Inquiry Charts (I-Charts)
What it is…
The Inquiry Chart (I-Chart) is a strategy that enables students to generate meaningful questions about a topic and organize their writing. Students integrate prior knowledge or thoughts about the topic with additional information found in several sources. The I-Chart procedure is organized into three phases: (1) Planning, (2) Interacting, and (3) Integrating/Evaluating. Each phase consists of activities designed to engage students in evaluating a topic.
Why it's so great…
This instructional strategy fosters critical thinking and strengthens reading skills. I-Charts can be used with the entire class, small groups, or individual work. Teachers can guide each student's chart development which allows for differentiated instruction as well as targeting the zone of proximal development. In addition, I-Charts can serve as an evaluation tool for how much a student has learned about a topic.
How to create them…
The teacher directs students as they begin with the planning phase of this activity. This phase includes:
- identifying the topic,
- forming questions,
- constructing the I-Chart, and
- collecting materials
The next step is to engage students in the interacting phase which involves:
- exploring prior knowledge,
- sharing of interesting facts, and
- reading and rereading
Finally, teachers guide the students through the integrating and evaluation phase by:
- summarizing
- comparing
- researching, and
- reporting
How to use it…
The teacher provides each student with a blank I-chart* and assists with topic selection OR provides the pre-selected topic. The students then engage in forming questions about the topic. These are placed at the top of each individual column. The rows are for recording any information students already know and the key ideas pulled from several different sources of information. The last row gives students the opportunity to pull together the ideas into a general summary. Teachers may ask students to resolve competing ideas found in the separate sources or develop new questions to explore based on any conflicting or incomplete information.
What it looks like…
Sample I-Chart
| Topic | Guiding Question 1 | Guiding Question 2 | Guiding Question 3 | Guiding Question 4 | Other Interesting Facts and Figures | New Questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What We Know | ||||||
| Source 1 | ||||||
| Source 2 | ||||||
| Source 3 | ||||||
| Summary | ||||||
| Source: Hoffman, J. (1992). Critical reading/thinking across the curriculum: Using I-charts to support learning. Language Arts, 69(2), p. 121-27. | ||||||
See a sample completed I-Chart.*
* To view this file, you'll need a copy of Acrobat Reader. Most computers already have it installed. If yours does not, you can download it now.
References
Hoffman, J. (1992). Critical reading/thinking across the curriculum: Using I-charts to support learning. Language Arts, 69(2), p. 121-27.
Jones, R. (2006). Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Inquiry Chart. Retrieved 2008, January 25, from http://www.readingquest.org/strat/ichart.html
FOR-PD. (2005). FOR-PD's Reading Strategy of the Month. Retrieved 2008, January 25, from http://forpd.ucf.edu/strategies/stratIChart.html
