https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5F5Kdc1UVA
Tina L. Heafner
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Tina.heafner@uncc.edu
Dixie D. Massey
University of Washington
ddmassey@uw.edu
Inquiry is core goal
in learning from
texts
Questions guide
reading and thinking
Disciplinary
Questioning of Text
Using Evidence from
Text to Make
Informed Inferences
Communicating
Conclusions through
active reading,
talking, and writing
Inquiry Arc
Instructional
Dimensions
Image 1
Noticing
Image 2
Image 3
Compelling Question: What can you infer about how these people died? What evidence
supports your inference?
Italy
Poland
Bulgaria

Compelling Question:
 What can you infer about how these people died?
What evidence supports your inference?

Supporting Questions:
 What do these images have in common?
 What do you hypothesize about when these
people lived?
 What do you wonder? What are your questions?
To practice
historical
thinking
To generate
interest
To make
content more
accessible
To allow
students to
make
connections
To anchor
thinking to
existing
schema that
may not be
naturally
accessible


When gaps exist in student’s content
knowledge, and students are struggling to
connections across images and interpreting
evidence supporting their inferences, share
this video.
View:
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/tea
ching-human-migration

Read to figure out…
 short text by Marcus Sedgwick gives answer to
how these three images are the same.
▪ Highlight/underline the answer.
▪ Highlight/underline the ways that Marcus’ Sedgwick’s
account differs from the images.

Read to wonder…
 Write questions that come to mind as you are
reading.

Compelling Questions
 What can you infer about how these
people died? What evidence supports
your inference?

Supporting Questions
 What evidence from the text explains
the commonalities of these images?
 How does the text differ from the
images?
 What do you hypothesize about when
these people lived? What do you
wonder? What are your questions?
With all the grave stones gone, it was only left to lift the stone lid.
Wulf . . . ?” began one man.
Others drew back. A waiting fear had crept into us all.
“What are we doing?”
But Father stepped onto the lid. And stamped his foot.
“Whatever is in here. Whatever it is, it’s not Tor. Not anymore. And now,
with daylight, it can do nothing. So stop bellyaching and help me lift this
stone. For our children’s sake!”
The lid was lifted, and there, inside the grave, lay Tor.
It was another wonder.
His body was uncorrupted. He looked as though he slept. That was all.
And yet, there was blood at the corners of his mouth.
Did you bring them?” he asked, and Leif stepped forward holding a
leather bag.
Father took it from him, and pulled out a massive hammer, and two stout
stakes, made of whitethorn, from the western isle.
No one helped my father.
He knelt down, to finish what he had begun. He hammered the first
stake right through Tor’s chest, and deep into the soil beneath.
He took the second stake, and drove it hard into Tor’s mouth, between
his lips, which opened to take this offering.
difference
Father stood. “Try walking now,” he muttered.

Read to find out . . .
 Verify how the images are related. Highlight the
textual evidence.
 Were any of your wonderings answered? Highlight
those clues as well.
 What new questions emerge? Write where these
occur in the text.

What can you infer about how these people died? What
evidence supports your inference?

Begin to develop an argument explaining images.
How do you know if you're looking at the remains of a vampire?
Check the chest cavity for any signs of puncture with an iron rod.
Two skeletons were unearthed by officials with Bulgaria's
National Museum of History during an excavation of a
monastery in Sozopol. Upon further inspection, examiners found
that the causes of death were iron rods stabbed through the
heart — the customary way to kill a "vampire" 700 years ago.
Sometimes, the heart would be stabbed multiple times in an
effort to prevent the dead "vampire" from rising again.
In Bulgaria, archeologists found bricks or rocks stuffed into the
skeleton’s jaw. This was also to keep the dead from coming back
to life and escaping the grave.
Polish villagers of the Middle Ages also used rocks or bricks
stuffed in or under the jaw of the skeleton. However, they
sometimes added a sickle over the neck of the body so that if the
dead tried to rise again, the blade would severe the head.
Lead to more
informational
texts
Short Texts
Series
Generate
Authentic
Questions
Engage
Reluctant
Readers
Build
Interest

What in the world might location have to do
with the images?

Highlight evidence that answers why location
matters . . . Or why location doesn’t matter.

What can you infer about how these people died?
What evidence supports your inference?

Begin to develop an argument explaining images.
Why was belief in vampires so widespread? Consider three reasons. First, many areas buried their dead in mass
graves. These graves were often reopened to bury more bodies. Gravediggers were people who buried bodies,
but they often opened the same grave others were buried in and added more bodies. When they opened the
grave, they were in for many gruesome sights.
Second, as gravediggers opened the bodies, they didn’t know how to explain what they saw. Instead of
understanding the decomposition process, they assumed that changes in the body meant the person was trying
to live again. As the human stomach decays, it releases a dark "purge fluid." This bloodlike liquid can come out
of a dead body’s nose and mouth. If someone dug up the grave and saw this fluid coming out of the mouth and
nose, they might think the vampire had come out to eat. Sometimes, the purge fluid made the cloth wrapping
the body wet and caused the cloth to sag into the mouth, making it look as if the body were eating the cloth.
When gravediggers saw these decomposing bodies with partially "eaten" shrouds they assumed it was a
vampire trying to get out. They believe that inserting objects—such as bricks and stones—into the mouths of
these skeletons would keep the body from coming back to life and escaping the grave.
Third, people of the Middle Ages did not understand how disease was spread. Rather than seek medical and
scientific explanations for diseases like cholera, they often sought supernatural explanations. Vampires were
one way that they explained how the evil of disease and death was spread. They hoped that by keeping the
dead dead, they could eliminate various diseases.



What are some reasons why location is
important to these pictures?
What evidence can you draw from the various
sources to support your developing
argument?
What are your questions and wonderings?
To dig deep
into text (close
reading)
To break a text
into smaller
sections
To consider each
section as a single
text encounter
deepen focus
approach text
interest
self-efficacy
gradual
release of
responsibility
Think Aloud
Thinking
Teams
Independent
Thinking


What question compels you to learn more?
(e.g. What historical events would create a
culture of vampire folklore or hysteria?)
Where would you go from here to learn more,
to formalize your argument, and to draw
conclusions?


Chunking of Nuzzolese_et_al-2010Journal_of_Forensic_Sciences
Close Reading of
Commentary_on_Nuzzolese_E__Borrini_Mlibre



What is a complex
text?
What about this
text is worthy of
reading and study?
Can short texts be
complex texts?
quantitative
measure of text
qualitative
measures of texts
matching reader
to text
• What does
the text
say?
Read 1
Read 2
• How does
the text
work?
• What does
the text
mean?
Read 3
What does the
text say?
How does the
text work?
What does the
text mean?
 Metacognition: What am I doing as a
reader in each step?
TH




Plan intentionally to offer students support they
will need
Frequently engage students with complex texts
Know next steps in content learning which
emerge from reading informational texts
Reinforce disciplinary oriented ways of thinking
about texts
Corroborate
Source
Contextualize


Questioning is a
"universal" strategy
that goes across
disciplines
Questions that are
asked to the text are
specific to the
content—disciplinary
thinking




What information do these sources confirm
from our previous readings?
What information do these sources add to
our knowledge about beliefs in vampires?
What questions drove your inquiry? What
answers did you find?
How does this process model the C3
framework?
View
Read
Connect
Talk
Take
Stock



Asking questions is an evolving process and
one in which student thinking should begin to
initiate questioning.
Questions become more compelling and
facilitate further study.
Student Compelling Question: What
contributed to the vampire hysteria that
swept Europe during the Middle Ages?
Where I might go next . . .
Heafner, T. L., & Massey, D. D. (2012). Targeted vocabulary strategies for secondary social
studies. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Services.
"Doctor"
Dark, stormy skies
approaching, spreading over
the entire horizon
sword, scythe
(means to cut)
hat
Beak, mask, bird?
fully covered, cloaked
dark clothing
gloves
Countryside
People running, fleeing
another masked,
cloaked person
Town, thatched roof,
Tudor homes
dark, shadowed path,
spreading, leading to death
Shadow, Death?,
Danger?
Heafner, T. L., & Massey, D. D. (2012). Targeted vocabulary strategies for secondary social
did germ
warfare
become
a military and/or societal concern in North
studies. Culver City,When
CA: Social
Studies
School
Services.
America?

Black Death
 Black Death graves: http://www.livescience.com/27932-
14th-century-black-death-burial.html
 Doctors in the Black Death:
http://www.cdc.gov/plague/history/ and
http://www.doctorsreview.com/history/doctors-blackdeath/
 Description of the Disease
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/healthand-human-body/human-diseases/plague-article/

Grim reaper
http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vsmyth/strange-creatures/grim-reaper.htm
This example shows four moves we make with
text:
1. Start with images to draw even reluctant
readers into the topic.
2. Rewrite a text/topic to create a short text in
order to help readers answer a
question/prove a theory.
3. Use short texts in sets.
4. Use an excerpt as a short text—where most
readers will read more from the same longer
text.
 Use images first
 Offer a specific purpose
 Offer short segments
of text—these often
need to be
manipulated in some
way
 Know where to go next





Short! Ideally, no more than two paragraphs
to read at one time, though breaking up a
longer text works.
Reading Images
All types of genres—primary documents,
sections of lab reports, a single page, a single
poem, a short newspaper article
One class period
For multiple ages to focus in-depth
 Multi-genre informational texts
provide additional layers of evidence
that can be used to support reading
when inquiry is the primary
objective.



Inquiry through text is not a procedural
process, but rather a dispositional stance
toward texts, ideas, and experiences.
It is a willingness to wonder, to question, to
seek answers, and to engage in collective
thinking about content, information, and
texts.
Inquiry drives reading and sense-making of
informational texts.




Reading informational texts in different
disciplinary domains is very complex.
There are unique disciplinary skills that
experts use to read texts.
There are ways of knowing specific to each
domain that manifest in how we read and
understand informational texts.
Reading is guided by specific disciplinary
questions that follow the lines of inquiry
described in the C3 Framework.



Historical fiction allows readers to become more
involved in the everyday lives of people,
including their trials and triumphs, against the
backdrop of a historical setting.
Historical fiction differs from nonfiction in that it
not only presents facts or re-creates a time and
place, but also weaves the facts into a fictional
story.
Historical inquiry can be supported through
historical fiction when texts are authenticated.
The most important components in text
complexity are realizing that it does not just
mean increasing the Lexile level of a text
 We aren’t just giving students texts that have
higher Lexile levels.
 Thoughtful planning holds the key to student
success with complex texts.
 Instruction with complex texts will initially
require more modeling, scaffolding, and support
from teachers.







Inquiry is core goal in learning from texts
Questions guide reading and thinking
Disciplinary Questioning of Text
Using Evidence from Text to Make Informed
Inferences
Communicating Conclusions through active
reading, talking, and writing
Inquiry Arc Instructional Dimensions




Massey, D. D., & Heafner, T. L. (2014). Seeds of Inquiry: Using Short Texts
to Enhance Student Understanding of U.S. History. Culver City, CA: Social
Studies School Services. ISBN: 978-1-56004-854-1. Available:
http://www.socialstudies.com/c/product.web?nocache@2+s@HkHIwvyx
uKoi2+record@TF45575+frompage@search
Heafner, T. L., & Massey, D. D. (2012). Targeted vocabulary strategies for
secondary social studies. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Services.
ISBN: 978-1-56004-688-2. Available:
http://www.socialstudies.com/c/product.html?nocache@2+s@FxAjvg7s
swRig+record@TF44570
Heafner, T. L., & Massey, D. D. (2006). Strategic reading in U.S. history.
Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Services. Available:
http://www.socialstudies.com/c/product.web?nocache@3+s@JUo6bqH3
81JDg+record@TF38900
Massey, D. D. & Heafner, T. L. (2006). Strategic reading in world history.
Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Services. Available:
http://www.socialstudies.com/c/product.web?nocache@3+s@JUo6bqH3
81JDg+record@TF38900