Engaging Readers & Writers with Inquiry (Theory and Practice) Review

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Engaging Readers & Writers with Inquiry (Theory and Practice) ReviewWhen we were kids -- and this is true of both all teachers and all students -- we actually WANTED to learn. We asked questions galore. We were curious about things that interested us, and we were relentless in putting together the pieces or engaging the experts (Mom, Coach, the camp windsurfing counselor) necessary to get our answers. So, what happened to all that enthusiasm once the kid moved on to the classroom? Jeffrey Wilhelm (and the vast body of research he cites) has some answers in his new must-read-if-you're-a-teacher book, ENGAGING READERS & WRITERS WITH INQUIRY.
Wilhelm's book is, hands down, one of the "meatiest" resources I've read. The initial chapters go over definitions and research to give you a foundation in inquiry's history and latest manifestations, but after that it is one practical strategy after another, each rich with examples from Wilhelm's own classes.
The heart of the inquiry method is questioning. Wilhelm teaches us to build "inquiry units" by creating "guiding questions" that students are actually curious about and want to answer during the unit. He also shows how these open-ended questions should be constructed (tips and pitfalls are included) so that they relate not only to your educational goals, but to the kids' lives and our shared world. Here we are putting the "fascinated kid" back into the "formerly bored student." Once you have the question(s), you move to designing the final product(s), followed by the creation of all of those formative tasks (from simpler to more complex) used to get to that final product (this is known in educational circles as "backwards planning").
As you get into the heart of the book, Wilhelm offers an array of strategies, including secret prompts; walkarounds; entrance and exit tickets; and before, during, and after questions. He gets into questioning schemes that take students up the ladder of complexity. Some of the schemes involve mentoring the students so that THEY ultimately create schematic questions for each other. So if you think you really learn something by preparing materials to teach it, consider the benefits in teaching your KIDS to do this for each other, thanks to your modelling and mentoring.
Among the questioning schemes Wilhelm covers are "The Questioning Circle," "ReQuest," and "QARs, or Question-Answer Relationships." Then he focuses on author-reader transactions by sharing two authorial reading strategies utilizing inquiry, one called "QtA, or Questioning the Author," and the other called "Hillock's Questioning Hierarchy," which is George Hillock's ladder of increasing complexity. Hillock's Questioning Hieraarchy does for reading what Bloom's Taxonomy does for education as a whole. If you're tearing your hair out trying to get kids to grow more adept at literary analysis, you've hit paydirt at last.
In the final chapter, Wilhelm demonstrates how all of these inquiry-based strategies can be used across the disciplines. He provides examples from math, science, and social studies, proving that inquiry's applications go way beyond the province of language arts. He also makes a point of providing examples from Grades 4 all the way up to high school. All of this work can be customized to fit the age-group you teach.
Bottom line: This is a great book for a community of teachers to read and discuss. I plan on buying copies for two of my fellow teachers (same discipline), so we can roll up our sleeves and go to work on making our units inquiry-based. I'm convinced it will show results and know that, once I've migrated to this method, my students will not only be happier, they'll be smarter and more enthusiastic. In fact, they'll be a lot like that little kid they once were -- the one who not only paid attention to stuff, she kept asking, "Why?" until she was fully satisfied.
Engaging Readers & Writers with Inquiry (Theory and Practice) OverviewWhat makes a good relationship? How does flight influence behavior for humans and birds? Is it ever permissible to lie? Reframing our units and lessons with questions such as these makes learning more exciting for students. Wilhelm debunks the myth that teaching through inquiry is hard. He shares practical, easy ideas for turning state standards into engaging authentic questions that propel students toward deep understandings. Includes sample lessons, discussion techniques, and questioning schemes for all the content areas. For use with Grades 4 & Up.

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