Inquiry
Engaging ideas for CT teachers
CREC May 11, ACES May 13
Watertown May 19
image credit JKM 4.16.15
Norms
● Feel free to live tweet during the
session if you are so inclined
with #ctinquiryk12
● Come in with an open mind
● Be clear about your barriers
while focusing on solutions to
overcoming them
● Share frequently
Timekeeper? Notetakers?
Image credit Jaqulyn Bartomioli 9/2013
Agenda
○
○
○
○
Warm Up, Norms & Agenda
Framework & inquiry model, Q & A
Sample Inquiry Lesson(s)
Discuss Historical Thinking Skills
Sit by
Grade
Levels
Mission of Inquiry in CT
IF we implement the new frameworks using the inquiry
model in our state with guaranteed & viable district
curricula, THEN we will improve student achievement and
quality of life. This will be demonstrated by:
● increased vocabulary development
● critical reading & text dependent questions
● developing evidence based arguments
● depth of thinking
● engaged citizenship
Why Inquiry?
Research shows the following strategies related to inquiry
have a high impact on student achievement:
Average
Effect Size for
Self-feedback/ Student expectations 1.44
all strategies
Classroom discussions .82
is .40!
Feedback .75
Meta-cognitive strategies .68
Vocabulary .67
Concept mapping .59
Tactile stimulation .58
CT Framework & Inquiry
What were your take-aways from keynote
presentation or previous intro sessions?
How would you summarize inquiry for your
colleagues who are not familiar?
image credit
piktochart by
@jenmurrihy
Inquiry Arc
● Dimension 1: Developing questions and
planning inquiry
● Dimension 2: Applying disciplinary concepts
and tools
● Dimension 3: Evaluating sources & using
evidence
● Dimension 4: Communicating conclusions &
taking informed action
What could Inquiry look like?
Inquiry Dimension
Low Level
Mid Level
Higher Level
Dimension 1: Developing
questions and planning
inquiry
selecting a topic from a
variety of existing choices;
more teacher direction
Using the Question
Formulation Technique, find
out more of what you would
like to know
Most student choice: what to
research, how to present w/
choices
Dimension 2: Applying
disciplinary concepts and
tools
focus on finding the source,
critical thinking/ reading;
focus on Evidence, Claims;
thinking like an economist/
historian/ geographer/
legislator
focus on Contextualization,
Corroboration;
Dimension 3: Evaluating
sources & using evidence
Generating questions about
sources, learning new
words; searching for
evidence from existing
materials
Citing evidence from a
source to support thinking;
finding your own sources
through research to support
claim
Synthesizing multiple
sources
Dimension 4:
Communicating conclusions
& taking informed action
Turn to your parner and
state your case for ____; Inclass debate or Structured
Academic Controversy
Letter to Congress to fund
National Parks (National);
Persuade others to visit
historical society (local); PSA
Campaign to end child labor
or save endangered animals
(world); Project Presentation
“fair”; attend a board meeting
Inquiry
Objective:
Conceptual Lens: Hardship
Compelling Questions:
How would you define hardship?
How have different groups over time experienced hardships?
Anatomy of an inquiry lesson
“Hook” Build background
(Connection to previous
learning)/ generate ???s
Mini-lecture: What supporting
questions need answers?
Activate prior knowledge &
develop vocabulary; engage
(Think Rule of 3s)
Application/ Collaboration: Students
work with documents with a
compelling question in mind, students
debate, discuss, plan w/ disciplinary
lens
Closure, students make
connections & plan for
follow up learning; Exit
ticket/ assessment options
Applying Disciplinary Lenses
Geography- New York Times Immigration
Interactive
Economics-Immigrant Groups Library of
Congress
Civics- Immigration Government Policies
Newsela Article
History- Immigration Oral Histories
Material Culture Investigation
Labor/ Urbanization
Children’s Lives
High up on the top floor of a
rickety tenement, 214
Elizabeth St., N.Y., this mother
and her two children, boy 10
years old and the girl 12, were
living in a tiny one room, and
were finishing garments. The
garments were packed under
the bed and on top of it and
around the room. Said the
make from $1 to $2 a week,
and the boys [sic] earns some
selling newspapers. I could
not get their name. Location:
[New York, New York (State)].
www.loc.gov
Immigration
Immigration
Teacher OverviewLOC
U.S. inspectors examining eyes of immigrants,
Ellis Island, New York Harbor
Digital ID: (b&w film copy neg. of right half stereo) cph
3a10036 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a10036
Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-7386 (b&w film copy
neg. of right half stereo)
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Early Settlements
Jamestown
Primary Source Set
John Smith’s Journal, Jamestown 1608
Countrymen, the long experience of our late
miseries, I hope is sufficient to persuade every
one to a present correction of himself, and think
not that either my pains, nor the [investors']
purses...better than is yet here to be had: but the
greater part must be more industrious, or starve,
how ever you have been heretofore tolerated by
the authorities of the Council... you must obey
this now for a Law, that he that will not work
shall not eat (except by sickness he be disabled)
for the labors of thirty or forty honest and
industrious men shall not be consumed to
maintain an hundred and fifty idle loiterers.
image credit
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/class
roommaterials/primarysourcesets/
jamestown/
Modifying Text Documents
Yet into this sheepfold, into this land of meek outcasts there
came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like
ravening wild beasts, wolves, tigers, or lions that had been
starved for many days. And Spaniards have behaved in no
other way during tla! past forty years, down to the present
time, for they are still acting like ravening beasts, killing,
terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native
peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new
methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before, and to
such a degree that this Island of Hispaniola once so populous
(having a population that I estimated to be more than three
million), has now a population of barely two hundred persons.
-From A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies,
Bartolome de las Casas accessed online at
http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/02las.html
Would you
modify this?
Could you pair it
with something to
provide context?
What
vocabulary
would they
need?
Comparing Documents
Pictures from Multiple Perspectives
Primary and Secondary Sources
Mentor Texts
Different types of documents related to a
topic
● Students will make connections & need to
deal with discrepancies
●
●
●
●
image credit http://streetsofsalem.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/bostonmassacre-revere-color.jpg
image credit
http://09roadtorevolutionp1.pbworks.com/f/1260192523/BostonMa
ssacre2Lg.gif
Questioning
Beginner: Offer a selection of several questions
and have students choose those that most
interest them
Intermediate: Provide a va
Advanced: Using the Question Formulation
Technique and a QFocus
Argument & Debate
● Take a side!
● Look at the primary
source documents
regarding Lexington &
Concord and try to see
which POV you can
support
Option for structuring inquiry
(Planning) Compelling Question: Not just the “essential question” based on curriculum, but what is an
interesting question that students will want to dive into?
(Planning) Essential Strategy: Discipline specific strategy. How will you teach them skills used by historians/
economists/ geographers/ civic leaders. Might also include reading, writing, study skills, the skill they will need to
reflect on the text or document relating to the lesson.
(Begin lesson) Connection: Why should students CARE about the topic? Share/ create compelling question(s).
Teaching/ “Mini-Lecture”: The historical/ strategic background students need in order to work & answer
supporting questions
Active Engagement: Set purpose & have students practice. What will they DO? What documents & supporting
texts will you use? (Becomes less necessary as students become more familiar with model)
Independent Daily Discovery: Exploring documents in small groups, analyzing maps, web research, debate
link (could look different each day as students/ unit moves through dimensions).
Link: How does it fit into the big picture of the unit? (discuss)
Closure: Reflect on the compelling questions, students reflect on their performance with new skill or strategy.
---This cycle may be continued over several days--
Where can I find primary
docs?
● National Archives website
● Library of Congress website, with helpful teacher
background pages, index website to search by type
● Reading Like a Historian page with lesson plans &
posters (need to sign up for login)
● Yale Collaborative Collection
● Fordham collection
● Smithsonian
● Guide to scaffolding & differentiating primary source
documents
Primary Sources by Topic
Ancient Egypt
American Revolution
Colonization
Exploration
Civil War
Slavery
Early Civilizations
Mexico
Immigration
Constitution
Westward Expansion
National Parks
Native Americans
Russia
Japan/ Asia
Assessment in Social Studies
● Constructed Response
● SAC (Structured Academic Controversy)
● DBQs (Document Based Questions)
image credit
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/upload
edImages/Curriculum/Social_St
udies/attachments/studentsatwo
rk(1).jpg
Tech Integration Ideas
EduCreations: Students narrate
discussion about primary docs
PowToon: students present findings
after researching a compelling
question
Thinglink.com: students reflection on
geographical patterns related to an
event
Additional Resources
● Reading Like a Historian
o
http://sheg.stanford.edu/rlh
● Notetaking blog entry from TCRWP
● Video: Social Studies Centers in the 3-5
Classroom
● More on creating Document Based Questions at
http://edteck.peterpappas.com/dbq/