Inquiry ChartDescription: The Inquiry Chart, also known as “I-chart” is a strategy that allows students to gather information and create significant questions about a topic from a variety of sources, as well as organize their writing. This strategy is ordered into three phases that are designed to make the students active participants in evaluating the given material. These three phases are: planning, interacting and integrating/evaluating.
Purpose: The purpose of the Inquiry Chart strategy is for students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of a topic by fostering their critical thinking skills. Students build upon their prior knowledge a topic along with reinforcing their reading skills as they develop meaning and understanding of what their reading in order to create significant questions and summarizing their findings. Procedure: 1. Introduce the students to the selected topic of study. 2. The teacher provides the students with a blank I-chart. 3. The students engage in forming questions about the topic and placing them at the top of each separate column. 4. The students use the rows to write down both the information that already know about the topic and the key information and ideas they find when reading and rereading a variety of sources. 5. Student use the last row of each column to formulate a general summary of the information they gathered and previously had about the topic. 6. After students complete their charts, teachers have them review their work and further explore sources to resolve any incomplete information that may exist by developing new questions. 7. Student turn in their Inquiry Chart to the teacher. Classroom Integration: • To create a research paper on a specified topic • To teach behaviors needed for successful partner reading • To use during book talks or guided reading as students use text clues to answer questions Variations: Students participate in a picture to form a basis to make predictions and restate the solution after reading. Create simple questions for younger readers or struggling readers. For advanced learners: add another row to the I-chart and have students summarize each column. ("Inquiry Charts (I-charts)," 2007) ("Inquiry Chart," 2001) Inquiry Chart ResourcesInquiry Chart
• This source provides information about Inquiry Charts in regards to what it is, how it is used, and what it generally is formatted like, including a free downloadable template to use (Jones, 2012). Classroom Strategies: I-chart • This site provides a detailed description of I-charts, the procedure of how to integrate them into the classroom, differentiated instructional ideas, and examples of the strategy and ways it could be formatted ("Inquiry Chart," 2001). How Writing Ties into the StrategyStandard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.1.b
• Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. How Writing is Tied into the Strategy: The Inquiry Chart strategy is a process that deepens student’s comprehension of a topic. This strategy ties in writing as it manipulates the use of graphic organizers. Students use the graphic organizers to activate their critical thinking skills and prior knowledge about a topic to create noteworthy questions and write important information about the topic they found from a variety of sources. Once they have gathered the necessary information student write a general summary about their findings. The graphic organizers are used for students support their generated questions and demonstrate their understanding of the text. (Common Core State Standards, 2010, p. 42) |
Videos of Inquiry Chart (LitDiet, 2011)
Video: This is a video of an elementary reading. The students use an inquiry chart as they read the book to generate questions and then to find answers using text clues. Instruction: This video provides a resource for teachers who would like to begin using Inquiry Charts to facilitate higher thinking and comprehension skills. It is a very useful strategy to build comprehension skills. Student Engagement: This video could help students understand the importance of “i-charts” during guided reading lessons. It provides students with an effective model for incorporating this strategy in the classroom. Assessment: The teacher could assess student knowledge and understanding after presenting the video. The assessment could include questions about the process used when implementing this strategy in the classroom. (Woodcock, 2014)
Video: This video is an example lesson of the “I-chart” being used with elementary students to help them learn the behaviors needed for successful partner reading. This read to someone lesson models the use of the inquiry chart strategy for teaching comprehension. Instruction: This video is provides example of using an I-chart in the classroom. It can also be adapted for use after reading to discuss comprehension strategies. Student Engagement: This video helps students understand the process for using the inquiry chart to guide a classroom lesson. It demonstrates how the ideas are recorded and how a teacher can elicit responses from students. Assessment: The teacher could assess student knowledge and understanding after presenting the video. The assessment could include questions about the strategies used to elicit student responses. |