Table of Contents • What is inquiry?………...……………………………..1 • Bloom’s Taxonomy……………………………..…….2 • Questions to Engage Students’ Thinking Skills………3 • Using the Questions: Tic Tac Toe…………………….5 • Tic Tac Toe Template………………………..…..6 • Using Question Cards: Strategy Summaries..……..…..7 • Everyone Read To………………………………..8 • Fan-N-Pick-Story…………………………….…..9 • Cubing-Story…………………………………....10 • Cubing Template…………………………..11 • Rally Coach……………………………………..12 • Rally Coach Template………..……………13 • Short Takes • Alphabet Summary………………………...14 • Ticket to Leave…………………………….15 • Numbered Heads Together • Historical Characters Question Cards……..16 • Journal Template…………………………..18 • Question Starters Template………………..19 • Strategies to Extend Student Thinking………...…….20 • References……………………………………………21

What is inquiry? Inquiry is an approach to learning that involves a process of exploring the natural or material world, that leads to asking questions and making discoveries in the search for new understandings. As teachers, we need to: • 1. Ask good questions • 2. Teach students how to ask good questions. 1

Bloom’s Taxonomy 2

Questions to Engage Thinking Skills Defining How would you define…? In your own words, what is…? Describing/Summarizing How could you describe/summarize …? If you were a reporter, how would you describe…? Determining Cause & Effect What is the cause of…? How does ___effect ___? What impact might…? Drawing Conclusions/Inferring Consequences What conclusions can you draw from…? What would happen if…? What would have happened if…? If you changed ___, what might happen? Eliminating What part of ___ might you eliminate? How could you get rid of…? Evaluating What is your opinion about…? Do you prefer…? Would you rather…? What is your favorite…? Do you agree or disagree…? What are the positive and negative aspects of…? What are the advantages/disadvantages of…? If you were a judge…? On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate…? What is the most important…? Is it better or worse…? Explaining How can you explain…? What factors might explain…? Analyzing How could you break down…? What components…? What qualities/characteristics…? Applying How is____and example of…? What practical applications…? What examples…? How could you use…? How does this apply to…? In your life, how would you apply…? Assessing By what criteria would you assess…? What grade would you give…? How could you improve…? Augmenting/Elaborating What ideas might you add to…? What more can you say about…? Categorizing/Classifying/Organizing How might you classify…? If you were going to categorize…? Comparing/Contrasting How are ____ and ____ alike? What similarities…? What are the differences between …? How is ___ different…? Connecting/Associating What do you already know about…? What connections can you make between…? What things do you think of when you think of…? Decision-Making How would you decide…? If you had to choose between…? 3

Questions to Engage Thinking Skills Prioritizing What is more important…? How might you prioritize…? Problem-Solving How would you approach the problem? What are some possible solutions to…? Reducing/Simplifying In a word, how would you describe…? How can you simplify…? Reflecting/Metacognition What would you think if…? How can you describe what you were thinking when…? Relating How is ___ related to ___? What is the relationship between…? How does ___ depend on ___? Reversing/Inversing What is the opposite of…? Role-Taking/Empathizing If you were (someone/something else)…? How would you feel if…? Sequencing How could you put… in order? What steps are involved in…? Substituting What could have been used instead of…? What else could you use for…? What might you substitute for…? What is another way…? Symbolizing How could you draw…? What symbol best represents…? Synthesizing How could you combine…? Experimenting How could you test...? What experiment could you do to…? Generalizing What general rule can…? What principle could you apply…? What can you say about all…? Interpreting Why is ___ important? What is the significance of…? What role…? What is the moral of…? Inventing What could you invent to…? What machine could…? Investigating How could you find out more about…? If you wanted to know about…? Making Analogies How is ___ like ___? What analogy can you invent for…” Observing What observations did you make about…? What changes…? Patterning What patterns can you find…? How would you describe the organization of…? Planning What preparations would you…? Predicting/Hypothesizing What would you predict…? What is your theory about…? If you were going to guess…? 4

Tic Tac Toe Application & Analysis Use your higher-order thinking questions in a game-like format. Students choose (or write) questions to answer in an effort to complete a vertical or diagonal row, thereby answering a question at each of the different levels of thinking. Synthesis Evaluation Compare the main character of this story with another you’ve read. Infer from the story what you might see in the main character’s bedroom. Create a collage that shows what you might find. Story Example Illustrate the turning point of the story. Pretend that the story you just read is made into a movie. Write a summary of the movie’s sequel. How would the story be different if the main character was a boy instead of a girl (or vice versa). Rewrite the ending so that it changes the meaning of the story. Grade the author on his/her use of interesting words & phrases. Give examples & explain your grade. Judge the quality of the story based on at least 3 criteria that you think is important in the story. Rank the characters in the story based on their character traits. Explain your ranking system. 5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Tic Tac Toe I __________________ will complete questions _____, _____, and _____. Signed: __________________________ __________________________ Student Teacher 6

Using Question Cards Everyone Read To…(pre-reading question-starters) -Individually or in partners, students ask two or more questions that they want to answer by reading the text. Students read the text, looking for clues to answer their questions. Fan-N-Pick • Student One fans cards • Student Two picks a card & reads it aloud to the team. • Student Three gives & answer after 5+ seconds of think time. • After another 5+ seconds of think time, student Four paraphrases, praises, or adds to the answer given. • Student rotate roles. Cubing • Players take turn rolling the cube. • The player who rolls the cube begins by discussing the thinking question (TQ) that is face up. • While the TQ is discussed by all members of the group, the person who rolled the dice acts as the facilitator & summarizes the conversation before the next player rolls the cube. Numbered Heads Together • Students number off in their team. • Teacher poses a question. • Students discuss the question. • Teacher calls a student number & a team number. • The student shares what his or her team discussed. Rally Coach • Each partner pair gets a set of question cards. • Student A reads the question out loud to student B. • Student B answers (you may want students to record their answers.) • Partners take turns asking and answering each question. Journal Writing • Students pick one question card and make a journal entry or use the question as the prompt for an essay or creative writing assignment. • Students share their writing with a partner or in turn with teammates. Short Takes • ABC Summary: Give each student a different letter of the alphabet & ask them to think of one word or idea beginning with that letter that is connected to the topic. • Draw a Picture: Students create a graphic summary of the topic. • Ticket to Leave: Give the students a question just before lunch, recess, or special area. After they answer it, they hand it to you on their way out. Review the answers and respond in writing, use them as a starting point for the next lesson, or as a basis to reteach misunderstood information. Learning Centers • Station 1. Question card center (Fan-N-Pick style) • Station 2. Journal writing center. • Station 3. Question-starter center: student write & trade questions, answer them, then pair up & compare their answers. 7

Everyone Read To… • Read to find out… • We found out… • Read to find out… • We found out… • Read to figure out… • We figured out... 8

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald PartridgeFan-N-Pick 9

Story Cube 1. What personal connections do you make with this story? 3. What connections can you make between this book & other books you have read? 4. What questions did you have before you read the story? Were they answered when you read the story? 2. What connections does the author of the book make with the world? 5. Tell 5 big, fat, interesting words you find as you read this story. Why did you choose them? 6. Find 5 words from this story that would be good to act out. Explain why. 10

Cubing Template 11

Rally Coach Name__________________ Date_____________ Name__________________ Date_____________ Write an equation for each question and solve it. Write an equation for each question and solve it. A grandfather had 3 grandchildren. He bought each grandchild a pair of mittens. How many mittens did he buy? There were five children sledding on the hill. How many legs did the children have all total?  Molly waited for her son at the bus stop. She saw eighteen eyes on the bus. How many people were on the bus? There were 24 cookies in the container. The three Johnson children each wanted some. What is the most amount of cookies each child could have if they split them evenly?  A girl saw 10 snowmen on her way home from school. Two had red hats, the others had green hats. How many snowmen had green hats? Lauren had fifteen dolls. Her mother told her she could only keep ten dolls because they were taking up too much space. How many dolls did Lauren get rid of?  Write your own story problem here and solve it. Write your own story problem here and solve it.  Write your own story problem here and solve it. Write your own story problem here and solve it.   12

Rally Coach Name__________________ Date_____________ Name__________________ Date_____________       13

ABC Summaryfor __________________ A______________________________________________________ B______________________________________________________ C______________________________________________________ D______________________________________________________ E______________________________________________________ F______________________________________________________ G______________________________________________________ H______________________________________________________ I______________________________________________________ J______________________________________________________ K______________________________________________________ L______________________________________________________ M_____________________________________________________N______________________________________________________ O______________________________________________________ P______________________________________________________ Q______________________________________________________ R______________________________________________________ S______________________________________________________ T______________________________________________________ U______________________________________________________ V______________________________________________________ W_____________________________________________________X______________________________________________________ Y______________________________________________________ Z _____________________________________________________ 14

Ticket to Leave Template 15

Historical CharacterQuestion Cards 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 16

Historical CharacterQuestion Cards 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 17

Historical CharacterJournal Writing Question • Write your response to the question below. Be ready to share your response. • Question:__________________________________________ • _____________________________________________ • _____________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________________ • _____________________________________________________ • ____________________________________________________ • ___________________________________________________ 18

Historical CharacterQuestion Starters Use the question starters below to create complete questions. Send your questions to a partner or to another team to answer. 1. At what point _______________________________ _____________________________________________ 2. What characteristics __________________________ _____________________________________________ 3. If you were this character ______________________ _____________________________________________ 4. What is another way __________________________ _____________________________________________ 5. What influence ______________________________ _____________________________________________ 6. How could you summarize ____________________ _____________________________________________ 19

Strategies to Extend Student Thinking • Call on students randomly (not just those who raise their hands.) • Remember “wait time” (ten to twenty seconds following a “higher level” question.) • Ask follow-ups (“Why?” “Do you agree?” “Can you elaborate?” “Can you give an example?”) • Withhold judgment by responding to student answers in a non-evaluative fashion (“Thank you.” “Thanks for sharing.”) • Ask for summary to promote active listening (“Could you please summarize Mike’s point?”) • Survey the class (“How many people agree with the author’s point of view?”) • Allow for student calling (“Ashley, will you please call on someone else to respond?”) • Play devil’s advocate (require students to defend their reasoning against different points of view.) • Ask students to “unpack their thinking” and describe how they arrived at an answer (Think-aloud.) • Student questioning (let students develop their own questions.) • Cue student responses (“There is not a single correct answer for this question, I want you to consider alternatives.”) 20

References Bloom, Benjamin. Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York ; Toronto: Longmans, Green. 1956. Kagan, Spencer. Cooperative Learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing. 1994. Kagan, Spencer. Thinking Questions for Primary Literature. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing. 1994. Kagan, Spencer. Thinking Questions for Social Studies. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing. 1994. Taylor, T. Roger. Strategies to Extend Student Thinking. www.dist102.k12.il.us/resources/staffresources/ igapisat/think.htm 21

Table of Contents