Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: G3 Age group: 8/9

1a) To inquire into the following: School: PIADS School code: 7993
transdisciplinary theme
An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, Teacher(s): Zippy, Justine,
mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends,
communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be human. Date: August 18th - 26th September

central idea Proposed duration: 5 weeks number of hours over number of weeks

Understanding different ways of learning enables people to respond to their own

learning needs as well as those of others.

1b) Summative assessment task(s): 2. What do we want to learn?

What are the possible ways of assessing students understanding of the central What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective,
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for? responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?

Students will choose a passion (My thing project) that they want to explore and the What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
present. When students present, they will need to present their passion using a

variety of multiple intelligences.
Different learning styles (form)

How people construct knowledge (function)

Our responsibility to others and ourselves within a learning community

(responsibility)
Different learning The passion Students Students shared their
styles (form) project was shared their knowledge using 2 or 3
presented passion MIs.
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
without links project using Students were able to
to MIs. 2 or 3 MIs make links between
other presentations and
what style it supported..

Self reflection continuum. This is shared in a 1-to-1 conference with peers or

teachers.

Form
 Function (how did we construct / make knowledge)

1 ____________________ 10 Evidence

I showed responsibility towards others and my own learning

1______________________10 Evidence

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Planning the inquiry

3. How might we know what we have learned? 4. How best might we learn?

This column should be used in conjunction with How best might we learn? What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to
What are the possible ways of assessing students prior knowledge and skills? What encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving
evidence will we look for? questions?

I think I am a ____? learner and later they can fill in a I used to think but now I...

What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of Guest speakers
inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Survey
Brainstorm with the students all the types of activities we do at school. Use a diamond
ranking or list top rank your top 10. Students compare. Biographies - how did historical individuals learn? Develop a biography based on a
person of choice and link to MIs and learning styles
How do you learn? brainstorm and examples (for example, when did you learn how to
ride?) Frayers model (placemat activity) develop an understanding and definition for
knowledge.
Reflections based on the MI stations
Learning activities through the lens of a subject. Math - math on computers, math in
books,

Multiple intelligence activities: Set up 8 stations. 4 each day. Have the students
interact with different MIs and the reflect on each one: what was easy, what was
difficult.

What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
development of the attributes of the learner profile?

 5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?

Youtube: how we learn videos

Nobody good at everything but everyone's good at something! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX6qUFm1HsI

http://www.teachthought.com/interest/a-pep-talk-for-teachers-kid-president/

We can learn anything http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=JC82Il2cjqA

How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?

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Reflecting on the inquiry

 6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose? 7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?

Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students understanding of
the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and teaching of
the inquiry should be included.
Students developed a firm understanding of the fact that people learn in different
ways, that no one way was more important than other. The students understood how
to respond to each other, and incorporated this into their SAT (to ensure they shared
their knowledge using more than 1 MI or learning style).
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
develop an understanding of the concepts identified in What do we want to learn?
demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
In each case, explain your selection.

How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more
accurate picture of each students understanding of the central idea.

SAT - include a bigger focus on research. Encouraging students to not just apply their
knowledge (what they already learned in the unit) but to take it a bit further and learn
new knowledge (and apply research skills)

Technology? How do we incorporate technology into our SAT or FAT?

FATs - A student reflection that encourages them to think about how they might
support others and their learning styles (the responsibility LoI was not made as explicit
as it could have been)

What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and the
transdisciplinary theme?

There was a lot of evidence such as children learning who they are and how they learn
(nature of self) through the various exploration MI activities, as well as through the
SAT (My thing project) .

The reflections the students made were about the activities that helped them learn and
why. this gave them an understanding of what worked for them, and what areas were
challenging - giving them another understanding of themselves (nature of self)

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Reflecting on the inquiry

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning? 9. Teacher notes

Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any
that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.

At this point teachers should go back to box 2 What do we want to learn? and
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the
inquiries.

What student-initiated actions arose from the learning?

Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability to

reflect, to choose and to act.

A student built a half pipe at home, after the My things presentation

Teacher directed but promoting student action: Nicholas wrote that he likes to learn
outside in nature a lot - he could be encouraged to ask for opportunities to move
outside.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011