Transcript Providing, Supporting, and Sustaining Rigorous Instruction

“Providing, Supporting, and
Sustaining Rigorous Instruction”
Focus on Inquiry
• June 8th, 2010
• Presenter: Jessica Chafin
Think About It
Here
Exponential growth of information
will lead educators to:
Embrace digital and global culture
Embrace student centered learning
Foster interdependent learning styles
Assist students as they become
independent, self-directed and
lifelong learners
What Can We Do?
• Help students learn explicit strategies that inform and
organize the way they do specific types of thinking.
• Build into instruction significant opportunities for students to
reflect on, monitor, evaluate, and plan their thinking.
• Prompt specific engagements on the part of students in using
the type of skillful thinking being taught in thinking about
the content they are learning.
• Follow up specific lessons with opportunities for students to
get more practice guiding themselves to do the same sort of
thinking in new situations.
• Conducted in an environment where good
thinking attitudes are modeled and where
students are given opportunities to manifest
those attitudes and reflect on their value.
Habits of Mind
"Habits of Mind are the characteristics of
what intelligent people do when they
are confronted with problems, the
resolutions of which are not
immediately apparent." (Costa)
The 16 Habits of Mind
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Persisting
Thinking and
communicating with clarity
and precision
Managing impulsivity
Gathering data through all
senses
Listening with
understanding and
empathy
Creating, imagining,
innovating
Thinking flexibly
Responding with
wonderment and awe
9. Thinking about thinking
(metacognition)
10. Taking responsible risks
11. Striving for accuracy
12. Finding humor
13.Questioning
and posing
problems
14. Thinking
interdependently
15. Applying past knowledge
to new situations
16. Remaining open to
continuous learning
Why Focus on Inquiry?
“Teacher questioning strongly
supports and advances
students’ learning...”
– Put Reading First,
National Institute for Literacy
Why Focus on Inquiry?
 People are curious by nature
Curiosity comes from having a little bit of knowledge
Curiosity drives initial questioning
the act of questioning can be a more significant learning experience
than getting the answer.
"The formulation of a problem is often more essential that its solution."
- Albert Einstein
The most effective questions are asked by the student himself.
Modeling challenging questions fosters interest and curiosity
Posing many, varied questions helps students increase their own habit
of questioning and posing problems.
 Good problem solvers = good question askers
"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old
problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination
and marks real advances."
- Albert Einstein
SODAS Method
1.Establish the nature of the Problem
S
2.Determine Possible Solutions
O
3.Weigh the disadvantages of each option D
4.Weigh the advantages of each option and, A
5.Select the best course of action.
S
Example Lesson #1:
Horton Hatches the Egg
• The students become little Horton, sitting on Maisie's egg
after she goes off on a vacation for herself, just as he spots
some hunters. What should he do? He's promised Maisie to
take care of her egg, but these hunters pose a real threat to
him.
• The students develop a set of options (e.g., run away without
the egg, fight the hunters, tell them what he is doing and ask
them not to harm him) and then consider their pros and cons
in terms of what would result if they adopted a specific
option.
• Then they compare them and decide which is best. These
students learn how to explain why they think that the option
they have chosen is best when asked for their reasons.
Example Lesson #2:
Job and Money Management
1. You have a new job but no transportation
2. You have a new job but you don’t get paid for
two weeks and you need new clothes
3. You have not job, but your rent and phone bills
are due.
4. You’ve been holding down a job and you
get paid every Thursday but by Monday
all of your money is gone
Example Lesson #2:
Job and Money Management
• Options?
 What could you do?
 Now choose one of the options to
explore
• Results
 What will happen?
 List pros and cons
• Choice
 Is your choice a good one?
 Why?
What do We Know about the
Questions Teachers Ask?
• Nearly 90% of teacher
questions are low-level
(even teachers that
reported they wanted to
engage students in higher
level discourse)
» Elliott, 1989.
Qualities of an Effective Questioner
 Request data to support others' conclusions and assumptions
"What evidence do you have.....?"
"How do you know that's true?"
Pose questions about alternative points of view:
"From whose viewpoint are we seeing, reading of hearing?"
"From what angle, what perspective are we viewing this situation?"
Make causal connections and relationships:
"How are these people (events) (situations) related to each other?"
"What produced this connection?"
Hypothetical problems characterized by "iffy"-type questions:
"What do you think would happen IF.....?"
"IF that is true, then what might happen if....?"
Recognize discrepancies and probe into their causes:
"Why do cats purr?"
"How high can birds fly?"
Questioning and Posing Problems:
• How do you know?
• Having a questioning attitude
• Knowing what data are needed and
developing questioning strategies to produce
those data.
• Finding problems to solve.
"Too often we give our children
answers to remember rather than
problems to solve”
Roger Lewin
Productive Questions Are:
Clear and Concise
Seldom asked by chance
Purposeful
Clear in content focus
Engaging to students at varied
and appropriate cognitive levels
Unproductive Questions:

Verification questions the answers to
that are already known
“What is the name of...........?”
“How many times did you .......?”

Closed questions that can be answered
"yes", "no" , or "I can".
“Can you recite the poem?”
“Can you tell us the name of .....?”
“Who can remember.....?”
What do We Know about Students
and Questions?
“…50
percent of student answers to oral
questions posed by their teachers do not
match the cognitive level of the questions
themselves.” (Cotton, 1988)
“…students of all ability levels…can think at
higher levels if given adequate support and
instruction.” (Bulgren. Lenz, Marquis,
Schumaker &Deshler, 2002).
Inquiry in a Bag
Inquiry in a Bag
1.
Select an item from your purse, pocket, etc.
2.
Place the item into the paper bag or envelope at
your table.
3.
Pass the bag or envelope around and have each
member of your group select one item Write a Level
1, Level 2 and Level 3 question for the item that you
selected from the bag.
4.
Share your questions in a random order with your
group.
5.
The group members will decide the level
of each question shared and the person
whose item is selected should answer the
questions.
Three Story Intellect
One-Two-Three Story Intellect Poem
There are one-story intellects,
two-story intellects,
and three-story intellects with skylights.
All fact collectors who have
no aim beyond their facts
are one-story people.
Two-story people compare, reason,
generalize, using the labor of
fact collectors as their own.
Three-story people idealize,
imagine, predict – their best illumination
comes through the skylight.
-Adapted from Oliver Wendall Holmes
Costa’s Three Levels
• Factual Questions: Level 1
– 1 correct answer
– Answered by pointing to the text
• Interpretive Questions: Level 2
– More than one reasonable answer
– Supported with evidence from the text
• Evaluative/Universal Questions: Level 3
– Abstract and does not pertain to the text
– Ask that judgments be made from information
– Give opinions about issues, judge the validity of
ideas and justify opinions and ideas.
The Three Story Intellect
Complete Identify
Observe
Count
List
Recite
Define
Match
Select
Describe
Name
Scan
Input
The Three Story Intellect
Compare
Distinguish
Analyze
Contrast
Explain
Synthesize
Classify
Infer
Make analogies
Sort
Sequence
Reason
Complete Identify
Observe
Count
List
Recite
Define
Match
Select
Describe
Name
Scan
Process
Input
The Three Story Intellect
Evaluate
Predict
Hypothesize
Generate
Speculate
Forecast
Imagine
If/then
Idealize
Judge
Apply a principle
Compare
Distinguish
Analyze
Contrast
Explain
Synthesize
Classify
Infer
Make analogies
Sort
Sequence
Reason
Complete Identify
Observe
Count
List
Recite
Define
Match
Select
Describe
Name
Scan
Output
Process
Input
Where is the Answer & What is it like?
 Level One
-in the text
-concrete pertaining only to the text
-facts about what has been heard or read.
 Level Two
-inferred from the text
-abstract but dealing only with the text
-combine information in a new way.
 Level Three
-beyond the text
-abstract not pertaining to the text
-provide judgments, opinions or justification
Sample Questions
 Level One
– What is the setting of the play?
– List the names of the members of the Younger family.
 Level Two
– Contrast George Murchison and Joseph Asagai.
– Why does Ruth offer Walter Lee food and drink every time
they have a disagreement?
 Level Three
– Imagine that Walter Lee accepts the offer from Mr. Linder not
to move into Clybourne Park. What happens to
each member of the Younger family next?
– Where will the Younger family be in the
next 10 years?
Questioning Strategies
• Factual Questions: Level 1
– 1 correct answer
– Answered by pointing to the
text
• Interpretive Questions: Level 2
– More than one reasonable
answer
– Supported with evidence from
the text
• Evaluative/Universal Questions:
Level 3
– Abstract and does not pertain
to the text
– Ask that judgments be made
from information
– Give opinions about issues,
judge the validity of
ideas and justify opinions and
ideas.
Questioning Strategies
Second Story Questions:
 Where does this event take
place? How do you know?
 If you were a soldier in this
scene, how would you be
feeling now?
 Why is this event taking place?
 Is this picture like any others
you have seen? How is it
similar or different?
 How is this view different from
the traditional (Texan) view of
The Battle of The Alamo?
Questioning Strategies
Third Story Questions:
What will soon
happen in this
place? Support with
details.
Why is this event
happening now?
Support with details.
Write a short
caption for this
picture.
“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
Aristotle
“Providing, Supporting, and Sustaining Rigorous
Instruction:
Focus on Inquiry Training Session
Kudos
(Positives, Strengths, things about this training that are effective or information that is
valuable)
Critiques
(Negatives, weaknesses, things that could be improved or added to make this training
more effective)
What 2 new ideas will you take back
and implement in your class?
Sources
• Habit of Minds website. http://www.habits-of-mind.net/
• Costa, A. and Kallick, B. (2000) Habits of Mind. A Developmental
Series. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development
• The National Center for Teaching Thinking website.
http://www.nctt.net/
• Sample Lesson: The National Center for Teaching Thinking:
http://www.nctt.net/lesson_horton.html
• Region V Avid
• Avidonline.org
• www.phy.ilstu.edu/programs/ptefiles/311content/inquiry/levels_of
_inquiry.ppt
• Texas Humanities Interactive, Artwork by Howard L. Hastings, cover
illustration for J. Walker McSpadden, Texas, A Romantic Story
for Young People, 1927