Teaching Literature and Writing in the Inquiry Classroom: Inquiry Based Thematic Units.

This paper proceeds through an interdisciplinary unit of inquiry-based instruction, using the Vietnam War combat novel or memoir as a coming of age narrative, the classic thematic structure of the "bildungsroman." The paper discusses several key inquiry activities and asks readers to focus on two other key inquiry activities to help illustrate how the activities and the unit work and how one activity leads to and connects to another activity. It proposes that the idea of the "bildungsroman" is reflected in the set of key unit questions and problems that provide one basis for an inquiry-based thematic unit. Sample lessons provided in the paper have been set up so that students have a variety of opportunities to interact in different ways, and through their interaction, to build data sets that they will use when they analyze and write about the literature, to develop and practice key thinking strategies, to foster respect for diversity, and to promote habits of mind--critical thinking about literature. (Contains a 54-item selected bibliography. An appendix provides the lesson plans addressed in the paper.) (NKA)