The Shared Inquiry Method adapted from the Great Books Foundation

What is Shared Inquiry? Shared inquiry is a process for gaining deeper meaning from Reading. It is an active process through which readers create questions to achieve deeper understanding of the text. Participants in shared inquiry are expected to not only question the text, but question group members’ ideas as well. Shared inquiry involves TWO readings of a text.

The Leader’s Role At the start of the process, your teachers will be the leaders. As we progress through the year, students may take over the leader role. Leaders do not provide their own insights. They lead the group members in discussions. The leaders also read through the questions made by the group members, and choose a few to guide the discussion. Leaders should pick thought-provoking questions from those submitted and by being an active listener. If folks submit poor questions we are in trouble.

Shared Inquiry Questions Factual questions - have only one correct answer. Interpretive questions - have more than one correct answer that can be supported with evidence from the text. Evaluative questions - ask us to decide whether we agree with the author’s point of view. The answer to an evaluative question depends on our knowledge, experience, and values, as well as our own interpretation of the work.

Shared Inquiry What makes a good interpretive question? You should have genuine doubt about the answer(s) to the question. You should care about the question. Your question should be discussible. Your question should be clear. Your question should be specific to the selection.

Follow-up Questions Examples include: NOTE: Follow-up questions are not planned ahead, but are asked of individual speakers to probe and clarify. Examples include: “Are you saying that...” “Where in the text did you find support for that?” “What do you mean by...” “Tell us more about...”

Rules for Inquiry Discussions Come prepared Participate in the discussion Listen to each other’s point of view Give others a chance to participate Avoid put downs

Rules for Inquiry Discussions Remember we disagree with the ideas, not the person; differences of opinion are essential and conflict of ideas unavoidable if we have good inquiry Take turns speaking Stay focused on the question THINK before you speak