Encouraging Lifelong Learning: Connecting Inquiry and Literacy

Sara Johnson & Amanda Van Fleet

Inquiry based learning and literacy are essential skills in encouraging lifelong learning. Literacy is a comprehensive skill that affects all areas of a student’s life, not just reading comprehension but the ability to formulate new ideas based upon old ones and formulating new concepts (Kane, 2008). Inquiry is a process of learning in which students are encouraged to ask questions and discover new ideas, independently or in groups. Literacy and inquiry combine to lead to lifelong learning, which is what happens when students are motivated and driven to take charge of their own learning by themselves throughout their lives.

A useful model for integrating inquiry into the classroom is the Stripling Model of Inquiry.

(Stripling, 2011)

This model outlines the six phases in the inquiry process and emphasizes the adaptability of the process which may not always function in a linear way. Reflection is an important phase because it provides an opportunity for students to assess their experience and improve upon their inquiry process. (Stripling, 2011)

Inquiry-based learning prepares students to be lifelong learners by encouraging curiosity, and allowing curiosity to become a vehicle for literacy development. As a result, it enables them to succeed in a variety of colleges and career paths. It is essential for students to know when they are learning through inquiry even when it is teacher-led. It may work well for a class to begin with the teacher leading and transition into a student-led workshop, especially if the class is new to this

IST 668: Literacy Through School Libraries

Literacy Ecosystems

experience. Inquiry-based learning gives students control of their education and can be an empowering experience for a student. This feeling of empowerment encourages intrinsic motivation. (Stripling, 2011)

The library provides a place for students to connect inquiry and literacy skills across disciplines. The connection begins with the most widely accepted idea of literacy: reading and writing. On the most basic level, libraries provide information, most often in the form of books. Research has shown that even mere access to books encourages literacy (Todd, 2012). Librarians can continue to build literacy skills by encouraging inquiry in students. They can do this in the library by discussing with students their literature selections or teaching students to ask questions and investigate answers.

A method growing in popularity is the workshop classroom, an ideal space for inquiry-based learning to occur. It is a space within or near the library or classroom where students can work on activities and projects together with planned and unplanned assistance from teachers. A workshop classroom encourages active learning and student conferencing on ideas and projects. This social environment allows the students to feel comfortable sharing their ideas with others and develop important social skills for the future. Here, literacy also thrives in the flow of ideas between students as they discuss materials they have seen, heard, or read, and then use these ideas to create.

Because of the emphasis on social interaction, it is important to have a consistent structure to maintain focus in the classroom. (Kane, 2008) Proper classroom management on the instructor’s part facilitates the students’ uninhibited inquiry. Social interaction makes everyone in the

classroom a resource and, accordingly, the appropriate classroom environment is essential to effective encouragement of inquiry-based exploration.

While a workshop classroom is free-flowing in discussion and activity, students need structure to stay on topic. An environment that is too free may not be effective as a learning environment, especially when there are specific lessons a teacher has to teach. A structured lesson could look like, after an opening and mini-lesson, a time for students to read self-selected articles or curriculum relevant reading followed by small group discussion while the teacher and/or librarian circulate to answer questions and assist when needed. The class could close with students sharing what they learned with the entire class and a brief discussion.

Continuing lifelong learning using inquiry and literacy throughout a student’s career can be a difficult task. The recently developed Common Core State Standards Initiative is an important step for the education system because these standards "were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare our children for college and the workforce."(Common Core, 2010) Although inquiry-based learning is not mentioned in the mission statement, the standards stress the application and discovery of knowledge rather than rote memorization.

The role of librarians in the process of the ecosystem of inquiry-based learning is underscored by the American Association of School Librarians. Inquiry is embedded in national school library standards. The first standard by the AASL is: “1.1.1 follow an inquiry-based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects, and make the real-world connection for using this process in own

life” (AASL, 2009); several other standards follow this rhetoric. The AASL standards emphasize and encourage inquiry, leading to the encouragement of and preparation for lifelong learning. When librarians encourage inquiry, they move students towards literacy. When they move students towards literacy, they create more inquiry. With these two combined, librarians create a lifelong learner.

To summarize, literacy itself is more than simply knowing how to read. It is how we gather, connect, and understand knowledge. The more questions we have, the more we want to seek them out and this desire to seek them out is inquiry. Through inquiry-based learning in the workshop classroom, we can create a positive learning environment for all students. Understanding the relationship between inquiry and literacy is essential to provide 21st century students with the strategies and learning processes they need to become lifelong learners and achieve lifelong success.

The Tale of John and JoanJohn was new to the school. Recently

graduated from library school he felt fortunate that Reading Middle School had accepted his application as the school's new librarian and asked him to begin right away. His students were, for the most part, excited and eager to learn and ask questions and John felt very welcome in his new environment.

But there was one problem. He has been told that Joan, a 6th grader, did not like to read. She often skipped over her required class readings and barely got by in her classes. When she did research, she settled for the first few sources she came across simply to get her projects done. Her

grades were minimal, but John had a feeling that she could do much better with the right motivation.

Before the school year began, John was allowed a budget to buy more materials for the library, he decided to add a few comic books as a new medium for literacy. He noticed the Joan immediately took an interest in them. Curious, he asked her what kind of comic books she liked to read. For the first time since he met her, Joan talked with interest and passion. She loved comic books, even going as far as to try to create her own. Though John wasn’t that into comic books himself, he continued to ask questions about the medium. What kind of comic books were there? What were some of the themes? Were they all exciting or were some of them more mellow? Was there romance in them too?

Joan answered everything and before long the bell rang and Joan had to return to class, leaving John with a good idea on how to help her succeed in her classes. After conferring with the history teacher, John created a new lesson for the next time the kids came in to do their research.

The class sat down to pages of blank unlined paper, pencils, and erasers. Art books scattered the area as well as research books on the various history subjects each child was supposed to be researching. On a projector up front was a page of a comic book, Marvel 1602. In it recognizable comic book heroes were dressed in, as John explained, Elizabethan clothing as the comic artists and writers had transplanted them back in the Elizabethan era. The comic accurately portrayed the lifestyle back then, with the dialogue using words and accents from that time period and the visuals depicting lifestyle and dress. John asked the class, how much research do you think Neil Gaiman, the writer, put into this piece? What would he have

to research in order to make this story believable and accurate? Hands flew into the air, including Joan’s.

The exercise was relatively simple. He wanted each student to imagine himself or herself living alongside the historical figure they were meant to research. What questions would they ask them? How would they react to the customs of the time? When they were ready to present their research, he wanted them to make a short comic of this, or a written story if they were not comfortable with drawing, and explain their day with that historical figure.

The assignment only called for a page but Joan drew several. She found herself taking her time to research the details she wanted to include. Her research into immediate details led her to ask more questions and search for more answers. She would ask John questions like, “Did they have peanut butter back then?” The process became fueled by her need to understand the details and then translate that understanding into the finished product. She had discovered a deep sense of curiosity about her project, and heavily employed inquiry to facilitate learning as much as she could. John would help her research and provide sources in which questions like that could be answered. Afterwards, Joan was asked to share her comic with the class. It was a five page comic about her day with Abraham Lincoln, and introducing him and his family to the futuristic food: peanut butter (Growers 2012. Britannica, 2012). The class really enjoyed it, and for her final paper Joan included her comic and received full marks. Since the exercise was such a hit, not just with Joan but the other kids as well, John continued to plan similar exercises and, working with the teachers, integrated comics

into the regular curriculum which continued to entertain and teach the kids all year.

Before he knew it, Joan had moved on to high school, and then to college where she was majoring in art. As she was about to graduate, she sent John a thank you message. Because of John’s classes she had found she enjoyed research and practicing literacy as well as drawing and had put that to practice for the rest of her education. She had sent in not an essay but a comic to her college of choice, and received a full scholarship because of its sophistication, accuracy, and style. She would remember these skills for the rest of her life, becoming a lifelong learner, thanks to John’s ability to connect Joan to literacy and inquiry.

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Gaiman, N., & Kubert, A. (2004). Marvel 1602. New York: Marvel Comics.

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