Read regular posts by Inquiry By Design team members. In addition to exploring Inquiry By Design’s unique perspective on literacy, teaching, standards, and assessment, you’ll find insights into the use of our curriculum, professional development, workshops, and company culture.
The study of literature presents interesting difficulties for teachers and students. More than most subjects, literature invites interpretation and introspection on the part of the reader—it raises questions, offers ideas for consideration, and challenges assumptions—and a text can be “difficult” for different reasons. Sometimes, it is simply a matter of dated language, but other times, the difficulty lies in the shape of the stories and characters themselves.
Inquiry By Design is not a “one-note” curriculum. Our texts contain selections that tend […]
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Looking back on 2017, we—just like the rest of the country—have repeatedly found ourselves conversing over issues of race, gender, and equity. Likewise, teachers and school districts are struggling with how to foster and facilitate safe and productive classroom conversations around these issues and other provocative topics—whether they come up in discussions of history, current events, or literature.
At Inquiry By Design, we always consider these moments—particularly as they relate to our ELA curriculum—as opportunities to engage and dig deeper into […]
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Review by Laurie Thurston
It’s no longer about “best practices.” It’s about disrupting practices.
Authors Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst open their new book with two essential questions: What needs to change? What assumptions make that change hard? The goal of their work is to create a classroom culture that empowers readers to embrace struggle. The goal is not to make the work easy, but to create conditions that support the student during challenging moments in order to find their way […]
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Warning: Great podcasts are addictive! Here are a few of our favorite episodes that have us thinking about how to be world-changing educators.
BOOST READING COMPREHENSION: BEGIN AT THE END
(From the Therapy and Learning Services podcast)
This podcast is super valuable for classroom teachers, especially those who work with kids with learning disabilities. In this episode, host Jennifer Hatfield, discusses how improving reading comprehension skills can drastically improve overall school performance and shares an easy tool to do just that.
IN THE CLASSROOM, COMMON GROUND CAN TRANSFORM […]
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By Laurie Thurston
“No fake work” is the cornerstone of Inquiry by Design. And it’s within this mindset that I approach all learning with my students. The work needs to be authentic, relevant, and meaningful. There needs to be an end product: something the students can create that is evidence of the effort and commitment they made to learning. Not all of this needs to come from the texts and lessons crafted by Inquiry By Design, however. Teachers can take projects […]
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