In my school, there are always a million acts to juggle with numerous priorities vying for attention. My school sometimes feels like three-ring circus, but I mean that in a good way. It’s is nestled in a “persistently low achieving” Title 1 school with a brand new interim principal, plenty of educational recovery specialists from the state, data walls, diagnostic audits, and an abundance of meetings to discuss all of the above. Don’t get me wrong, I love my school and adore my students despite the challenges we face. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have stuck around for the past eight years. I only bring all this up to emphasize that if I can attempt to create a climate of inquiry, then anyone can. So, as this school year has taken off I have spent time pondering how to realistically implement inquiry and the C3 framework in my classroom.
I am far from an expert in inquiry and would actually consider myself a hopeful novice. I have played around with questioning techniques here and there. For example, in the past I may have posted a thought-provoking question on the board as a bellringer or students may have created their own questions for the authors of primary sources. I have not, until this point, been intentional about inquiry. I am the type of person who likes to be good at things, but the more I dive into the C3, the more I am convinced that I should just jump in even though I’m not an expert yet.
Of course I want to create flawless and polished IDM blueprints! However, if I am going to create a climate of inquiry where it’s ok to ask questions without answers and where it’s ok to fail, then I have to take risks too. So far this year, I have tried to set my lessons up around compelling-ish questions. For example, “What influenced the way that colonists lived from day to day?” “How can a 200 year old document still be relevant?” or “Were African Americans really free after the Civil War?” I have tried to have the students come back to these questions and have designed my instruction in a way that gives students the tools they need to answer these questions.
The first inquiry I have implemented using the IDM model addressed the question “How common was Andrew Jackson’s common man?” We used to do a mock trial to address a similar question, so I already had a lot of the process in mind as I rearranged in to reflect a C3 Inquiry.
The students did a great job of analyzing primary sources on Indian removal, democratization, the bank war, and the nullification crisis. Aside from needing more skills practice on writing thesis statements, they also successfully answered the compelling question thoughtfully and with supporting evidence. Where this inquiry fell apart was in the taking informed action step. I was hoping to have students tweet about currently disenfranchised groups, but there wasn’t a great deal of buy-in. The problems I encountered aren’t going to cause me to give up on encouraging civic participation. I have not always been successful but I need to be comfortable with trying new strategies and learning from my mistakes. Maybe I’m just rationalizing the fact that I haven’t made the time to turn every lesson into a thoughtful and official inquiry, but I think that if nothing else I am trying to create a climate where it’s ok to ask questions and to take risks, knowing that it might not go according to plan. As I learn more about the IDM and get more experience in creating my own C3 driven inquiries, I know this process will become more focused, intentional, and effective.
I haven’t gone out and made a giant bonfire of old lesson plans just yet. As a C3 teacher, I don’t have it all figured out. I keep many of the learning exercises and sources that I’ve always used and try to frame them more intentionally within the context of inquiry. I would encourage teachers to know that this is possible in real classrooms with real students. No one has to ditch everything they’ve been doing to create all new lessons from scratch. Over time, more and more of my curriculum will fall in line with the C3 inquiry arc, but for today, I’m updating my circus act, one act at a time.
