Inquiry planning • Years 7–8 • Unit 10 Week 7

Inquiry Planning Frame

Good research questions make Lesson 8 productive. Vague ones make it directionless. This frame gets you to three questions you can actually answer — one about the problem, one about the cause, one about the response.

Ingoa / Name

Akomanga / Class

Best for

The 25-minute question-writing activity in Lesson 7, after topics are approved.

Kaiako use

Collect these at the end of the lesson and review overnight. Catching a too-broad question now saves a wasted research lesson.

Ākonga use

Write three questions, get pair feedback, refine at least one, then complete the research contract at the bottom.

Linked next step

Bring this frame to Lesson 8 and record what you find on the Source Evaluation Guide.

Te Ao Māori lens

If your inquiry is about a Māori community or organisation, one of your questions should ask what that community says about its own work. Researching a group without ever hearing its own words produces a poster about them rather than with them.

Free to teach tomorrow, adaptable to your rohe

The frame is ready to print. Te Wānanga is useful when you want worked question examples for a specific topic your class has chosen.

Generate model questions for the topics your class actually picked.
Add a scaffolded version with question stems for students who need them.
Save your adapted Unit 10 planning frame in My Kete.

Adapt this in Te Wānanga Open Creation Studio Open My Kete

Kaiako planning snapshot

Use length: 25 minutes, including pair feedback and refinement.
Grouping: Individual writing, pair feedback, individual refinement.
Prep: One per student. Have spare blanks for Lesson 8 — some will lose theirs.
Teaching move: The pair feedback prompt does the work: “can you name a source that might answer this?” If not, the question is too broad.

🧺 Kai systems ⚖️ Trade-offs

What this sheet already gives you

Good and poor question models
Three structured question slots — problem, cause, response
A pair-feedback frame
A refinement step
A research contract to hand in

Students who write three questions about the problem and none about the cause will produce a poster with no analysis. Check the middle row when you review these.

Ngā Whāinga Ako / Learning Intentions

We are learning to write research questions that real evidence can answer.
We are learning to cover the problem, the cause and the response in our questions.
We are learning to improve a question using feedback.

Ngā Paearu Angitū / Success Criteria

My three questions are “how”, “why” or “what” questions — not yes/no questions.
Each question names a specific community, place or organisation.
I have improved at least one question after pair feedback.

What makes a question researchable

Poor question	Why it fails	Better question
Is food poverty bad?	Yes/no. No research needed.	What specific impact did Cyclone Gabrielle have on apple prices for Auckland families?
What is food poverty?	Too broad. No community focus.	How does the māra kai network in Māngere reduce food insecurity for Pacific whānau?

My three questions

Focus	My question
1. The problem — how serious is it, and who is affected?
2. The cause — why does this keep happening?
3. The response — what does the response actually do?

Pair feedback

Swap with a partner. For each of their questions, answer honestly: can you name a source that might answer it? If not, the question is probably too broad.

Question	A source that might answer it	Too broad?
1		☐
2		☐
3		☐

Refine

Choose the weakest of your three questions and rewrite it here, using your partner's feedback.

Research contract — hand this in

Complete this before you leave. Your kaiako will review it before Lesson 8.

	Your answer
My topic is
I chose it because
In Lesson 8 I need to find evidence for (1)
(2)
(3)