Inquiry

Overview Think Box: For a wider view of inquiry and its possibilities, consider this expanded role description that credentialed librarians might lead in your school.

Teacher View Think Box: This article discusses the reasons teachers should seek to collaborate more regularly with their teacher librarians when they are teaching inquiry-based lessons and units.

Definition Think Box: This article by Barbara Stripling, an expert in inquiry learning, explains the concept-based learning and what it looks like across different curriculum areas in addition to describing the role librarians play in facilitating inquiry-based learning at their school sites.  The article is worth a joint professional development session on what inquiry is, is not, and how it might be incorporated across the curriculum.

Research Think Box:  "To thrive, schoolwide inquiry learning programs need support from librarians." This common sense statement might apply to any initiative being developed in any school. The authors look at the state of inquiry teaching in Colorado and find mixed results depending on the acceptance of the perception of teachers about the importance of inquiry and whether they will invite the librarians into their classes as partners  when the inquiry opportunity happens. Then, the authors look at  a successful school district where inquiry blossoms as extensive professional development happens with both teachers and specialists in the school. For your own school, what is the acceptance rate among your teachers if you insert the influence of a librarian into that learning? What can you expect will happen? It is worth a major conversation.

Inquiry Curriculum Think Box:  The first section of chapter six focuses on the importance of an established Inquiry Ready Curriculum and how it can easily be embedded into other learning initiatives and co-taught learning experiences throughout a school.  Check out documentation measures at the learner, teaching unit, and organization levels.