Probe: Framing a Specific Inquiry
In any text there are always multiple threads of inquiry that can be explored. This probe aims to focus our attention as readers on specific threads and move beyond observation of a text to inference and analysis of that text.
This probe allows us to explore the concrete but also the ambiguous elements of a text, deepening our understanding of its theme and meaning.
When working to create a probe that explores a specific thread of inquiry you need to:
- Identify a thread that might inform or question our understanding of the text.
- What's a thread?
- This could be something concrete or ambiguous within the text: a symbol or image that reappears throughout the text and its meaning, a certain word or phrase, the organization of the text, what punctuation is used or not used and when, the mood or emotion of a text, references made in the text, characters and their development, themes within a text, and so much more. Essentially, an element of the text that can be explored.
- Optional: Provide any framing about the probe you've created.
- Find evidence within the text that relates to your thread.
- In choosing your evidence be sure that you:
- Choose rich passage(s) to share.
- Alternatively, you can have your peers find the evidence. Just make sure it is clear what they should be looking for.
- Create guiding question(s) that explore your thread and how it might connect to or develop a larger theme present within the text or the course.
- You could also work to connect it to:
- Bigger, Common Themes
- Previous Texts
- Analyze the evidence in connection to your probe.
- Basically, be ready to discuss answers to your guiding question(s) and how the thread informs your understanding of the text. In discussing your evidence, be sure to be granular in your analysis.
Here is an example of what this probe look like: