Inquiry in the ELA classroom

Inquiry is a popular topic in modern education. Some content areas, like science and math, naturally lend themselves to inquiry processes. It is much harder to incorporate inquiry in an English or history classroom. Here are two ideas on how to incorporate inquiry learning into an English classroom.

1) What Makes a Good Essay Conclusion? (Multi-day lesson)

(Adapted from readwritethink.org And in Conclusion: Inquiring into Strategies for Writing Effective Conclusions)

Ask students how the decide what to write for their essay.

---make a list of answers on the board

---ask students to identify which strategies have worked for them in the past. Which have not been successful?

Students will research different approaches to writing conclusions through the following website.  (http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/OnlineConclusionResources.html) As students research, they will keep a chart of each source, what they learned or was reinforced, and ideas they want to try in their conclusion.

Students will then work in pairs to analyze sample essay conclusions from the aforementioned site.  Students will discuss what strategies were used and how successful they were. Then students will write two possible conclusions for their research papers, with each conclusion utilizing a new strategy.

Finally, students will work in pairs to evaluate the new conclusions and the effectiveness of each. After each pair has evaluated the essay, the whole class will reflect on which new strategies worked the best. 

2) Using an I-Chart

(Adapted from readwritethink.org)

I really liked this idea as an extension of a KWL chart, especially as a way of introducing students to the inquiry method.  An Inquiry Chart or I-Chart is a table that helps organize students' questions and research. ( see a sample here.) 

How it works: Teacher of students identify a topic and discuss what they already know about it. This material gets put into the "K" column of the KWL chart. Students then fill out the "W"--What they want to know. The "W" leads to questions in the I-Chart. Students take the material they want to know about the topic and formulate questions about it. Then they research the answers using books and websites.  After the research is complete, students summarize their research in the "L" column.

My Version: I would use the I-chart to introduce the Shakespeare unit. This is the first year my 10th graders have studied Shakespeare, and I would want them to have sufficient background knowledge before starting the unit. I would ask them to research Shakespearean Theatre--props, stage, customs, physical theater, audiences, etc. I would also let them work in pairs since it is a very broad topic. Instead of filling out the "L" column, I would have them write a one-page report summarizing what they learned.