Exploring the Red River: What Do We Want to Learn?
Inquiry-based learning proceeds from a foundation of knowledge to involve students in original research. Together, students and teachers gather new information about their research topic. Your class can explore the Red River through field trips, discussion, library research, examination of maps and other primary sources, and interviews. But effective classroom research focuses on specific questions which students participate in choosing.
After presenting a formal mini-lesson about the Red River or assigning some background reading, ask your students:
What do you know about the Red River?
Use this information as a starting point for your exploration. List the information that students provide on chart paper. Students also can use the text, An Arkansas History for Young People (Baker & Browning 1991) to locate some preliminary facts about the river. Then ask,
What do you wonder about the Red River?
List the students' questions on chart paper as possible research topics. Save the list as a guide for an ongoing discussion with students that will refine and focus the research questions. Refer to the research questions often during the course of your project. Here are some possible guiding research questions:
Why did our community develop where it is?
Did the Red River ever flood our community?
Who were the earliest people to live along the banks of the Red River? What was life like for them?
Did people travel along the Red River during the 19th century? If so, what kinds of boats did they use?
What caused the Great Red River Raft? How was it removed?
Emphasize to your students that researchers do not always find complete answers to their questions and that sometimes research can take a very long time. Having more questions than answers is not wrong! Sometimes the first information that researchers find is not the best, and additional research will uncover facts that contradict the initial findings. For this reason, researchers must always show the sources of their information and leave the door open to future researchers.
You may want to conduct your first inquiry into the history and natural history of the Red River Basin as a whole-group activity, or you may want students to work independently or in small groups. Either way, students can list their own research questions in journals or learning logs and write about the progress they make, so that they will have a record of their research activities for you to evaluate and share with parents.
Once your class has selected its research questions, disseminate the questions to parents (and perhaps to other community members). Some may suggest resources for your research.
In the following pages, you will find learning activities that are adaptable to different grades and can be used to answer some of your classes' research questions.
At the completion of your classroom research, ask:
What have you learned about the Red River?
Discuss your research findings. Post key facts and resources on chart paper. Ask the students to think about what the new information suggests about the past.
Finally, involve students in presenting and interpreting their new knowledge in various ways. These pages also include ideas for displays, publications, and programs.
Sample Letter to Parents
Dear Parents,
Our class has begun a research project to answer the question, "(insert question here)?"
We are searching for historical and scientific evidence. If you know stories about life along the Red River or have photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, or other evidence that you can share with our class, please let us know.
Return this note with your name, day and evening telephone numbers, and how you can help us. Thank you!
(Teacher's name)
© Red River Rural Schools Partnership 1998
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