Modeling Inquiry with Nonfiction
Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis have established themselves as purveyors of reading strategies that work in elementary school settings. They promote modeling by all teachersand the processes for engaging themselves and their students in the understanding and use of nonfiction text.
A few of their exercises for early readers of nonfiction are summarized below (2000, Appendix F). Each of these will lead to early practice to help guide and model inquiry and scientific mindedness. Children are naturally curious, but as humans they need help in organizing, making selections, prioritizing, and eventually gaining focus on what is meaningful to both themselves and their likely audiences. Students are invited to make initial choices and are guided by teachers who model and present options so that students are enabled to make logical revisions and extensions to what they bring to the nonfiction text.
For each of the examples from Harvey and Goudvis below, copies of text pages are made for students to feel free to mark and highlight. If original pages are used, teachers and students use postem-notes. Sometimes different colors allow several students to contribute their ideas together to the same text pages and clearly show personal contributions. Notes can be moved from the text pages to large sheets of paper on which the postem-notes can be organized to show patterns of observations. Charts and tables of combined ideas can be generated. These same methods can be used to produce individual or group thinking for concept maps through the use of software such as Inspiration.
- Asking Questions Throughout the Reading Process - Readers ask questions before, during and after reading. Look at the cover of the book and read the title. Record any questions you might have before you start to read. While reading, highlight or mark a part of the text or picture where you have a question. When you finish reading, write down any remaining questions. Suggest possible answers to your questions.
- Predicting - While reading, highlight or mark a sentence or picture with P when you find yourself making a prediction. Write a sentence that had helped you think of the prediction. After you finish reading the complete text, note if your prediction was confirmed or contradicted.
- Synthesizing Information - While reading, highlight or mark a picture or part of the text with SZ for synthesize when you have a new idea. After completing the text, review your SZ notations and combine them into one or two major ideas you got from the entire text.
- Determining Important Information - Look for the any of the following text cues to important information –
- Cause/Effect: since, because, due to, for this reason, therefore
- Comparison/Contrast: likewise, as opposed to, however, but, nevertheless
- Problem/Solution: one reason for that, a possible solution
- Question/Answer: how, what, when, why, the best estimate, in could be that
- Sequence: until, before, after, finally
- Cause/Effect: since, because, due to, for this reason, therefore
Read Generating and Testing Hypotheses from NETC.