This section of reading focused on the components of creating strong inquiry based questions. Wilhelm views standards as being more “as goals than standards, and they float out there, in isolation” (45). While I, of course, believe standards are important and they help me create a unit of study, they don’t necessarily help me in how to engage my students. The beauty of inquiry based learning is that guiding questions should be open ended, arguable, and addresses the perspective of the student. Wilhelm advocates for a strong personal connection for students to the guiding questions. As an English teacher, I sometimes get too wrapped up in the literature that I almost forget about the student. It’s funny because in my reading class I recognize the importance of personal connections for students but I don’t do too much in a traditional novel unit of study.
In my book study group we used text rendering as our discussion protocol. All three of us selected, in some form, a passage that deals with overcoming the “what” type questions. Is it really important in To Kill a Mockingbird for students to be able to identify that Calpurnia makes a crackle cake for Scout and Jem on Scout’s first day of school or that Calpurnia demonstrates her love for the children by making a cake for them? “Facts are important, but only if they are in service of deeper understanding” (56). Do I really just want my students to be able to simply recall information or do I want them to engage in both the reading and thinking? Using “how” or “why” questions help shift this type of thinking. For example, instead of asking students about story elements, ask them how a character reveals her essential character. I know that I know this but I sometimes forget it and slip into lower level thinking and questioning. This leads to another area our group discussed which is the “guess what the teacher thinks is the right answer.” I cringe when I think about when this happens. This tends to happen at the beginning a day’s lesson when students might be simply confused about what literally happened in the reading. A possible solution for this utilizing a summarizing strategy such as “Somebody, Wanted, But, and So” for a warm up at the start of class. Once it has been established what literally happened students can then move on to more of the higher level thinking and questioning.
As I read, I found myself re-reading a lot. Wilhelm suggestions are a shift in thinking for my philosophy of teaching. His teachings build on my beliefs but go about reaching them in a different way. I often found myself pausing and thinking, “Okay, so what do I do when I teach this?” and “How can I apply this to my units?” It appears that, I too, and using inquiry based learning for myself. Hmmm…
I really appreciate how reflective you are about the Wilhelm text. He makes such powerful statements and helps us to think about how we teach.
ReplyDeleteI would like to learn more about the steps that Wilhelm suggests when creating the inquiry questions for learners. Does he suggest that you also teach kids on how to ask these types of questions, so that they can one day facilitate the discussion? I love also your discussion on standards.
ReplyDeleteAs for your discussion protocol, did your group only look for a passage to discuss? What was your reasoning in not finding a sentence or phrase? I also like how you tweeked the strategy to be more focused on what in particular you were to find in the text verses just saying find a passage you like.
I like to use that summary method. I usually take it one step further and use the "Somebody Wanted But So Then Finally." It usually helps the students get the summary out without skipping important parts. The quote you include about fact being good only for deeper meaning making really struck me. I think inquiry is a huge way to go about getting away from only asking about the facts and moving on to those more in depth questions that actually make the student think. I think so often we are trying to make sure that students have actually done the reading that we focus on the facts that they would know only if they've read but really, aren't they still learning even if they maybe haven't finished but can be thinking about the essential question in regards to other areas of life?
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