Getting Started with Inquiry
Course
Essentials of Inquiry [8:42]
In an inquiry model, a student is asked a big question which, when he can answer, demonstrates his understanding. The teacher's role is to shift the responsibility for learning onto the student by letting the student ask the questions and allowing the student to do his/her own uncovering and discovering.
In an inquiry model or an inquiry repackaged lesson, a student is asked a big question which, when he can answer, demonstrates his understanding. He has the responsibility to shift it to the student for learning instead of the teacher covering it, he's going to be uncovering and discovering. It's really essential that you allow him the responsibility to own his learning.
That's where the wonder comes in where you encourage the students, you present the big question and you say, "Well, what do you think about that? What are you wondering about? What questions do you have?" Then they amass those questions.
Now, if you're anything like many teachers we've delivered professional development to, they'll say to you, "Well, my kids can't ask questions. They don't even know what a question is sometimes." We created something called the question stems.
That is another learning handout. It's a one-pager that says "Question Stems". That's something you can give your students if they don't know how to ask questions. It's like a sentence starter or writing prompt but it's a question prompt. It has concrete questions on the left, the who? The what? The when?
Then it moves to even more deep questions on the right, why? How? If you give the student the question prompt or question starter like that, they're out to brainstorm questions of all sorts.
When a student really uncovers and discovers, they need those concrete facts, the who? What? When? Where? As well as the higher ended questions that are how? How come this is like this? Or why did he say that? Or what would have happened if? The deeper the question is an indication that the kids are embracing the deeper learning or the deeper understanding of the content area.
That is what initiates the investigation. The concrete facts will also help them answer the deeper questions or the esoteric questions. It's very important. We created that question stem prompter in elementary age. Then the high school teacher started to say, "Gee, I want to use this at my level."
It's just an idea. We would encourage you to teach students how to ask questions if they don't know how. We had one kindergarten librarian who taught K-1-2. She said, she shared, "Man, my goal in inquiry this year for my kindergarten is just to get them asking, know how to ask a question and what a question is." You know your students and you know where they are on that horizon, what they need. Please use both of those documents.
The kids then get into this discovery mode. A teacher, what does inquiry mean for the teacher? The teacher may have to hook the learner, of course. In other words, standard delivery is dead. You're going to have to still do that Madeline Hunter hook at the beginning of your lesson to get them interested in whatever you're going to be inquiring about or investigating.
You have to connect to prior learning. Some of the connection, students are going to make on their own to their life or, "Do you remember when we learned this?" You may have to help them connect to prior learning. Why? Because to get the long term retention, it has to connect to something that they already know.
That'll frame the contents for learning. You'll have those teachers and perhaps the librarian will have to develop that big question or that umbrella question. There are different names for that, also known as umbrella questions, big questions, research questions. The C3,. social studies standards, are calling it compelling question.
What's the difference between a compelling question and an essential question? Basically, it's kid friendly. It has to be in words that a kid gets excited about. If I said to you, "How does eating junk food impair your life?" Suddenly, it's kid friendly because you're in their junk food world.
If I said to you, "How can you lengthen your days based upon individual decisions that you make every day?" one is a little bit more student friendly than the other but both are packaging the same learning objective. Hey, we wanted them to investigate and answer a question regarding health issues. They get in there. They get into that inquiry model and they dive in so that at the end of it, they can talk about why their individual choices that they make with their diet may extend their life or shorten their life.
Inquiry really works for many different disciplines. Now, we'll be going into giving you examples for everything from health to science a little bit later. One key point as you and a teacher gets ready and plans for inquiry is choose a topic and identify the vocabulary of the discipline. Why? Because the vocabulary of the discipline is really the language that the students will use to demonstrate that they know and understand the content area.
If I were going to say to you, "Let's talk about strengthening democracy in New York State," first of all, you'd go to sleep. If I said to you, "Hey, we're going to be building a wall of fame for democracy in let's say in America, building a democracy in America. Who do you want to be on it and why?"
I've given you this task ahead of you caged in an essential question. Who should be on our wall of fame for democracy, strengthening democracy in America? Basically, suddenly, did you see how I automatically I shifted the responsibility to the learner. They have to say, "Well, what's democracy? Well, what do you mean? How do I get on the wall?" Oh, you got to build an evidence-based claim. I'm standing there. "What do you think is democracy?" and you go on with your guiding questions.
I'm expecting them to use words like abolitionist, citizens, democracy and maybe emancipation, maybe immigration, maybe persecution, maybe the Manumission Society or Women's Suffrage Movement.
I'm going to have a vocabulary list of the discipline that we actually, when we do research and rebase research, we actually give out often and equip the kids for success by giving them these on a bookmark. We say, "These are words that you're going to come across during your research and that we're going to expect to hear you use in your discussion or in your writing pieces that'll demonstrate that you have a deep understanding." Basically, you're equipping them for success by doing this.
Another example, let's say they were doing Roaring 20s or the Harlem Renaissance. You might have a vocabulary list that includes recession, bull market, communism, expatriates, sabotage, quota system, bootleggers, speakeasy, flapper, blues, pop culture.
All those characteristics of the Roaring 20s of the content area that we want them to investigate and deeply understand and use in their knowledge product because at the end of an inquiry-based research endeavor, they're going to have to demonstrate their knowledge with their performance based assessment.
That may be a writing piece. That may be a discussion and debate. That may be a technology product. That may be the creation of a museum or a wall of fame or it might be an Eye movie. The choices are plentiful. It's just up to you and a teacher, you as a librarian and a teacher to co-plan and decide how, after they uncover and discover meaning, are they going to demonstrate their knowledge.
That's a little snapshot about what inquiry is.
Quoting directly from this lesson, "in an inquiry model or an inquiry repackaged lesson, a student is asked a big question which, when he can answer, demonstrates his understanding." Questioning is the heart of inquiry, and sometimes for students and even teachers, this can feel new and challenging. Supporting students' skills in constructing good questions, along with sound instructional strategies like the starting lessons with a "hook" and establishing a framework for learning, set the stage for productive and engaging inquiry experiences.
Review the chart in the lesson entitled "Question Stems" found in Resources below.
Select a topic from a grade level that you teach, perhaps in an existing collaboration or something you might like to develop. To practice the thinking skills of inquiry, fill out the chart with questions related to this topic. As Jaeger explains, the questions dig into deeper meaning moving from left to right on the chart.
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Getting Started with Inquiry: Constructing Inquiry Questions." School Library Connection, October 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1988317?learningModuleId=1988313&topicCenterId=0.
Entry ID: 2122837
Additional Resources
About the Author
MLA Citation
Jaeger, Paige. "Getting Started with Inquiry. Essentials of Inquiry [8:42]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, November 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1988317?learningModuleId=1988313&topicCenterId=0.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1988317?learningModuleId=1988313&topicCenterId=0
Entry ID: 1988317