Inquiry Design Model: Discovering the Beauty & Benefits of IDM

 References: Grant, S.G., Lee, J., Swan, K., (2015, September). [PDF] IDM: The Inquiry Design Model. C3 Teachers. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PnSGQtgkpovutLeW5wGrfVNz_-DsY1sL Grant, S. G., Swan, K., & Lee, J. (2017). Tasks Matter, Too! In S.G. Grant, K. Swan, & J. Lee (Authors), Inquiry-Based Practice in Social Studies Education: Understanding the Inquiry Design Model (p.p. 55-77). Routledge & C3 Teachers. Journell, W., Friedman, A. M., Thacker, E. S., & Fitchett, P. G. (2018, August 31). Getting inquiry design just right. Social Education. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1228687 Levstik, L. S., & Barton, K. C. (2023). It's Not Just A Mishap: The Theory Behind Disciplined Inquiry. In L.S. Levstik & K.C. Barton (Authors),  Doing history: Investigating with children in Elementary and middle schools (p.p. 11-20).  Routledge. Ollila, J., & Macy, M. (2018, March 2). [PDF] Social Studies Curriculum Integrat...

4th Grade Social Studies Lesson            In my time student teaching in Teri Crowe's classroom at St. Clement's Regional Catholic School, one of the biggest challenges I came up against, particularly toward the end of the semester when I was  solo teaching entire days by myself, was keeping track of and having enough time to get everything done. There were multiple times when Teri would set me up to teach a grammar, ELA, or social studies lesson, providing me with all that she needed the students to complete, and many times I ran over the time  allotment and did not get to complete everything in the lesson. This was a real challenge for me for some  time. Even as I became more and more comfortable running the classroom on my own, I found it difficult at times to get through all of the material the students needed to finish, let alone implement some  of the theory I'm learning at Fordham, or take a deep dive into some of the material. T...

  4th Grade Social Studies Lesson          Summative performance tasks are directly aligned to an inquiries compelling question and  require students to construct an evidence-based argument in response to it (Grant, Swan, Lee, 2017). An argument is a collection of claims that are built upon evidence from a researchable question (Grant,  Lee, Swan, 2015). As mentioned in my prior post, the 4th grade social studies lesson in Mrs. Crowe's class did not provide the framework for students to investigate an inquiry and develop an evidence-based argument. In the Inquiry Design Model, students have multiple options when presenting their argument  such as creating a bullet-point outline, writing an essay, or designing a poster. The students in Mrs. Crowe's class had an Exit Ticket that consisted of answering the question, "Why is culture so important to a particular people or nation?" . Although similar to the initial essential question at the beginni...

  4th Grade Social Studies Lesson               The Formative Performance Tasks within the IDM are outlined by the supporting questions and  a congruence exists between the two (Grant, Swan, & Lee, 2017). The formative performance tasks  provide the opportunity for students to simultaneously build their knowledge of the content and their  social studies skills (Grant, Lee, Swan, 2015). Students engage in a series of exercises that allow them to demonstrate the content, concepts, and skills they have acquired that will assist them in building an  effective summative task argument (Grant, Swan, Lee, 2017). Formative performance tasks provide  student-centered exercises that allow students to independently inquire and answer the supporting questions for themselves.          As an evaluative tool, formative performance tasks surface students knowledge of the supporting  question  and...

  4th Grade Social Studies Lesson          The IDM framework begins with a compelling question that outlines an inquiry, and the supporting  questions support and sustain it (Swan, Lee, & Grant, 1970). With a vertical alignment, supporting  questions assist students in organizing the main ideas of the compelling question, and the SQ's  will  progress logically in content and become more complex as the inquiry develops (Swan, Lee, & Grant, 1970). In reflecting upon my own 4th grade lesson plan, it took more of a horizontal trajectory. In the  "procedures" section of the instructional sequence, the three questions provided that the students have to  answer based on the PBS video they observe do not require the students to enter into inquiry. Rather, these questions demand a correct answer. Furthermore, the questions do not provide a logical progression in content nor do they become more complex or sophisticated. Instead, ...

  Grade 4 Social Studies Lesson Plan             Social Studies instruction has long suffered to find space and time in the classroom since the  implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act  and the onset of the Common Core State Standards  (Ollila & Macy, 2018) . Due to these reforms, teachers are strapped for time in an effort to meet the  math and english language arts requirements that their students will be tested on with standardized state  tests. According to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics  (2012), on average 11.7 hours of instruction is spent on English, 5.6 hours is spent on math, and only 2.3  hours is spent on social studies per week in elementary classrooms (Ollila & Macy, 2018). It is becoming  imperative that teachers find a cross-disciplinary approach to integrate social studies across the  curriculum. The Inquiry Design Model (...