Picture Me Thinking
Explicit Scaffolding for the Inquiry-to-Writing Process
An affordable online short-course for middle school and high school educators.
Our evidence-based cognitive scaffolding is the missing piece in inquiry-based instruction.
On-Site Online Training
A self-paced online video course for middle school and high school academic educators, delivered in 6 sessions of 30 minutes each. This course is designed for on-site delivery!
Revolutionary Inquiry Tools
The Picture Me Thinking Model is a research-based system of scaffolding. It is modeled by the teacher and adopted by students to guide their collaborative research across disciplines.
Powerful Writing Outcomes
The Picture Me Thinking Model makes the parallel structure of inquiry and essay writing transparent. It explicitly guides students to develop arguments during the inquiry process.
Professional Learning Communities
The Picture Me Thinking Model serves as a generic framework for collaborating on lessons that blend inquiry on core disciplinary concepts with essay writing instruction.
Integrating inquiry and essay writing is a priority goal of the standards for English language arts and other academic disciplines in STEAM and social studies, in grades 5-12.
Meta-research on argumentative essay writing has shown that blending inquiry and writing instruction is the best method for improving academic writing (Miller, 2018).
Further, IBI deepens students' understanding of how to apply concepts in interdisciplinary problem-solving tasks. When students know the same inquiry model across disciplines, they arrive in class ready to jump into learning.
The Picture Me Thinking Model
The PMT Model is an explicit system of scaffolding that provides structure for integrating inquiry and essay writing in grades 5-12. The model is used to frame both teacher instruction and student collaboration during inquiry-based instruction (IBI) across disciplines.
The graphic/verbal model elevates published curricula. It makes phenomenon-based, model-driven, argument-driven, and concept-based inquiry more explicit and cohesive.
The cognitive strategies scaffolded by the model empower students to take the lead in collaborative inquiry groups and to ask deeper questions of teachers, peers, the internet, and AI. These are powerful College and Career Readiness skills!
Teaching with the PMT model develops students' capacity for productive, respectful, evidence-driven argumentation, which prepares them for success across contexts.
The PMT Model supports the inclusion of all students in 21st-century learning by making the process, core cognitive strategies, and language for inquiry and writing explicit!
VIDEOS INCLUDE CASE STUDY DEMONSTRATIONS
AND APPLICABLE LEARNING THEORY AND RESEARCH
