Pulling Together Inquiry, Assessment and Instruction by Linking Content and Literacy
Facilitated by:
Leyton Schnellert
April 15, 2011
Adolescent Literacy Summit
How do the following fit
together?
• Thinking skills
• Inquiry
• Big ideas
• Formative and
summative
assessment
for further information contact: [email protected]
1
Assessment
FOR Learning
PURPOSE
What are my
students good at?
To guide
instruction
Performance-based CLASSROOM READING ASSESSMENT
MAKE
PLANS FOR
MONITOR
instructional instruction
goals
student
progress
TO SET
use
For
Example:
• Strategies
What do
 making predictions
struggle
 word skills
 checking understanding
 using text features
they with?
• C omprehension
 determining and paraphrasing main ideas
 l ocating specific, relevant details
 n ote-making
 m aking and supporting inferences
• Analysis
standard reading assessment
– Student Diversity, 2006;
Ministry Webcast, 2004
 making connections between new knowledge
and prior knowledge
 evaluating information & supporting judgments
BC Performance Standards for Reading Information
2
Performance-Based
Reading Assessment
Summarizing
Using a web, words, diagrams, and/or
drawings, show that you can identify the
key ideas and details from this passage
(use the other side of this page).
Connections
How does what you just read connect
with what you already know?
PBA Conference Sheet:
6. When you come to a challenging word, how do you figure it out?
Word strategies:
_____ reread it
_____ sound it out
_____ look it up in the dictionary
_____ skip it
_____ ask someone
_____ try and figure out what makes sense in the sentence
Other: _____________________________________________
7. If you are reading a passage like this and it does not make
sense, what do you do?
Vocabulary
Define each of the following words.
Explain how you figured out what they
meant.
Inferring
Read between the lines to find something
that you believe to be true, but that isn t
actually said. Explain your reasoning.
Sense strategies:
_____ reread it
_____ skip it
_____ try another book
_____ make a picture in my mind
_____ make notes on what I’ve read
_____ make a connection between the text, yourself, the world,
another text
Other: _______________________________________________
Reflecting
Brownlie & Schnellert, 2009
Was this reading easy or hard to
understand? How did you help yourself
understand? (If this was easy, what do
you do to help yourself understand
something more difficult?)
8. What were the main ideas of this selection?
Brownlie & Schnellert, 2009
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From Assessment to Instruction
Brownlie, Feniak, Schnellert, 2006
Performance Based Reading Assessment
1. 
2.
1
What can my students do?
What is missing? (What do I wish they could do?) 5.
6. 
What do I need to teach? 3
Inferring :
Read between the lines to find something that you believe to be true, but that isn’t actually
said. Explain your reasoning.
Reflecting:
Was this reading easy or hard to understand? How did you help yourself understand? (If this
was easy, what do you do to help yourself understand something more difficult?)
Conference Sheet: Humanities 8
Ask, after reading, the following questions:
7. When you come to a challenging word, how do you
figure it out?
Plan/Teach (with the goal in mind) Is my teaching making a difference? Reassess Connections :
How does what you read connect with what you already know?
Vocabulary :
Define each of the following words. Explain how you figured out what they meant.
Word Definition
How I figured out its meaning
a. Manor
b.medieval
c. Heiress
d. commodity
e.ancestral
Set a Goal (target) 4
Summarizing :
Using a web, words, diagrams, and/or drawings, show that you can identify the key ideas and
details from this passage (use the other side of this page).
4. 
Assess (against criteria)
2
3. 
Predicting:
What do you think this passage will be about? How do you know?
-did it make a difference? - what do I need to do now? * to move on? * to revisit in a different way? Word strategies:
_____ reread it
_____ sound it out
_____ look it up in the dictionary
_____ skip it
_____ ask someone
_____ try and figure out what makes sense in the
sentence
Other: ________________________
8. If your reading does not make sense,
what do you do?
Sense strategies:
_____ reread it
_____ skip it
_____ try another book
_____ make a picture in my mind
_____ make notes on what I’ve read
_____ make a connection between the
text, yourself, the world, another
text
Other:
______________________________
9. What was the main idea of the whole passage that you read?
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English 8 English 8 S T R E N G T H S
generally enjoy reading confident strong vocabulary skills thorough strong writers
S T R E T C H
E S
 Distinguishing between main idea and details  Making inferences  Making connections  Thinking about their thinking  Connecting with big ideas 5
English 8 Goals
students creating their own strategies and reflecting on their success
students successfully distinguishing between main ideas and details
Backward Design Effective curriculum design begins with identifying desired results and then
working backwards to develop instruction
(Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005).
students reading between the lines
students holding their
thinking, make connections
between real life and subject areas
students developing awareness of selves as learners
Formative assessment results should be considered so that teachers can make informed planning decisions.
Teachers create sequences of
instructional activities that start
with students current needs
,
interests
and abilities
and build
from there to develop needed
expertise. (Smith and Wilhelm, 2006).
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THINKING STRATEGIES IN CONTEXT
Units of study can be designed around THEMES
ISSUES
Unit Focus/ Theme
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS
Concept-Related Essential Questions
Big
Ideas
GENRES
should relate social
to both issues
the learning outcomes or
identified in the topics of interest
curriculum to students
together with
inquiry…transforms skills and strategies and By planning terms into important tools for understanding a in this way, big idea or expressing new knowledge and we can personal insights about an important issue design units ( Smith & Wilhelm, 2006)
that address the development of thinking strategies
and curricular concepts
Strategy-Related Essential Questions
Important to do (thinking strategies)
Supportive teaching strategies
Shared, guided &
independent reading
Assessment
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Unit Focus/Theme
ENDURING
UNDERSTANDINGS
OVER THE COURSE OF A UNIT:
Survival
A good thinking uses their background knowledge and questioning
skills to deepen and enhance their understanding.
When we are in trouble we can draw upon our inner resources to
help us survive.
Concept-Related
Essential Questions
How is hope, knowledge or friendship necessary
for the survival of the human spirit?
Strategy-Related
Essential Questions
How does prior knowledge influence my thinking?
How does questioning connect to thinking?
Writing Genre/Types
Important to do
(writing strategies)
Important to do (reading strategies)
Supportive
teaching strategies
Shared & guided
reading
Guided &
independent
reading
Assessment
Personal (memoirs)
Impromptu Writing (quick writes, response journals)
Showing, not telling (thoughts, feelings, senses)
Coherence (staying on topic)
Activating Prior Knowledge
Questioning
-  Questions of narrator
-  Questions of the character
-  Questions of the reader
- Quick Writes
- Think-Pair-Share
- Anticipation Guides
- Think Alouds
- Chunking Text
- Marking text/ Coding text
- Action Strategies
Model Text: Fish by L.S. Matthews
Short Fiction: Lienegan v. the Ants, The Most Dangerous Game
Film: Rabbit-Proof Fence
Lit Circles Texts: Gathering Blue, Speak, Tomorrow Where the World
Began, House of the Scorpion, The Edge, Max the Mighty, Stuck in
Neutral, Julie of the Wolves, Deathwatch, Invitation to the Game,
In the novels you read, how is hope, knowledge, and/or friendship
important for the survival of the character s spirit?
Reading Journal Final Assignment that tracks thinking and details
with the essential question(s) of the theme
Examine
& create
STUDENTS
various
texts
Explore
concepts related to inquiry question, and thinking processes needed to study, understand and apply what they learn Often a performance task is used as a summative assessment for the unit where students show both their conceptual and procedural knowledge
(Daniels and Bizar, 2005; Davies, 2000)
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What do my students
need to know in this
unit?
What skills/ strategies
will they use/
demonstrate by the end
of the unit?
Leyton and Nicole s
Ecosystem Know and Do
Know
Do
-living things interact
with each other and
their physical
environment -producers of food are
related to consumers
and decomposers in
webs called food chains
and food webs -populations in
ecosystems tend to be
regulated by predation
and competition
-populations are groups
of the organisms living
together because they
share common
environmental needs -observe and record the
biotic and abiotic
components in a local
ecosystem -analyse limiting factors
in an ecosystem -design and conduct a
simulation to demonstrate
control of one or more
variables in an ecosystem -create models to show
large scale ecosystems -show respect for the
environment 9
Enduring
Understandings
• Big Ideas at the heart
of a unit
•  Requires uncoverage
in order to be developed
Enduring
Understandings
1. 
Ask yourself, what are the big ideas worthy of
understanding? 2. 
How do these big ideas link together (how are
the important concepts connected?)
3. 
What thinking skills do you want your students
to develop through this unit?
4. 
Combine the know s that relate and the do s
into bigger concepts, stated as sentences.
5. 
6. 
Brainstorm phrases that are transferable and
help us to make sense of facts, skills, concepts
processes.
State as a full sentence – what is the principle or
generalization that we want students to come to
understand?
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Enduring Understandings
Grade 6/7
Human beings are keepers of an Earth
in which everything is connected.
To survive organisms depend on one
another to break down, recycle and
transfer food/ energy/chemicals.
Enduring
Understandings
Ecosystems
Human beings are keepers
of an Earth in which
everything is connected.
Our actions can sustain or damage an
ecosystem.
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Essential
- Sparks meaningful
connections in the mind of
the student
- Genuine inquiry
Questions
• Spark meaningful
connections in the mind
of a student
•  Encourage genuine
inquiry
•  Encourage transfer
- Encourages transfer
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Essential
Essential Questions
Questions
Essential Questions need to:
•  Be interesting and real for students,
and address their point of view.
•  Be open-ended, with many possible
answers or responses or perspectives.
•  Spark questions and connections for
students.
•  Be linked to resources, materials, &/
or data.
- How are humans
impacting the
environment?
- What can we do to help
sustain the environment?
•  Be brief and clear.
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Figure 10.4. Diversity of Life Unit Overview Science 6/7 Unit Overview
Diversity of Life
1. 
Big Ideas 2. 
3. 
Performance Task - Mini documentary in partners using I movie and Garageband (prep requires story board and script - Reflection/response to a story/
picture book Picture Books - Just a Dream, Chris van Allsburg - The Lorax, Dr. Seuss - Swift River, Jane Yolen Living things have similarities and differences; Classifying things helps us understand the diversity of life; We are part of ecosystems
Thinking Main Ideas & Details , Accessing Prior Knowledge, Synthesizing,
Strategies
Persuading, Questioning December
Week
1
2
3
4
Essential
Questions
What tools do
scientists use when
reading?
How are living
things related to
one another?
What do living
things need to
survive?
Lesson
Topic
Thinking
Strategy
Fiction vs. Nonfiction
Characteristics of
Living Things
Determining
Importance
Needs of Living
Things
Determining
Importance
What tools and
approaches can I
use to study
organisms?
Diversity of Life
Teaching
Strategy
Mini Text Features
Booklet
Magnet Notes
3 Key Points
Week
1
2
3
4
Essential
Questions
How can we use tools to observe and
better understand living things in our
world?
How does the way
things are classified
help us to learn
about them?
Lesson
Topic
- Thinking like a Biologist
- Use of Microscopes
Classification: In
the home and in
the world
Thinking
Strategy
- Determining Importance
- Questioning
- Demonstrating a Rule
- Main Idea / Detail
Teaching
Strategy
- Criteria Building
- Microscope Diagrams
- Wonderbooks
- Mindmapping
- Categorizing
What do scientists
do to examine the
similarities and
differences
between
organisms?
How Scientists
Classify Living
Things
- Unicellular vs.
Multicellular
- Plants vs.
Animals
- Determining
Importance
- Compare/
Contrast
- Magnet Notes
- Venn Diagram
Using Text Features
- Determining
Importance
- Planning
- Storyboard
- Speech /
Thought Bubble
January
14
Figure 10.4. Diversity of Life Unit Overview Explicit
Science 6/7 Unit Overview
Diversity of Life
1. 
Big Ideas: 2. 
3. 
Living things have similarities and differences; Classifying things helps us understand the diversity of life; We are part of ecosystems
Teaching
Thinking Main Ideas & Details , Accessing Prior Knowledge, Synthesizing,
Strategies
Persuading, Questioning February
Week
1
2
3
Essential
Questions
How does the way
organisms are
classified help us to
learn about them?
How can scientists
work together
effectively?
4
Thinking
Strategy
- Determining Importance
-Categorizing
-Questioning
- Determining Importance
- Synthesizing
- Planning
Should governments pass laws to protect
living things?
Should humans be able to alter the world of
living things? Persuasive Writing
- Students do based on inquiry
independent questions
research on their organism
- Students write their draft
- Determining - Determining Importance
Importance
- Questioning
- Questioning
- Synthesizing
- Synthesizing
Teaching
Strategy
- Magnet Notes
- Wonderbooks
Team decision:
poster, rap, skit…
Model with 1
organism
Lesson
Topic
Five Kingdom Model
Five Kingdom Model
Project
Student choice note-taking/
Research strategy
March
Week
1
2
Essential
Questions
Lesson
Topic
Teaching
Strategy
How do scientists convince others?
Draft continues
How do scientists communicate their
findings and opinions?
Polished report & small group share
Peer editing and conferencing
Say Something
Spring Break J
If we leave [thinking]
processes…cloaked in mystery,
telling ourselves that it all
either comes naturally or else it
doesn t, we surrender to voodoo
pedagogy. In voodoo, privileged
people, objects and rituals are
invested with secret magical
power, and to some of our
students it certainly seems that
there must be mysterious,
unnamed powers needed to do
well (Pirie, 2002, p. 52).
15
Interview Questions:
-What are the characteristics of living things? OR What do all living
things have in common? (best guess, if you are not sure)
Use a web to record what you have learned from you interview with
your partner
show, you watch
IIshow,
you watch
I do, you help
Chunk 1
Paragraph Summary
Post It(s)
You do, I help
Chunk 2
You do, I watch
Pearson & Gallagher, 1983
Paragraph Summary
Post It(s)
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Figure 10.2. Comparing Reading for Information in Fall and Winter Chunk 3
Reading for Information
Grade 6 & &, 2006-2007
Paragraph Summary
Results
Post It(s)
Chunk 4
Performance Scale (4 pts.)
Paragraph Summary
Post It(s)
Scores remaining the same
on both PBAs (Sept/ Feb)
A. Our plan:
4
+ 0.5
11
+ 1.0
6
+ 1.5
2
+ 2.0
2
Missing writing one PBA
Show what s important to know about the characteristics of living
things through drama (I.e. tableau, dialogue, series of images,
hotseat, etc.)
Mrs. Widdess
27 Students
2
Students Meeting or Exceeding Minimum Expectations on
the Performance Based Standards
September 2006
February 2007
10/25
19/27
40%
70%
B. Reflect on your performance
2006, Widdess & Schnellert, Science 6/7, Ferris Elementary
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LOOK BACK
THINK AHEAD
Big idea(s) from
today:
One question I have is…
How can I use this
information…
NAME: DATE:
Why is this (idea)s
important?
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learn: Brain, mind, experience, & school. National Academy
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2nd ed., Pembroke Publishers.
Brownlie, F., Fullerton, C. & Schnellert, L. (2011). It s all about
thinking: Collaborating to support all learners in
Mathematics and Science., Portage and Main Publishers.
Brownlie, F. & Schnellert, L. (2009). It s all about thinking:
Collaborating to support all learners in Humanities, Social
Studies and English., Portage and Main Publishers.
Buehl, D. (2001). Classroom strategies for interactive learning,
IRA.
Gregory, K., Cameron, C. & and Davies, A. (2000). Setting and
using criteria: For use in middle and secondary classrooms,
Connections Publishing, BC, Canada.
Lenz, B.K., Deschler, D.D. & Kissam, B.R. (2004). Teaching
content to all: Evidence-based inclusive practices in middle
and secondary schools. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Marzano, R., Pickering, D., & Pollack, J. (2001). Classroom
instruction that works: Research-based strategies for
increasing student achievement ASCD.
Schnellert, L., Datoo, M. Ediger, K. & Panas, J. (2009). Pulling
together: Integrating inquiry, assessment and instruction in
today s English classroom, Pembroke Publishers.
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Instruction and Understanding by Design. ASCD.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of
higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Wilhelm, J. (2007). Engaging readers and writers with inquiry.
New York: Scholastic.
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