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The rigorous process of learning to ask and develop questions offers students the invaluable opportunity to become independent thinkers and self-directed learners. Many teachers often struggle against significant odds: overcrowded classrooms, demanding directives from central office, and students who seem too alienated to engage seriously with life in the classroom. Yet teachers with whom we have worked find that [teaching students questioning skills] actually lightens their load, while leading to better outcomes and greater ownership of student learning. Dan Rothstein

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Inquiry for the InquisitiveAshley Rolader,Talented and Gifted ES TeacherFulton Countyroladera@fultonschools.org

Ashley RoladerBeen teaching for ten years in Fulton CountyFive years as a third grade homeroom, fell in love with my accelerated students giving energyFifth year now in gifted ed.2

Did you KNOW?Teachers spend anywhere from 35% to 50% percent of their instructional times asking questions.Most questions that teachers ask are answered in less than a second.

In one study of third-grade reading groups, on average teachers asked a question every 43 seconds (Gambrell, Journal of Educational Research, volume 75, pp. 144-148).

Teachers today ask between 300 - 400 questions each day (Leven and Long, 1981).

This is around 70,000 questions a year, or two to three million in the course of a career. If you've been teaching for around 14-and-a-half years, you could be about to ask your one millionth question.Anyone surprised? What do you think the stat would be on how much time weve spent in professional development learning how WE can ask better questions? We certainly gotten better at deepening the level of thinking required to give answers.3

So What about the kids?

Two things to considerWHYs and HOWs

They matter

Whys and Hows matter in this case, Im not referring to the questions we ask but instead, I want you to think about the WHYs and HOWs of our personal journeys. For example, if you were to see a picture a veteran giving a child a medal on Facebook, how many people do you think would visit the article? Why would they visit it? They would be looking for the why and how what is the backstory, the WHY of the picture and how did it happen? How many likes do you think it would get? This is because while people acknowledge the result of a story, it is the WHY and the HOW that inspires them. Lets get a bit more personal. You are all educators, sitting here today. That is the result, the endgame of today, but that is not the inspiring part. Answers are not the inspiring part. If instead, I could talk to each one of you about your purpose, your WHY for being here, and you could tell me HOW you got to be where you are today, the blood, sweat, and tears, that you force out of the kids, no Im kidding, your blood, sweat, and tears. The days you stay late writing lesson plans and grading papers or the days you go from teaching, to tutoring, to grad school, to tucking in your own babies at night. How youre hoping that this conference will give you at least one idea that you can use that will engage one more kid than you did last week. Those are the WHYs and the HOWs that are inspiring, worth sharing. Going back to our quote by Neil, those journeys are where the wonder comes in.

As we think of kids, we realize that their own WHYs and HOWs matter, too. WHY do they want to learn? They are motivated by their own curiosity, the wonder. HOW they find the answers are important, too. If we teach our kids that they only thing they need to do is to sit still and listen to us in order to get answers, were going to raise adults that sit on the couch waiting for someone on TV to give them answers. According to Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, whoever is doing the talking is doing the thinking. If we fuel their curiosity and get them accustomed to a journey that requires more thinking, well raise more critical thinkers.5

Inquiry-Based LearningFuel CURIOSITY

Provide students with a hands-on, minds-on experience

With LITTLE to NO

ExplanationBackground

May BE:ExperimentMediaHookDiscuss

Students share discoveries

Teachers may clarify misconceptions

Adapted from the YouthLearn Initiative at EDC.

Question

Students pose questions about the topic

Brainstorm resources

Research

Students pose questions about the topic

Present

Students share process along with findings

Introduce through many different kinds of experiences, key is to reverse the order to experiencing. Give example of examining rocks and mineral and being able to classify them by attributes.

Many definitions. Present the purpose is to reflect on journey as much as to report findings. Awesome news about inquiry-based learningyour standards will likely be taught.

Research An interesting reference that Ive read in several places tells how we are currently preparing our kids for jobs that havent even been imagined yet. If the information isnt even out there yet, how can we possibly give them all the answers? We cant. So they need to know how to find answers now, so that when new information is out there, they can find it then, long after theyve left our classrooms.

TIP: Resource mining scaffolding. Remembering that there are several steps to researching. Sometimes the purpose of your lesson might be on FINDING and authenticating resources, while other times it may need to be more focused because it is content heavy or could-become-inappropriate. At these times, or if youre dealing with little ones, it might be helpful to vet the resources first and complete the next step the following day. Trust me, I learned that lesson the time one of my students was researching an invention named Making Bacon. We got a lot of sources showing cartoon pigs having a little too much fun in the mud.7

Second Graders Explore the Oceans Food Chain

Step 1: Inspire Curiosity

Students used questions to guess a mystery picture.

Students watched a video of plankton swimming in a pond.

TONE: Open-minded, unburdened, playful

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Second Graders Explore the Oceans Food ChainStep 2: Discuss

Students completed a chalk talk to share impressions

TONE: Reflective, excited, collaborative

Purpose teasing out thinking, addressing misconceptions, introducing key vocabulary9

Second Graders Explore the Oceans Food ChainStep 3: Pose Questions

Students wrote down questions on sticky notes.

We organized them into like categories to form research groups.

TONE: Curious, focused

This is an important piece here. If youve ever wanted to observe a management nightmare, you should have walked into my classroom when I first started using inquiry-based learning. I was so excited to go back to my classrooms and light the eternal fires of curiosity. The kids came up with research questions.10

Second Graders Explore the Oceans Food ChainStep 3: Find Resources and Interpret Research!

TONE: Analytical, productive

Mulitple types of research including media and text11

Step 4: Present Findings TONE: Creative, enthusiastic

The lavish presentation appeals to me, and I've got to convince the others. Freddie Mercury vocalist and songwriter Queen. Lavish can be viewed in many different ways but it makes me think of passion the why there? Because of CONVINCING the others. Imagine the difference in accountability between proving what you know by handing in an assignment and knowing youre responsible for the collective knowledge of the class.12

Ideas for Developing Inquiry Skills in Your Classroom

The biggest is making a change in the reversal of instruction experience first, explain later! These ideas will help you develop childrens questioning skills to make the inquiry experience more valuable less of a time waster! If kids are not asking quality questions, the research will not yield quality results. Because questioning requires students to make connections, these skills will also train their brains to make deeper connections with direct instruction or the abbreviated version of inquiry.13

[It] seems to require the sort of skills one would need to pilot a bus full of live chickens backwards, with no brakes, down a rocky road through the Andes while providing colorful and informative commentary on the scenery. Franklin HabitIdea ONE: What is the QUESTION?

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Idea ONE: What is the QUESTION?

AWESOME way of assessing understanding along with question complexity.15

Idea TWO: Mystery Box1. In small groups, students generate questions about the object.2. Teacher hears all groups and records answers for the class.3. Students generate more specific, meatier questions.4. Students make a hypothesis based on answers.5. REFLECT which were the meatiest questions? Which best helped us arrive at the answer?

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How can you visualize a good question?

Basic questions Thin

Meaty questions ThickComplex

Irrelevant questions

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Phytoplankton

The purpose of the activities were going to show you today is to help students develop their own questioning skills.18

Tanner Sounding Machine 1872Fact: The machine worked by lowering a lead weight, attached to a wire, to the bottom of the ocean to judge depth. The depths were recorded in fathoms. 1 fathom = 6 feet.5.MD1 Convert among differentsized standards measurement units within a given measurement system and use these conversions in solving multistep, real world problems.Fact: Sailors often put lard on the end of the lead weight in order to collect soil samples.S3E1. Students will investigate the physical attributes of rocks and soils.

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Idea THREE: Chalk Talk Response

The purpose of the activities were going to show you today is to help students develop their own questioning skills.21

Idea FOUR: THUNK it

THUNKS are abstract questions that require a person to think about content from an uncommon perspective. Often, there are not right answers.

Thunks teach children to think of content from uncommon perspectives. As they gain experience with answering these types of questions, they begin to think about the more abstract angles of a topic. It also challenges them to ask questions that are beyond the obvious, enriching the quality of their questions. The best part is that it inspires curiosity and conversation.22

THUNK with a neighborIs a broken down car parked?

Is the future closer today than it was yesterday?

If every book in the library were checked out, would it still be a library?

Full-sized debate: explain the two sides23

Content THUNK-ingCan you touch the wind?Is a reflection real or fake?Who made Martin Luther King, Jr. a leader? MLK or the people following him?Was the Revolutionary War an action or a reaction?

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Time Needed to Research Questions

Class Interest Level

Idea FIVE: Question Board ContinuumEach axis represents different measurements:

Interest levelTime neededAmount of teacher-guidance

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Question Board Continuum (cont.)Create a two-quadrant grid

Y- axis could represent:Time neededAmount of teacher-guidanceInterest level

Q1 represents: low-level questionsQ2 represents: high-level questions

High-Level QuestionsLow-Level Questions

Class Interest Level

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Idea SIX: Classroom Experts

Create a student question board

Students will go to the board when time allows to research their own, or others questions.

When they have found an answer, students will post a note next to the question that says,

I made a discovery! Here is my resource: _____________________. When you think you have found the answer, come find me, and well talk!

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Idea SEVEN: Socratic Method Socratic QuestioningTeacher asks students probing questions in order to get students accustomed to justifying answers and elaborating on the obvious.

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Idea SEVEN: Socratic Method Socratic Seminar*Students read a text, view media, or examine a problem independently.Students sit in a circle formation and discuss, focusing on providing evidence for opinions and conclusions.Teachers role is to ask questions in order to facilitate discussion when needed.

*See website in handout.

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Could inquiry-based learning be the key in turning HOWs and WHYs into WHAT Ifs?

QUESTIONS?Ashley Roladerroladera@fultonschools.org

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