Educator Tips: Creating a Statement of Inquiry

Pallavi Dhody

2 min read

Strong statements of inquiry or SOIs allow teachers and students to ‘anchor’ the big idea of the unit into one, overarching sentence. This is important for many reasons! First, it provides an opportunity for ‘touch points’ as the unit develops. Secondly, students can come back to it over and over to see how their learning has evolved. Finally, a strong statement of inquiry strives to provide insight into the connection between concepts and content.

However, for many teachers, it may feel like there are many rules for writing SOIs which can make them panic! It may also result in teachers formulating clumsy, hard to understand SOIs in an attempt to follow these rules. Often enough, SOIs are put together by simply connecting the names of the unit’s global context and chosen key and related concepts into a long, complex statement. In most of these cases, the SOI never makes it classroom discussions, and exists only in the unit planner. Does writing an SOI have to be this hard?

In this Educator Tips video, watch educator Pallavi Dhody walk you through her process of constructing a strong SOI for a unit. Use Pallavi’s tips to create meaningful connections between the content, inquiry questions, learning activities and assessments. Additionally, Pallavi will share a quick ‘double check’ tool to ensure that the SOI is as effective as it should be!

What you’ll learn:

What makes for an effective statement of inquiry
Items to include in a statement of inquiry
How to double check that your statement of inquiry is effective

Toddle’s Educator Tips Series: Every educator has their own ways of creating magic in the classroom. Our Educator Tips video series features experienced educators sharing insider tips, tricks and hacks that have worked in their classrooms over the years.

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Pallavi Dhody

Pallavi Dhody

Pallavi is an experienced IB MYP & DP educator, author, and instructional coach. A fellow of Teachers College, Columbia University, she is passionate about the power of coaching to transform teaching and learning in the classroom. Pallavi has worked with schools and educators around the world for over a decade to help shape collaborative learning cultures, plan effective learning continuums, and inspire agentic learning.

This resource has been produced independently of and not endorsed by the IB. Toddle’s resources seek to encourage sharing of perspectives and innovative ideas for classroom teaching & learning. They are not intended to be replacements for official IB guides and publications. Views and opinions expressed by the authors of these resources are personal and should not be construed as official guidance by the IB. Please seek assistance from your school’s IB coordinator and/or refer to official IB documents before implementing ideas and strategies shared within these resources in your classroom.