Choice A: IDM: Crafting Compelling Questions

 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 (IDM), offers a brilliant, cross-disciplinary platform for

 integrating social studies content with ELA (Tackett, Pennington, & Fortune, 2023). Furthermore, I

 believe IDM has the ability to cultivate cross-disciplinary connections in other content areas as well.

        Based off of the C3 Framework, the IDM template and structure is a student-centered approach

to learning that takes the student from being a passive learner into purposeful activity; where learning

almost always takes place (Levstik & Barton, 2023). Students natural curiosity and excitement for

learning can be encouraged by teachers when they provide an environment where students explore relevant

and vital questions (Levstik & Barton, 2023). The IDM framework meets this need for students in very

essential ways. This blog will cover the key characteristics of IDM, along with the beauty and

benefits of this framework, as well as incorporate reflections on my own practice, preparation, and

misconceptions  of social studies instruction.

        In my first student teaching post in Fall of 2022, I was afforded many opportunities to teach social

studies to the 4th grade students in Teri Crowe's general education classroom at St. Clements Regional

Catholic School. The many lessons I taught were based on Fordham Universities template that was to be

followed for all of the lessons we were to plan. Incorporated into this template was the Gradual Release of

Responsibility technique of I Do, We Do, You Do.  My initial social studies lesson plan that I was to

record and discuss with my field specialist, was based around the question, Why is dance so important to

the Native American culture? , (lesson plan linked above). This lesson plan was directly tied to the content

the students were learning about the Iroquois and Algonquin Indians. 

        Considering IDM's framework, inquiry begins with a compelling question. A compelling question

should incorporate the interests of your students and the experiences they bring to class (Grant, Lee, &

Swan, 2015). The question Why is dance so important to the Native American culture?  does not take into

consideration the students interests or experiences. In fact, chances are the majority of the 21 students in

Teri Crowe's 4th grade class most likely have not had any experience with any type of dance, and perhaps

no interest in dance at all. The question is narrow in scope and does not mirror students ideas and life

experiences that they bring to school (Grant, Lee, & Swan, 2015). This question is built around my own

personal interest in dance with the idea and motivation that if I'm teaching something that inspires and 

excites me, it may inspire and excite the students as well. An additional motivation behind incorporating

dance/movement into this lesson was to give the students the opportunity to get up and move - to

incorporate kinesthetic modalities that would be of benefit to students with different learning styles and 

various disabilities that benefit from movement (ie: ADHD & ASD). Although well-intentioned, the

question posed in this lesson misses the mark in appealing to the students interests and reflecting the 

experiences they bring to the classroom.

        Another key characteristic of compelling questions is that they pose an open-ended or subjective

inquiry (Journell, Friedman, Thacker, & Fitchett, 2018). Compelling questions should offer more than

one possible answer based on evidence thereby creating the opportunity to form a debatable argument 

(Journell, Friedman, Thacker, & Fitchett, 2018). The question, Why is dance so important to the Native 

American culture? , is neither open-ended nor subjective. Although there are 3 answers to this

question, the answers are within the narrow scope of the question and do not offer the students the 

opportunity for deep, evidence-based inquiry that can eventually form a debatable argument for or against 

the importance of Native American dance. A more compelling question for this lesson would be, Can 

Native Americans make it rain? 

        Questions are key elements in our instruction. Leading our students to knowledge and discovering

answers is vital (Swan, Lee, Grant, 1970). However, a well-crafted compelling question developed to 

strike a balance between intellectual rigor and students personal interest will ignite curiosity, and it 

provides legitimate purpose to the study of all social issues (Swan, Lee, Grant, 1970). As Socrates states

in Plato's Protagoras, "My way toward truth is to ask the right questions" (Swan, Lee, Grant, 1970).

The discovery of IDM's Compelling Question has personally challenged me to place my students front and

center in my lesson plans and to create questions that are broad yet intriguing and accessible.