1. THE INQUIRY DESIGN MODEL SESSION 2:
Tasks
These slides introduce the second component of the Inquiry Design Model™ (IDM™)—tasks.
The Inquiry Design Model features a variety of performance tasks that provide students with opportunities for learning and provide teachers with multiple opportunities to evaluate what students know and are able to do. Based on the idea that it is helpful to use assessments for instructional purposes as well as evaluation, the IDM features both formative and summative performance tasks.
This presentation explores the variety of performance tasks that are outlined within the inquiry, including formative performance tasks, summative performance tasks, extension activities, and taking informed action opportunities.

2. Tasks in IDM Summative Performance Tasks Formative Performance Tasks
Summative extensions
Taking informed action
The Inquiry Design Model (IDM) provides many opportunities for students to demonstrate knowledge and skill growth. These tasks are framed as performances since students are asked to demonstrate what they know in a variety of forms. The tasks are intentionally constructed to give students opportunities to learn by doing and to give teachers steady loops of data to inform their instructional decision making. These types of tasks will be defined and operationalized in the following slides, but a short description is provided below as a preview:
Summative performance tasks are tied to an inquiry’s compelling question and ask students to make an evidence-based argument in response to it.
Formative performance tasks reflect an inquiry’s supporting questions and offer students opportunities to build their content knowledge and their social studies skills. Formative tasks also offer teachers snapshots of their students’ progress so that they can modify their instructional plans if necessary.
Summative Extension activities offer additional opportunities for students to extend their understanding and/or to express that understanding in creative ways.
Taking informed action exercises allow students to bring their newly formed knowledge and skills into contemporary situations in which they can participate in civic action.

3. IDM Follows C3 Inquiry Arc
If students are asked a COMPELLING QUESTION…
Following the backbone of the C3 Inquiry Arc, the IDM begins with a compelling question (Dimension 1) that is consistently answered in the form of an evidence-based argument (Dimension 4). In this way, the structure of the students’ summative product is convergent—that is, each of the 84 inquiries in the Toolkit results in the construction of an evidence-based argument that answers the compelling question.
The compelling question-summative performance task approach is different than project-based learning, in which students explore a topic and express their understandings in divergent ways. Although the extension activities and taking informed action exercises within the inquiries allow students to express these arguments creatively, the heart of each inquiry rests between two points—the compelling question and the argument that defines the summative performance task. What comes between (e.g., supporting questions, formative performance tasks, and sources) is designed to prepare students to move constructively between the compelling question and the summative argument.
Students answer in the form of a SUMMATIVE
ARGUMENT
In the middle are the SUPPORTING
QUESTIONS, FORMATIVE
PERFORMANCE TASKS, and SOURCES

4. The IDM Blueprint underscores the convergence of the summative performance task. In the seventh-grade Uncle Tom’s Cabin inquiry, for example, the summative performance task begins with the compelling question followed by the phrase, “construct an argument.” The verb construct was purposefully chosen to indicate that not all arguments must take the form of an essay.

5. What is an argument?
An argument is a collection of claims supported by relevant evidence, which can be considered an answer to the question investigated by the research. As arguments become more sophisticated, students might include counterclaims.
Presenters may want to pause here and make sure that the participants understand the nature of arguments. In this slide, arguments are defined as a “collection of claims supported by relevant evidence, which can be considered an answer to the question investigated by the research.” A secondary point is that, as students become more sophisticated in making arguments, they should begin to include counterclaims that acknowledge the other sides of their arguments.
It may be good to pull from the Common Core ELA writing standards here to make an explicit connection to the shared responsibility for literacy in social studies.

6. Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Was Containment a Success?
Argument stems:
The U.S. policy of containment was successful in keeping Americans aware of world events and wary of growing Soviet power as well as giving the U.S. a sense of victory because of no actual war.
The U.S. policy of containment was only one of many elements of foreign policy and be the sole cause of failure that lead to several nations falling to Communism.
Containment as a concept was easy to promote and understand, but was difficult to produce when it came to nations we neither influenced nor could fully support.
The inquiries included in the Toolkit include three to five possible argument stems within the annotation. An argument stem acts as the framing or thesis statement for students’ arguments. In this slide, the argument stems for the seventh-grade Uncle Tom’s Cabin inquiry are listed.

7. Your Task
Consider the elements of a coherent, evidence-based argument.
Take a minute to write down the key elements that you would use to evaluate the argument.
In this task, participants should take a moment to consider, individually or in small groups, the evaluation criteria that they would use to determine students’ abilities to make and support arguments that respond to the compelling question. It may be easier if presenters narrow the product to an argument-based essay, rather than an outline or poster. This exercise could also be framed in more specific grading terms. For example, presenters could ask, “How would a student earn an A for his or her written argument?”
If the participants in this professional development are teachers, it is likely they will come to this exercise with a number of criteria that they use to evaluate students’ work (e.g., a clear thesis statement, relevant supporting evidence, free of grammatical errors, correct factual knowledge). Presenters should encourage the participants to think about the content and conceptual knowledge, as well as the skills that would need to be present in order for students to demonstrate competence.

8. Discussion What elements make a coherent argument?
How should we support students in making a coherent argument?
Presenters should plan to take a few minutes to discuss the list of evaluation criteria with the participants. After spending some time discussing these criteria, it would be interesting to note if the list converges around a particular set of ideas, if participants offer different criteria, or if participants make any reference to the kinds of students with whom they work. Presenters should then move the discussion toward the second question: How should we support students in making a coherent argument? As participants consider this question, it is likely they will raise the necessity of formative work—that is, students need practice writing arguments (outlining their essays, building claims with evidence) and that they would need to learn the content and conceptual knowledge that would allow them to speak with historical precision and persuasion. From here, presenters can introduce the formative performance task element of the IDM and the rationale for that activity.

9. IDM™ Follows C3 Inquiry Arc
For any summative task, students need preparation. Dimensions 2 and 3 of the C3 Framework help to provide clarity about the skills and conceptual knowledge that help to move students from question to argument. Using these skills and concepts and the content in the Arkansas Social Studies Curriculum Framework, teachers can begin to structure the formative learning experiences that will allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of the content, concepts, and skills that are needed to produce clear, coherent, and evidence-based summative arguments.
If students are asked a COMPELLING QUESTION…
In the middle are the FORMATIVE TASKS (Content and Skills)
Students answer in the form of a SUMMATIVE
ARGUMENT

10. Formative Performance Tasks
In order to make a coherent and evidenced-based argument
students need practice with argumentation skills
students need a strong content/conceptual foundation
This is where we get into formative work—there is no “gotcha” summative assessment.
These formative tasks are framed by the supporting questions.
*NOTE: These formative tasks often follow a skill progression of increasing complexity.
This slide underscores a point made in the previous slide and is an important foundation of the IDM: Students need experience with content and skills throughout an inquiry in order to make a strong argument. In this way, teachers avoid “gotcha” assessments—tasks that catch students off guard or without proper preparation for success on the summative performance task. The formative performance tasks within the inquiry are designed not as activities but as exercises intended to move students toward success on the summative performance task. Although these tasks do not include all of what students might need to know, they do include the major ideas that provide a foundation for their arguments.
The formative performance tasks are framed by the supporting questions within the inquiry. In this way, the formative performance tasks and the supporting questions have a similar relationship to that of the summative argument and the compelling question.
Additionally, the tasks allow students to practice the skills of evidence-based claim making. Moreover, the tasks often demonstrate a skill progression of increasing complexity from the first to the last formative performance task.

11. In this slide, participants can see the formative performance tasks for the inquiry highlighted. Participants should note the relationship of the supporting question to the formative performance task by referencing the first component of the IDM series (questions). Presenters could also foreshadow the third component of the IDM series (sources) by noting that the featured sources were selected to support students in working through the formative performance tasks.

12. Your Task
Using the excerpted blueprint on the last slide, examine the formative performance tasks in the eleventh grade Containment Inquiry in relationship to the summative argument. In small groups, make a list of the ways that the the formative performance tasks help students make a coherent, evidenced-based argument.
This is a good place for presenters to pause and have participants analyze the formative performance tasks and the way they have been intentionally constructed to lead students to crafting better arguments. Presenters should note that the formative performance tasks allow students to practice the skills of evidence-based claim making. Also, the tasks typically demonstrate a skill progression of increasing complexity from the first to the last formative performance task.
In these ways, the formative performance tasks are not activities designed to simply engage students (although affective engagement is important). Instead, they are primarily designed as exercises to support student growth and success when approaching the summative tasks.

13. Additional Performance Tasks
Summative extensions
Taking informed action
Building on the purpose and structure of the summative and formative performance tasks, presenters can introduce the additional performance tasks included within the inquiries. These tasks include opportunities for students to extend their understanding and/or to express that understanding in creative ways. Teachers will never have enough time to do all the things they would like to do instructionally. But teachers who create the time to linger on one of the inquiries might engage students in the extension activities or taking informed action opportunities.

14. Summative Extensions
Additional or alternative ways for students to express their arguments
In keeping with C3 Framework:
D Present adaptations of arguments and explanations on topics of interest to others to reach audiences and venues outside the classroom using print and oral technologies (e.g., posters, essays, letters, debates, speeches, reports, and maps) and digital technologies (e.g., Internet, social media, and digital documentary).
Included in all annotated inquiries
Summative extensions are included in all of the inquiries and highlight the additional or alternative ways in which students may express their arguments. Such activities are in keeping with the C3 Framework, which specifically states the need for students to a) present adaptations of their arguments, b) do so with a range of audiences, and c) do so in a variety of venues outside of the classroom.
Unlike the summative performance task, these extension activities are divergent in that the products vary from inquiry to inquiry. Some examples of extensions from the Toolkit are on the next slide.

15. Example of Summative Extensions
The summative extensions allow teachers to keep the summative tasks interesting and engaging. In cases where teachers do the extension, they may want to consider modifying the summative argument to an outline, rather than a fully developed essay. However, it is important that the argument come first to provide the intellectual foundation for the more creative extension.

16. Taking Informed Action
Ways for students to civically engage with the inquiry
Sometimes action is embedded in summative performance task
In keeping with C3 Framework
Step 1: Understand the problem
Step 2: Assess the problem
Step 3: Take action on the problem
The other type of performance task includes opportunities for students to take informed action. These experiences are intentionally designed so that students can civically engage with the content of an inquiry. In some cases, taking informed action is embedded into the formative and summative performance tasks to ease the time burden on teachers and to make civic opportunities more seamless within the inquiry. Some examples of embedded action are included in the slides that follow.
Informed action can take numerous forms (e.g., discussions, debates, presentations) and can occur in a variety of contexts both inside and outside of the classroom. The key to any action, however, is the idea that it is informed. The Inquiry Design Model, therefore, stages the taking informed action exercises such that students build their knowledge and understanding of an issue before engaging in any social action. In the understand stage, students demonstrate that they can now think about the issues behind the inquiry in a new setting or context. The assess stage asks students to consider alternative perspectives, scenarios, or options as they begin to define a possible set of actions. And the act stage is where students decide if and how they will put into effect the results of their planning.

17. IDM™ Taking Informed Action
Organize a boycott
Organize a fundraising event for an issue/cause
Circulate a petition
Publish school newspaper special issue
Organize a school assembly
Upload a PSA to a website
Bring stakeholders together for a classroom forum.
Write a letter to an editor
Community
School
Locus of Activity
Classroom
Identify problem(s) and possible civic action(s)
One of the most challenging parts of the C3 Framework is taking informed action. A teacher’s worst enemies are the clock and the calendar because, together, they can limit time for teaching and learning. Additionally, teachers typically have not had much experience with action activities and may wonder if they have to encourage students to march on city hall. The good news is that there are many ways to take action and teachers can help students take action right in the classroom.
The graphic on this slide is intended to help participants understand that there are a myriad of ways to take action within and outside of the classroom. Presenters might want to begin with the following explanations:
The horizontal-axis of the graphic depicts increasing complexity of taking informed action, moving from understanding to assessing to acting.
The vertical-axis represents the locus of activity—whether the effort takes place in the classroom, school, or community.
In most cases, understanding and assessing the problem takes place in the classroom.
Typically, it is only when students move to action that the location or locus of activity may change. For example, students who write a letter to the local newspaper could do so from the classroom, while students organizing a school assembly on a social issue would need to move outside of the classroom walls and would likely need to coordinate with the school administration. In cases where students organize a fundraiser or boycott, they would probably need to move outside of school grounds into the community.
It is important to note that wherever action takes place, students are learning the foundations of becoming an active, informed, and engaged citizen. 
Research Issue relevant to Inquiry
Understand Problem
Assess Options
Apply Action
Complexity of the Effort

18. Example of Taking Informed Action
This slide shows an excerpt from the Containment blueprint. Presenters should note the way in which taking informed action is crafted into the three steps and how it is an additional performance task coming at the end of the inquiry.   
Teachers should understand that these are just suggestions and that they should and could modify these experiences based on their students’ interests.

19. Summary of Session 2: Tasks
Evaluating the content and conceptual knowledge as well as skills that make up the social studies is tricky business.
IDM features a variety of performance tasks that are outlined within the inquiry.
These tasks include:
consistent summative argument across all inquiries
series of formative performance tasks that prepare students for the summative tasks
additional performance tasks that allow students to express their arguments creatively and to engage civically
This slide provides a summary of the session.

20. Sources LOOKING AHEAD:
Looking ahead, presenters might want to preview the next presentation for the IDM model, in which participants explore the role of sources in supporting the performance tasks and how student source work can be scaffolded and supported.