongoing for me (I started doing that when I used web resources more.. it was easier to get back to a source if I had a citation for it already).

So finally, I will need to eliminate the repetitive information or unnecessary sources.  I think I will do that as I go.  I know a lot of the ideas are repeated in the sources, but I think I will be better served doing this part as I go.  It’s just too hard to get rid of what I have right now.  I’m too worried that when I put it all together, I will think of one nugget from one source that I have banished…. and then my tapestry will be messed up on both sides.

When I was young, my pants had to last me years even though I was growing.  I would watch the commercials with a person too big for his britches buttoning his pants only to have the button pop off and bounce around the room like a bullet in and iron closet.  I would wonder, at eight years old, if I needed to go on a diet because my pants seemed to be like that.  I just couldn’t squeeze into them very easily.

Of course, I didn’t need to go on a diet as a growing boy (maybe I do now because I’m still growing and probably shouldn’t be), but I’m wondering how to shove all this information into the pants of my project.  Forget the button popping off, I think I’m going to rip the unbuttoned fabric with the overload.

Standard 2 of the Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning says: The student who is information literate evaluates information critically and competently.

Dr. Lamb mentions that this phase can be the hardest for students.  I can see that as they have been trained to fit information into a predetermined project (which is why the “classroom teachers battled plagiarism” as Stripling and Hughes-Hassel mention in Curriculum Connections.

Now the students have been taken through a process that is focused on questioning and searching much more than it is finding.  So they’ve searched and searched and found more information that only led to more questions (if they were doing it correctly).  And they are supposed to take this information and evaluate it for authority without exactly knowing where it’s going.  The hardest part will be to try to keep focused on this one phase before moving into the next.

I already found myself trying to weed out the information that won’t help my final product while trying to evaluate it at the same time.  Of course, I did some of the phase (Weaving) while doing the initial search.  If I found something that I knew wasn’t going to help answer my initial questions, I didn’t bother keeping it for evaluation.  But for this phase, I tried to focus on just evaluating if the information I do have is useful.

I realized, as has happened many times, that this phase may cause me to back up again and do some more Webbing.

I took the “easier” parts first: The books.  These seem credible enough as someone saw them as worthy of at least printing (and with a friend trying to get a book published… that’s not the easiest of processes I guess).  But are they good for what I’m trying to do.

I already determined that the scientific data and studies weren’t what I really wanted.  I refocused my strategy on what effectively worked with actual parents (not scientists who had studied parents).  In essence, I wanted to be the scientists conducting the study.  This is why I set out to interview some parents to start with.  The authority for these interviews is proved through their kids.  Two of the families have three older kids who behaved well when they were young and are very “good” now (they show respect, behave well, control themselves, show wisdom and genorisity).  The other interviewee has a seven-year-old who has obviously been raised well.  I was around to see his toddler years first-hand and know that the mother was very focused on raising him to be a respectful man.  In other words, he’s just a good kid.  I know that these parents were very intentional about how they raised their children, and the outcome speaks for the job they did.  That is why I wanted to know what they specifically did.

Some of these books were recommended by these families.  You and Your Child by Charles Swindol, Growing Kids God’s Way by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo, The Blessing by Gary Smalley and John Trent, and Raising your Chidren for Christ by Andrew Murray were all recommended by families with exceptional kids (including one family.. that I didn’t get the chance to interview.. who has ten kids).  Four others were recommended by the counseling ministry at my church.  Two were given to us with high encouragement by the hospital.  And one was given to me by the retiring guidance couselor at my school. I took a class that dealt with all sorts of topic in life.  The class was really good and useful and the text for that class had a couple sections on parenting.  That is also a good resource.

The only one of these books that didn’t hold as much weight for me was the one given by the guidance counselor.  The only reason this was the case is because she gave it to me (when my wife was still pregnant) with th disclaimer that she hadn’t read it and it was just a freebie…. but hey.. it might be useful.  In evaluating the book, however, I believe it to be good information as it is produced by Riley Hospital for Children.

Next, I evaluated the electronic databases from IUPUI.  This is where I did some pre-Weaving as I searched through what I found.  The best sources (most informative and related to my questions) were from the specific magazine searches for Parenting. The articles in this magazine seemed resourceful.  I see no reason to use this and some of the other articles found in the databases.

Finally I moved into websites.  Dr. Lamb says this is where “the job becomes more difficult.”  I used the Evaluation Wizard to help with this step. http://21cif.imsa.edu/tools/evaluate/ (I’m not sure if this link shows what I did or just the website, but below I have copied what a student could have printed… I used the Evaluation Wizard to evaluate momsense.com for this example).:

Author:  The editors have a lot of experience in the online magazine.   Most of the authors or mothers or professionals who work with mothers (like doctors or teachers).It seems the editors choose well reputed authors for this magazine.

Evidence:  There is expereince-supported evidence with the articles.  Some of this comes from the readers not the authors.There is a way to contact them by direct mail or email.  They also provide a lot of information about how they get the information for their articles and who their writers are.

Links To:  Most of the links are to internal places of the sites.  Some are to downloads by different companies (related the field).  Others are to advertiser web pages.  They all add different perspectives within the “Christian” dome and seem to support that theme of raising a child in a godly way.

The website is very good for directing students in the right direction to evaluate websites.  It makes you evaluate the website in at least three of eight different categories before you can print a report.  The questions it asks for each category are critical to evaluating if the site is good.  However, it doesn’t provide the if-you-answered-this-way it is or isn’t reliable type of answer.  I think it’s good that it doesn’t, because it causes the student to look at their answers and determine from those.  It gets the student involved in the process without holding his hand too much.

Using this tool, I found my webisites to be reliable.  Of course, I ask a lot of these types of questions as I research anyway, so I didn’t even really keep websites I knew to be unreliable as an option.  Again, I kind of mashed two steps together.  However, I still see why it might be more important for me to take this step alone, and certainly think it is important for students to do this phase in detail.

Still, I find that my information is too big or my pants are too small.  I think I will be squishing the not needed yet reliable out in the next phase of Weaving.

Sunday night I noticed a small puddle of water in our utility room.  My first thought was that our cat, who has a litter box in the utility room, had contracted another urinary tract infection and let loose on the floor (and I was thinking… “Well… that’s better than last time when he thought the couches the most comfortable place to potty”).

But it was not the cat, it was the water heater.  After some searching, I found a small drip beneath the unit that had eventually ran into the middle of the floor to form the puddle.  I did some quick searching on the Internet to see how serious this was and opted to believe the least frightening possibility which was that condensation had formed from the chilly water being heated in the tank.  It would go away when the temperature raised outside.  I put a towel down and promised to keep an eye on it.

On Monday morning, the water heater had a different story to tell than what I wanted to believe.  The little drip had apparently worked overtime through the night to soak the towel and spread to a big puddle in the middle of the utility room.  I attacked that with more towels.  The drip became constant, and it was suddenly a race to see if I could get the water heater shut off (without blowing up my house… it runs on natural gas) before I ran out of towels while assessing the problem and calling into work (with sub plans) at the same time… before it started getting to the carpeted areas of the house.

I called my older brother (he has a degree in everything handy.. I don’t) how to turn the thing off and if smelling gas was normal (because the directions on the tank say to call the gas company from a neighbors phone if you smell gas).  Then I researched how to drain the thing to get the water out of the tank but not onto the floor.  Unfortunately, my research informed me of the wrong way to turn the water valve (so that I was pumping water in to the tank at full power rather than turning the water supply to the tank off), so I drained the thing for a long time before realizing I was just pumping water though the tank.

But I got it emptied, the last towel held, and I started calling some plumbers and checking the Internet for the best price.  I mopped up the wet and muddy spider webs collecting under the dryer and a few hours and $700 later, I had a new water heater.  My wife and I agreed that it was about the most unsatisfactory big purchase we have ever made (maybe if we were without the hot water for more than a few hours… we would have appreciated it more).

But that is a good analogy for how my searching went.  With what seemed like a simple task, to soak in some information toward my task of finding out how to nurture, discipline, and teach my boy, I found myself flooded with information and running out of towels to collect it in.

Each of the models has some sort of this phase.  Noodle Tools calls is “locating,” Pathways to Knowledge simply calls is “search,” the Information Search Process Model calls is “collecting information,” and of course the 8W’s calls is “Webbing.”  Whatever you call it, this became a lot bigger task than I first expected.  I expected what I was used to with a regular research assignment.

Stripling and Hughes-Hassell describe what I expected well in the first chapter of Curriculum Connections. In describing a traditional research project they say:  “The purpose of the assignment generally was for students to find the best information about a problem or issue in order to support a thesis and to reorganize that information into a final product.  The process was controlled and rather linear – the students knew where they would end up before they started.”

“In contrast,” they go on to say, “inquiry-based learning is more open-ended.”  And that’s about the biggest of differences.  Even in my Wondering phase I thought I had the end product already aligned.  I even went back and narrowed my topic again (or at least the strategy of how I was going to get the information).  But in this process, I found myself redesigning my thoughts as I found the information and not exactly knowing where it’s going now (except that it’s not exactly going as I planned).

I started with asking three couples to answer some interview questions for me.  These were done partly by phone, but mostly in email.  I received back one response pretty quickly and I am still waiting on the other two responses.  But, I went ahead and started some research.

I had already collected some book resources.  Some I already have but haven’t read, others I have read, and still others I will get after I get some more answers back.  I also have some issues of Parenting magazines that were given to me when my baby was born.  Again, I haven’t really used these yet, but I think they will be useful for my research.

I started in the electronic journals of IUPUI because I thought they would be more authoritative and trustworthy.  I did a metasearch through all of the available journals and typed in “best parenting models” as a title search.  That pulled up a lot of results, but it seemed to be jumbled with a lot of items I didn’t really want to take time to look through as most of it was not the type of information I was looking for (one example was results for a study that determines if African American children are more likely to smoke).

Then I selected some specific electronic databases to do a metasearch in (Academic Search Premier and EBSCO databases -because I was more familiar with using EBSCO, Medline, and humanities databases).  This time I used a keyword search with “parenting styles.”  This pulled up some initial results that were studies that were closer to what I was looking for.  One was on the rate of violence going up with the rate of corporal punishement in societies.  That was closer to the type of information I was needing, but studies weren’t exactly what I was hoping to find.

I decided to look at some specific journals (Parenting, Parenting, Science and Practice) to see what I could find there.  First, I started skimming through their most recent issues and found some good articles.  But that was kind of hit and miss and a lot of search time, so I searched within the issues by using search terms like “models, Christianity, faith, styles.”  This produces issues with these topics in them and I found four of five good sources using this method.

Next I moved into Internet searching.  The information drip was already picking up with the many electronic journals I had looked through (even after I narrowed it down to only full-text articles).  Moving into the Internet however was like moving into Monday morning with my water heater.  The drip became uncontrolable and I was running out of towels.

I did a general google search with the search terms “how to raise a toddler.”  This pulled back many resources.  Many looked reliable, others did not.  Many looked useful, but most of them started to change my direction in thinking (which had already started in the electronic journals).  I tagged a few of those resources for later use.

I realized I still wasn’t getting the type of information I was really wanting, so I changed search terms to “Christian Parenting.”  This started to pull up the type of information, but it also was overwhelming with all different “types” of information there.

I had already given up on searching for information that fit within the final product I had already planned, and was just searching for any information that could inform my topic.  Now I was giving up on my planned final product altogether (which I think is how it’s supposed to be anyway).

I noticed that a lot of my information was coming back with the mother as the intended audience, so I specified “Christian fathers” or “how to be a Christian father” in the search.  This also pulled back some good sites.

On the “Webbing” page, Dr. Lamb says, “One piece of information may lead to new questions and areas of interest.”  That’s what I saw happening in this process.  As the drips started flowing in different directions (just like the water from my water heater), I had to go catch it.  I was sent in different directions and that has reshaped my strategy a bit.  In the “Wiggling” phase I will “evaluate content” which means I will start collecting these towels full of information and deciding which ones I need to wring out and which ones to throw out.

And I’ve also realized that at some point I have to stop this phase to start the next one.  There was still a lot more water in my tank as all the towels were soaking up what little had come out (am I carrying this analogy too far??? It just works too well *smile*).  But I had to drain the tank in order to keep the water under control.  And so I must do that now to move on.  I believe I have enough good information in different formats to move into the wiggling phase. (I may have wiggled a little bit while searching anyway.)

Here are some websites that could be used as starting points with lots of helpful information on parenting.

Momsense.com (from Chrisianity Today.. It works for Dad’s too)

crosswalk.com/parenting/

allaboutparenting.org

christianparent.com

associatedcontent.com (not specific to parenting, but has a lot of content submitted by others on the topic… and any other topic you might be interested in)

Sometimes, I get a movie from the library (the actual vhs videos… I still get those sometimes) and it’s not rewound.  Sometimes I’ll just try and catch up on the story, but it’s just not connecting… I’ve lost too much previous information.

I need to rewind my search strategy because the next phase of this process just isn’t making sense to me.

Standard 1 of the information literacy standards for student learning says, “The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently and effectively.”

Standard 4 says, “The student who is an independent learner is information literate and pursues information related to personal interests.”

Standard 7 says, “The student who contributes positively to the learning community and to society is information literate and recognizes the importance of information to a democratic society.”

Each standard comes from a different category of the nine overall standards (Information Literacy, Independent Learning, and Social Responsibility).  Each one can be applied to the importance of the Wondering phase in Lamb’s 8 W’s.

First, I need to build a good strategy in order to be effective and efficient.  Second, I will have a much more productive experience if I’m looking for information that is relevant to my personal life (which is already built out of the watching phase where I chose my topic).  Third, I want to utilize the information in a way that can contribute in a positive way to my community.

So I’m meeting standard 4 as long as my topic is meaningful to me, but I need to make sure I’m efficient and effective in my searching for standard 1 (which is why I make a strategy in the Wondering phase).  How I make the most of my searching depends on how I will make the topic relevant to me which will ultimately relate to how the information will contribute positively to my community (standard 7).

All three standards are met or foundational in the Wondering phase.  Meeting standard 7 is what ultimately led to me changing how I strategized my searching.  Just knowing the information is not enough in trying to make a difference in the community.  As the Carol Gordon article (http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/slmrcontents/volume21999/vol2gordon.cfm) about inquiry versus the traditional research paper points out, inquiry is involved and revolving… it’s not just “to report and reflect on the facts and findings of others and to draw conclusions based on reading.”  I must fine my own findings to draw conclusions for myself in leading to more meaningful searches to be a life-long learner.   “Seeking one answer is never enough” as Callison states in the The Blue Book.

So I have seen that my previous strategy for searching focused on finding information that might possibly be used… but the focus was just on learning the information.  For example, I was focused on looking for different methods of nurturing, teaching, and disciplining toddlers and how they compare to what the Bible says about this.  In the end of that kind of searching, I would have probably found around nine different methods and then presented some of compare/contrast project between them.  From that, I may have found a method I wanted to use, but more likely I would have been flooded with lots of contradicting information and no better off than I am in knowing nothing.

So, I have changed my strategy.  I will look for information that will be able to be applied to raising my son in a way that will teach him to follow the two greater commands which encompass all the others:  Love your neighbor and Love God.  That is the question I will ultimately try to answer (and apply).  How do I raise my son to do that?

In the toddler stage of life, I imagine this will come by teaching him self-control, selflessness, respect for authority (God and others), and the pursuit of wisdom.  My questions will focus on answering the best method for teaching those things.  I will still be asking the questions about how God directs us in these matters through his Word (the Bible).  I know that this kind of focus makes me look a little like a looney religious nut (especially as it probably comes across in dark black letters on stark white backgrounds), but I do believe God is sufficient in leading us in all aspects of life and that his main means of doing that today is through His written Word in the Bible.  And I know I’m not so good at following most of the time, so focusing on it in my research is a good idea to make it relevant for me.

Anyway, my strategy will take a different look.  First I planned on going out finding that information (mostly in textual places like books and articles).  I already own some books that I haven’t read on the subject (and a couple I have… but probably need to reread with this focus).  I also planned on asking some pastors at my church (which I may still do) and then eventually asking Christian family members who have kids what parts of the methods they did that I’ve studied.

Now, I’m going to switch the process around.  Because my ultimate goal is get applicable information, I will strategize around finding information that will help apply it to a meaningless project of raising my son to be a good citizen (love his neighbor… and respect God)… This makes me wonder if I’m doing what Dr. Lamb warned us against in our weekly email…. which is lumping Webbing, Wiggling, and Weaving together after I get past Wondering.  So while my strategy already seems to be assuming what I will come up with in the Weaving stage, I don’t know any other way to make a meaningful search.  I’m sure after the search, I will see a greater need for focusing on Wiggling and then Weaving.

But for now, my strategy is somewhat backwards from what I was thinking.  I will first go to people who have raised their kids in ways that I want to raise my son (to respect authority as a toddler like parents and other adults, exhibit self control, to be selfless by helping others and sharing, and to pursue wisdom -not just knowledge- by learning and growing).

I have three people in mind who have raised their children well (as evidenced by their kids).  My older brother, Cory; my wife’s sister, Keri; and my wife’s cousins, the Peters.  These are families that have kids that exhibit behavior I would like to see in my son.

I will ask more open-ended discussion-type questions to start off the interviews:

1. Did you follow any methods (books, teachings, etc.) in raising your children?

2.  Do you have any advice for me on how to raise Camden as he moves into the toddler phase (where did you get this advice?.. examples, experience, others?).

3. How did you discipline and what did you discipline for?

4.  How did you train and teach them to behave as you saw appropriate?… What did you see as appropriate?… Where did you get your idea of what “appropriate” is?

5.  How did you teach them to think of others or share?

6.  Who should they have respect for?  How did you train them to respect others?

7.  How did you nurture them and show love to them?

8.  How did you educate them and help them to apply what they learned.

9.  Was teaching them about God important?  If so, how did you go about doing that?  (I don’t know if it was important to all these families, I did not choose them because of their faith in God -because for some of them, I’m not sure what that is-, but because of the result of their parenting.)

I’m sure the answers to these questions will open up more questions, but these will give me a good start.

The underlying focus is to raise my son in a godly manner, so I will also be looking for how the methods that seem to work relate to what the Bible says.  For this part I will be using my Bible reference tools, resources available through my church library, and online resources.  I plan to focus on what these references speak to in raising a toddler and use search terms like “parenting” “godly” “Christian” “Biblical” “discipline” “training children” and “child rearing.”  I also will focus more at that ninth questions with the families that  were focused on raising their children in a godly manner.  I will try to get information and resources from them.

I will also be looking for secular methods that align to what I find out about the ways the families have raised their kids and how that relates to what the Bible says.  For this, I will use the many magazines we have been given on parenting (I’ve read very little of them) and use the same search terms above (with the exception of not using “godly,” “Christian,” or “Biblical” with any of them) with electronic databases and the Internet.

The goal is to come up with applicable information on how to raise my son.  So while I forsee a final project that looks something like a guide on how to raise a child, I am open to information leading me to some other sort of ending (as I am jumping way too far ahead at this point).

Two summers ago I was blessed with a summer school opening.  This was a blessing because it’s not guaranteed for all teachers to be placed.  Some teachers are placed, but are then let go later if the actual number of students who come is lower than those who enrolled (which is very common).  Well, two summers ago this happened.  The school I was placed in had 18 language arts teachers (including me) and five math teachers.  The special education teachers could teach either, so they were transferred to math.  Being that I was pretty low on the seniority list, I figured my summer school position would last all of three to five days.  The principal called me to her office on that Friday. However, she didn’t give me the boot, she gave me choice.  “Heath, are you willing to teach math in order to keep your summer school position.”  Considering that the summer school money was supposed to be paying for that high IUPUI tuition, I took less than a second to say “yes!.”

The problem was that the last math class I was in was during my freshman year of college.  I did well, but that was a long time ago.  I took the problems, wrote them on the board and proceeded to show the students how to solve them.  I still had it.  I could take a decently complex algebra problem and solve it in front of wondering student eyes.  Those eyes never had the “I got it light bulb” look though.

A math coach came in near the end of the week and was pretty flustered.  She said, “What is this… You’ve got to show them the steps… They have to see what the steps are.”  You see, I had done a lot of the steps in my head.  In fact, I did them so naturally in my head, that I couldn’t even think how to actually write them down as a step.  The experiment ended, and the next week I was placed back in a language arts classroom where I could show each step of the writing process.

That’s a long tale to explain how this “Wondering” phase is going for me.  I feel like I’m moving a little too fast.  I feel like I’m doing a lot of the steps in my head and missing some of the details of this phase as a result. I will try to write out those steps here though (but I’ll understand if the experiment ends and I’m back at the watching phase).

For example, I already narrowed my topic.  I had the broad topic of parenting, but in my head I was already narrowing it to talk specifically about Biblical parenting (which I already knew there was different models of parenting and that some in the Christian circles focused on what the Bible had to say about parenting and some focused more on what psychology says about parenting and how “fit” in with some Bible passages.  And then of course there are philosophies that do not use the Bible as a base at all (but still have some methodology that happens to fit in with what the Bible says… which makes sense because God’s ways make sense).  Anyway, I already knew I wanted to raise my son according to Biblical principals so I had narrowed my topic down to focus on those philosophies that seem more based on Biblical methods.

But you see, I came to that in my head.  I didn’t really do a lot of writing to come to that point.

Even before the narrowing of the topic, I am supposed to start defining my purpose in this Wondering phase.  However, my purpose informed my topic choice in the previous phase of Watching.  I chose parenting because I think it applies more directly and beneficially to my life at this point than the other topics I came up with my Watching phase.  Again, I did that in my head.  It was almost simultaneous to the choosing of my topic.  I don’t even think I was supposed to choose a topic in the Watching phase… but, I did… In my head before I even formally started that phase.

So now that I have my topic and seem to have it narrowed, I feel like I’m working backwards trying to think about what I’ve already done in my head.

Questioning:  While thinking of the different topics, I was already thinking of the what I want to answer about them.  One of the reasons I chose parenting is because it is the one that I had the most questions about before I chose it.  I’ve had questions about it before I ever enrolled for this class.

Some of those questions came up while experiencing something new with my son:

How will we get him to sleep through the night?  When does he stop eating every two hours?  When does he start eating pizza (or solids)?  He’s crawling!  Uh oh?  How do we dress him for the weather?  He’s biting, how do we correct that?  He’s crying, why?

A lot of those types of questions have been answered from necessity (either from books we have, internet searches, or asking someone who’s raised a baby).

Now that he is nearly walking and has much more of an independent personality, the questions are changing:

How do I train him to respect his mother, me, and other adults?  How do I show him the love of Jesus?  How do I nurture a desire to do right?  How do I protect him from things that are dangerous?  How do I educate him… how does he learn?  What does the Bible say about how I am to be a parent?  How do I apply the Bible to how I actually do parenting?  How do I teach him to share?  How do I correct a bad attitude?

I do come with some prior knowledge here, but most of it relates to the things that need to be started from a very young age to instill them in the child for life (that is one bit of prior knowledge… start teaching him from birth).  Other bits are:

Routines provide security for children.  Reading stimulates his young mind and he can understand many things before he can communicate back.  Sign language is good to teach a child so that they have a more acceptable way to communicate than crying or whining.  One of the best ways for me to communicate love to my son is by showing love to his mother.  Be consistent with consequences for doing things that are dangerous and/or he is told not to do (like trying to eat the cat’s food).

I do know some Bible verses on how to raise children (I do not have the locations memorized):  Don’t provoke a child to anger.  Teach him in the way he should go and he will not depart from it.  He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.  Honor your father and mother, for this is the first command with a promise that it may go well with you.  (I may not have those quoted exaclty, but I will find out through the process).

The problem is that everything I know (and I’m probably forgetting some things) is about out jumbled as those lists.  Even the books I’ve already read on the subject need to be put into some kind of personal philosophy.  The main question I want to answer is:  How does God want me to raise my son?  All the other questions are meant to answer that question.  I only know bits right now.

To try to organize my prior knowledge and lead me into the Webbing phase, I made a bubble map.  I’m not sure it quite fits into this phase as it was slightly used to narrow my topic, but more to lead my searching.  I think you can get to the bubble map by going the following link:

http://bubbl.us/view.php?sid=231662&pw=yaPbiELrk8AsIMTI2YUlNVlRHQ1RFMg

Next, I was supposed to narrow my topic, but like I mentioned, I already did that… so I move past this phase into the Webbing phase?  (I’m sure as I start planning my search strategy, I will have to come back and do a little more thinking about what it is I want to search for).

Sure, I like the late night shows… for the most part.  There is always some interesting piece of news that Letterman or Leno will turn into to some kind of joke during their monologues. It’s a entertaining way to receive the news.

I remember driving by a White Castle before Valentine’s one year and seeing their sign with the message, “Now taking reservations for Valentine’s Day.”  I thought it was a joke that White Castle was making at the expense of itself.  I thought about taking a picture of it and mailing to Jay Leno to show with his funny newspaper misprints.  After the sign didn’t go away, I did some searching for the truth of White Castle and Valentine’s Day.  I found out by asking some people and searching the Internet that the reservations were a real deal (not a joke), and that White Castle used the commercial holiday to get people into to buy their greasy food under the theme of “be a prince and take her to a castle for a romantic, candlelit, table-clothed, waitress-served, mini-burger dinner.”  That led to me making reservations that year (it was fun).

Other than that indirect relationship, the late night shows haven’t caused any searching that I can remember.  Of course, I don’t spend a lot of time watching them either.

Daniel Callison provides some techniques of Virginia Rankin in The Blue Book that state one method of presearch strategies is to “relax, read, and reflect – read reference materials, popular materials, items that help feed your curiosity and that you understand.”  Another is to “brainstorm, take initial notes, categorize terms and ideas” (38).

Even though the quote from Rankin doesn’t mention visual methods of peaking curiosity, I think it works just as well.  As I was starting this phase of “watching,” I thought backwards to what had already peaked my curiosity in my recent history.  The most recent topic I had thought about researching more came after watching a movie.  In Jeffrey Nachmanoff’s “Traitor,” Don Cheadle’s character is a devout Muslim (spoiler warning) who ends up showing allegiance to the the United States as he chooses to stop a group of radical Muslim terrorists by pretending to be one of them and then killing them when it is clear that they would kill many more innocent Americans if he didn’t.  The terrorists are presented as just as devout as he is, but with an obvious different view against “infidel American Christians.”  This view of a devout Muslim that seemed to embrace a non-exclusion Islam faith willing to kill other Muslims to protect non-Muslims just didn’t fit with what I thought I knew of that religion. I was interested to know more about that faith.  For this project, I’ve been thinking about expanding it into other faiths for a comparative study of different religions.  Since I’m a Christian, I believe that only Jesus can save (John 14:6 -Jesus said to him, “I am THE way, and THE truth, and THE life; no one can come to the Father EXCEPT through me.), but knowing about other religions and how the people live them out could help me to understand others better and an understanding of one’s culture might make that person more receptive to hearing (from me) about God’s expressed love for them through Jesus.  I think it is important (life and death important) to share what the Bible says about Jesus Christ with others who may not know, so this would be a very practical inquiry in helping me to reach out to those of other religions who may not otherwise give me their ears for what I think to be a very important topic.

While I didn’t formally take notes down or categorize information, I started rolling some other topics around in my head by asking myself, “What would be worthwhile to spend my time on?”  In the past year, I have become a father and have wanted to read up on the best way to raise my son.  I haven’t done much of that reading, but my boy is still growing, so I thought this could be the perfect chance to dive into the questions I have about that.  I also thought about learning more about the Bible, teaching, or home repair, but parenting seemed to have the strongest pull with this method of brainstorming type of presearching.

I also did some editorial reading in research for lessons I’m teaching my ninth graders.  I wanted to provide some recent editorials as examples of persuasive writings and I found a bunch on Barack Obama and his inauguration as President this past Tuesday.  It was interesting to read through them and catch the seemingly same theme that runs throughout a lot of the media.  Other than the seemingly unanimous praise for President Obama, there was also a high disdain for President Bush.  This wasn’t too surprising as the main stream media has seemed a bit slanted through the whole campaign, but when you add the student body response to President’s Bush’s appearance at the inauguration (which was booing), and the flood of emails and propaganda against Bush’s ideas that I’ve received as an educator from professional organizations… I had to wonder: “Why is this man so unpopular?”  That got me interested in looking into what people think about President Bush and why they think it.

Those are the three most prominent topics I’ve come up with.  I’m already leaning toward one after actually writing out my thought process.  I’m not as interested in learning about why people dislike President Bush so much because political items aren’t the most interesting types of information for me and I don’t exactly have a good use for that information after I’ve gained it (it’s just an interesting observation, not necessarily something I care as much about or could use).  Studying the different religions does have a high degree of importance for me because of how it could be useful in reshaping my misconceptions and then in sharing my faith with others.  However, there hasn’t been a time where not knowing about a particular religion has hindered me from sharing about what Jesus has done for us.  Even when I was in Turkey, talking with Muslims, I didn’t have to know much about their faith for them to have a deeper conversation with me (and at that time, I didn’t know much at all).  Now, learning how to raise my son in a practical and effective manner and help my wife in that has immediate importance as he gets older every minute.  That is the topic that seems most worthwhile for me to inquire about.  I’ve been wanting to do that kind of inquiry for a while now anyway.

My topic: Parenting

Callison, Daniel, and Leslie Preddy. The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction and Literacy. Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.