Purpose: The purpose of the Inquiry Chart strategy is for students to

demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of a topic by fostering their

critical thinking skills. Students build upon their prior knowledge a topic along
with reinforcing their reading skills as they develop meaning and understanding
of what their reading in order to create significant questions and summarizing
their findings.

Procedure:
1. Introduce the students to the selected topic of study.
2. The teacher provides the students with a blank I-chart.
3. The students engage in forming questions about the topic and
placing them at the top of each separate column.
4. The students use the rows to write down both the information
that already know about the topic and the key information and
ideas they find when reading and rereading a variety of sources.
5. Student use the last row of each column to formulate a general
summary of the information they gathered and previously had
about the topic.
6. After students complete their charts, teachers have them review
their work and further explore sources to resolve any incomplete
information that may exist by developing new questions.
7. Student turn in their Inquiry Chart to the teacher.

Classroom Integration:
• To create a research paper on a specified topic
• To teach behaviors needed for successful partner reading
• To use during book talks or guided reading as students use text clues to
answer questions

Variations: Students participate in a picture to form a basis to make predictions

and restate the solution after reading. Create simple questions for younger
readers or struggling readers. For advanced learners: add another row to the I-
chart and have students summarize each column