1. Part II of IDM: Tasks Dr. S.G. Grant | BU Dr. Kathy Swan | UKY
Dr. John Lee | NCSU
New York
July 2015

2. Tasks in IDM Summative Performance Tasks Formative Performance Tasks
Additional Performance Tasks
Staging the Compelling Question
Summative Extensions/Adaptations
Taking Informed Action

3. Tasks in IDM Tasks are demonstrations of student understanding;
Summative Performance Tasks
Formative Performance Tasks
Additional Performance Tasks
Staging the compelling question
Summative extensions/adaptations
Taking informed action
Tasks are demonstrations of student understanding;
Tasks are not instructional strategies; although teachers will need to think about these.

4. IDM Follows C3 Inquiry Arc
If students are asked a COMPELLING QUESTION…
Following the backbone of the C3 Inquiry Arc, IDM begins with a compelling question (Dimension 1) that is consistently answered in the form of an argument (Dimension 4). In this way, the structure of the student’s summative product is convergent—that is, each of the 84 inquiries in the Toolkit results in the construction of a summative argument that answers the compelling question.
This is different than project-based learning, in which students explore a topic and express their understanding in divergent ways. While the modular performance tasks within the 84 inquiries allow students to express these arguments creatively, the heart of each inquiry rests between two points—the question and the argument. What comes between (e.g., supporting questions, formative performance tasks, and sources) is designed to prepare students to move constructively between the question and the summative argument.
Students answer in the form of a SUMMATIVE
ARGUMENT

5. The blueprint of the IDM inquiry indicates this convergence
The blueprint of the IDM inquiry indicates this convergence. For example, in the seventh-grade Uncle Tom’s Cabin inquiry, 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. Depending on time or experience with the task, teachers may choose to have students do an outline of the argument and then express the argument more creatively as detailed in the summative extension described on slides 19 and 20. It is important to note that all of the 84 inquiries follow this argument structure.

6. 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.
It is important to pause here and make sure that teachers 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.” Further, as students become more sophisticated in making arguments, they should begin to include counterclaims that acknowledge the other side of the argument.
It may be good to pull from the Common Core ELA writing standards to make an explicit connection to the shared responsibility for literacy in social studies.

7. Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Can words lead to war?
Argument stems:
Words can lead to war when words , such as the words in Uncle Tom's Cabin, help people to express their disagreements with others.
The causes of the Civil War and most other wars are very complicated and cannot be boiled down to words in a book such as Uncle Tom's Cabin.
It is difficult to determine the extent to which Uncle Tom’s Cabin contributed to the Civil War, but the book did support abolitionism.

8. Your task
Consider the elements of a coherent, evidence based argument as outlined in the 7th Grade Uncle Tom’s Cabin Inquiry.
Can words lead to war? Construct an argument that discusses the impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin using specific claims and relevant evidence from historical sources while acknowledging competing views.
Take a minute to write down the key elements that you would use to evaluate the argument.

9. Discussion:
What elements make a coherent argument about Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
How should we support students in making a coherent argument?

10. IDM Follows C3 Inquiry Arc
For any summative task, students need preparation. Dimensions 2 and 3 of the C3 Framework help to provide some of the structure for the skills and conceptual knowledge that help to move students from question to argument. Using this structure and the NYS K–12 Social Studies 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 a clear, coherent, and evidence-based summative argument.
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

11. 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 and often follow a skill progression of increasing complexity.

12. In this slide, teachers can see the formative performance tasks for the seventh-grade Uncle Tom’s Cabin 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. The presenter 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.

13. Content and Pedagogical Logic

14. Example:
Was the French Revolution successful?

15. Was the French Revolution successful?
Argument stems:
The French Revolution was successful because it gave many citizens a taste of liberty, equality, and power, however briefly it lasted.
The French Revolution was unsuccessful because it led to several rapid changes of regime, culminating in military dictatorship, the Napoleonic Empire, and the restoration of the monarchy.
The French Revolution was successful in changing the tax code between the Three Estates, abolishing feudalism, and redistributing land from the Church to the state. Although the Revolution addressed some of the prerevolutionary problems, the successes came at a very high price.
Content Markers
Early revolutionary gains
Rise of Napoleon
Reign of Terror

16. For a sound argument, students would need to practice with:
Content
Life before revolution
Early revolutionary gains
Redistribution of land
Abolishing feudalism
Changing tax code
Declaration of Rights of Man and Women
Reign of Terror
Rise of Napoleon
Skills
Reading and evaluating sources
Making claims using evidence
Making counterclaims using evidence
Chronological thinking and causation
Constructing arguments

17. Activity Driven Curriculum
11:30 – 12:30
Exercise Driven v.
Activity Driven Curriculum

18. Examples of Formative Task Sequence
What do the buried secrets of Tenochtitlan tell us about the Aztecs?
Should we call it the Silk Road?
Should corporations have a conscience?
Why is the Affordable Care Act so controversial?
List key features from maps; describe how each answers SQ
Write description of three archeological artifacts
Develop chaînes opératoires for econ. innovations
Develop claim about Tenochtitlan demise
Create map of commodities 
Write paragraph on silk market
Create a T-chart of culture-tech shared
Propose different name for the Silk Road; cite reasons
Create classroom definition of (CSR)
Prepare for SAC- create notecards summarizing benefits
Prepare for SAC- create notecards summarizing concerns
Create uninsured graphic depiction
List key components of ACA; write summary goals + challenges
Perform court case reader’s theater; write a par. for and against
Develop claim about why ACA is still controversial

19. IDM Lab™

20. Your task Work on your summative performance argument.
Write argument stems.
Use argument stems to make a list of content and skills needed.
Write formative performance tasks.
Think increasing complexity of tasks
Make sure to cover all content and skills
See list of formative tasks in Toolkit project

21. Additional Performance Tasks
Summative Extensions
Taking Informed Action

22. 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

23. Examples of Summative Extensions
In the these three examples, teachers can see three summative extensions:
In the third-grade inquiry on children’s rights, students can express their arguments through a class discussion using a “take a stand” protocol.
In the eighth-grade inquiry on Japanese internment, students can express their arguments by writing a legal brief related to the balance between freedom and security.
In the tenth-grade inquiry on the French Revolution, students can express their arguments through a perspective-taking exercise using social media.
The 14 annotated inquiries within the Toolkit include a summative extension, which allows 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 stays in place to provide the intellectual foundation for the more creative extension.

24. Taking Informed Action
Where the magic happens.

25. 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

26. Taking Informed Action

27. IDM Taking Informed Action
Organizing a boycott
Organizing a fundraising event for an issue/cause
Circulating a petition
School Newspaper Special Issue
Organizing a school assembly
Uploading a PSA to a website
Bringing stakeholders together for a classroom forum.
Write a letter to an editor
Community
School
Locus of Activity
One of the most inspiring but overwhelming 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 often don’t know what action looks like and immediately feel like failures if students aren’t marching on City Hall. The good news is that there are many ways to take action and teachers can help students take action right from the classroom.
This graphic is to help teachers 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 x-axis of the graphic depicts increasing complexity of taking informed action, moving from understanding, to assessing, to acting.
The y-axis represents the locus of activity—does the effort take place in the classroom, school, or community?
In most cases, understanding and assessing the problem takes place in the classroom.
It is only when students move to action that the location or locus of activity changes. For example, students who write a letter to the newspaper editor 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 have 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 and engaged citizen and learning that citizenship can look different.
Classroom
Identifying the problem(s) and possible civic action(s)
Research Issue relevant to Inquiry
Understand Problem
Assess Options
Apply Action
Complexity of the Effort

28. Example of Taking Informed Action
This slide includes an excerpted blueprint for the seventh-grade Uncle Tom’s Cabin inquiry. The presenter should note the way in which taking informed action is crafted into the three steps and how it is a modular performance task coming at the end of the inquiry.
At the end of the inquiry, students can extend their understanding of the compelling question, “Can words lead to war?” by:
Understanding: Identify and describe a modern issue that needs reform (e.g., child labor, trafficking, or poverty).
Assessing: Create a list of possible actions that involve words. This may include letters, editorials, social media, videos, and protests.
Acting: Choose one of the options and implement it as an individual, small-group, or class project.
Teachers should understand that these are just suggestions and that they should and could modify these experiences based on students’ interests.

29. Example of Embedded Action
This slide includes an excerpted blueprint for the 12th-grade public policy inquiry on the Affordable Care Act. The presenter should note the way in which taking informed action is crafted into the three steps and how it is embedded into the inquiry. In this inquiry, understanding the problem is embedded into Formative Performance Tasks 1, 2, and 3. Assessing the problem is embedded into into Formative Performance Task 4. Acting on the problem serves as the summative extension of the argument. In this way, students have an opportunity to practice taking informed action within an inquiry, not at the end of the inquiry.

30. A Conversation: What are challenges to incorporating Taking Informed Action? How do we overcome these challenges?

31. Summary of IDM 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 modular performance tasks that allow students to express their arguments creatively and to engage civically
This slide provides a summary of the session.

32. IDM Lab™

33. Your task
Work on Summative Extension & Taking Informed Action tasks.