A training module at Curriculum Companion Curriculum Camp training CESA 5/Summer 2012

Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action by Harvey & Daniels (2009) Training materials developed and reproduced with express written permission from both the author and the publisher. June, 2012.

INQUIRY APPROACHCOVERAGE APPROACH  Student voice & choice  Questions and concepts  Collaborative work  Strategic thinking  Authentic investigations  Student responsibility  Student as knowledge creator  Interaction and talk  Teacher as model and coach  Multiple resources  Multimodal learning  Engage in a discipline  Real purpose and audience  Caring and taking action  Performance and self assessments  Teacher selection and direction  Assigned topics and isolated facts  Solitary work  Memorization  As if/surrogate learning  Student compliance  Student as information receiver  Quiet and listening  Teacher as expert and presenter  One subject at a time  Reliance on a textbook  Verbal sources only  Hearing about a discipline  Extrinsic motivators  Forgetting and moving to next unit  Filling in bubbles and blanks

 Read the passage on your handout until you feel you understand it well.

 1. How many reasons are there for studying this system?  2. What is the nature of the in vito capsid assembly reaction?  3. Current research focuses on what details of sequence-specific recognition?  4. How many “hot spots” dominate the affinity?  5. In what form are there examples of RNA where affinity and specificity are defined by structural elements?

 Turn and talk  What kind of thinking did you use to make sense of the passage?

 Answering literal questions is the least sophisticated level of comprehension. It shows that the learner has some:  short-term recall,  can skim and scan for answers, and  pick out one that matches the question.  Only useful to find out whether or not students actually read the text  Does not demonstrate understanding!

 Retelling events or sections of a chapter shows that the learner can:  Organize thoughts sequentially, and  Recall some short-term fragments of info  Foundational skill for learners  Does not demonstrate understanding!

 True comprehension begins here.  Real understanding occurs when learners merge their thinking with the content and react  Students pay attention to their “inner conversation”—not just run their eyes across the page  Student thinking includes the comprehension strategies and must be explicitly taught.  Connecting, questioning, inferring, visualizing, determining importance, and synthesizing info

 Memorizing discrete isolated facts does not help us acquire lasting knowledge  Thinking about the information leads to lasting knowledge

 New knowledge brings insights and understandings that can potentially change the way human beings function in the world.  Knowledge can be integrated and applied to the experiences, situations, and circumstances in our daily lives.

We want kids to apply knowledge every day!

“Learning is a consequence of thinking. This sentence turns topsy-turvy the conventional pattern of schooling. The conventional pattern says that first students acquire knowledge. Only then do they think with and about that knowledge they have absorbed. But it is really just the opposite: Far from thinking coming after knowledge, knowledge comes on the coattails of thinking. As we think about and with the content we are learning, we truly learn it. Knowledge does not just sit there. It functions richly in people's lives so they can learn about and deal with the world.” ~David Perkins, p. 75

 Teacher Modeling  Teacher explains, models, thinks aloud  Guided Practice  Teacher & students practice together  Collaborative Practice  Students work in small group, share their thinking  Independent Practice  Student s try it out on their own  Application of the Strategy What steps do you currently use? Which ones need to be added? Does your instruction design allow you to back up and reteach students who need it?

 Mini-inquiries  Curricular Inquiries  Literature Circle Inquiries  Open Inquiries We will be studying Curricular Inquiries in depth, but be sure to discuss how this model could be adapted for your students.

 Turn and talk  What are the possibilities? How could this model look in your classroom?  What are some initial ideas for implementation?

ASSESSMENTEVALUATION  Assessment is something we do every day; it fills us in on what our kids are doing.  Assessment provides three important pieces of info:  Our students’ learning and progress  Past instruction  Future instruction  Evaluation is putting a value on the work (grading). We need to grade students on what they learn from our teaching.  We must gather evidence from ongoing assessment

 Listen to kids  Read kids’ work  Confer with kids  Listen in on conversations  Observe behavior and expressions  Chart responses  Use technology (to track thinking)  Keep anecdotal records  Script what kids say

 Cris Tovani’s

 Make grading standards crystal clear  Individual accountability important  Groups must specify what each member is responsible for  Have written work plans or checkpoints  Require individuals to bring “visible evidence” of their work  Use one-to-one meetings to check in with individual kids