Using Text Clusters to Support Student Imagining, Wondering, Questioning, and Discovering

This article describes an unexpected playground experience that occurred between the author, a reading educator and former middle grades teacher, and his six-year-old granddaughter. The experience became the inspiration and impetus to provide an introduction to, and a rationale for, the concept of t...

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Main Author: William P. Bintz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Georgia Southern University 2025-01-01
Series:Current Issues in Middle Level Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cimle/vol29/iss1/2/
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author William P. Bintz
author_facet William P. Bintz
author_sort William P. Bintz
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description This article describes an unexpected playground experience that occurred between the author, a reading educator and former middle grades teacher, and his six-year-old granddaughter. The experience became the inspiration and impetus to provide an introduction to, and a rationale for, the concept of text clusters to middle grades teachers. The concept of developing and implementing text clusters in the classroom is driven by inquiry and based on one question: How can middle school teachers develop and implement text clusters to help their students actively engage in imagining, wondering, questioning, and discovering? It shares and illustrates examples of text clusters. It also shares samples of instructional strategies teachers can use with text clusters to actively engage students in imagining, wondering, questioning, and discovering. It ends with some concluding thoughts inspired by the picturebook What We’ll Build: Plans for Our Future Together (Jeffers, 2020).
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spelling doaj-art-e1b65296d80c485fb66c8f2d5bcd79d92025-08-20T03:30:40ZengGeorgia Southern UniversityCurrent Issues in Middle Level Education1938-16112025-01-0129110.20429/cimle.2025.29102Using Text Clusters to Support Student Imagining, Wondering, Questioning, and DiscoveringWilliam P. BintzThis article describes an unexpected playground experience that occurred between the author, a reading educator and former middle grades teacher, and his six-year-old granddaughter. The experience became the inspiration and impetus to provide an introduction to, and a rationale for, the concept of text clusters to middle grades teachers. The concept of developing and implementing text clusters in the classroom is driven by inquiry and based on one question: How can middle school teachers develop and implement text clusters to help their students actively engage in imagining, wondering, questioning, and discovering? It shares and illustrates examples of text clusters. It also shares samples of instructional strategies teachers can use with text clusters to actively engage students in imagining, wondering, questioning, and discovering. It ends with some concluding thoughts inspired by the picturebook What We’ll Build: Plans for Our Future Together (Jeffers, 2020).https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cimle/vol29/iss1/2/using text clusters to support inquiry
spellingShingle William P. Bintz
Using Text Clusters to Support Student Imagining, Wondering, Questioning, and Discovering
Current Issues in Middle Level Education
using text clusters to support inquiry
title Using Text Clusters to Support Student Imagining, Wondering, Questioning, and Discovering
title_full Using Text Clusters to Support Student Imagining, Wondering, Questioning, and Discovering
title_fullStr Using Text Clusters to Support Student Imagining, Wondering, Questioning, and Discovering
title_full_unstemmed Using Text Clusters to Support Student Imagining, Wondering, Questioning, and Discovering
title_short Using Text Clusters to Support Student Imagining, Wondering, Questioning, and Discovering
title_sort using text clusters to support student imagining wondering questioning and discovering
topic using text clusters to support inquiry
url https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cimle/vol29/iss1/2/
work_keys_str_mv AT williampbintz usingtextclusterstosupportstudentimaginingwonderingquestioninganddiscovering