Inquiry, Skills, and Formative Assessment Through the "Inquiry Design Model"

Today's classrooms highlight far, far more than knowledge. Today's classrooms know that deeper thinking is critical, and classrooms based on learning facts do not prepare students for the world that they are entering. In 21st century classrooms, students need to apply knowledge skillfully and teachers need to formatively assess student work and classroom conversations to evaluate whether students grasp the skills of a discipline. Students also need to apply knowledge to demonstrate understanding of conceptual ideas. Conceptual ideas provide students with opportunities to transfer their learning to multiple contexts thereby making learning relevant to life. Teachers need to formatively assess student work and classroom conversations to evaluate whether students grasp the concepts of a discipline.

Given these goals, sometimes it seems that planning for daily learning has become so complex that it's almost unbearable. But...planning doesn't need to be unbearable if you focus on core elements of good learning. I believe that the Inquiry Design Model simplifies the planning process while also elevating... 

1) inquiry based on concepts,

2) the intentional use of quality resources,

3) discipline specific skills, and

4) focused formative assessment. 

I LOVE how this model avoids overprescription!

As you explore planning with the Inquiry Design Model, access some of their sample inquiries as models and consider the following ideas:

1. Inquiry involves the process of every student working to answer questions. How might teachers use questions to frame learning for students? What experiences will allow you to know whether students are able to answer the question using sources? (classroom conversation, writing to learn)
2. Good instruction involves using quality resources and texts. What is the best resource for your students? Are you exposing students to non-traditional texts (charts, graphs, maps, images, infographics, primary sources)? 
3. Good instruction involves students demonstrating skills. Some skills are applied during the reading/analysis of resource or text. Some skills are applied after students have extrapolated critical ideas from a resource or text. What skills are you looking for? Are you looking for students to demonstrate skills during their work with a resource or text? Are you looking for students to demonstrate skills after their work with a resource or text? What modeling do students need so they can successfully demonstrate skills?

Please share your thoughts:

Does this model simplify planning of social studies? 

Does this model honor conceptual thinking? 

Does this model honor skillful thinking? 

Does this model help you, the teacher, to focus on student application of skills and concepts?

"Drawing to Learn" as a Component of "Writing to Learn"

There IS a difference between learning to write and writing to learn.  Writing to learn includes a multitude of opportunities where teachers intentionally pause and engage students in low stakes writing practices so students can think critically, clarify ideas, capture big ideas, and transfer thinking down on paper. (In a digital world, the process of blogging is connected to writing to learn.) To learn more, read another blog post of mine on the core ideas of writing to learn.

This brings me to the focus of this post; is drawing to learn a component of writing to learn? Yes! Absolutely! Most definitely!  Let me explain...if the practice of using writing to learn is focused on its purpose, then surely drawing can serve the exact same purpose. Drawing can be used so students capture the big ideas. Drawing can be used so students transfer thinking down on paper. Drawing can be used to think critically. In fact, using drawing may be a greater benefit to students who are more visual. (Personally speaking, I AM a visual learner. It DRIVES ME CRAZY when I can't explain my ideas through drawing or a graphic organizer.)

When I reflect on this graphic, it reminds me that teachers can always use brief writing and drawing experiences to support thinking. These experiences are intentionally designed so students are able to to express their ideas without feeling like the writing is a formal, published piece of writing. Don't get me wrong...we want students to express their ideas with clarity - we want students to use academic vocabulary - we want writing to have a sense of organization...but we must be cautious to ask for products that involve planning, revising, editing, and publishing. Writing is NOT always the writing process, writing is frequently connected to the thinking process. You might think of the difference as "high stakes writing" and "low stakes writing."   (In addition, writing to learn provides the perfect pathway for students apply critical thinking skills of analyzing, comparing/contrasting, summarizing, synthesizing, etc. Here's a comprehensive list of critical thinking skills.)

Writing to learn is about communicating ideas informally in multiple ways. While words can communicate ideas, so can drawings. In "education speak," we often think of drawings (and graphic organizers such as Thinking Maps) as being included in the general group of nonlinguistic representations. We can encourage students to think abstractly and in different ways as they step out of their comfort zone to demonstrate ideas in drawings. Now that you're with me, take a peek at this video on Why Nonlinguistic Representations Are Important.

So, how might you use drawing as a way of supporting student thinking? Here are some potential ways.

• When young readers employ the strategy of visualization, we might ask students to draw what they are visualizing.
• When young historians learn about an event in history, we might ask students to capture the event in a drawing and write a few sentences to describe the event.
• When young scientists are learning about chemical reactions, we might ask students to draw the chemical reaction and use words to describe what's happening in the drawing.
• When we ask students to "take notes," we're asking students to capture the big ideas and supporting details. We might ask students to include simple drawings with each big idea. 
• When young geographers gather data about a physical region, we might ask them to draw a picture that shows how a particular element of the physical region would impact people.
• When young mathematicians are working through a problem, we might ask them to draw the problem as a tool to think about the problem solving process. 

To learn more, access some of these links.

• The Power of Student Created Visuals (Blog Posting)
• Drawing to Learn (Learning Sciences Research Institute)
• Representing Knowledge Non-linguistically (ASCD)
• Silvia Rosenthal's archived blog posts on Using Sketchnoting in Learning
• Brain Rules: Vision (and Effective Visuals) Trumps All the Other Senses