Reading: How My Question Keeps Evolving
Sims_How-my-question-keeps-evolving.pdf

How my question keeps Evolving
Original Questions:
Why do middle school students with average intelligence struggle with comprehension?

• Assumption: Students are capable of comprehension but teachers have not been successful in finding ways to help them understand.
• Personal Note: First thought is motivation/interest?

For students for whom decoding is not an issue, what kind of meaning do they make of written texts?

Questions evolved to:

What’s involved when students transact with informational texts? What allows students t interpret a characters motives? How do students formulate themes and main ideas?

Making Progress…

While working with Riccardo and struggling with her class, another question comes up:
How can I meet the needs of my more quiet students while productively channelling the energy or my more aggressive students?

• Personal Note: I have wondered this before as well! I know that it is hard for some students to speak out or ask for help, especially in front of their other classmates. If a student is not willing/able to ask for help, how will I know if they are confused or lost in the lesson? I guess a good way of combatting this could be frequent check-ins with that student to make sure they understand everything.
• Personal Note: If learners don’t ask for help, how will teachers know that they need it? What would the signs look like? Are quiet students not in as much need as loud ones?

A new set of questions emerge…
How can I encourage kids to stretch themselves? How can I get them to understand that learning is not always easy but takes hard work and determination? But then how can I expect a student to become invested in a text when it is incomprehensible to him? How much scaffolding should I provide for a student?

• Personal Note: How much scaffolding is too much? I think at some point too much scaffolding can turn into a rescue, where the teacher provides too much support or “spoon feeds” the answer and student does not actually learn anything.

 Next question emerged:
How do I make Riccardo more visible to me as a student and prevent him from slipping through the cracks?

Final Question
What are the best ways for me to support students learning? What kinds of meaningful and manageable assessment tools can be created so that I can come to know the quiet, less assertive students in my class? How intrusive are the decision making processes that school communities engage in around the important issues of accountability and assessment as a positive tool for students and teachers?

 Personal Note: It is interesting, yet not surprising, how inquiry questions can change and expand over time. As you begin to investigate your inquiry your research may reveal even more knowledge gaps and areas of little knowledge that may lead you to ask new and evolving questions.