INFOhio Resources for Research

I would share the "Do you want to learn more about words?" and the "Do you want to build your vocabulary?" to bolster my curriculum. I was not good at teaching vocabulary, and it always felt like I was just tossing words at kids in ways that weren't applicable to real life. I think giving students the opportunity to pursue vocabulary in a way that is entertaining and meaningful for them will allow them to grow their vocabulary moreso than me just tossing random words at them. 
I read the "Baby Steps" article about gently moving into REAL differentiation. I think IWonder, in its nature, facilitates differentiation. Students can go as deep as they are able to in the content that they are passionate. I appreciated Wehrmann providing the example of how she used it in her classroom: "This learning opportunity allowed four students to work on the same concept that the rest of the class was working on but allowed for individual differentiation of curriculum in content and process. The product, a paper, was the same for all students." This was a fantastic example because far too often, we think "more work" is "differentiation". I appreciate that IWonder can allow students to work on the same assignment but on a deeper level. 

1.  As a former history teacher, I would find the one about learning about different people, places, and things in history.  Each history course that a student takes has a clear start and end point but this would allow students to explore things that happened before or after the time period our course covers.  

2.  I would share the "Do you want to find the perfect book?" because middle school students can be very indecisive about their independent reading selections.  

3.  The author makes a good point about differentiation not just being "more of the same" for gifted students.  With IWonder, students can research similar topics, but use the varied resources that best match their ability level.  The teacher's role would be to help guide students toward the appropriate resources.  

I'm definitely going to share the resources in the "Do you want to learn a language?" button with our EL students and their teachers because the links to really terrific content are in the "Do you want to practice English" It is exactly what I've been looking for!

Infohio is so rich with great content and resources but most teachers don't know the buffet that is available to them!

The thing I loved the most about the article was the reminder that gifted kids deserve more complex tasts and chances to be creative rather than just being assigned MORE of the same work! Genius hour gives them the flexibility to pursue their own quirky passions and truly challenge them too.

I wanted to share the following category as a jumping off point, but was disappointed by the results: Do you want to learn more about people, places and things in history? then choosing Do you want to find primary resources?  Our 10th Grade American History students have been having a hard time grasping the concept of a Primary Source v. a Secondary Source.  I was hoping for a nice list of websites for students to choose from, but it was only two different topics from The Library of Congress.  I would definitely suggest that student in all classes start their research projects with the Do you want help from a project? category.  I liked how they were not only directed to help with research (and a relatively short video about website evaluation - which I also liked), but other forms of projects were inluded to support differentiation of product.

Like I touched on above, I think that iWonder is nice tool in getting your feet wet with differentiation of product.  I have witnessed the complete shutdown of students when given too much freedom with projects with CCP English papers and not only could students have self-paced guidance in the topic choosing process, but also the research process and the selection of a project that would showcase not only their knowledge of the topic but also their educational strengths. 

I think "Do you have a math problem to solve" would be the one I would currently use first.  I have many students that come into the library with math homework they are struggling with.  I believe this would be a great way to have the students become familiar with the program. Then they will be more open to explore the other categories.

Do you want to learn more about money? is a category that is underserviced in the current curriculum. Financial literacy is a must for students as they develop budgets, enter the workforce, and be productive members of society. My son enlisted out of high school and I was with him when he opened his first pay check and his jaw dropped when he realized his pay rate and take home were different figures.