1. Assessing the Inquiry Process
Avon Maitland District School Board
Michelle Hemingway and Sandy Lee

2. Purpose
“It is important to accurately and continually assess students’ learning throughout an inquiry process to determine the degree of guidance, scaffolding, and modelling required”.
IQ A Practical Guide to Inquiry-Based Learning, Jennifer Watt and Jill Colyer, p. 20.
How do I gather valid evidence of student learning during an inquiry?
*Assessment is the evidence that we gather about students to help improve their learning

3. Types of Inquiry
a. Confirmation inquiry – students confirm a principle through an activity where the results are known in advance (The environment played a major role in early societies)
b. Structured inquiry – students investigate a teacher-presented question through a prescribed procedure (How did the environment influence early societies? Students using teacher generated organizing tools)
c. Guided inquiry – students investigate a teacher presented question using student designated/selected procedures. (How did the environment influence early societies? Students locate and organize information independently)
d. Open inquiry – students investigate questions that are student formulated through student designed/selected procedures (Student questions emerge from studying the environment in early societies. Students determine which questions they want to investigate and how they will be investigated).

4. Curriculum Expectations
p.178 of the Geography Curriculum
Example: Grade 8 Geography
Overall Expectations:
A1. Application: analyse some significant interrelationships between Earth’s physical features and processes and human settlement patterns, and some ways in which the physical environment and issues of sustainability may affect settlement in the future. (Focus on: Interrelationships)
A2. Inquiry: use the geographic inquiry process to investigate issues related to the interrelationship between human settlement and sustainability from a geographic perspective. (Focus on: Geographic Perspective, Interrelationships)
A3. Understanding Geographic Context: demonstrate an understanding of significant patterns and trends related to human settlement and of ways in which human settlement affects the environment. (Focus on: Patterns and Trends; Spatial Significance)

5. Big Idea!
When designing an inquiry, identify the big idea related to the curriculum expectations by selecting keywords from the overall expectations:
Interrelationships: explore connections between and within natural and human environments.
Geographic Perspective: consider environmental, economic, political and social implications.
Patterns and Trends: characteristics that are similar and repeat.
Spatial Significance: determine importance of a place or region.
What is the central theme expressed here?

6. Student Prompt: What questions come to mind when you hear this quote?
Student Provocation
I wonder activity….
“If we want to change our environment, we need to change our human behaviour and establish new patterns.”
Tyler Schaefer and Alyssa Zehr
Student Prompt: What questions come to mind when you hear this quote?

7. Planning with the End in Mind (Backward Design)
1. Identify desired results (what are the big ideas and skills you want students to know and do by the end of the unit/your teaching?) ** learning goals (how do they help teachers and students? When do I need them?)
2. Determine acceptable evidence - How will you know that the students are learning? What constitutes successful learning? Determine the tasks that will provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning and the criteria that will determine success
3. Plan learning experiences and instruction - what activities and lessons will lead to students being able to experience success with the deep learning task? These will be mini-lessons, activities that lead to the development of skills to complete the deep learning task.
Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

8. Know and Do Know (Teach) Do (Assess)
Significant features of the earth’s physical features and human settlement patterns
ways the physical environment affects sustainability
what the geography inquiry is:
formulate questions
gather and organize information
interpret and analyse information
evaluate evidence and draw conclusions
communicate the results
use the inquiry process (steps 1-5)
investigate
Ideas/Questions:

9. Task
Students will conduct an investigation to examine a world issue or problem to reflect on the possibility of sustainable communities and suggest and share a solution.

10. Learning Goals related to the Inquiry Process
Students will investigate issues caused by human settlement using the geographic inquiry process.
Students will identify ways the physical environment and issues of sustainability affect future settlement.
Students will formulate and refine questions to design and further an investigation. (Purpose of questions will depend on the type of inquiry you have selected and the curriculum you are exploring)
Students will gather and organize information related to the inquiry question.
Students will interpret and analyse information they have gathered.
Students will evaluate and draw conclusions related to the inquiry question.
Students will communicate the results of their inquiry.

11. Narrowing your focus
Prior to determining which learning goals you will focus on, consider the following:
· What inquiry skills represent the biggest area of need for your students?
· What are the skills that students need to develop?
· What inquiry skills are strengths for the students in your class?
From this list of questions, and your knowledge of student strengths and areas of need related to these skills, determine the relevant learning goals that will focus your teaching.

12. LG: Students will formulate and refine questions to design and further an investigation.
Success Criteria
The following chart identifies ways for students to approach the formulating questions component of the inquiry process:
-to explore various events, developments, issues, and/or phenomena that are related to the overall expectations in order to identify the focus of their inquiry
-to help them determine which key concept (or concepts) of geographic thinking is relevant to their inquiry
-that reflect the selected concept(s) of geographic thinking
-to develop criteria that they will use in evaluating data, evidence and/or information, making judgements, decisions or predictions, and/or reaching conclusions
p.160 of the Geography Curriculum
Student friendly language:
-the question arises from an important problem or issue
-the question is rich enough to sustain long-term inquiry
-the question is relevant to the big idea and topic and to the student
-the question requires a solution that involves thinking and feeling
-the question is open-ended and leads to an investigation (i.e., has no definitive answer and/or allows for multiple perspectives))

13. Assessment for, as and of Learning
Purpose
Use
For:...process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get there
The teacher
Determines what students know and can do related to curriculum expectations
Plans instruction and assessment that is differentiated
Monitors student progress and provides feedback to students
As:...explicit fostering of students’ capacity over time to be their own best assessors, but teachers need to start by presenting and modeling external, structured opportunities for students to assess themselves
The student
Provides feedback to other students
Monitors their progress related to the learning goals and success criteria
Reflects on their learning and set goals
Of:...results in statements or symbols about how well students are learning
Summarizes learning at a given point in time
Makes judgments about the quality of learning based on criteria
Communicates information to the student, parents and others
Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools, Grades 1 to 12, 2010, p. 31.

14. How will you provide practice on formulating good questions?
Anticipation
How will you provide practice on formulating good questions?
(A4L)
I am anticipating that:
the questions generated by students will fall on a continuum of single-answer content to complex real world problems with multiple perspectives
students will be reflective and justify their question as it relates to the success criteria
As a teacher, I will have to provide feedback to students to improve their question allow them to refine their ideas. (A4L: Closing the feedback loop!)

15. Ways to gather evidence
Inquiry Skill
Product
Observation
Conversation
Formulate questions
Gather information
Organize information
Interpret information
Analyze information
Evaluate information
Draw conclusions
Communicate information
Participants need pages of Ontario Geography Curriculum.

16. The Power of Conferencing
Example: student(s) is unable to find a problem or formulate a question
-determine how many students have this issue and decide on individual or small group conferencing
-prompt students by asking questions that lead themselves to the big idea
-gather more evidence and clarify any misconceptions
-provide personalized next steps
What would be your teacher move in this situation? (A4L)

17. Feedback
“Descriptive feedback enables the learner to adjust what he or she is doing in order to improve.”
Davies, 2007, p. 2
For more information, visit:

18. Only the Overall Expectations are evaluated (AofL)
Achievement Chart
To further guide the assessment and evaluation of student learning, the achievement chart provides “criteria” and “descriptors”.
For the example given, formulating questions is criteria described in the category of ‘Thinking’ (the use of critical and creative thinking skills and/or processes). When evaluating this skill as part of Overall Expectation A2, (Assessment of Learning), decide using the descriptors to align the student performance at each of the four levels of achievement, based on the collection of evidence.
Only the Overall Expectations are evaluated (AofL)

19. Using Professional Judgement
What is judgement?
Judgement consists of analyzing and summarizing information that has been collected about student learning. Learning is evaluated in relation to the requirements established at different stages in the learning process. Making a judgement is not the result of compiling data. It cannot be reduced to adding up the different marks a student has obtained throughout the cycle or school year.

20. Thank you! Resources: Growing Success, Ministry of Education.
IQ A Practical Guide to Inquiry-Based Learning, Jennifer Watt and Jill Colyer.
Ontario Curriculum documents.