Inquiry+Lesson+&+Thematic+Unit


 * Inquiry Lesson**

The goal of this lesson is for students to develop their knowledge of what makes something quality. Students will create their own rubrics for chocolate chip cookies, which will inevitably help them to create a rubric for their first writing assignment of the school year.

Students have already created a rubric for pencils. They were given four pencils of various qualities in order to aid them in creating a rubric which could be used for any pencil. We did a lot of brainstorming together, and created one rubric together as a class. This follows the gradual release program which is used by the Central Valley School District. In this program, teachers are to use the "I do, we do, you do" approach whenever possible. The pencil activity served as the "I do" portion of the unit, and moved the students toward "we do."

For this activity, students will be working in groups of four to create their own rubrics for chocolate chip cookies. Students may work in proximity groups of up to five if necessary, but the teacher may need to assign these groups as the students haven't quite gotten the concept of grouping with those near them. Each group gets a ziplock bag which includes four chocolate chip cookies. Two are pre-factory-packaged cookies found on the store shelf, and two are bakery-made, fresher cookies. Be sure to tell students right away that they are not to eat the cookies until their rubrics are finished!

Students are to come up with a minimum of five criteria that create a quality cookie. They should use all five senses. Give students a few minutes to brainstorm in their groups to get some creative juices flowing, then come back together briefly as a class. Have each group give one trait to look at when examining cookie quality (i.e. texture, color, taste, etc.). This should only take a minute or two and only serves to make sure students are on the right track, as well as to get some ideas from other groups.

Give students time to work together in their groups. Remind them that rubrics are detailed. Also remind them that their goal is to create a rubric that could determine the quality of ANY cookie, not just the four in front of them. They will need to have details for each level on the scale for each quality. For example:

Texture 1- very hard, crunchy, crumbles into pieces when you break it, inedible 2- hard, crunchy, crumbles into pieces, but still edible 3- medium hardness, sort of crunchy, breaks into larger pieces when you break it. 4- fairly soft, hint of crunch, breaks in half easily 5-very soft, breaks very easily, no crunch

You may even want to go through one quality together as a class so that students know what the expectations are; however, giving students more free reign would make this a more inquiry-based lesson, so it depends on the class, the teacher, etc.

When students have been given ample time to create their rubrics, have each group choose a spokesperson to share their rubric on the document projector. When all groups have shared, discuss the similarities and differences between all of the rubrics. Ask: "Is everyone's idea of what makes a good cookie the same? Is it okay for some people to like one thing and others to like another?" This will serve as a great segue for tomorrow's lesson, where students will be looking at pieces of writing to determine what makes a quality essay.


 * My Inquiry Lesson's Role in a Larger Thematic Unit**

This lesson was taught as a piece of a larger unit. The overall objective of the unit was for students to create a piece of writing that effectively conveyed their message, used proper grammar and conventions, and expressed their creativity in new and interesting ways. In many situations including this one, students learn best when they are able to discover the information for themselves rather than merely be told by the teacher. So, I wanted students to create their own rubric for this piece of writing. I asked them questions like, "What makes a good piece of writing good?" "What kinds of things might make one piece of writing better than another?" I showed them examples of writings from past students (with the names covered, of course) and asked them if the pieces were good, if they were effective. Students came up with various ideas that they felt made the papers good or not so good. This helped them to build their own rubric for writing.

Prior to having them create this rubric for writing, I thought it was important for them to also practice the act of creating a rubric. As I suspected, none of the students had actually ever done this before. Most of them had teachers who would either provide a rubric they had created themselves or not give any direction at all. So, I first had them create a rubric for pencils. I asked, "what makes a good pencil?" I provided each group of students with 4 pencils and made sure each group got one that was brand new, one that was old and torn up, and two that were somewhere in between. Students worked in their groups to come up with five characteristics, that could be graded on a scale of 1-5, which would determine the quality of a pencil. Next, I had students do the same activity with cookies. I gave each group four chocolate chip cookies, some were homemade, some were chewy, some were crunchy, and some were store bought pre-factory-packaged. Students had to use all five senses to create a rubric similar to the one they made for pencils which would determine the quality of any chocolate chip cookie. Then, of course, I let the students eat them.