“Providing, Supporting, and Sustaining Rigorous Instruction”

Focus on Inquiry

• June 8th, 2010• Presenter: Jessica Chafin 

Think About It

Here

Exponential growth of information will lead educators to:

Embrace digital and global cultureEmbrace student centered learningFoster interdependent learning stylesAssist students as they become independent, self-directed and lifelong learners

What Can We Do?• Help students learn explicit strategies that inform and 

organize the way they do specific types of thinking.

• Build into instruction significant opportunities for students to reflect on, monitor, evaluate, and plan their thinking.

• Prompt specific engagements on the part of students in using the type of skillful thinking being taught in thinking about the content they are learning.

• Follow up specific lessons with opportunities for students to get more practice guiding themselves to do the same sort of thinking in new situations.

• Conducted in an environment where good thinking attitudes are modeled and where                    students are given opportunities to manifest                          those attitudes and reflect on their value.

Habits of Mind

"Habits of Mind are the characteristics of what intelligent people do when they are confronted with problems, the resolutions of which are not immediately apparent." (Costa) 

The 16 Habits of Mind1. Persisting2. Thinking and 

communicating with clarity and precision

3. Managing impulsivity4. Gathering data through all 

senses5. Listening with 

understanding and empathy6. Creating, imagining, 

innovating7. Thinking flexibly8. Responding with 

wonderment and awe

9. Thinking about thinking (metacognition)

10. Taking responsible risks 11. Striving for accuracy12. Finding humor

13.Questioning and posing problems

14. Thinking interdependently15. Applying past knowledge 

to new situations16. Remaining open to 

continuous learning 

Why Focus on Inquiry?  “Teacher questioning strongly supports and advances students’ learning...”

– Put Reading First, National Institute for Literacy

 People are curious by natureCuriosity comes from having a little bit of knowledge Curiosity drives initial questioningthe act of questioning can be a more significant learning experience than getting the answer.   

"The formulation of a problem is often more essential that its solution." - Albert Einstein

The most effective questions are asked by the student himself. Modeling challenging questions fosters interest and curiosity Posing many, varied questions helps students increase their own habit of questioning and posing problems.  Good problem solvers = good question askers

Why Focus on Inquiry?

"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative

imagination and marks real advances."  - Albert Einstein

SODAS Method1.Establish the nature of the Problem 

S

2.Determine Possible Solutions O

3.Weigh the disadvantages of each option D

4.Weigh the advantages of each option and, A 

5.Select the best course of action.   S

Example Lesson #1:                 Horton Hatches the Egg 

• The students become little Horton, sitting on Maisie's egg after she goes off on a vacation for herself, just as he spots some hunters. What should he do? He's promised Maisie to take care of her egg, but these hunters pose a real threat to him. 

• The students develop a set of options (e.g., run away without the egg, fight the hunters, tell them what he is doing and ask them not to harm him) and then consider their pros and cons in terms of what would result if they adopted a specific option. 

• Then they compare them and decide which is best. These students learn how to explain why they think that the option they have chosen is best when asked for their reasons. 

Example Lesson #2:                          Job and Money Management

1. You have a new job but no transportation

2. You have a new job but you don’t get paid for two weeks and you need new clothes

3. You have not job, but your rent and phone bills are due.

4. You’ve been holding down a job and you            get paid every Thursday but by Monday                all of your  money is gone

Example Lesson #2:                          Job and Money Management

• Options? What could you do?Now choose one of the options to explore

• ResultsWhat will happen? List pros and cons

• Choice Is your choice a good one?Why? 

What do We Know about the Questions Teachers Ask?

• Nearly 90% of teacher questions are low-level (even teachers that reported they wanted to engage students in higher level discourse)

» Elliott, 1989.

Qualities of an Effective Questioner Request data to support others' conclusions and assumptions

"What evidence do you have.....?""How do you know that's true?"

Pose questions about alternative points of view: "From whose viewpoint are we seeing, reading of hearing?" "From what angle, what perspective are we viewing this situation?" 

Make causal connections and relationships: "How are these people (events) (situations) related to each other?" "What produced this connection?" 

Hypothetical problems characterized by "iffy"-type questions: "What do you think would happen IF.....?" "IF that is true, then what might happen if....?" 

Recognize discrepancies and probe into their causes: "Why do cats purr?" "How high can birds fly?"

Questioning and Posing Problems:• How do you know?  • Having a questioning attitude• Knowing what data are needed and developing questioning strategies to produce those data.  

• Finding problems to solve.

"Too often we give our children answers to remember rather than problems to solve”Roger Lewin 

Productive Questions Are:

Clear and ConciseSeldom asked by chancePurposefulClear in content focusEngaging to students at varied and appropriate cognitive levels

Unproductive Questions: Verification questions the answers to

that are already known “What is the name of...........?”“How many times did you .......?”

Closed questions that can be answered "yes", "no" , or "I can". “Can you recite the poem?”“Can you tell us the name of .....?”“Who can remember.....?”

What do We Know about Students and Questions?

“…50 percent of student answers to oral questions posed by their teachers do not match the cognitive level of the questions themselves.” (Cotton, 1988)

“…students of all ability levels…can think at higher levels if given adequate support and instruction.” (Bulgren. Lenz, Marquis, Schumaker &Deshler, 2002).

Inquiry in a Bag

1. Select an item from your purse, pocket, etc.

2. Place the item into the paper bag or envelope at your table.

3. Pass the bag or envelope around and have each member of your group select one item Write a Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 question for the item that you selected from the bag.

4. Share your questions in a random order with your group.

5. The group members will decide the level                   of each question shared and the person             whose item is selected should answer the  questions.

Inquiry in a Bag

One-Two-Three Story Intellect PoemThere are one-story intellects,

two-story intellects,and three-story intellects with skylights.

All fact collectors who haveno aim beyond their facts

are one-story people.

Two-story people compare, reason,generalize, using the labor offact collectors as their own.

Three-story people idealize,imagine, predict – their best illumination

comes through the skylight.

-Adapted from Oliver Wendall Holmes

Three Story Intellect

• Factual Questions: Level 1– 1 correct answer– Answered by pointing to the text

• Interpretive Questions: Level 2– More than one reasonable answer – Supported with evidence from the text

• Evaluative/Universal Questions: Level 3– Abstract and does not pertain to the text– Ask that judgments be made from information– Give opinions about issues, judge the validity of                                  

 ideas and justify opinions and ideas.

Costa’s Three Levels

Complete

Identify Observe

InputCount List Recite

Define Match Select Describe Name Scan

The Three Story Intellect

Compare Distinguish Analyze

ProcessContrast Explain Synthesize

Classify Infer Make analogies

Sort Sequence ReasonComplete

Identify Observe

InputCount List ReciteDefine Match Select Describe Name Scan

The Three Story Intellect

The Three Story Intellect

Evaluate Predict Hypothesize

OutputGenerate Speculate ForecastImagine If/then Idealize

Judge Apply a principle

Compare Distinguish Analyze

ProcessContrast Explain SynthesizeClassify Infer Make

analogiesSort Sequence ReasonComplete

Identify Observe

InputCount List ReciteDefine Match Select

Describe Name Scan

Where is the Answer & What is it like?

Level One-in the text -concrete pertaining only to the text-facts about what has been heard or read. 

Level Two-inferred from the text-abstract but dealing only with the text-combine information in a new way.

Level Three-beyond the text-abstract not pertaining to the text-provide judgments, opinions or justification

Sample Questions Level One

– What is the setting of the play?– List the names of the members of the Younger family.

Level Two– Contrast George Murchison and Joseph Asagai.– Why does Ruth offer Walter Lee food and drink every time they have a disagreement?

Level Three– Imagine that Walter Lee accepts the offer from Mr. Linder not to move into Clybourne Park.  What happens to                      each member of the Younger family next?

– Where will the Younger family be in the                                    next 10 years?

Questioning Strategies• Factual Questions: Level 1

– 1 correct answer– Answered by pointing to the 

text

• Interpretive Questions: Level 2– More than one reasonable 

answer – Supported with evidence from 

the text

• Evaluative/Universal Questions: Level 3– Abstract and does not pertain 

to the text– Ask that judgments be made 

from information– Give opinions about issues, 

judge the validity of                                   ideas and justify opinions and ideas.

Questioning StrategiesSecond Story Questions:  Where does this event take place? How do you know?

 If you were a soldier in this scene, how would you be feeling now?

Why is this event taking place? Is this picture like any others you have seen?  How is it similar or different?

How is this view different from the traditional (Texan) view of The Battle of The Alamo?

Questioning StrategiesThird Story Questions:What will soon happen in this place? Support with details.

Why is this event happening now? Support with details.

Write a short caption for this picture.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

Aristotle

“Providing, Supporting, and Sustaining Rigorous Instruction:

Focus on Inquiry Training Session Kudos

(Positives, Strengths, things about this training that are effective or information that is valuable)

 Critiques(Negatives, weaknesses, things that could be improved or added to make this training

more effective)

What 2 new ideas will you take back and implement in your class?

Sources• Habit of Minds website. http://www.habits-of-mind.net/• Costa, A. and Kallick, B. (2000) Habits of Mind. A Developmental 

Series.  Alexandria, VA:  Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

• The National Center for Teaching Thinking website. http://www.nctt.net/

• Sample Lesson: The National Center for Teaching Thinking: http://www.nctt.net/lesson_horton.html

• Region V Avid• Avidonline.org• www.phy.ilstu.edu/programs/ptefiles/311content/inquiry/

levels_of_inquiry.ppt • Texas Humanities Interactive, Artwork by Howard L. Hastings, cover 

illustration for J. Walker McSpadden, Texas, A Romantic Story           for Young People, 1927