Practice evaluating a
statement of inquiry!
Task: Use the checklist below to evaluate an example SOI for a single
subject unit
The Unit Idea
[Fill in]
Subject content
Concepts/Context
Statement of inquiry
[Fill in the subject specific
content students will explore]
Key concept: [Fill in]
Related concept(s):
[Fill in]
● [Fill in]
Global context:
● Exploration: [Fill in]
Checklist: Check the concepts
Yes
(Y)
No
(N)
Reflection questions
Check the concepts:
Are there at least two concepts?
Can this number of concepts be explored during the timeframe of the unit?
Check the conceptual understanding:
Is there a conceptual understanding evident in the SOI?
(Hint: Delete the global context/exploration words from the SOI to see if a
meaningful conceptual understanding is evident)
If yes, enter the conceptual understanding here:
Then, consider the conceptual understanding and answer the below questions.
If no, answer the below questions in terms of the statement of inquiry.
Are all of the unit’s identified concepts recognizable in the sentence?
(represented explicitly OR through a clearly representative word or phrase)
Is the statement succinct and understandable?
Does the statement express a meaningful, dynamic relationship between the
concepts? (Check the verb!)
Are all of the concepts critical to expressing the core idea?
Is the idea important to the subject and yet transferable beyond the
disciplinary content of the unit?
● does not include reference to specific unit content,
● relevant to other units in the subject group
[Hint: the SOI can include general words that might only be relevant to and
transferable within the subject/discipline (such as music, authors, ... ), but should not
include specific unit content words that would limit the relevance of the idea to a
specific unit ("jazz", "Shakespeare".) Building relevance to other subject groups is
encouraged but not mandatory]
Check the global context and exploration:
Can the identified global context and “exploration” provide a relevant, realworld context for authentically exploring the unit’s conceptual understanding
and the subject-specific content?
Is/Are the word, words or phrase identified as the “exploration” explicitly
evident in the statement of inquiry?
Check the statement of inquiry as a whole:
Does the SOI express a foundational idea that is important for students to
understand?
Is the phrasing of the SOI clear and understandable?
Is the SOI transferable?
● It does not include reference to specific unit content
● It is relevant beyond the content of the unit
Check the whole checklist!
Were the answers to all the other questions, “Yes”?
If no, to any questions, some ideas for strengthening the SOI could be: