In this series of Strategy Guides, you'll learn about different methods and activities to encourage inquiry-based learning in your classroom.
Inquiry-Based Learning
Grades
|
Facilitating Participation with Silent Conversations
Grades
5 - 12
Strategy Guide
This guide introduces silent conversations, a collaborative learning technique that has students
thinking, sharing, and reflecting about important questions—but through writing rather than talk.
Grades
|
Conducting Inner-Outer Circle Discussions
Grades
6 - 12
Strategy Guide
This guide shares the steps to take to get more students talking by dividing the group into speaking and non-speaking circles.
Grades
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The Art of the Doodle: Writing with Imagination
Grades
5 - 12
Strategy Guide
Use independent, imaginative artwork and varied writing prompts to assess understanding of a given topic for a student body with differentiated needs.
Grades
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Consensus Decision Making
Grades
7 - 12
Strategy Guide
This strategy guide introduces Consensus Decision Making, a method for facilitating and engaging students in a critical discussion of the central ideas of a text.
Grades
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Using Partner Talk to Strengthen Student Collaboration and Understanding
Grades
K - 8
Strategy Guide
In this strategy guide, you'll learn about Partner Talk—a way to provide students with another learning opportunity to make learning their own through collaboration and discussion.
Grades
|
Teaching with Zooming Slideshows through Prezi
Grades
6 - 12
Strategy Guide
Through Prezi, a web application, students create "zooming" presentations for various purposes, such as presenting research, defending an opinion, or sharing a digital story.
Grades
|
Go Public!: Encouraging Student Writers to Publish
6 - 12
Professional Library
| Book
Intended for middle and high school teachers, Go Public! offers specific writing ideas and classroom activities to help students develop the confidence and ability to publish in a wide market.
Grades
|
To Grammar or Not to Grammar: That Is Not the Question!
5 - 9
Professional Library
| Journal
Argues that, taught in the context of writing, grammar can enhance and improve students' writing. Offers classroom examples showing how: good preparation for writing fosters good grammar and detail; students can use grammatical and syntactic constructions used by professional authors as models for their own writing; and how to help students learn revision strategies at the sentence and paragraph level.
Grades
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Designing Writing Assignments
9 - 12
Professional Library
| Book
Traci Gardner offers practical tips, starting points, and a companion website to help secondary and college teachers design effective writing assignments.
Grades
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Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms
7 - 12
Professional Library
| Book
Amy Benjamin challenges the idea of "skill and drill" grammar instruction, and Tom Oliva provides a teacher's journal chronicling how the concepts in this book can work in a real classroom.
Grades
|
Grammar Alive!: A Guide for Teachers
K - 12
Professional Library
| Book
NCTE's Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar provides this much-needed resource for teachers who wonder what to do about grammar—how to teach it, how to apply it, how to learn what they themselves were never taught.
Grades
|
Tracking the Ways Writers Develop Heroes and Villains
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Everyone knows that Star Wars character Darth Vader is a villain. This lesson asks students to explore how they know such things about heroes and villains they encounter in texts.
Grades
|
And I Quote: A Punctuation Proofreading Minilesson
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
Students review the basic conventions for using quotations from literature or references from a research project, focusing on accurate punctuation and page layout, then apply the conventions to their texts.
Grades
|
All's Well that Sells Well: A Creative Introduction to Shakespeare
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students compare attending a performance at The Globe Theater with attending a modern theater production or movie. They then create a commercial for an Elizabethan audience promoting a modern product.
Grades
|
The Ten-Minute Play: Encouraging Original Response to Challenging Texts
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students use both analytical and creative skills to adapt passages from a novel with significant internal dialogue and conflict, such as Toni Morrison's Beloved, into a ten-minute play.
Grades
|
Persuading Readers with Endorsement Letters
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students explore the genre of commercial endorsements, establishing characteristics and requirements for the genre. Each student then composes an endorsement of a product, service, company, or industry.