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Research & Inquiry

Research & Inquiry

Welcome to the Research & Inquiry topic page. These resources are designed to spark deeper dialogue around teaching research and inquiry across the curriculum. Explore how to support learners in growing from mere consumers of information to independent thinkers and investigators, and receive regular inspiration on ways we can collaborate to create a culture of inquiry in our schools.

Digital Inquiry

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Long gone are research projects begun with a heavy tome of the encyclopedia at hand. Students have an enormous array of resources to choose from when they're investigating a question, and our teaching has adapted to this mold, forming new best practices so that we can, as Barbara Stripling puts it, "teach the essential analysis and evaluation skills and guide the student beyond mindless copying of information to asking intriguing questions and confronting interesting issues in their research." Read More >>

Classroom & Library

Making Sense of Content in a Digital World: Teaching with Digital Text

Making Sense of Content in a Digital World: Teaching with Digital Text

While there are clear challenges with digital media and online text, it is not going anywhere.Students need to be able to move between print and digital texts with no loss of comprehension. But, just because there are challenges does not mean that this is an impossibility. Print and digital text are different. Therefore, we must teach with each differently.

Classroom & Library

Discussing the Value of Primary Sources [21:49]

Discussing the Value of Primary Sources [21:49]

Barbara K. Stripling discusses the value of using primary sources for inquiry with Kathy McGuigan of the Library of Congress, social studies teacher Jen Reidel, and elementary school librarian Tom Bober.

Classroom & Library

Asking Strong Research Questions Using Primary Sources

Asking Strong Research Questions Using Primary Sources

Learn strategies and tips to effectively utilize primary sources at the question-forming stage of research. See how students asking their own research questions based on their interactions with items from history can increase engagement and purpose as well as positively impact this critical point in the research process.

Empowering Students to Inquire in a Digital Environment

Selected Reading

Empowering Students to Inquire in a Digital Environment

Read an excerpt from School Librarianship: Past, Present and Future, edited by Susan W. Alman (Roman and Littlefield, 2017).

Classroom & Library

Photos, Maps, and More: Graphic Inquiry and Primary Sources in the School Library

Photos, Maps, and More: Graphic Inquiry and Primary Sources in the School Library

Whether students are analyzing political cartoons or tracking troop movements on a Revolutionary War era map, visually rich primary sources can play an important role throughout the inquiry process.

Classroom & Library

Inquiry in the Digital Age

Selected Reading

Inquiry in the Digital Age

In this chapter, Barbara Stripling discusses inquiry-based learning in terms of the Common Core and the digital environment.

Classroom & Library

Fostering Student Agency: The 10 Questions Framework in Your Library

Fostering Student Agency: The 10 Questions Framework in Your Library

Learn about the 10 Questions for Young Changemakers Framework, developed by Harvard's Democratic Knowledge Project, and the many ways it can be used in school libraries to help students develop successful—equitable, effective, and self-protective—civic agency in this digital age.