Cultivating an Inquiry-Oriented Classroom to Teach the Common Core

1. Cultivating an Inquiry-Oriented Classroom to Teach the Common Core Mary Kendrick NCETA Friday, September 28, 2012

2. Why inquiry? Inquiry targets the Common Core standards that require students to conduct research. Inquiry also helps teachers address ALL the standards through meaningful, engaging learning experiences.

3. Where MY inquiry into the Common Core began …

4. Common Core on writing…. To build a foundation for college and career readiness, students need to learn to use writing as a way of offering and supporting opinions, demonstrating understanding of the subjects they are studying, and conveying real and imagined experiences and events. They learn to appreciate that a key purpose of writing is to communicate clearly to an external, sometimes unfamiliar audience, and they begin to adapt the form and content of their writing to accomplish a particular task and purpose. They develop the capacity to build knowledge on a subject through research projects and to respond analytically to literary and informational sources. To meet these goals, students must devote significant time and effort to writing, producing numerous pieces over short and extended time frames throughout the year.

7. Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Anchor Standards 7, 8 and 9 Knowledge is constructedby the learner and writing is part of the knowledge-construction process. Writing Anchor 7 leads most directly to inquiry.

8. Writing Anchor Standard 7 (W7) Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

9. Unpacking W7 What knowledge, skills, and understandings should students develop to be “college and career ready” according to this standard?

10. W7 across the grades 6th Grade Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate. Research Answer questions Ask questions Draw on sources Refocus inquiry Engage in inquiry

11. W7 across the grades 8th Grade Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration. Self-generated questions Generate additional, related questions Identify multiple avenues of exploration

12. W7 across the grades 11th/12th Grade Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation. Solve a problem Narrow and/or broaden inquiry Synthesize multiple sources on a subject

13. In our classrooms students need to: • Be inquirers • Investigate • Practice constructing knowledge • Generate questions before, during, and after inquiry • Draw ideas and information from a variety of resources • Synthesize understanding after accessing multiple resources • Write throughout the inquiry process

15. http://www.cii.illinois.edu/InquiryPage/

16. http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_StudentInquiry.pdfhttp://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_StudentInquiry.pdf

17. What might this look like in an English Language Arts classroom? "Nature" is what we see "Nature" is what we see—The Hill—the Afternoon—Squirrel—Eclipse— the Bumble bee—Nay—Nature is Heaven—Nature is what we hear—The Bobolink—the Sea—Thunder—the Cricket—Nay—Nature is Harmony—Nature is what we know—Yet have no art to say—So impotent Our Wisdom isTo her Simplicity.  Emily Dickinson • Ask • Investigate • Create • Discuss • Reflect • Ask

21. Teaching W7: • Ask questions • Draw on sources • Refocus inquiry • Generate additional, related questions • Identify multiple avenues of exploration • Narrow and/or broaden their inquiry when appropriate • Synthesize multiple sources

22. Teaching other Common Core standards: • R1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. • R3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. • R9: Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. • W1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. • W9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

23. The Classroom as a Community of Inquiry • “Dialogic Inquiry in Education: Building on the Legacy of Vygotsky”, Gordon Wells, in C.D. Lee and P. Smagorinsky (Eds.) Vygotskian perspectives on literacy research. New York: Cambridge University Press, (pp. 51-85). • “Using Student Collaboration to Foster Progressive Discourse” by Mary Kendrick, English Journal 99.5 (2010). • “The Inquiry Page: Learning Begins with Questions” http://www.cii.illinois.edu/InquiryPage/index.html • “Getting Started with Student Inquiry” http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_StudentInquiry.pdf