Inquiry Units for English Language Arts

Dawn Forde is a teacher at Adlai E. Stevenson High School and has been learning from her students for almost twenty years. She has presented at local, state, and national conferences, primarily focusing on inquiry and its effects on student engagement.Andrew Bouque teaches English at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. In his twenty-one years in public high schools, he has worked to build classroom communities for students to find, develop, and refine their spoken voices and craft arguments that matter. Elizabeth A. Kahn taught English language arts for 36 years and served as English department chair; she now teaches in the English teacher education program at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. She has co-authored several books, including Discussion Pathways to Literacy Learning (NCTE 2018), The Dynamics of Writing Instruction (Heinemann 2010), and Writing About Literature (NCTE 1984 and 2009, updated edition).Thomas M. McCann is a professor of English at Northern Illinois University, where he contributes to the teacher licensure program. His books include Transforming Talk into Text and Literacy and History in Action (Teachers College Press) and the co-authored Talking in Class (NCTE, 2006), The Dynamics of Writing Instruction (Heinemann, 2010), and Teaching Matters Most (Corwin Press, 2012).Carolyn C. Walter taught English students for thirty years at both public and private high schools and now supervises student teachers for Northern Illinois University. Ms. Walter is a regular presenter at national conferences and has co-authored Designing and Sequencing Pre-Writing Activities and Writing about Literature, and Discussion Pathways to Literacy Learning.

While inquiry is the foregrounded concept of the book, questions of consequence are the driving force behind it. The chapters offer units, including classroom materials such as specific texts and lesson plans, examples of student dialogue, and samples of student work, all of which teachers will find of great use. Most compellingly, however, the authors craft questions of consequence about what it means to be human, to make and recover from mistakes, to take ethical risks, to recognize and dismantle prejudices, and to make their schools and communities more equitable and just. For all of these reasons, this is a book middle and high school teachers should make time to read and reflect on as they revitalize their practice.

• Table of ContentsForewordPeter Smagorinsky, The University of GeorgiaChapter 1:An Invitation to Inquiry for English Language ArtsThomas M. McCannChapter 2: An Inquiry into What It Means to Be HumanJane Feeney KadeChapter 3:An Inquiry into Atoning for Mistakes and Achieving RedemptionGabrielle Caputo and Shannon McMullenChapter 4: An Inquiry into Ethics and RebellionDawn Forde and Thomas M. McCannChapter 5: An Inquiry into Confronting Stereotypes and PrejudiceChanelle M. Savich and Kristen M. LinneburgerChapter 6: An Inquiry into Equity and DemocracyTamara Joffe-NotierChapter 7: An Inquiry into Satire and Social ReformJulianna Cucci, Zanfina Rrahmani Muja, and Laurie McGowanChapter 8: Designing Units for Inquiry: Concluding ThoughtsElizabeth A. KahnAbout the EditorsAbout the ContributorsAcknowledgements