Inquiry-Based English Instruction : Engaging Students in Life and Literature

Language and Literacy

by Richard W. Beach, Jamie Myers

This valuable resource offers an alternative framework for middle and secondary school English instruction. The authors provide concrete strategies for engaging students in critical inquiry projects about the social worlds they inhabit or about those portrayed in literature and the media―their peer, school, family, romance, community, workplace, and virtual worlds. You will find numerous examples of middle and high school students using various literacy tools (language, genres, narratives, signs, multimedia, and drama) to study, represent, critique, and transform these worlds. Rather than simply studying about literacy practices, this new framework shows how students learn best through active participation driven by a need to critically examine and promote changes in their social worlds. “A landmark volume. It takes the best of what we know and pushes us at least two steps further. It simultaneously represents best practice, our current knowledge base, and new possible futures.”
―from the Foreword by Jerome C. Harste
“Richard Beach and Jamie Myers have created a gift to the a rare example at the secondary level of integrated, socially conscious, inquiry-based education, an education that students take up in class and take into their lives.”
Carole Edelsky , Arizona State University.
"An important book for teachers and teacher educators because it gives readers the tools to engage in an inquiry-based approach in their literacy classrooms." ― Margaret Finders , Purdue University

Genres: Teaching, Education

224 pages, Paperback

Published June 8, 2001

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of my colleagues found the language of the book inaccessible and didn't seem to have much faith in its future usefulness. I can't say I agree.

I found the book's notion of "practice-centered" instruction (as opposed to the evil "teacher-centered" and the heavily promoted "student-centered" methods) intriguing. I also liked the idea of examining literature through the lens of "social worlds." I don't think I'm likely to send students out to interview the local barber, but I think the idea of negotiating our way through competing social worlds is something students would enjoy thinking about.

The book's formatting doesn't make them stand out, but there were a lot of ideas for lessons and activities, and many suggestions of novels, stories and films to read.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is poorly written and completely misses the mark. Sure, we want students investigating the worlds of literature and their lives-- but we also want them composing meaningful pieces of writing and becoming better communicators. All aspects of the English classroom are intertwined, and the authors of this book fail to appreciate that.
Had I followed this model when teaching in the public schools, my department chair would have probably fired me on the spot.

[Jonathan Brammer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book confounds several students in my recent developments class. The theoretical framework is sound- what isn't clear is how to implement these practices in a real live classroom. I would like some discussion of how to introduce the social worlds model to a standards-based curriculum.

[Liz Shine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good ideas behind this book, but the writing is so dry and overly academic I was inclined to skim, skim, skim.