Making It Matter in the Here and Now: Harnessing the Power of Inquiry to Support Students Reading an

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Making It Matter in the Here and NowHarnessing
the Power of Inquiry to Support Students Reading
and Writing

• Michael W. Smith
• College of Education
• Temple University
• mwsmith_at_temple.edu

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What Our Boys Told Us

• Well I like to go on the sports and stuff cause I
  like to see, I like sports a lot so. I like to
  see what is going on and what's, like who won the
  games and so. I like to go to NASCAR and I like
  NASCAR a lot so. I like to see what is happening
  and they are like (mumble) it is just fun to ah,
  find out.
• Cause ah, it's probably the best golf magazine
  out there and it, I mean it just tells you ways
  and shows you pictures on how you can improve
  your swing and if you slice the ball, it teaches
  you how to hook the ball so it goes straight and
  it ah shows you what new balls come out that are
  fit for you and new clubs that would fit you and
  just different things like that.
• Like, if you find something that happened around
  your neighborhood, "Oh, I didn't know that
  happened. I should read it." Stuff like that.
  I didn't know my friend went to jail because he
  tried to rob somebody. I didn't know that until
  I read the paper. They put his name there in the
  paper.

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• That was something that I thought was interesting
  because it helps me. It helps me to put my
  seatbelt on because before, if they see me
  without a seatbelt on, they couldn't do anything
  about it unless you were actually stopped and
  they saw you without a seatbelt on. But now, if
  they see you, they can just stop you like that.
  So that's helping me put my seatbelt on at all
  times, and it's keeping me out of ticket trouble,
  keeping points off my license.
• Yeah, but I mean, some of the stuff be
  frustrating. All the magazines I read, they say
  how they made the game too hard. It's true.
  They made the game too hard. And, sometimes, I
  beat the game already and I want to see what all
  the secret stuff was. I mean, it tells you where
  all the secret stuff is, but I still got to find
  them myself. That's all. I'm just asking for a
  little map.

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• English is about NOTHING! It doesnt help you
  DO anything. English is about reading poems and
  telling about rhythm. Its about commas and crap
  like that for Gods sake. What does that have
  to DO with DOING anything? Its about NOTHING!

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Theyre Not Alone

• Most people teach biology by starting with the
  molecule! This is exactly the wrong way to go.
  No one cares about the molecule. I DONT CARE
  about the molecule. UNLESS I have a reason to
  care--that is, a problem that I am working on
  that requires understanding molecules to address.
  
• Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson

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So What To Do?

• Start with a big, essential question that is
  debated in the world and organizes disciplinary
  conversations.
• Identify a real world task that involves
  meaningful making, a constructed response to the
  question, i.e. a kind of knowledge artifact or
  social action that will do work to explore and
  address the problem at hand.
• Figure out what activities will help students to
  develop the conceptual understandings and
  abilities essential to addressing the question
  and creating a meaningful response to it. Create
  a sequence of such instructional activities that
  will start with students current needs,
  interests and abilities and will build from there
  to develop the needed expertise.

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Characteristics of Essential Questions

• Engaging. That is, it offers potential for
  intriguing students and motivating student
  learning.
• Enduring. That is, it leads to learning big
  ideas that have value beyond the classroom.
• At the heart of a discipline. That is, it is
  used by practitioners to do the subject, and
  solve problems and create knowledge in that
  subject area.
• In need of uncoverage. That is, it involves a
  background of foundational principles, rich
  concepts, theories and procedures that require
  unpacking.

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Essential Questions Are Not

• Answerable through information retrieval they
  require operating on information to see patterns
  and implications, and often requires developing
  new sets of data through critical inquiry on the
  part of students
• Understood in one day or even one week
• Easily agreed upon

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Some Ways to Generate Questions

• Reframing a required text or topic
• Reframing a standard
• Looking around the community

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Examples of Meaningful Making

• Writing
• Arguments
• In-role writing
• Extended definitions
• Informational brochures
• Letters to the editor
• Story extensions
• Childrens books

• Multimedia
• Dramas
• Websites
• Museum exhibits
• Video documentaries
• Raps
• Graphic novels
• Museum exhibits