Inquiry+Learning

=Thinkfinity= The thinkfinity website provides a plethora of resources for teachers. I chose to explore one particular lesson on writing reviews of children's books. This lesson is aimed at high school students and asks them to explore writing conventions by looking at how they are used in children's literature. This lesson mostly stays in the confirmation and structured levels of inguiry learning. Some questions students are asked have onlyh one right answer. Others are a bit more open-ended and allow a little more flexability and creativity but the method by which the student is asked to explore the issue is prescribed by the assignment.

=Adapting the Lesson for Inquiry Learning= This lesson could be adapted to utilize all the the levels of inquiry learning. Here is come examples:

Confirmation
This level is already covered for the most part by the lesson. Students are asked to identify major plot points and character traits to check for comprehension.

Structured
This level is represented somewhat in the lesson. For instance students are asked, "Identify the illustration that in your opinion is the most effective in developing the story as a whole. Explain how two or more elements in the illustration help support and develop the story." Questions like that allow the students to draw their own conclusions about aspects of the text but still have a structured format for the student to follow. More open ended questions would make this level even stronger.

Guided
For this level students could be given questions similar to the one discussed above but that are even less structured. For instance the students could simply be asked to discuss how illustrations are used by the author. This would leave them free to think about and respond to the question in any way they liked instead of having to follow specific steps to come up with and present their answer.

Open
For this level students could be allowed several options. They could write a paper about any topic related to children's literature. They could write their own children's book. They could create some sort of illustration that explores an aspect of children's literature. In this level students are coming up with their own questions and answers so it should be kept as open as possible for them.

At each level of the inquiry model the student is given more freedom and uses more independent thinking. At the lower levels they are simply responding the teacher generated questions in a prescribed way. By the time they reach the "open" level of inquiry they are interacting with the material on their own terms. The questions, answers and how they got there are all created by the student. Having different levels of inquiry in a lesson allows the student to interact in different ways with the subject. They can become comfortable with the material and get the "basics" at the lower levels before exploring the material in a more in depth way on their own at the higher levels. Using the inquiry model also allows students to personalize their study. They can focus on questions that interest them and explore the questions in ways they find rewarding and useful.

Resources: http://www.materialsworldmodules.org/pedagogy/inquiry_continuum.shtml http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson1022/ChildrensBookReviewGuide.pdf [|http://edweb.sdsu.edu/wip/four_levels.htm]