Inquiry Learning

With our district's initiative to focus on the three areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment through the lens of Understanding by Design (Grant & McTighe), it is important to understand how the essential questions and enduring understandings or concepts can connect to new learning opportunities for students.  In Jeff Wilhelm's book Engaging Readers & Writers With Inquiry, he talks about how content area teachers can uses these ideas to push their learners past the content of the course into a true understanding of the concepts.  Below are types of inquiry we can work with students on that are related to content and critical understanding.  Each one of these is applicable depending on where the student or the material is at in a given course.  Moving the student from a straight topical inquiry into a critical inquiry would be a great goal to have them bridge the learning of a course into life outside the classroom.

The E's of Inquiry

Topical Inquiry...

• Engages with a disciplinary questions
• Explores what is already known and thought
• Explains and interprets the established data, articulates connections seen in the data

Critical Inquiry...

• Elaborates and invents--makes new connections, fills gaps by providing new data and insights to what is already known
• Extends and applies--extrapolates what has been learned and finds application for what has been learned
• Evaluates and adapts--reflects on and uses what has been learned in new ways and in new situations, transferring, adapting, and revising understanding as this is done

Wilhelm, 2007

Below are some examples of frontloading activities connected to inquiries that can happen before the unit starts from Wilhelm's book.  If you are interested in seeing these in greater detail or see how they could transfer over to one of your classes, please contact me.

Autobiographical Writing Before Reading

Ask students to write about their own experiences connected to the topic.  Some questions/prompts might be: 

• Most young people want to have dating relationships that are fun, exciting, and long-lasting.  First, describe a healthy, lasting dating relationship that you've been part of or that you've observed.  What does a relationship need to be like in order to grow and last?  Why do some relationships seem to work well?  Be specific, and remember to write about real relationships that you yourself have experienced or watched. (From Brian White, 1995)  Question for Romeo and Juliet
• Think about your parents.  What physical traits or characteristics do you have that are similar to them?  Different from them?  Think beyond your parents to your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.  Are there any physical traits that you or your parents have that are similar or different than them?  Think about any siblings you have.  Are there any physical traits or characteristics that are similar or different between your siblings?  Write about these physical traits or characteristics.  Why do you think that some family members have these traits while others don't?  For example, why is your mom, dad, and sister right-handed and you are left-handed?  Question for Biology -- Genetics

Ranking Scenarios

Give students a series of passages that gives a different perspective on an enduring understanding you want students to walk away with from the unit.  Ask students to rank the passage as to why one passage is more true for them than the other.  Next, ask them to get into groups to discuss their rankings and come to consensus on one of them.  These scenarios should set students up for some critical discussion that can happen across the unit, as well as be returned to at the end.

Opinionaires

This type of activity may cover different attitudes about the essential or inquiry question you want students to answer.  Student will identify whether they agree of disagree with each statement.  After, they choose one statement that they feel particularly strong about and write a brief comment about what experience explains why you feel this way.  An partial example for Romeo and Juliet is below.

Agree/Disagree

1. Love at first sight is possible.

2. Love takes a lot of hard work.

3. If you are really in love, physical appearance doesn't matter.

4. If someone does not return your affection, the best thing to do is keep trying to change his or her mind.

Wilhelm, 2007

These frontloading activities are just a couple ideas to get students engaged in their learning prior to the start of the unit, as well as to start building schema (or prior knowledge) of the concepts before they start.  In future posts, I will include some during and after activities that continue to promote inquiry during units, but hopefully one of these activities will spark you to try something new in your next unit!