Don't Forget the Tasks: Why Formative Tasks Are Key to Deliberation

Deliberation and inquiry can go hand-in-hand. Inquiry-based learning calls on teachers to facilitate student-led discovery, something that can only happen when students ask questions and weigh possible answers before settling on a plausible and evidentiary answer. Teaching through inquiry is about setting students up to wrestle with the issue at hand using sources so that they can communicate their conclusions. For this outcome to happen, deliberation must be front and center in the progression from compelling question to summative performance task. In this article, the authors discuss how a sequence of tasks supports meaningful deliberation within an inquiry. Specifically, they look at an upper elementary inquiry that features a cost-benefit analysis on a dam project in Tennessee.