When I first started teaching, I would be hoarse after the first few days of school. I spent so much time talking about myself, talking about the rules, talking about procedures. I hate to think of all those sleepy-eyed kids who were trying in earnest to listen. They had to be so bored out of their gourds. But at the same time, there is so much information to relay during the first days of school. Every year I try to rethink how I can best deliver that information. One of the questions I try to ask myself is, "How can I talk less?" Document-based inquiry (DBI) was an epiphany for me. The first time I encountered DBI was when I was searching for a new way to introduce a novel. Some novels have a lot of cultural and historical context for students to discover, and I found DBI an intriguing way to do that. What is DBI? My friend, Dennis, further introduced me to this strategy when he demonstrated it at the Boise State Writing Project. DBI starts with an essential qu