Language to support inquiry
One of the biggest changes for me was making the shift from telling to asking. I like being able to explain things for students! I still do this sometimes, but in the lab I want to encourage students to answer questions for themselves.
I find I am now much more aware of the language I use, and how it supports students to build their own connections between ideas. Here are some questions I use regularly: |
· What do you think you know about…?
*different from “what do you know”
allows for uncertainty, and gives permission for students to revise their thinking
· What do you mean by that?
· Why is that important?
· What would happen if?
· Why do you say that? What makes you think that?
· Can you be more specific?
· What patterns do you see?
· Which evidence supports your claim?
· Why does your claim make sense?
· How could you fix …?
· What do you think of ___'s answer?
· It sounds like we don’t all agree… let’s think this through.
· That’s a good question. What do you think?
· Can you see anything here that might interfere with your data? What could we do to fix this?
· Replace the reply “Yes, but...” with “This would be a stronger argument if you added...”
The following resource from Science World, BC provides great sentence threads students can use to give peer feedback, as well. I'd love to use some of these when we build arguments as a larger group.
Science World Peer Critique Sentence Starters
*different from “what do you know”
allows for uncertainty, and gives permission for students to revise their thinking
· What do you mean by that?
· Why is that important?
· What would happen if?
· Why do you say that? What makes you think that?
· Can you be more specific?
· What patterns do you see?
· Which evidence supports your claim?
· Why does your claim make sense?
· How could you fix …?
· What do you think of ___'s answer?
· It sounds like we don’t all agree… let’s think this through.
· That’s a good question. What do you think?
· Can you see anything here that might interfere with your data? What could we do to fix this?
· Replace the reply “Yes, but...” with “This would be a stronger argument if you added...”
The following resource from Science World, BC provides great sentence threads students can use to give peer feedback, as well. I'd love to use some of these when we build arguments as a larger group.
Science World Peer Critique Sentence Starters