STRATEGY FOCUS
PARKING LOT
PURPOSE
A Parking Lot is a space for students to post questions and ideas that surface during a lesson or unit of study. Students “park” their thinking in a common space for both fellow students and the teacher to access and address. A Parking Lot provides students with the opportunity to post ideas and/or questions anonymously, securing a space where thinking is safe in a culture of learning.
PROCESS
An Anchor Chart is labeled “Parking Lot” and placed in an easily accessible space in the classroom. Students and teacher are invited, throughout the duration of the unit, to add questions and ideas to the space. The Anchor Chart is a “living” document that is added to and referenced throughout the unit.
PROBING QUESTIONS
CONSIDERATIONS
- What was most confusing about the material we explored today?
- How has your understanding of _____ changed over the course of this unit?
- How did your peers help you clarify your understanding of _____?
- Ask a question and ask students to respond to the question on the Parking Lot. The responses serve as a formative assessment at a given time during a unit of study.
- Assign a keeper or team of keepers who are responsible for posting questions and/or ideas they overhear articulated by peers or direct peers to the lot to add those questions and/or ideas.
- Decide as a class when to visit the Parking Lot and how to engage with the content posted there.
- Plan for how to use Parking Lot in conjunction with other literacy strategies such as List-Group-Label. Students could visit the Parking Lot and group like questions and ideas. From there, students could label the groups.
SCAFFOLDS
General Scaffolds
- Provide a sample prompt and do a think-aloud.
- Ask a question and ask students to respond to the question on the Parking Lot.
- Model how to write a response.
- Decide as a class how to visit the Parking Lot and how to engage with the content posted there.
- Encourage students to access and use vocabulary resources and tools, such as anchor charts, word walls, word bank, and dictionaries.
- Provide students with sufficient time to think and write.
- Provide opportunities for students to respond in a variety of ways (e.g., pictures, text, mix of English and home language).
Scaffolds for Multilingual Learners
Entering/Emerging:
- Allow students to access and use vocabulary resources in order to recount, argue, and explain.
- Model how to write a variety of responses.
- Provide examples of what students’ responses might look like.
- Allow students to respond in a variety of ways (e.g., pictures, text, mix of English and home language, etc.).
- Provide sentence stems/frames and graphic organizers.
- Use Language Experience Approach (LEA)- shared experience, talk about the experience, write about the experience, and read the writing completed.
Developing/Expanding:
- Model how to write a variety of responses.
- Provide examples of information presented objectively with a neutral tone.
Bridging/Reaching:
- Provide examples of student responses
CONTENT APPLICATIONS
ENGLISH
LANGUAGE ARTS
Students compose open-ended questions in response to a text that has been read independently or collectively.
SCIENCE
After watching a video of loud speakers shaking a window, students generate questions and post them. Students continue to post new questions that arise throughout the unit.
VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS
Students generate “I wonder…” statements after reviewing an artifact, which are then investigated by the students.
CAREER & TECHNICAL EDUCATION
After watching a video of a plumber installing a water supply line, students post what they learned, as well as their questions about the process.
HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Students use the Parking Lot as an after reading strategy to post new learning.
MATHEMATICS
Students ask clarifying questions about a mathematical concept or skill to promote an inquiry-based classroom.
WORLD LANGUAGES
Throughout a unit of study about food and dining, students generate and post questions in the target language they might ask a native speaker about food and dining habits and preferences in their home country. Then, if possible, students have the opportunity to ask their questions to a native speaker via a video chat or penpal letter writing.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Students compose open-ended questions about power, authority, and governance.