LRC 480/580: Children's Literature in the Classroom Section 7 Fall 2003 Facilitator: Judi Moreillon

There are many goals for this learning project. One is to experience a month-long inquiry project that integrates picture book and novel-length fiction, informational books, poetry, newspaper articles, and online discussions. Another goal is develop a model for conducting inquiry with students in a classroom. The final product is an annotated bibliographic record of the project for your professional portfolio - due on October 19th. The inquiry group facilitator will email the final product to the course facilitator.

Much of the work for this project will be conducted in class - but not all. You will post comments and responses to the online discussions outside of class time.

You will reflect on this learning experience in two ways. Along with your novel groups, you will post a reflection on Polis, and there will be a question about this experience on your Midterm Reflection.

What is an inquiry curriculum?

Inquiry means posing questions and exploring multiple resources in order to arrive at some answers with the understanding that most inquiry leads to more questions! Inquiry, then, is a process that grows from students' questions about the world in which they live. Giving students the opportunity to ask their own questions empowers them as learners and problem-solvers. Inquiry can be called a student-centered, learning-centered model.

The teacher-facilitator's responsibility is to create a fertile environment for students' questions. The teacher-facilitator poses open-ended questions and then provides students with sufficient resources to immerse themselves in the topic. She/he invites students to add to these resources, which might include print and non-print as well as human resources. Students must be given sufficient time to reconnect with what they already know about the topic and to have sufficient time to reflect before being asked to pose their own questions.

The inquiry cycle actually begins when students pose their own questions and begin their search for answers. As their understanding of a topic deepens, the sophistication of their new questions also increases. Along the way, the teacher-facilitator supports students in their process by asking questions that prompt students to identify their assumptions, to specify their reasoning and/or give evidence, to question their perspectives or viewpoints, and to discover the implications or consequences of taking a particular stance on the topic.

Data collection is a large part of the inquiry process. Teacher-facilitators must support students in learning different tools and evaluating which tools are best in which situations. These are some examples of data collection tools: KWLQ (Know - Want-to-Learn - Learn - new Questions), note-making, journaling, drawings/photographs, labeled scientific diagrams, interviews, timelines, Venn diagrams, graphs, surveys, and more.

To learn more about the inquiry cycle, read:

Berghoff, B., Egawa, K. A., Harste, J. C., & Hoonan, B. T. Beyond Reading and Writing: Inquiry, Curriculum, and Multiple Ways of Knowing. Urbana, IL: National Council for Teachers of English, 2000.

Short, K. G., Harste, J. C., & Burke, C. (Eds.). Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998.

The final product for this experience will be an annotated bibliography of the resources your group used or would use if you were conducting this inquiry with a classroom of students. Each group member will earn the same number of points; 20 points are possible. (Exception: If a group member fails to participate, he or she will not earn the group's points.)

This is a collaborative group project.
One person from each group will be the group facilitator. (This is a class job.) She or he will be responsible for ensuring that:

everyone in the (novel) group contributes to the bibliography,
the contributions are collated into one bibliography (with a uniform format),
the number of entries meets the class-determined figure,
and the bibliography is submitted on-time (October 19th) so that the course facilitator can make copies for the entire class.

Inquiry Rubric

Sample: Annotated Entry for Bibliography
Tomás and the Library Lady by Pat Mora, illustrated by Raúl Colón (Knopf, 1997, unpaged) ISBN: 0-679-80401-3
Along with his brother and storyteller grandfather, Tomás travels from field to field, from state to state with his migrant-worker parents. Grandfather encourages Tomás, who knows all Grandfather's stories by heart, to look for more stories in the library. At the library, he meets the library lady who helps him find books to feed his imagination and quench his curiosity. Before he moves on, Tomás teaches the library lady Spanish, and with his burgeoning English literacy skills, Tomás teaches his grandfather English. Once again, Colón's illustrations create a close and warm family mood. His visual contributions to Tomás's literary-induced fantasies add to the reader's enjoyment and underscore the power of literacy. The author's note says this story is based on an experience in the life of Tomás Rivera who grew up to be the chancellor of the University of California at Riverside. This story demonstrates how each character has different kinds of knowledge and the importance of honoring and respecting those differences. In the story, sharing these "funds of knowledge" improves the lives of the all the characters.

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