B.+Inquiry+Skill

=**Inquiry Skill: Exploration **= In The Blue Book, Daniel Callison shares a "continuous cycle" of the Five Elements of Information Inquiry: The Writing Under the Influence unit covers all five elements, but stresses Exploration. Callison explains that during exploration, students "seek answers to a question." Much of the unit's time is devoted to really getting to know the work of a particular author. In both units, students spend a great deal of time exploring an author's work so they can ultimately write under the influence.
 * Questioning
 * Exploration
 * Assimilation
 * Inference
 * Reflection

In Eisenberg & Berkowitz's Big 6 Model, students are reading, viewing, and listening during Exploration. The correlation between the unit objectives and Standards for the 21st-Century Learner becomes even more obvious: 1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning. 4.1.1 Read, view, and listen for pleasure and personal growth.

Students begin to evolve from novice to expert during this unit, but it looks very different at both grade levels. According to Professor Annette Lamb on her website, "An expert has a high degree of proficiency, skill, and knowledge in a particular subject." Developing into an expert is a process that takes time and many experiences. Students will not develop into experts during this unit, but their experiences will help them evolve in that direction. Professor Lamb also shares research on the characteristics of experts: This unit provides students with experiences like exploration, ciritical thinking, assimilation, synthesis, and application that will help them move toward thinking like experts. Students will have time each day to study and practice, which are characteristics suggested by Ericsson & Charness. Kindergarten students have far fewer life experiences and also lack the ability to spend hours a day studying and practicing independently. Therefore, the work that the teacher does with involoving these students in guided inquiry is crucial toward their development as experts. Lessons taught during the unit are structured to provide teacher modeling, guided practice, collaborative practice, and independent practice of information inquiry skills. This will help students in both grade levels evolve toward expert levels.
 * [|Glaser] (1992) noted that although there is no substitute for life experiences it is possible to help students move toward thinking like math and science experts. Experts can effectively organize knowledge around key concepts, respond to context, and self-regulate their focus.
 * [|Ericsson and Charness] (1994) found that experts spend many hours each day studying and practicing. They vary their methods and explore new strategies for self-improvement. This quantity and quality in practice is reflective of expert behavior.