Instructional Planning and Delivery:
How did you start the process?
Lighting the inquiry spark and observing student engagement and wondering:
In a school-wide assembly at the beginning of the year, it was hard not to notice the student at the back
of the gymnasium as he ran back and forth shrieking in delight. He was clearly very excited to be back at
school and with those he hadn’t seen in several months. When we returned to class that day, the
students began asking many questions. They wanted to know “what was he trying to say?”, “how do his
teachers and parents understand him” and “can we play with him; maybe he will like playing basketball
with us, too?”. We had a community circle to discuss their questions and we got on the topic of
communication disorders, the idea of communication, and communication tools.
Because of their interest, we began with a read aloud book entitled, Rules (Lord, Cynthia. (2006) Rules.
New York, NY: Scholastic). The book is about a twelve-year-old girl named Catherine who has a brother
on the Autism Spectrum. The students began to wonder about how children learn to communicate and
the different ways that people communicate.
In one scene in the book, we meet a character who is completely non-verbal and communicates with
others using PECS (picture exchange communication system). Our goal for the remainder of that day was
to communicate using only picture cards that we would create. We created 10 cards that we would have
to use for the remainder of the day. The students learned that it was challenging and frustrating and
that it took patience to both communicate in that way and understand what another person wants in
this type of situation.
At this stage, I did not know that this read aloud and that initial student in the assembly would be
sparking a full-length inquiry.
Note: at this stage, the entire class was participating in all tasks, and mini-lessons on the guided
inquiry process (see model below) were occurring throughout the 100-minute literacy block.
I was keenly taking notes on the questions, wonders, and comments that students continued to make
both throughout the read aloud as well as when we were spending time with the students in the
community class (comprised of 7 students with various physical and communicative disorders within the
same age range as my students).
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What were the guiding questions? Backwards design process:
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How can we learn to understand people who cannot speak?
In what ways do people communicate if they are not speaking?
Can you communicate and get what you are asking for if you are not speaking?
Why are students with differences in different classes? Can they learn like us?
How can we put this information together in a meaningful way to express our understandings to
a greater audience?
At this stage in the process, I was able to recognize that these questions required time to answer and
that a significant number of responses were “correct”. At this stage, it became clear that this group of
students would become our “Communication Team” and the true process of inquiry began.
I wanted to be able to honour the questions that this group of students was having and set out to
connect their interest to the Science curriculum (Understanding Life Systems: Human Organ Systems) to
broaden and deepen their knowledge and connect it meaningfully to another area of study. What is it
that you want your students to learn or to be able to do?
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The goal was to have students communicate about an issue or topic that they were invested in. I
wanted them to be able to communicate this information in a non-conventional and inspired
way.
The focus of this inquiry was on language acquisition, communication disorders, and activism.
Students began to question the use of the word “disorder” and began to delve into issues of
equity and alliedship. (This was unforeseen.)
Each day in the literacy block, students spent time researching and gathering information. I sat
with each inquiry/investigation team once per week. During this time, I would provide next
steps and further ‘essential questions’ to get at the meat of the topic.
To have students connect to the idea that the process that they were engaging in was called a “guided
inquiry”, we set about having large group, mini-lessons on the stages that students would be partaking
in.
The flow of the 100-minute literacy block within the 5-day schedule within my district was as follows:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Inquiry and
Inquiry and
Inquiry and
Investigation Time Investigation Time Investigation Time
Throughout this time, students were working on various
stages of their inquiry projects. Each team had a lead
investigator responsible for consolidating notes and
ensuring that team members were on task. The particular
guiding questions they were working on at this time were
recorded either on their online profiles (Google Drive) or in
their investigation binders or both. I had 3 investigations
happening throughout the 8-12 week blocks and, therefore,
met with each team once throughout a 5-day cycle. In this
time, I reviewed research notes and next steps with the
group.
Day 4
Team Meeting
and Consolidation
During team
meetings, we
gathered as a
whole class and
the lead
investigator
would provide
updates to the
class regarding
what the team
had worked on
that week. The
rest of the class
would provide
next steps and I
would record
those next steps.
The following
week, we would
touch base to
ensure that the
next steps had
been met.
Creation of final piece and presentation to the group. Next steps for those that
were interested.
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Day 5
Passion Project
On the fifth day of
the cycle,
students were
working on their
own personal
passion projects.
This provided an
opportunity to try
and test
something new.
This project is
independent of
inquiry.
Showcases
The first 2 weeks, students were investigating and immersing themselves in the topic at hand. I
wanted to ensure that they were invested and truly interested in learning and creating around
this topic.
[Students used worksheet #1 and worksheet #2 throughout this period of time.]
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There was a primary researcher from within the group whose responsibility was to gather the
research notes and record them on the worksheets.
On the fourth day (after I had met with each inquiry group), we would meet as an entire class to
sort questions and topics of interest.
At this stage, students began to really push one another through the stages of assessing
whether or not the questions they were investigating and researching really “dug deep” or were
merely “surface response” questions that had only one response.
Their goal was to spark large-class discussions that assessed depth of knowledge.
This also provided me the opportunity to scaffold and teach further mini-lessons on content areas such
as relevant question sorting, research skills, important vs. Interesting information, accuracy in reporting,
plagiarism, critically examining research, utilizing multiple sources to gather information.
We generated lists about what sound research looks like. We examined how to assess a website for
accuracy as well as what we could learn from knowledge-building circles and one another. Students also
began thinking about “community experts” that could testify to the validity of their ideas as well as
research.
Developing Effective Inquiry Questions: (Guided Inquiry Design, Kuhlthau, Maniotes & Caspari)
 A good question:
 is an invitation to think (not recall, summarize, or detail)
 comes from genuine curiosity and confusion about the world
 makes you think about something in a way you never considered before
 invites both deep thinking and deep feelings
 leads to more good questions
 asks you to think critically, creatively, ethically, productively, and reflectively about essential
ideas in a discipline
 is open-ended, no final or correct answer
 points towards important, transferable ideas within and sometimes across disciplines
 requires support and justification, not just an answer
 recurs over time; the question can (should) be revisited
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We continued to read the book, Rules, as well as to investigate communication disorders, such
as dyslexia, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and even speech impediments.
Students interviewed Speech-Language Pathologists as well as teachers in the community class;
their goal was to gather information about:
Communication disorders and alternate forms of communication.
By now, the students had been fully immersed in their research gathering for 2 weeks, 10 sessions of
study. There was a large amount of research that needed to be refined.
[Worksheet #3 and Worksheet #4]
How will you know that they learned what you wanted them to learn (or do)?
Throughout the inquiry process, I was meeting with the group once per week. I was clear with my
feedback and next steps. Students were given timelines to complete each stage of the guided inquiry
process, which was taught earlier through a series of mini-lessons.
Throughout each stage of the inquiry, students were given graphic organizers to keep information
structured and to differentiate between the information that they found interesting vs. the information
that they would be using to complete their final task.
Inquiry Questions and Wonders: Focus for research
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What is nonverbal communication?
What is a communication disorder?
What causes a communication disorder?
What does it mean to communicate?
How does communication happen?
Where is language stored in the brain?
How can people tell if there is a communication disorder?
What are the different communication disorders?
At this point, we were ready to identify the question that would ultimately consolidate the learning as
well as produce a final product.
We spent week three refining and focusing our research questions:
Teacher prompts:
I see that you are interested in language acquisition and the idea of looking at what happens when
language doesn’t develop in the “average” way.
How might we take all of these questions and turn them into a deep-thinking, essential question, One
that might not be right or wrong, but that would push your audience to think about this issue from a
different perspective?
Let’s brainstorm what our essential, inquiry question might look like if we use this criteria to decide.
How will you get them there?
Essential Questions – Criteria Checklist from Wiggins and McTighe:
A good essential question:
1) is open-ended; i.e., it typically will not have a single, final, and correct answer.
2) is thought-provoking and intellectually engaging, meant to spark discussion and debate.
3) calls for high-order thinking, such as analysis, inference, evaluation, prediction. It cannot be
effectively answered by recall alone.
4) points toward important, transferable ideas within (and sometimes across) disciplines.
5) raises additional questions and sparks further inquiry.
6) requires support and justification, not just an answer.
7) recurs over time; i.e., the question can and should be re-visited again and again.
McTighe, J. and Wiggins, G (2013). Essential Questions: Opening Doors to Student Understanding.
Alexandria, VS: ASCD
As we were approaching the stage in our inquiry where I knew students would be selecting their inquiryquestion as well as considering what type of products they would be producing, it was important to go
back to the curriculum expectations that I was hoping to assess to ensure that once they established an
inquiry question that they would be able to connect their knowledge to other subject areas in an
authentic and meaningful way.
Together we sorted and revisited collective research efforts as well as suggestions that the entire class
had given in “team meetings”.
Some reoccurring themes and questions in the research were:
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Where did the word disorder come from?
How did the scientists discover dyslexia?
Where is language stored in the brain?
How do we learn language and how does it get from our brains to our mouths?
How do we treat people with communication disorders and is there a cure?
What are different types of communication disorders?
What are the different ways that people communicate with each other and what does
communication mean anyway?
Why do we call someone who doesn’t communicate like most people someone with a disorder?
Why are most children who have a disorder in a different class? Do you think they might want to
be in our class?
The final inquiry question that students chose to investigate was:
What does it mean to communicate and how do we know if there is a disorder in communication? Who
decides?
Students then broke apart and became experts on one issue pertaining to this large and essential
question. The expert panel questions became:
1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
5.)
6.)
7.)
What are the different ways that people communicate?
What are non-verbal ways to communicate?
What are some of the different types of communication disorders?
How do disorders get diagnosed, how are they treated, and are there any cures?
Where is language stored in the brain?
How does typical and non-typical communication travel from the brain to our mouths?
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder? Does the brain of someone with ASD look different than
someone who does not have ASD?
8.) What is dyslexia? Does the brain of someone with dyslexia look different than someone who
does not have dyslexia?
Each person on the team investigated individual topics for 2 weeks in class. We followed the same
model. All students, however, were responsible for inputting their own research into the planners
either online or in their research binders.
[Worksheet #4]
At this stage, we continued to develop critical thinking skills related to research and source
evaluation. Our final checklist to assess source validity became:
What were the Inquiry experiential and hands-on opportunities?
Once students set about to research and answer their expert panel question, it was apparent that the
curriculum expectations were being met. Students began asking, how can we share this information
with people?
Together, we brainstormed: PowerPoints, blogs, through our twitter page, art, interviews, raps, dance,
or essays. The excitement was brewing. I knew that because the research and questions were so deep
that I wanted students to begin to think about their work outside the box. I had plenty of assessment
data for oral presentations (we had been doing them every week since the beginning of the project),
media (they were recording, sharing, and providing each other with feedback on Google Drive and
assessing the work of the other inquiry groups on Trello and Evernote), Reading and Writing were
addressed by way of research and recording of research.
This group focused for the final 2 weeks of project preparation on creating: a rap, a brain and neuron 3D
model and 2D model respectively, an art piece, and an interview - all of which was put onto their
student-made website. Here are some samples of their work:
These students connected the work of Jackson Pollock to the inner workings of the brain of someone
with a communication disorder. Specifically, they were looking at interpreting their understanding of
what is must be like to read if one is diagnosed with dyslexia.
The Mondrian interpretation represents a neurotypical pattern of language in the brain. These students
researched the work of both artists and then developed a colour scheme in consultation with the
student who looked at the nervous system and the patter of language from the brain to the spoken
word.
This is a representation of the rap that two other students in the group created, again based on a
representation of what it must be like to have dyslexia. They approached it from the first person
perspective and wrote the rap in role.
Dyslexia is, but it’s not all
Please help me now
I feel so alone
I’m havin’ trouble communicating
On my own
I have a disorder
Can’t take it anymore
And my heart
Feels so sore
I feel so trapped
There is nowhere to turn
I come to school
Don’t want to be bullied
Just want to learn
I have dyslexia
Teachers think I’m dumb
And I’m just a joke
To everyone
Too scared to say
Too scared to holler
I’m running around school
With sweat on my collar
Dyslexia means I’m having trouble reading
That means trouble with seeing
The letters, and the numbers
and even making meaning
Dyslexia is a problem
And we know how to solve it
A teacher, tutor or a therapist
Can help
You be prepared for this
They’ll teach you what you need
To see the letter straight
They’ll teach you what you need
To get the grade
So the biggest lesson is
To know how you learn
To speak up if you feel
The study burn
Dyslexia is a disorder that I got
It doesn’t mean it’s who I am
This I know for sure
So take that, bam!
Other students looked at the process of language acquisition and neurological pathways, connecting the
brain to the entire nervous system.
This student interviewed Speech-Language pathologists (a parent in the community) as well as a brain
surgeon who directed her to this poster.
Another group within the team interviewed the teacher from the community class in our school. They
were really interested in understanding what communication disorders looked like at school. Here is a
sample of the questions that they asked the teacher:
Communication Team Interview Questions
1.
2.
What types of communication disorders do you work with in this classroom?
Would you consider autism to be a communication disorder? Why or why not?
3.
What is the difference between a severe communication disorder and a non-severe
communication disorder in your classroom?
4.
What is the difference in learning/teaching neurotypical students vs. students with
communication disorders?
5.
What communication tools do you use in the classroom and how do they help?
6.
How can you tell if a student is getting frustrated because they cannot communicate and how
can you use the communication tools to help settle the problem?
These students then took this information, as well as the work of the entire group, and consolidated it
into a website that was password protected. This became the basis for their showcase in-class.
The conclusion that the students came to was:
Communication is a form of interaction between a living thing to another living thing. Communication
can be verbal language, facial expressions, body language, art, toys, and even music because they all tell
you something. The way you know if you have a communication disorder is you take a test that asks you
many questions. A speech-language pathologist or a psychologist gives this test to you. For example, the
psychologist would show you a photograph of a rock and you would need to find a different word for it
like, stone or pebble. Sometimes, your parents, teachers, or doctors notice that there is something
wrong. If you are diagnosed with a communication disorder, you will probably have a Special Education
Resource Teacher and maybe even have to go to another classroom to learn. You can also see a
psychologist or Speech-Language pathologist who would help you to understand how other people
communicate or how to communicate with other people. In our opinions, just because someone learns
or communicates what they need differently, doesn’t mean it is wrong or broken to communicate that
way. We think that we should be able to learn however we need to, to understand and become
successful in the classroom. We think that the word “disorder” should not be used anymore and that we
should have equal rights because everyone is a person who wants to learn.
The final presentations took about one week to complete, with each group having one full hundredminute block to showcase their work.
This student created a list of further thoughts, insights, and continued wonderings:
1. Behaviour is controlled in the frontal lobe.
2. The corpus callosum is the part of the brain that controls communication.
3. Emotions are controlled in the temporal lobe.
4. The memory is controlled in the temporal lobe.
5. Movement is controlled in the cerebral cortex in the parietal lobe.
6. Automatic movement is controlled in the rear portion of the frontal lobe.
7. Donald Grey Triplett was the first case of autism and he was discovered by Dr.Leo Kanner.
8. More boys are affected by autism than girls.
9. Vision is controlled in the temporal lobe.
10. Hearing is controlled in the occipital lobe.
11. Sensation is controlled on the higher part of the parietal lobe.
12. Speech is controlled on the lower part of the frontal lobe.
13. Visual recognition is controlled in the middle part of the temporal lobe.
14 Balance and coordination are controlled in the amygdala.