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Basic Leader Training Course: A 10-hour workshop conducted by Great Books Foundation instructors that introduces people to using Shared Inquiry and Junior Great Books.
basic question: An interpretive question that comprehensively addresses a central problem of meaning in the selection. Answering a basic question satisfactorily requires the examination of several passages.
basic question and cluster: An organized set of interpretive questions used to lead Shared Inquiry Discussion. The basic question addresses a comprehensive problem of meaning in the selection. The leader poses this question at the beginning of discussion. In addition, the leader prepares a cluster of related interpretive questions that may be used during discussion. These interpretive questions should reflect the leader's doubt and help participants formulate their own answers to the basic question.
Teacher's Editions and Leader's Guides for JGB Series 2 and above present suggested questions for discussion organized into basic questions and clusters.
BLTC: See Basic Leader Training Course.
Building Your Answer form: A worksheet on which students write their answers and ideas before Shared Inquiry Discussion. Teacher's Editions contain reproducible masters of Building Your Answer forms.
clarity: One of the elements of effective interpretive questions. Effective questions are clear. They should be easy to understand. If the question contains unfamiliar words, references or phrases then participants will have to spend valuable time trying to make sense of the question rather than trying to make sense of the selection.
closing activity: A brief reflection at the end of Shared Inquiry Discussion. The focus of this activity is helping students identify what they learned in discussion. The leader poses a question like:
Did you change your answer? Did you hear an idea or answer you especially liked? Did you hear an idea you hadn't thought of before?
Then, after giving the group a few minutes to write and reflect, the leader asks students to share their responses.
cluster: See basic question and cluster.
Directed Notes: An activity often used in conjunction with a second reading of the selection. A prompt is given, then students are asked to reread the selection, taking notes directed by that prompt.
discussibility: One of the elements of an effective interpretive question. When a question is discussible it can be answered more than one way based on the evidence in the text. Questions that are not discussible force participants to speculate and guess. For example, the question "Why did Milky-white stop giving milk?" cannot be answered based on anything in the text. Students would have to guess. Such speculation does not help students make sense of the selection.
discussion: See Shared Inquiry Discussion.
evaluative question: A question that one must answer based on one's values and beliefs. For example:
Should Jack have climbed the beanstalk after getting the hen that lays golden eggs? Is the story correct that one must take risks -- as Jack does -- in order to gain independence?
These questions ask students to evaluate the story or one of its characters based primarily on their beliefs and values. Such questions do not force students to interpret and make sense of the story.
factual question: A question that can only be answered one way based on the text. For example:
What was the name of Jack's cow? Did the harp want to go with Jack?
Because the text will only support one answer to these questions, they only encourage students to find what the text says, rather than what the text means by what it says.
FIE: FIE refers to the distinction between questions of fact, interpretation, and evaluation.
follow-up question: Any question asked by the leader other than the question that serves as the focus for discussion. Usually these questions are not prepared in advance, and are used to help participants explain and clarify their ideas, to support their ideas, to share and compare their ideas, to explore and see where their ideas will lead.
four rules: There are four rules that organize Shared Inquiry Discussion:
1) Only those who have read the selection may take part in the discussion.
2) Discussion is restricted to the selection that everyone has read.
3) All opinions should be supported with evidence from the selection.
4) Leaders may only ask questions, not answer them.
A Gathering of Equals: A short anthology of readings from and about American history, published by the Great Books Foundation.
Getting Started with Junior Great Books: Booklet distributed in the Basic Leader Training Course. It contains four short, reproducible selections, as well as tips on conducting your first Junior Great Books unit.
GB: Nickname of the elf-like character that appears in the margins of Read-Aloud selections.
GB's question: Question that appears in the margins of Read-Aloud selections and poses a question about the story or poem.
On the second reading of the story, the child's adult reading partner should pause and ask the child GB's question. Students then share and compare their answers in class the next day.
Great Books Foundation: An independent, nonprofit educational organization, established in 1947, that publishes Junior Great Books and other programs designed to help people think about ideas by interpreting outstanding works of literature.
handbook: See Introduction to Shared Inquiry.
IGB: Introduction to Great Books program, usually used in high schools.
implementation: Each school and group has its own distinctive features to which it adapts Junior Great Books. Any specific school or group's use of Junior Great Books is referred to as an implementation.
interpretation: Process of finding meaning in a text.
interpretation, an: While "interpretation" is the process of finding meaning in a text, "an interpretation" is the specific understanding or meaning the reader finds.
Interpreting Words: A prediscussion activity that appears in JGB Series 3-6. An Interpreting Words activity usually chooses one particular word or phrase and asks students to explore its meanings in context.
interpretive question: A question that can be answered in more than one way based on the evidence of the text.
For example:
For the question "Why did Jack trade Milky-white for the five beans?" the text will support many answers, including, "The old man tricks Jack into making the trade" and "Jack is not very smart and believes the beans are worth more than his cow."
Introduction to Shared Inquiry, An: Training handbook published by the Great Books Foundation. This book, which is used in the Basic Leader Training Course, includes an introduction to all of the issues and topics relevant to implementing a Junior Great Books program.
JGB: Junior Great Books, programs designed for educational settings and younger and emerging readers.
leader: Individual designated to lead a Shared Inquiry Discussion. In a school setting the leader is usually a teacher. The leader's role is to use questions to help participants develop their own interpretations of a selection.
My Question: An activity used in the Read-Aloud program. In this activity, students generate their own questions, and the teacher uses these questions to advance student exploration and inquiry into the story.
prereading questions: Questions used to begin a unit and introduce the selection, found in Leader's Guides for JGB Series 7-9 and IGB. A brief discussion on one of the prereading questions can help students focus in more quickly on the issues raised by the selection.
RA: See Read-Aloud.
Read-Aloud: Junior Great Books program for prereaders. In the Read-Aloud program, stories and poems are read aloud to students who listen, ask questions, and use art and dramatization to develop their own interpretations.
related questions: An interpretive question that the leader prepares ahead of time and can use in Shared Inquiry Discussion if he or she thinks it appropriate. These questions should help participants formulate their own answers to the basic question.
seating chart: A tool the leader uses during Shared Inquiry Discussion to keep track of students' comments and participation.
Shared Inquiry: The approach to learning employed by all Great Books programs. In Shared Inquiry, participants raise and try to answer interpretive questions, or questions for which the text will support more than one answer.
This process is inherently active, requiring participants to interact thoughtfully with the selection. The central component of this process is Shared Inquiry Discussion.
Shared Inquiry Discussion: The central activity of all Great Books programs and of all units in Junior Great Books. In Shared Inquiry Discussion, the leader poses an interpretive question for the group to consider and try to answer, and then maintains a posture of only asking questions. Because there is more than one valid answer to interpretive questions, this process becomes one of sharing ideas and interpretations so that all participants come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the selection.
Sharing Questions: A prediscussion activity most commonly used after the first reading of the selection. In this activity, students raise their own questions about the story, and the leader uses these questions to deepen their inquiry and search for meaning.
Sharing Questions Discussion: A variant of Shared Inquiry Discussion that is used in the Read-Aloud program. A Sharing Questions Discussion begins with the leader writing four or five unrelated interpretive questions on the board. No one of these questions is explored in the same kind of depth as in Shared Inquiry Discussion. The leader reads one, gives students a few minutes to reflect, and then asks them to share their ideas and answers. As in a Shared Inquiry Discussion, the leader only asks questions. She or he asks students to explain their ideas as best they can, and asks whether they agree or disagree with other answers.
SID: See Shared Inquiry Discussion.
specificity: One of the elements of an effective interpretive question. Specificity means that the question should be specific to the selection, and that it should clearly specify one distinct problem for participants to consider.
Text Opener: A prediscussion activity designed to help students connect the themes and issues of the story to their own experience. Teacher's Editions for Series 3-6 include Text Openers with explanations on how to conduct them.
textual analysis: An activity in which the leader directs students to a specific passage that is especially significant. The class reads slowly and carefully, while the leader poses several questions.
unit: The activities and discussion surrounding a selection.
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Getting Started with Great Books in the Classroom
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