students are starting to...

As we were studying the coal industry's effect on the environment, Vianey said: "I have a question that connects with our guiding question [How does coal effect the environment?].  What does coal have to do with global warming?"  This was great because it connected our previous focus of study (global warming) with our current one (coal), and gave students something to look for as they read.  I

In seminar, we were discussing questions about the poems we read most recently in Out of the Dust.  Omar's group asked: "Why does Billie Jo want Louise to leave?"  There was much opinion, and it was divided, so I said that we'd hold on to this question and think about when we read the next poems.  We put the post it on the outside of the think tank so that we'd remember to come back to it.  Vianey raised her hand and said that her group's prioritized question was kind of the same and should be next to it: "Does Billie Jo like Louise?".  So we put those two post-its next to each other on the outside of the fish tank.

Are my kids just more inquisitive?

I've started to notice that my kids ask a ton of questions.  Like, more than classes I've had in the past.  Today we were watching March of the Penguins as a way to relax after a morning of stressful ISAT.  And my kids, especially Omar, Emon, DQ, Ty'najah, and Donnell, kept raising their hands as we watched.  Here are some of the questions they asked me:

• How do you know the difference between male and female penguins?
• Are the noises the penguins are making saying that they're cold?
• Can that type of wind blow a human away?
• What will the male penguins do if there's an avalanche?
• Is that saltwater or freshwater?
• Why doesn't the dad let the baby penguin go?
• Is this still happening [in Antarctica]?
• What about global warming [as to why the penguins are walking on large icebergs]?
• How do the parents know which baby is theirs?

 Remembering:1

• Is that saltwater or freshwater?

Understanding: 3

• How do you know the difference between male and female penguins?
• Are the noises the penguins are making saying that they're cold?
• How do the parents know which baby is theirs?

Applying: 4

• What about global warming [as to why the penguins are walking on large icebergs]?
• What will the male penguins do if there's an avalanche?
• Can that type of wind blow a human away?
• Is this still happening [in Antarctica]?

Analyzing: 1

• Why doesn't the dad let the baby penguin go?

Evaluating:
Creating:

I feel like these questions are really strong, some of the same questions I had as I was watching.  I wonder what the value of these questions is.  I mean, of course one value of questions is the investigation/research/learning that it stimulates.  Students may watch the video to find answers to their questions, they may seek out the answer in another source, or they may just act like penguins when we go out for recess (like Omar and Emon did, waddling around the jungle gym like penguins marching in Antarctica:-)  Whatever the case, I think the inquisitive spirit is part of what makes some one a smart person and good learner.

reflections on a videotaped lit circle discussion

students took notes on what they noticed and wondered as they watched Darvell, Vianey, Demarrion, and Donnell discuss Out of the Dust.  They noticed that students often agreed or disagreed with each other respectfully, they raised their hands to talk, they stayed focused around important ideas from the book.  Kamari's wondering about whether they answered their question was interesting.  I agreed with him that they never really consolidated their thoughts into a consensus.  I asked him if he thought that it was important that they do that and he nodded yes.  I wonder if it's important, perhaps there should be some sort of final project on Friday where they do consolidate some of their best answers...

Some Tweaks to How We use Questioning with our Lit Circles

So I went to a conference in Baltimore and there was actually a seminar specifically on using Bloom's Taxonomy with Literature Circles! Go figure. One of the thoughts that this seminar reinforced for me was the importance of having layers of question-asking and discussion, so that each layer informs and improves the next. There is also a filterization process that happens from one layer to the next, removing less salient or interesting questions and thoughts, and focusing attention and energy onto the highest quality questions and thoughts. To contextualize these "layers" and "filters":

Layer 1: Independent Work
students independently read and generate questions and theorize answers in their journals

Filter 1: Students individually choose one question that they'd like to ask in their literature circles

Layer 2: Small Group Discussion
students share their questions and discuss answers in literature circles.

Filter 2: There is one "Question Master" in each group who chooses the question that led to the best discussion. He/she writes this question on a post-it and puts it in our Think Tank for Socratic Seminar discussion

Layer 3: Whole Group Discussion
Question masters launch and propel Socratic Seminar forward by introducing the questions they prioritized from their Literature Circles.

Filter 3: Me? I don't give feedback when seminar is happening, I try to say nothing so as not interfere with their discussion. At the end though, I have begun asking them to vote on which question yielded the most fruitful discussion. Question masters take pride in having their question selected. Also having students praise particularly salient thinking they heard may highlight positive contributions and set an upward trend.

I hope this makes some sort of sense, I'm very into this idea of revision/refining content/student work through multiple lenses so as to increase salience and quality.

Science Slice Debrief at EL National Conference

Building Background Knowledge Components

1. Mystery Piece: builds curiosity (NASA telescope zooming into the Baltimore Harbor)
2. Gallery Walk: builds curiosity (photos and articles and maps that have to do with the topic of the Expedition)
3. Concept Map: helps students synthesize information they're reading from...
4. Common Read: read for gist (no particular prompt or assignment given before students start to read), builds common focus/understanding)
5. Common Reread: framed with text dependent questions
6. Concept Map Revisited
7. Expert Texts (carefully selected to build specific knowledge)
8. Concept Map Revisited
9. Mystery Piece Revisited

Designing Projects and Products

•   Skills-rich projects that result in high-quality products or performances for audiences beyond the classroom
• Typically modeled on real-world documents and artifacts with professional models guiding student work.  Products are critiqued by professionals and contribute to a real-world audience
• Typically 2-6 weeks in duration
• Projects come before final products, and may be incorporated into them
• Projects should be worked on as students are learning.  They are not an enrichment opportunity provided after core learning has been completed as an add-on or supplement
• Teachers plan backward from the final student product or performance.  Everything (lessons, labs, research, fieldwork, experts, projects, and assessments) are scheduled to lead up to the final product
• Assessment toward learning targets takes place during all aspects of the project, not just the completion of the final product

Selecting Case Studies

• Usually either a subtopic of the larger expedition focus, or an investigation of a unique person, place, institution, or event within the expedition topic
• Engage students in original research with primary source materials
• "Case studies allow the students to deeply explore a topic and become experts, building their commitment and pride in their work, before generalizing learning to broader issues and concepts." --> "Teachers guide students to generalize from case studies applying their understanding to the broader content and concepts required by standards."  

4/5 Alike Group

One teacher gave me a great idea about how I group students, especially for group projects, called an "Expert Line".  First, you have everyone stand in a line and then tell them to go to one end of the line or the other based on how good they are at the activity you read.  You can do this many times and then extend it by having them then take a sheet with all the activities and find an expert of each of the activities to sign that box.  You can also create groups that are more balanced by putting different "experts" together so that their skills complement each other.

Her ideas on facilitating student research seemed much more reasonable than what I've been doing up til now.  She gives students a number of links to websites that they can use to find information.  She sets up an organizer that has some of the sentence starts/categories for the key content she wants them to get notes on, and then another box for facts they find really interesting.  This is something to try in the future.

Transforming Literature Circles with Bloom's Taxonomy at EL Conference

She uses "Bloom's Taxonomy Critical Questioning Guide" that has question starters that will broaden the types of questions that they ask (especially for lower level readers), but for higher thinkers she only let's them use it for a few days and then takes it away.

Goal: to vary questions and types of thinking students do.  What actually matters is the discussion.

Students are given a journal to write questions and answers at varying levels.  Their is a rubric which she uses to quickly evaluate the quality of their questions and answers.

Having students choose from a bank of questions (post-its displayed on several different tables that several groups already categorized) with the prompt of choosing the question that would lead to the best discussions. 

Kids have to be taught how to refer to text to answer questions.  Expertise lies in the text, the burden of proof is in the text.

There's no judgment on some levels being better than others, kids may need to ask questions on different levels.  I wonder are her literature circles heterogeneous or homogeneous?

How did your thinking about this book change just by asking questions and thinking about questions?
--> I had a much better understanding of what I didn't understand
--> it gets students prepared for the discussion, students aren't allowed into lit circle until they have

After lit circle, have students revise their answers?

Unit structures and resources:

• using bloom's to ask questions (2 lessons)
• lit circle journals (on-going)
• lit circle analysis (on-going)
• videotape lit circles, class would analyze how it went and what could be better
• group evaluation rubrics
• self evaluation rubrics
• NO INTERRUPTIONS!
• fishbowl lit circles
• clarifying vs. extending: arriving at a new understanding
• the difference: clarifying are lower level questions that are necessary for comprehensions

• how to answer questions (shallow vs. deep)
• using text evidence
• thinking metacognitively about your answers 

•  teacher's college reading and writing project has model video of lit circles

 Takeaways:

• use videotape modeling as a rational, unemotional tool to lift discussion
• use her template to make a journal for students' questions, perhaps also give them the questioning book as a resource to help them write questions.
• increase the amount of revision that occurs as they sift through questions and prioritize the best ones
• day 1: read and write questions
• day 2: lay out questions on post-its and do a gallery walk to select the 2-3 best questions that will lead to a good discussion.  Write them down, along with answers
• day 3: have discussion
• day 4: product?

• bookmarks with assigned reading for week (cute)

Questions:

• Should the product be tied to their questions? What should the products of lit circles be?
• How do you teach them to balance clarifying and extending questions?  Should the discussion be divided into one based on clarifying questions and one on extending?  Because the prompt "choose the question that will lead to the best conversation" is very different from "choose the question that will help you understand the story best" -->you can be flexible with this
• the tuning protocol and guiding questions protocol is on EL Commons
• What is the best way to get them to generate lots of questions at a variety of levels and then pair that down to 1-2 for discussion?--> in the beginning of the year she really helps them pair down and prioritize their questions, but eventually they get to the point where they don't need all of that broke down. 
• Are there ever any products that get produced from lit circle discussions? -->yes, but nothing specifically from their questions and answers in their journals
• Do you read and grade their journal entries every day? --> yes, very informally she walks around each morning and fills out the rubric.  students know that she will eventually collect their whole journals to do a summative assessment.

rounds of questioning discussion

So I'm looking through my students' questions that they jot down as they read Out of the Dust in explore groups, and I'm so thankful that students are asking and answering these questions as a first round before bringing the "cream of the crop", the higher quality, deeper questions.  Not that the questions they jotted down are "bad", they're just more about unknown words or miscomprehensions.

A few things I'm starting to think about...
1) having question masters prioritize one question per discussion, putting it in the think tank and leading Seminar with these questions.  Tried it on 2/12 by giving question masters one post-it after or as they were having their discussions.  Here's what was prioritized, put up in our think tank, and the first two were discussed during Seminar (the Qfocus was "the homeless family at Billie Jo's school"):

-Why is Billie Jo so eager to not let the baby go if that's not one of her family members.
-Why did the family leave the baby and thay had went to west.
-Why did the people move into the school
-Why didn't the homeless family go to a shelter?

We had a really good conversation around the first question, with students debating if and why the baby reminded Billie Jo of Franklin, her baby brother who died soon after being born. 



The second question was a productive discussion as well, first DQ had to revise and improve his question because he misunderstood that the family left the baby behind.  We talked about how many migrants tried to leave the Dust Bowl, especially to get to California.

On the following day 2/13, I gave them their Qfocus before dismissing them to their Explore Groups "Billie Jo and the Piano", and emphasized that question masters prioritize questions and put them into the think tank.  I was disappointed because several groups skipped the "question reflection" and "discussion" sections of the Explore Group schedule.  I understand they're excited about getting to their jobs, but it's important to have this discussion about questions because it clarifies misunderstandings and enriches their understanding which makes the products they produce in their explore group jobs better.  So I called them into Seminar early, and modeled how a question master would lead the discussion and prioritize the best question to put up in the Think Tank.  This connects to what was my second goal/push:

2) having question masters lead discussions in their groups around the questions from their questioning ladders

We'll see how they do today...

Question Master Questions - Week 3

Step 1 (Obvious Information):
- What does Billie Jo like most? (Kamari)
-What does Miss Freeland look like? What does Ms. Freeland call Billie Jo? (Malik)
-How does Billie Jo look? Who is the main character? (Donnell)
-What do Billi Jo like?  How do billi Jo look?  What is billJo frovite thing? (Nyrissa)

Step 2 (Key Detail):
-When is Billie Jo going to move out of the dust? (Kamari)
-Is Billie Jo still in school? Was Billie Jo's dad born in the dust bowl? (Malik)
-How did Billie Jo's mom die? (Donnell)
-What happened to billi Jo Mother? How did her brother die? (Nyrissa)

Step 3 (Stated Relationships):
-Who does Billie Jo look up to? (Kamari)
-If Miss Freeland is her ma at school why can't she bring to the house with her father?  What is the relationship between Billie Jo and her father? (Malik)
-How is Billie Jo's relationship with her father? (Donnell)
-Who does billie Jo become friend with in the dust bowl? (Nyrissa)

Step 4 (Connect Some Dots):
-Why does Billie Jo keep thinking about her mom? (Kamari)
-Why does Billie Jo want to be like her mom? (Malik)
-Why didn't Billie Jo go to school? Why did Billie Jo stick her face into the fog? (Donnell)
-When does the dust bowl stop.  Why does billie Jo still think about lily and lizzie. (Nyrissa)

Step 5 (Connect Lots of Dots):
-What job will Billie Jo get when she grows up? (Kamari)
-What are the 3 biggest ways Billie Jo changed over the course of the story? (Malik)
-How does Billie Jo change throughout the course of the story? Who is responsible for her changes?(Donnell)
-How did billie Jo change since her ma died. (Nyrissa)

Step 6 (Walking in the Author's Shoes):
-What is Karen Hesse trying to explane to us? (Kamari)
- (no response) (Malik)
-What message is Karen Hesse trying to send?  What are the best ways to handle anger? (Donnell)
-What message is Karen Hesse telling me about billie Jo's family and the dust bowl? (Nyrissa)

Step 7 (Reading like a Writer):
-Is Karen Hesse in love with poetry? (Kamari)
-Has she visited the Dust Bowl (Malik)
-What symbols does Karen Hesse include in the story about anger? (Donnell)
-How does Karen Hesse make her story better by using similes and alliteration? (Nyrissa)

Seminar questions about guiding questions:
-Who does Billie Jo look up to? (Kamari)
Malik: At first, she looked up to her mom before she died because that was the only woman in the house and when she grows up she wants to be like her mom.
DQ: ANd I think before Harold P. Nye died she probably looked up to him because he liked Billie Jo alot.
Demarrion: I think she looked up to herself because she be acting tough alot.
NYrissa: I agree with Demarrion and I sorta agree with Malik, but the reason I agree with Demarrion because in the book she hasn't really said anything positive about her mom

-Why does Billie Jo want to be like her mom? (Malik)
Omar: I think because her mom knew how to play piano and she wants to play piano.
Anyah: I agree.
Kamari: Didn't her mom ban her from playing the piano before she died.
Anyah: Not ban her, but remember in the book she asked her mom so she could say yes.
Malik: It says she didn't want her to play piano because she'd miss school so she just couldn't play during the week.
Me: synthesize ambivalent relationship between Billie Jo, searches for other reason...
Donnell: I think she wanted to be like her mom because she didn't know her dad that well
Dameko: I think she wanted to be her mom because she had bigger dreams and Billie Jo wants to leave the farm too.
Omar and Demarrion argue that she wants to be like her mom because her father's personality is abhorrent.
Me: I think she wants to hold on to her mom and remember her through the traits she shares with her.

questions from "Polar Bears and Global Warming" Qfocus

Initial Categorization (students from the top 3 guided reading groups were given 1 blue post-it each, students from the bottom 2 guided reading groups were given 1 orange post-it each):

 Final Categorization (after we discussed and possibly re-categorized questions in Socratic Seminar):

Some takeaways at a glance:
1) students were much more accurate with their categorizing this time around.  There were a couple of mis-categorized questions, but overall, and regardless of high or low reading ability, students were accurate.
2) 3 students actually generated applying questions, although 2 of them didn't realize it at first
3) Analyzing was again the most popular category of question, followed by evaluating.  The tank is pretty top-heavy, with very few understanding and remembering questions, which could suggest a number of things.  Maybe students had a good understanding of global warming and it's effect on polar bears, therefore they didn't need to ask remembering and understanding questions.  Maybe they felt challenged to ask higher level questions (although I gave no prompting, I only told students to choose the question that they felt was most important with the Qfocus).
4) Both the high readers' group and low readers' group have good parity and their questions are well-distributed among all 6 levels of thinking. 
5) High readers had a higher proportion of their questions be analyzing questions than the low readers.
6) Both high and low readers' initial categorizations skewed higher than their final (true) categorizations.

Their questions verbatim (the number of questions in some categories are not exactly identical to the number of post-its in the final picture of the fish tank; I think this is because in the heat of the discussion during Seminar, we just forgot to re-categorize certain questions):


 Remembering
-When did sentist discover global warming. (Tommy)

Understanding
-How do the ice melt so fast (Emon)
-How does the sun get in if everything is close? (Nyrissa)
-How does the sun light hust them if thay live on the top (DQ)

Applying
-how does riding bikes help Polar bears (Trae)
-Why is global warming effecting Polar Bears? (Darvell)

Analyzing
-Why won't the sientist try to get more ice in alaska. (Dameko)
-Why does Heat creat carbon dioxide that traps heat at mak global warming. (Syriah)
-Why do the Polar bears have to live in the cold. (Omar)
-Why are polar bears dieing? (Kamari)
-Why do we have carbon dioxide (Malik)
-If the tempature of the sun drops to 70 degrees F and on Earth we didn't have things that produced carbon dioxide and other gases would Global Warming exist? (Vianey)

Evaluating
-When all of the ice caps melt, will the polar bears eventually come to dry land? (Donnell)
-can Polar Bears find good home when the ice is melting? (Anyah)
-Will the Poler Bears sevaiv will they or will they not (Cyrus)
-Do polar Bears like there home? (Zion)

Creating
-How can I save the Polar bear (Kashira)
-Can we make things that move but do not ues gases (Demarrion)

To adequately discuss all of the questions, we had to break up our Socratic Seminar into two sessions on two separate days. 
On the 1st day, our conversation centered on Malik's question: "Why do we have carbon dioxide?" which he revised to "Do we need carbon dioxide?".  It was really interesting to hear students' synthesizing how carbon dioxide is a part of their life (in terms of how activities like driving in a car or playing videogames involve emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere).  Another facet of the conversation that Vianey's question ultimately dovetailed into was in what ways does carbon dioxide help make our life better (in terms of keeping the Earth relatively warm-the greenhouse effect makes the Earth warm enough to sustain life on Earth, the problem is that the greenhouse effect is becoming too strong as we pump more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere).  I thought it was positive to see that Malik revised his question during Seminar. 

On the 2nd day I was able to take more complete notes:
Kamari: Why are polar bears dying?
Tommy gives a fairly complete answer, connecting global warming to changes in the polar bears' habitat.
Kamari: Then I have another question: Why do polar bears have specific habitats?
Anyah: Polar bears have to live in the Arctic because if they don't they can't catch their favorite foods.
Darvell: Their bodies are made for extreme cold weather.
Dameko: Why won't the scientists make more ice in Alaska?
This leads to a great review of concepts that range from the states of matter, to the greenhouse effect.  It prompted a nice patch-up of some gaps in knowledge.
As we continue discussing questions, Dameko spontaneously corrects Syriah's categorization of her question, explaining that it's really an analyzing question.  I wonder at what point could students start to do what we're doing in Seminar autonomously?  Maybe I could add a session into our literature circle weekly schedule, when Question Masters (an official job in lit circles) could take their questions that they generated and lead a discussion around those questions...

saving the polar bears with questions?

Today we were going through morning meeting as usual and we're reading the morning message, which is about how we're going to learn how to help stop global warming and save the polar bears.  Dameko raised his hand and said: "Are we going to ask questions to help the polar bears?"  I was really confused, and I asked him what he meant: "I don't understand Dameko, how can questions help polar bears."  He said, "No, I mean are we going to put "polar bears" up there [pointing at the Q Focus tab above the Think Tank (where they generate questions and categorize them according to Bloom's taxonomy)] and then come up with questions to help them?"
The kids, especially Malik, seemed really excited about this prospect.  They're starting to internalize the process, which is great in itself.  It's also awesome because they gave me a better way to launch my lesson today :-)

the 1st student to say "this is an applying question" !

Today, when I was doing a read aloud on simple machines, Emon raised her hand and said: "I have an applying question.  You know when we were learning about horses pulling wagons [from our unit on trains that I taught several months ago]?  Was it hard for them to pull the wagons because of all that food?"  Of course, we had to carry the discussion further and bring in friction, but I was excited nonetheless that Emon was able independently categorize her question as she was asking it. 

a spontaneous, self-generated question-based discussion

I know that title makes no sense, but it's happening!  We were learning about the wheel and axle in Expedition, and I wasn't planning on having a large discussion, or really any discussion at all.  The plan was to introduce simple machines, watch a video, take an interactive quiz, demonstrate using a wheel and axle, filling in their simple machines note-catcher, and then creating their own wheel and axles.  But after filling the note-catcher and before creating our own wheel and axles, we were launched into a very interesting discussion about wheel and axles.  Nyrissa asked: "I don't get it.  How do the wheels on a car stop rolling then?"  This launched us into a big discussion on how brakes are like wedges (door stops specifically) in that they utilize friction to obstruct motion.  I was diagramming the structure of a car, getting way into the topic, a lot more than I expected!  Then Omar asked: "Why is only the brake is only on the back wheel of a bike?"  I thought this was such an astute application question (I've been automatically categorizing questions according to Bloom's Taxonomy for a while now :-))  So we went back to diagramming and students sharing their thoughts.  It was so engaging for everyone, just the beautiful act of all of us constructing knowledge together.  It's why I love teaching.  And I don't think it happens if Nyrissa and Omar aren't asking questions.  And I'm not sure they ask those questions if we haven't been doing all this work on questioning and building an environment that values questions.  Yay!

Guided reading group Texas

Guided reading group Texas is taking the next step and researching answers to the questions they prioritized about their non-fiction text on spiders.  I was very impressed with how seriously they were working together.  I couldn't hear a lot of their conversation because I was working with guided reading group New York, but their engagement was as strong as Tennessee's was.  I think they were processing the text much more, and hopefully more deeply.  I think this question/research process can be effective for lower students too...

questioning ladder success with guided reading group New York

Vianey is leading guided reading group New York with questions from the questioning ladder, and the students are really responding!  The questions do follow the progression of lower to higher order thinking, and as we move up the ladder, the discussions are getting more and more complex.

Vianey's Questions:

Step 1: Obvious Information
-What does Wayside school look like?
-Who are the main characters?
-How was Wayside built?

Step 2: Key Detail
-What happens on a normal school day at Wayside?

Step 3: Stated Relationships
-Why did Calvin take the note if there is no Ms. Zarves?

Step 4: Connect Some Dots/Play Detective
-What lesson did they learn in Chapter 16?
-Why doesn't Rhondi like her teeth when everyone says they're adorable?

Step 5: Connect Lots of Dots/Play Super Detective
-What are three ways Wayside changes over the story?
 -How do the characters change throughout the story?

Step 6: What is the message Louis Sachar is trying to tell us?

Step 7: no questions

Students had good discussions about all the questions Vianey posed, but the Step 6 question really blasted off into an interesting conversation.  Here are some transcript notes:
Tommy: Some people are different and have different talents
Omar: It's good to be different.
Me: Why do you think it's good to be different?
Donnell: Everyone's unique.
Me: So what?  Why's that important?
Donnell: If you copy off of people, everyone would do the same thing.
Vianey: If everyone did the same thing, life would be boring and when you meet new people it's interesting because they're different.
Tommy: One time I was talking about this with my mom because if everyone had the same talents, you wouldn't be able to learn to do something else.

I think that this conversation showed they were understanding what Stories from Wayside School is really about, not just on the micro level of what happened, but on a macro level of what the theme and message of the story was about.  I wish they would have used some examples of episodes and events from the story to support their macro view of the text.  Nevertheless, that is a mini-lesson for the future.

Afterwards I asked them: What did you notice as we went through the questioning ladder?
Vianey: as we went down our thoughts got deeper
Donnell: questions got harder as we went from step 1

I was very encouraged by this session for several reasons.
1) Vianey really took the questioning ladder and ran with it.  I think she was able to come up with much more interesting and complex questions than she would have if I had just told her to generate questions and then categorize them according to Bloom's and prioritize.
2) I thought that the guided reading group as a whole was really starting to get a feel for how to use the questioning ladder, and the value it added in terms of helping students ask deep questions that lent themselves to rich discussion.  I'm hoping this group will take the role of question master in many of their literature circles and model how to use the questioning ladder.

tennessee is leading the way using questions to structure a research project

They actually worked on the project while I was absent yesterday!  And, Nyrissa told me today: "Hold on Mr. Welch, I'm not ready to publish.  I need to revise still."  I'm so impressed with their motivation and high expectations they have for themselves.  That Nyrissa would be self-motivated to revise is a new phenomenon indeed! 

So, going back to the first day this all started, we'd been reading about the Chicago Fire and I wanted them to do a sort of research project to synthesize what they'd learned.  I had them generate and prioritize questions that they thought were important about the Chicago Fire.  I was honestly not that impressed with a lot of them.  They felt really random, and I know that it's bad to say because whether the questions I wanted to see or not, they are authentic student questions.  I guess my biggest problem with them is that they didn't reveal rich comprehension of the text, which in a sense is good because its feedback that tells me we need to review their comprehension of text.  But I'm interested in using a questioning ladder that helps them generate their questions in a more methodical, "from the ground-up" manner.  I had them focus on asking "remembering" and "understanding" questions first.  We generated a few together, I prompted them to think of these questions as questions people would ask just to get to know and understand some basic facts and details about the Chicago Fire.  Then I had them focus on asking "applying" and "analyzing" questions.  I prompted them to generate these questions by thinking about what questions people might have about why events happened the way they did.  Then I had them focus on generating "creating" and "evaluating" questions. 

This process was really helpful as a way to review and build knowledge together, it was effective because we established the fundamental knowledge points first, and then built from there to the places where students might infer and draw conclusions.  There analyzing questions were much richer and more meaningful because I think they connected to fundamental aspects of the Chicago Fire, not obscure or less germane ones.

Addendum: at the end of our guided reading session today Malik asked me if we're going to do this with each one of our books, I said why, do you want to?  and he said yes.  He explained: "because it's fun.  you get to work in a group with a lot of people that work together. and it's challenging" why?  "it's challenging because everyone has to cooperate and be active citizens."  Dameko: "I can add something.  in the end you have to chose if you want take your partners thinking and put it in your writing and its hard cuz you don't want them to feel bad if you didn't put it in your writing."

 I'm also using guided reading group Tennessee to mentor guided reading group Texas with the research process.

analyzing what and how they prioritized the dust bowl questions

2 days ago I was frustrated because the way many students prioritized the question about the Dust Bowl they wanted to research felt random.  Not too many chose questions I thought were most important.  On the positive side, many student chose questions that weren't their own.  Here's a break down of the questions they prioritized (they each chose 1 from the list that we had generated the day before), their rationales behind their choices are in italics underneath the questions they chose:

·      What can be done to protect houses from dust storms? 1

-Because if there is I want to give it to people so they'll survive (Vianey)

·      

Why is it so dark! 1

-Because if sand is the color tan how does it become black thats why. (Omar)

·      Why did they dig holes? 0

·      Why they can’t move from the city 1

--Because the houses want they by liveing in had dust in it.  Also the dust got in the people way. (Tynajah)

·      Why was the dust heavy, black and gets in the food and bad 1

-no response from Syriah

·      How can sand turn into a huge glob of sand 0 

·      How do dust bowls get created? 4

-So people know what created the dangerous dust bowl.  And so it won't happenend in a different state (Tommy)

--Because you're not going to understand dust bowls if you don't know how they get created. (Donnell)

-no response from Demarrion

-Because like what made it come and becuse I want to now and like what time of the day it comes (DQ)

·      How long does it take to develop a dust storm 1

-Because everything developes even you and me (Malik)

·      Do they have police, ambulances, and firefighters to protect them. 2

-Because if they house get on fire if someone die or have a baby. (Tremayne)

-Because I think it would be good to know. (Dameko)

--I chose this question because it's a instrsting to me. (Zion)

·      What is that thing that shot out smoke? 1

·      Did people make plans to get out 1

·      Did some of the people die 1

-Because I want to know if some of the kids had to live on there own (Trae)

·      

What kind of sickness do the have? 0

·      Could people breath because of the masks and why. 1

-Because if the dust bowl come and they have on masks.  And the people had said that you couldn't see or breath.  So coundlf they breath with the masks on or off. (Nyrissa)

·      How did the dust get in the house 3

--because on the movie they said dust were in house but get in wonder how did the dust (Emon)

-I prioritize the question because this question sounds like a good question and I want to learn how dust got in the house too. (Kashira)

·      Did the dust come from different states 1

-Because it might be hard to find the right answer so maybe you can find facts about the dust (Anyah)

-Because it is a good qweshtino because if this wasn't soupos to hapen did it come from other stat (anonymous)

·      Could you step out of the Dust bowl 0

The reasons behind their questions often bowl me over with their sincerity, the fact that really want to know the answers because it's important to them, or they feel it would be important for others to know (Tommy and Vianey).  How do I do their earnestness justice?  How do I respect their questions?  It's tough because finding answers isn't always easy.  Not many of the kids found answers to the questions in one of the few kid-friendly, informational readings on the dust bowl I was able to find online.  Maybe check the library?  Use reflection journals?  A class composition or book with our most important questions and answers?

Several students mentioned also that they asked a question because it seemed like in order to understand the dust bowl, they had to understand this question (Donnell)

Also, their research turned out a lot stronger than I had felt it was as we were doing the activity.  Despite the limitations of our source material (a PBS documentary and a short reading on the Dust Bowl), I was very impressed with how they were able to make accurate inferences even with incomplete information.  Out of 17 responses:

3 students found direct (and correct) answers from the video/text

6 students used helpful details from the text to make correct inferences to answer their question

3 students made correct inferences to answer their question without citing helpful details from the text

3 students made incorrect inferences to answer their question

3 students were unable to answer their question at all

results of student survey 12/10/12

Questions	yes	no	Student Explanation	My Analysis
1. Do you like asking questions as you read or learn during expedition?  Why or why not?	8	0	Yes ·      You mite lean more ·      It helps you understand more ·      The answers help me think deeper ·      I like adding more to my questions ·      I learn a lot of new thinks ·      I want to stay informed on science and history
2. Do you like researching answers to the questions you ask?  Why or why not?	5.5	2.5	Yes ·      You can get more infomashon about what you are researching ·      You can find out your questions ·      It’s fun ·      It tells me a lot of others stuff that I did no no ·      You find out a lot of things ·      If I can’t get the answers then I should research the question if I really don’t know the answers No ·      You get all mixed up and most often they give you the answer your not looking for ·      You can’t find an answer ·      You might get the wrong answer	Interesting to see Kashira defining research as something you do when you can’t find the answer yourself, almost like research is a third party The “no” answers all make sense with what happened when we researched during expedition last month.  It was frustrating to not find the answers we were looking for.  I need to teach my kids that this is okay, some questions you have to store away as “unanswered” and appreciate them for this.
3. What is the best thing about asking questions?			·      You can lean someting from someone ·      You can learn something that yo didint know ·      You get to learn more about that thing ·      At the end when you do research you become smarter ·      You can sometimes write down someone questions ·      You can find out something by asking ·      You can find out the answer later ·      You can really look it up or think in your head	Social Research Personal impact
4. What is the worst thing about asking questions?			·      Nothing ·      You won’t get enouf work done ·      Well have to think about the question you ask ·      Sometimes you won’t be able to find an answer ·      Maybe putting to much in you answer ·      That you have to write them down ·      It’s hard to generate them ·      I really don’t know what is the worst thing about asking questions because I like asking questions	Yay! I can relate to this response, it does kind of take you out of the book to stop and write down a question Preoccupation with answer Difficulty of process
5. What is the best thing about researching answers to the questions you ask?			·      You can lean more by…looking it up or you can get info about it from pepol ·      So that you understand it ·      That you can learn more about that. ·      You get smarter and might be able to teach someone something new ·      You can maybe get the right answer ·      It gives you a lot of informions ·      Once your done your fully informed on your subject ·      You can learn a lot from the questions you ask and write them down	Social Learning Personal impact Preoccupation with answer
6. What is the worst thing about researching answers to the questions you ask?			·      Thaer is nothing wrog about restching ·      It can take to long ·      I don’t have one ·      Your question might be too long and might be hard to shorten ·      Maybe doing the worng thing ·      Sometime it doesn’t when you tipe it in or something you get it wrog ·      It’s hard to find a way to shorten your question and make it equal to the main idea ·      Maybe you can’t find the answers to them some times	Yay! Preoccupation with “wrong” answer Revising difficulaties – interesting that they’re familiar enough with the process to realize it’s importance and begin to articulate some of the difficulties with it Time
7. What are some examples of good questions that you’ve generated?			·      What is a dolfine doing in the swamp ·      One is about how much do the cowboys get paid ·      What does the tiger mean to Rob ·      How do you become a pioneer? And how can you brun bullfo chips ·      How do pioneers get there house ·      In the Chicago fire did Mrs. O’Leary die? ·      About Junie B. Jones like how can she do better in school	Lower-level questions Higher-level questions
8. What do you think makes a question a good one?			·      If it’s something you like ·      It has to have something to explain about ·      I think a good question should make you think deeply and it should take research ·      Sometimes adding beaitls [details?] ·      That you can get a lot geart question [?] ·      One that challenges yourself ·      It makes it a good question if you judge or if you make up a question	Student sees connection between a good question and ownership of that question/interest in the topic These responses suggest the connection between “good” and rigor Kashira is trying to suggest that good questions are evaluating or creating questions
9. What have you learned from the questions you researched?			·      Like in what does a cowboy eat for lunch I leand that thay eat cilly beans ·      They get paid only $1.00 doller a day ·      Pioneers didn’t really have time for school ·      Sometimes they will give you more things for your questions ·      That you know a lot of things ·      If you try your best you might always get a better grade ·      It’s a smart thing to do and just try it out
10. Do you like asking questions during reading or expedition			Expedition ·      I can learn more from my parners ·      Expedition because that my favite subjest ·      Sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing so I ask somebody in expedition Reading ·      Reading because I can empathize with characters even more ·      I like asking question more during reading because I don’t get some stuff in reading so that’s why reading	They seem to see there’s more opportunities to socially interact with questions during expedition