Embracing an Inquiry Stance
Course
Motivation through Summative Assessment [8:26]
- Learn how to use summative assessments to motivate teachers and students
- Learn about the REACTS Taxonomy and how it relates to inquiry
- Learn to help students react to their research and present and share in completely new ways
So one of the things I wanted to share with you is a REACTS Taxonomy, which I developed with my fellow librarian, Judy Pitts, when I was in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as a high school librarian. Essentially, it's a taxonomy of ways that kids can react to their research and present and share. All the way from simply recalling the information to the highest level of synthesizing a whole new approach, a whole new animal, a whole new something, that they have designed and created. And any level is appropriate, depending on how much time or what the teacher desires. But it's important to think about the level as you're designing it. And if a teacher wants them to really get in depth, but then assigns a report that is just copied, that's just a recalling or maybe an explaining level. And so working with teachers to help them understand that we can boost it up is a really powerful.
So let me just briefly explain what the REACTS Taxonomy is, what is composed of, and then I'll tell you how I used it to motivate everybody. For each level, a description of the level of thinking, what's happening in a kid's brain when he is operating at that level. Is he simply recalling and restating or summarizing? Is he finding an example that is appropriate that would represent that? Can he maybe put it in a new context, although that's a little pushing to the next level of thinking almost. And then Judy and I tried to think of all the verbs that would be appropriate for that level of thinking. Now, the reason that verbs are there is because I used this REACTS Taxonomy when I was brainstorming with teachers and when I started saying, well, do you want kids to be able to demonstrate? Do you want them to be able to give an example? I could nail down the level of thinking that the teacher wanted and sometimes even boost the level of thinking. I don't want them to just give an example that they found from somebody else, I want them to create an example. Oh, ok, we're at this level, then. And then example assignments and what we tried to do was to think of the most authentic ways that we present information in the world. And how do we present information and communicate at all different levels of thinking. So at the explaining level, it's write and present a CNN News report about a particular event or maybe cut out newspaper or magazine ads that would represent a historical figure. And actually, when I did that, I got some of the more hilarious ones. Benjamin Franklin, for example, was a health nut. He used to jump in the river, frozen river, Potomac River and swim every day. And so when kids had him, they would cut out health spa ads and yeah, it was really wonderful. But you knew they understood the character.
And finally, there are lots of examples on the REACTS, but prepare a job application for somebody that you researched. So here's an example of one for Benjamin Franklin and how much greater to have a job application, or a resume actually, for Benjamin Franklin rather than a report. It's not important, all of the other pieces; but what would he put on his resume? The fact that he adopted the pseudonym of Mrs. Silence Dogood to write letters, I mean, I just found out so many fascinating things that fit right into a resume. So I would like to recommend that you think about using REACTS with your teachers.
And let me tell you one thing. I have 1 minute, maybe to tell you how I used them. And you have to remember, I've been a librarian for a long time, so I'm pre-electronic everything online. So you can adapt this however you would. But when we were first developing it, we actually had a card file with all of the different REACTS and we color-coded. So I remember recalling was red. Teachers would come in and we would figure out what level they were thinking about or maybe two levels, and we would pull out those cards and we'd say, well, how about a CNN News report? Would that get to what you'd want your kids to learn? And the teachers got so excited because we would actually use it for brainstorming and we wouldn't necessarily stay with those same products; but it got our brains going. And it was so successful, that teachers came in and they checked out the REACTS box, because they started using this in their own classes. And I just, I recommend it highly because it is so motivating to think about presenting. You're sharing your information in a real world way. And you know that so much communicating is done online. So what tweets would Benjamin Franklin do? or what would George Washington tweet before some battle? And the kids will get very excited about sharing information in that way.
OK, welcome back! I wanted to make a couple of comments before we move on to the next section and the first is that, I forget, Debbie asked a question in the chat whether the REACTS Taxonomy was related to Bloom's Taxonomy. And it's actually kind of funny, when we first developed it, it was related to Bloom's Taxonomy, but it was before the new Bloom's. And so we decided that evaluation was absolutely not the highest level of thinking and that's why we developed it with synthesizing as the highest level. I am happy to say that with the revision of the Bloom's Taxonomy, they now agree with us, that evaluating is not the highest level, and so it's very synchronous now with the new Bloom's and I think you can feel very comfortable that you can position it with teachers, that it is indeed the levels of thinking that they might recognize from Bloom's.
As students develop their inquiry skills, it is important to make sure that they are taking what they've learned and making it their own, that they are reacting to the information and not recalling it. The REACTS Taxonomy teaches students to react to their research and present and share it in new and exciting ways.
Empire State Information Fluency Continuum, REACTS, https://slsa-nys.libguides.com/ifc/reacts
In this lesson, Barbara showed an example of a resume for Benjamin Franklin as an example of a new way to present information during research that went beyond a simple report. It allowed students to get excited about what they learned and take ownership of presenting that knowledge. Reflect on what you learned and visit the REACTS Taxonomy website found in the resources above to understand each level a little more. Using page 11 of the Course Packet, brainstorm some ideas for activities that reflect each level of the REACTS Taxonomy.
MLA Citation
Stripling, Barbara K. "Embracing an Inquiry Stance: The REACTS Taxonomy." School Library Connection, August 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2266991?learningModuleId=2266980&topicCenterId=0.
Entry ID: 2267511
Using summative assessment to motivate teachers and students to engage in their research and inquiry is a great way to empower students by allowing them to do more than write a simple report.
In this lesson, Barbara talks about using summative assessment to motivate teachers and students to engage in in-depth research and inquiry. Using page 12 of the Course Packet, begin to create an inquiry unit using a summative assessment product that will excite your students' sense of wonder! What deep reading or inquiry skills can you include? What types of resources will you have them use for the different phases of inquiry? Make sure to use a challenging or transformative REACTS level for your product to be sure your students go beyond just explaining.
MLA Citation
Stripling, Barbara K. "Embracing an Inquiry Stance: Designing an Inquiry Unit." School Library Connection, August 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2266991?learningModuleId=2266980&topicCenterId=0.
Entry ID: 2267512
Additional Resources
MLA Citation
Stripling, Barbara K. "Embracing an Inquiry Stance. Motivation through Summative Assessment [8:26]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, August 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2266991?learningModuleId=2266980&topicCenterId=0.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2266991?learningModuleId=2266980&topicCenterId=0
Entry ID: 2266991