Foreword Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction 1. What Is Inquiry? My Own Inquiry Journey Experience #1: Inquiry Self-Survey 2. Beginning Your Inquiry Journey How to Use This Book Tips for Success What's the Role of Administration? The Inquiry Leader Self-Reflection Tool Staff Reflection Survey The Importance of Balance and Harmony 3. Taking Stock of Your Classroom Experience #2: How Do You Know If You're "Doing" Inquiry? Experience #3: What Do Your Students Think? Experience #4: What Do Others See in Your Classroom? Experience #5: What's the Student Experience? Experience #6: What Does All This Tell You? 4. What Does Inquiry Look Like? The Inquiry Five Strategies Experience #7: What Are Your Burning Questions About Inquiry? Experience #8: Who, When, and How Should You Answer Questions? Experience #9: How Can Questions Be Savored? Experience #10: What Does Your "Ideal" Class Look Like? 5. Strategy #1: Get Personal Introduction to Get Personal Experience #11: Mad-Libs: Who Are You? Experience #12: Who Were Your Teachers? Experience #13: What Stories Can You Tell? Experience #14: How Do You Tell a Story That Sticks to the Soul? Experience #15: What Does Your Classroom Say About You? Experience #16: Why Do You Teach? Experience #17: What Is the Third Space? Experience #18: Ask Me Anything! 6. Strategy #2: Stay Curious Introduction to Stay Curious Experience #19: What's Your Expertise? Experience #20: What Still Intrigues You? Experience #21: Who Are Your Teachers Today? Experience #22: Are You a Luddite or Linkedin? Experience #23: What Do You Teach? Experience #24: What Would Your Curriculum of Questions Look Like? Experience #25: What's Your Teaching Approach? Experience #26: How Do You Respond to Students? 7. Strategy #3: Ask More, Talk Less Introduction to Ask More, Talk Less Experience #27: What's Really Happening in Your Classroom? Experience #28: Who Is Hiding in Plain Sight? Experience #29: What Questions Are You Asking? Experience #30: How Do You Teach With Your Mouth Shut? Experience #31: How Do You Get Students to Listen to One Another? Experience #32: How Do You Get Students to Talk Together? Experience #33: What Are Socratic Seminars, Harkness, and Spider Web Discussions? Experience #34: Which Questions Work Best in Inquiry Classrooms? 8. Strategy #4: Encourage Evidence Introduction to Encourage Evidence Experience #35: What's the Most Important Question to Ask? Experience #36: How Do You Get Your Students to Back Up Their Claims? Experience #37: How Do You Teach "Crap Detection"? Experience #38: How Do You Provoke Healthy Debates? Experience #39: How Can You Practice the Evidence-Seeking Process? 9. Strategy #5: Extend Thinking Time Introduction to Extend Thinking Time Experience #40: How Do You Get Students to Think More? Experience #41: How Can You Get Students to Ask More Questions? Experience #42: How Do You Cede Control Without Losing It Completely? Experience #43: How Do Inquiry and Mindfulness Connect? Experience #44: How Can You Support Innovative Student Thinking? Experience #45: How Do You Start Project-Based, Problem-Based, and Challenge-Based Learning? 10. Now What? Experience #46: How Do You Plan for Inquiry? Experience #47: How Do You Assess Inquiry? Experience #48: How Do You Make Time for Inquiry? Experience #49: How Do You Explain Inquiry to Skeptics? Experience #50: What Does Inquiry Look Like to You? 11. Inquiry Resources Kimberly's Top Ten Lists Inquiry Books Inquiry Videos and Podcasts Inquiry Organizations Inquiry Blogs Appendices More Reasons to Fall in Love With Inquiry: the Inquiry Five (i5) and Alignment Documents The i5 and Common Core State Standards The i5 and Next Gen Science Standards The i5 and Danielson Teaching Framework The i5 and Marzano Framework The i5 and Approaches to Teaching and Learning (International Baccalaureate) The i5 and High Leverage Practice (TeachingWorks, University of Michigan) Curriculum at-a-Glance (Southern Hemisphere) References Index
Plenty of resources speak to the benefits of inquiry, the research behind it, and even subject-specific processes to follow. But that's not enough. Implementing inquiry is the tricky part, and involves changing beliefs about the teacher and student roles in the classroom. The strategies and experiences in this book improve your relationships with students and colleagues, reduce your workload by asking more of students, and breathe joyful curiosity back into your classroom.
Kimberly L. Mitchell teaches at the University of Washington's College of Education and is co-founder of Inquiry Partners, a professional learning organization dedicated to promoting inquiry-based teaching strategies. She received her BA in History and Philosophy from Skidmore College and her MA in Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford University. She lives in Seattle, WA with her husband (a middle school teacher) and two children.