Social Studies Inquiry in Arkansas This slide deck introduces the Arkansas Social Studies Resource Toolkit and Professional Development project and is the first slide in the professional development series. The slides that follow: The next three slide decks cover the components of the Inquiry Design Model (IDM™)—questions, tasks, and sources. (The IDM™ is described in detail in the Conceptual Foundations section of the Toolkit project.) The first of these three decks deals with questions, both compelling and supporting. The second deck moves to tasks and covers the topics of assessment, formative and summative performance tasks, and taking informed action. The last deck of slides is on sources and focuses on the content of an inquiry, the purposes and limitations of sources, and the manner in which students can use them throughout an inquiry.   Name | Date | Location

Wither Social Studies No More… The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards The Arkansas Social Studies Curriculum Framework and now… This slide sets up the Toolkit project by reviewing its origins.   The Arkansas Social Studies Resource Toolkit and Professional Development project

The Arkansas Toolkit Project Where… This slide indicates where the Toolkit project materials will live.   All inquiries and the professional learning resources (of which these slides are a part) will be housed on the C3 Teachers website at http://www.c3teachers.org/arkansas. www.c3teachers.org/arkansas

This slide introduces the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.   Before looking at the Toolkit project, it is important to look at the two framing documents beginning with the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards published in 2013 by the National Council for the Social Studies. The C3 Framework project brought together the social studies coordinators from 21 states and the leaders of 15 social studies-oriented professional organizations, along with 17 history and social science content and pedagogical experts to create a framework for writing state-level social studies standards. The C3 Framework adds the all-important third “C” to the idea of college and career standards—civic life. Social studies is not the only school subject that contributes to the preparation of students for civic engagement, however, it is the field with unique knowledge and skills to contribute to that mission.

The Intellectual Heart of the C3 Framework—Jerome Bruner “We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development.” —The Process of Education This is the first of two slides that talk about the “heart” of the C3 Framework.   Although it does not appear in the C3 Framework, this quote by New York University psychologist Jerome Bruner captures much of the intent. Bruner wrote these words in 1960, and it seems that educators have been trying to live up to them ever since. Echoing the work of John Dewey, Bruner argues that teachers serve as the all-important gateway between students and ideas. Moreover, he contends that those ideas need to be presented in ways that honor both the ideas themselves and the intelligence and experience that students bring to bear. Teachers’ instructional challenge, then, is not to dumb down the ideas of social studies, but rather to transform them based on what they know about the particular knowledge and experiences of the students in their classrooms.

The Pedagogical Core of the C3 Framework—The Inquiry Arc Dimension 1: Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools (Civics, Economics, Geography, and History) Dimension 3: Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence Dimension 4: Communicating Conclusions and Taking Action This slide demonstrates how Bruner’s call to educate every child well plays out in the Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework.   If Bruner’s quote in The Process of Education is the intellectual heart of the C3 Framework, then the Inquiry Arc is its pedagogical core. The Inquiry Arc is a set of interlocking and mutually reinforcing ideas that features the four dimensions listed on the slide. These dimensions speak to the elements of constructing a curriculum inquiry or investigation into a social studies issue or event. Dimension 1: Features the development of questions and the planning of inquiries. With the entire scope of human experience as its backdrop, the content of social studies consists of a rich array of facts, concepts, and generalizations. The way to tie all of this content together is through the use of compelling and supporting questions. Dimension 2: Working with a robust compelling question and a set of discrete supporting questions, teachers and students determine the content and skills they need in order to develop their inquiries. Dimension 3: Social studies is an evidence-based field. The disciplinary concepts represented in Dimension 2 provide a solid base from which students can begin constructing answers to their questions. Equally important, however, is knowing how to fill in the gaps in their knowledge by learning how to work from sources and evidence in order to develop claims and counterclaims. Dimension 4: Although there is no substitute for thoughtful and persuasive writing, good teachers expand the modalities for expressing arguments (e.g., discussions, debates, video productions, portfolios) and find creative venues (e.g., classrooms, school assemblies, community events, online forums) in which students can communicate their preliminary and final conclusions.

Inquiry Design Model (IDM) This slide introduces the Inquiry Design Model (IDM™).   Fundamental to the Toolkit curriculum work, the Inquiry Design Model is a unique approach to creating instructional materials that avoids over-prescription by highlighting key elements, offering pedagogical suggestions, and relying on teacher expertise and experience. The IDM™ is rooted in the ten assumptions described in the Conceptual Foundations component of the Toolkit project.

The IDM Blueprint This slide presents the blueprint template. Reviewing the entirety of the blueprint at this point is not necessary as the succeeding slide decks are designed to delve into each of the components in considerable detail. The idea is that audience members will gain something from a review of a sample inquiry. They will gain even more, however, if they come to understand and embrace the logic behind the components and the ways that they fit together.  

Looking Ahead: The IDM Series Component I Questions Component II Tasks The next three slide decks cover the particulars of the IDM—questions, tasks, and sources. The first of these decks deals with questions, both compelling and supporting. The second deck moves to tasks and covers the topics of assessment, formative and summative performance tasks, and taking informed action. The last deck of slides, sources, focuses on the content of an inquiry, the purposes and limitations of sources, and the manner in which students can use them throughout an inquiry.   Through these slide decks, audience members are invited to look deeply into the IDM process both as a whole and as individual components. Understanding the IDM process and components from the inside out should help teachers enact the Toolkit inquiries and engage in the process, either by themselves or with others, of constructing their own inquiries. The key points to keep in mind in this session and the other three are: The inquiries presented are not modules, scripts, or sets of lesson plans. Teachers need to bring their knowledge and experience to bear. Inquiries are intended to be modified and adapted to the particular students each teacher has. Since not all Key Ideas are represented by Toolkit inquiries, teachers—individually and together—will want to construct their own inquiries. If they would like to share them with peers, they may do so through the C3 Teachers website. Component III Sources