Planning the inquiry
1. What is our purpose?
1a) To inquire into the following:
● transdisciplinary theme
An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings,
nature, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our
creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.
● central idea
Stories can engage their audience and communicate meaning
1b) Summative assessment task(s):
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
Goal: Students should be able to demonstrate their understanding on how
effective stories are made and shared to an audience.
Role: Author or playwrights
Audience: Preschool teachers and children
Scenario/situation: Students will choose the best way they can create and
present a short story to different groups of people. Children with common choice
of role will be grouped together. Authors will write and draw their own story
books. Playwright will create a short story that can be presented through a role
play with some of his/her classmates as the actors.
Product: Story book or play
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
Planning the inquiry
Class/grade: Pre-Kindergarten Age group: 4-5
School: Domuschola International School School code: 7800
Title: Stories
Teacher(s): Diana, Love, Brenn, Mina, Dean
Date: October 6 to December 15, 2015
Proposed duration: 10 Weeks
2. What do we want to learn?
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Focus Key Concepts: Form, Connection, Perspective
Related Concepts: communication, characterization, expression
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea
● How to construct an effective story
● What stories can convey
● How stories are created and shared
● Feelings and emotions that stories evoke
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
● What are the parts of a story? (FORM)
● What is the message of the story? (CONNECTION)
● What are the different kinds of stories? (FORM)
● What are the different genre of stories? (FORM)
● What are the different ways stories are presented? (FORM, PERSPECTIVE)
● How do stories make you feel? (CONNECTION, PERSPECTIVE)
● How do stories make your audience feel? (CONNECTION, PERSPECTIVE)
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? encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving
What evidence will we look for? questions?
Tuning-in:
Pre-Unit Assessment: ● How it makes me feel
○ Various stories
● “How it makes me feel” ○ Students read various stories set up in different stations. These
○ Each day will represent an emotion (i.e. Monday = Happy). The stories convey certain emotions (happy, sad, mad, excited, scared,
different emotions are happy, sad, mad, excited, and scared. There
etc.)
will be 5 possible stations where each student will be able to
■ Students will be provided choices to demonstrate what they feel through
express these different emotions. The stations will be acting,
painting, instrumental, dance, and song acting, dancing, painting, instruments
● “Comic Strips” ● Comic Stirps
○ Students will be given comic strips that convey a message and a ● Students will be presented with comic strips. Through looking at these
story. there will be no words in the comic strips, therefore, the comic strips they will come up with a story that shows their own
students will create their own story and message by looking at the interpretation of the comic stirps. Through this activity students will show
comic strips what they know about characters, setting, plot, emotions, and message
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of a story.
of inquiry? What evidence will we look for? What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
development of the attributes of the learner profile?
● The children’s stories, comments, actions, questions, and conversations
with their classmates and teachers during the activity will be recorded A. Transdisciplinary Skills
through photos, anecdotes, and checklists.
● The students should be able to enumerate, retell, and describe details about Thinking Skills
stories and emotions through their work in “How it makes me feel” ● Analysis: Students learn how to analyze elements in a story that will help them in
creating their own.
Line of Inquiry What will be assessed? How will evidence be collected? ● Application: Students apply what they have learned by creating their own stories.
● Comprehension: Students show their understanding of the story by answering
How to construct an effective There are different parts of a story. Students will analyze the parts of the questions posed to them.
story ● Students identify what’s in a stories read in class. Characters, Social Skills:
story - characters, setting and settings, and beginning, middle and
● respecting others: Students show respect by listening to teacher and one another as
parts. end scenes will be placed on a chart.
stories are read.
● Students come up with a Students will write a story
story that has different parts -
● adopting a variety of group roles: Students assume a variety of roles as they work in
a beginning, middle, and end groups in creating shared stories
● Students come up with their Communication Skills:
own story as a class, in small ● listening: Students have many opportunities to develop their listening skills while a
groups and individually story is being read and while sharing ideas with in a group
● speaking: Students learn to share their ideas in coming up with a group story.
What stories can convey Stories convey messages. Students will have different books and ● reading: Students get to read various books all throughout the unit.
● Students identify message/s story tellers in class. They will be ● writing: Students have many opportunities to write their own stories.
of a story asked different questions about the ● Presenting: Students present what they have written to the class.
● Students respond and message they understood from the
Self-Management Skills:
interpret stories based on its story. They will create their own story.
message
● fine motor skills: Students develop their fine motor skills through writing.
● Organization: Students learn to organize their thoughts in coming up with a story.
Research Skills:
 How stories are created and
shared
Feelings and emotions that
stories evoke
Stories can be created and shared in
different ways.
● Students explore the different
ways stories are created and
shared - writing books, story
telling, drama, song, dance,
puppets
● Students make their own
story books and do a role play
to present a story
● Students tell a story to the
teachers, classmates,
parents, and to other children
as audience.
Stories evoke feelings and emotions.
● Students respond or react to
stories presented.
● Students identify different
emotions and feelings that a
story can bring out.
Students will be exposed to different
resource speakers, engagements, and
field trips to see the different ways
stories are made and presented.
B. Learner Profile
C. Attitudes
Students will read different books and
their reactions to the stories will be
noted. Did it make them feel happy,
sad, excited, scared, bored, or mad?
Students can put corresponding icons
on each story reviewed in class
● formulating questions: Students develop their own questions about what it means to
be a writer.
● recording data: Students record the data they have collected about how to write a
good story.
● presenting research skills: Students present what they have found out to the class.
● communicator: Students learn that through stories people can communicate their
thoughts, feelings and ideas.
● risk-taker: Students take risks by expressing their innermost self through stories and
presenting these to a group
● creativity: Students show their ability to create and be creative in their story writing.
● Enthusiasm: Students show enthusiasm while listening to each other’s stories.
● Confidence: Students gain more confidence as they are given many opportunities to
share their stories in front of the class.
● Appreciation: Students learn to appreciate the stories read to them as well as those
that they have created.

5. What resources need to be gathered?

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
People and Places
● Repertory Children’s Theater: Alice in Wonderland
● Adarna Publishing House (Illustrating story books)
● Guest Storytellers
● Guest illustrator
Literature
● Red Riding Hood retold & illustrated by James Marshall Goldilocks and the Three Bears retold & illustrated by James Marshall
● The Three Little Pigs retold & illustrated by James Marshall The Three Little Pigs illustrated by Rene Cloke
● Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book The Flying Prince adapted by Brian Conway
● The Princess and the Potty by Wendy Cheyette Lewison The Prince and the Potty by Wendy Cheyette Lewison
● The King of Spring by Nick & Claire Page The Secret Fairy Garden by Allia Nolan
● Jack and the Beanstalk (re-telling) King Midas and the Golden Touch edited by Bob Williams
● The Three Wishes edited by Bob Williams The Kiss that Missed by David Melling
● Ratatouille By Victoria Saxon Wee Witches’ Halloween by Jerry Smath
● The King Who Rained by Fred Gwynne Don’t Read this Book by Jill Lewis & Deborah Allwright
● Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Book by Lauren Child I Show Respect by David Parker
● I Can Cooperate by David Parker I Like Books by Anthony Browne
● So Sick! by Little Steps Books Larry Learns to Listen by Karen Poth
● Fats, oils, and sweets by Robin Nelson Please and Thank You by Richard Scarry
● God Always loves me by Denise Vezey Throwing Tantrums by Joy Berry
● Teasing by Joy Berry Let’s Share by Jillian Harker
● Excuse Me! by Moira Butterfield A Silly Story by Mercer Mayer
Audio-Visual
● The Three Little Pigs
Links for Teachers
● Once Upon A Time at Teaching Heart
● Fairy tales and classic stories
● Fairy Tales Theme
Others
● Costumes and Props
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
● The art station will have materials to create characters and settings depending on the story being read that week
● Books and different resources will be available inside the room to cater to students’ needs
● Costumes and props will be available in the acting area

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Reflecting on the inquiry
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?
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 explored different ways a story can be presented by looking through books,
short movie clips and watching a play. Students also looked into the events in a
story to be able to understand that there is a beginning, middle, and end. To show
their understanding, they used story trains to show the events of stories they have
read in class. To address what stories convey, students also charted the message
of each story they read and watched through movie clips and the ‘Alice in
Wonderland’’ play. In order for students to show their understanding of feelings and
emotions that stories evoke and how stories are created and shared, they acted in
their own version of the ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ Through this engagement, they
created their own costumes, props, and tried to convey the feelings and emotions of
the characters they were acting.
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more
accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea.
There should be an improvement when it comes to finding out about how stories are
made. Students had difficulty expressing this line of inquiry. We should provide
more engagements that will expose students to different stages on how stories are
created. Perhaps, using graphic organizers when it comes to comparing authors,
writers, and artists.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and
the transdisciplinary theme?
Throughout all the engagements students were able to express themselves in
different ways. They wrote stories, acted and created plays to explore the different
ways people express ideas and the feelings that accompany those ideas. Students
also practiced coming up with their own ideas in creating stories. When it came to
practicing their creativity, students tried different art mediums and imagination in
their engagements.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
● develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
learn?”
● Form - Students learned the different elements of a story - title, characters, setting, and events,
through storytelling, watching videos and plays, putting the elements on a chart, and making
their own story in the end.
● Connection - Students got to see that each story has a message, and a certain emotion and
feeling that it conveys or brings to the audience.
● Perspective - Through the various stories presented in class, the children found out that each
story has a message, emotion or feeling that may be the same or may be different from other
stories. Even the audience, they may see a story differently from the way others see it. The way
the stories are presented can be in different ways as well - book, puppets, audio, movies, and
plays.
● demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
Thinking Skills:
● analysis - Students looked at the elements of each stories read, and were placed in a chart.
● application and comprehension - Students put together all elements of a story when they made their story trains, their own
books, and a play.
Social Skills:
● respecting others - Each student made a unique story through a book or a play that they got to share to the class. As audience,
the students are taught to show respect by listening and not laughing at their classmates’ stories.
● adopting a variety of group roles - Through the different engagements, students experienced being authors, illustrators,
storytellers, playwright, actors, as well as audience.
Communication Skills:
● listening - One station that we put-up for this unit is the audio station or the listening station. The children also had guest
storytellers that made them use their attentive ears.
● speaking - Children got to share the character mobiles, the book or the play that they made to the teacher and to the class.
● reading - One station in this unit was the reading station or the library station. Independent-reading was encouraged, but there
was also guided-reading and storytelling.
● writing - Children got to write events in the story through their story train and their own story booklets.
● presenting - Children presented their stories through the books and the plays they made.
Self-Management Skills:
● fine motor skills - The children were able to do writing activities in the storybooks they made, and painting and cutting activities
in the costume and props-making for the play.
● organization - The children organized the elements in the story, especially the events, before they can come up with their own
story.
Research Skills:
● formulating questions - The children got a chance to interview storytellers, illustrators and the librarian, in the various field trips
that we had in class.
● recording data - The children put into drawing and writing their experiences in the field trips.
● presenting research findings - The children made stories of their experiences and re-enacted Alice in Wonderland as evidence
of what they learned from the field trips
● develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
● Communicator - Students were given different ways to communicate stories that they made - either through a class book, their
own books, or the plays they made.
● Risk-taker - For the summative, the students were given a choice to present a story in a way that they would be able to express
themselves better. They were confident enough in choosing a book or a play, in coming up with their own elements and events,
and in presenting it to others.
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.
Questions were still teacher initiated, however, students were active in responding to
the questions presented to them.
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.
Students inquired about differents kinds of stories by exploring stories that are not
real and stories that could be real.
Strengths - The unit was really interesting for both the students and the teachers. The
children loved fairytales so it was easy to hook them into identifying the elements, the
message, and the emotions and feelings in the stories. Watching a play outside school also
added to their interest in the unit. Seeing the stage, the costume, the props and the acting of
the people were fun to them so it was easy to try it out in class. The children were really
involved in making the costume, props and stage which made the role playing more
enjoyable. Aside from creativity, we were able to hit a lot of skills as well in terms of
communicating, writing, and presenting. There were in-school and out of school trips that
supported this unit well.
Challenge - Teaching the way stories are created [either through publishing a book or creating
a play] was a challenge as we did not get resources that will show this perspective in creating
stories.

Students also inquired on the different ways stories are presented by looking at Recommendations - Next time this unit is taught, the teacher should be plan ahead when it
books, movies and plays. comes to looking for resource speakers.

Students were able to find out about the different parts of a story and the message
of a story by learning about how to make and write books. After which, they created
their own using what they found out.

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.

Students’ interest in reading books and creating stories improved and were trying
things they learned in school at home.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Attachment A

Finding Out Teachers & Students Questions Sorting Out

● Data collection
● Experiences to assist students to gather new information
about the topic
● Experiences and texts that add to the knowledge base.
Emphasis on gathering first-hand data in a range of ways
(usually shared experiences)
● Teacher and student questions that help drive the inquiry
● Focus questions to for inquiry
● Gauging, organizing or representing new
information
● Activities to assist students to process and work
with the information and ideas they have gathered
about the topic (including exploring values)
● Organizing, analyzing and communicating the
information gathered using a range of vehicles (e.g
through Maths, Arts, English, Drama, Music or IT)

LOI 1: How to construct an effective story
● Read different fairy tales and make connections
by looking at the different parts of a story
● Read, watch and listen to different stories and
discuss how the story is effective depending on
how it was written
● Create their own story books
● What are the parts of a story? (Form)
● What are the different kinds of stories? (Form)
● What are the different genre of stories? (Form)
● What are the different ways stories are presented?
Students will read different books and put in a
chart its different elements. They will also be
grouped into stations that will allow them to
explore the different books. They will also go on
trips to a library and a publishing house.

LOI2: What stories can convey ● What is the message of the story? (Connection)
● Story teller for the day ● What are the different ways stories are presented?
● Create own story books (Form, Perspective)
● How do stories make you feel? (Connection,
Perspective)
LOI3: How stories are created and shared ● How do stories make your audience feel?
● Story teller for the day (Connection, Perspective)
● Create own story books
● What are the different ways stories are presented?
● What are the parts of a story?
LOI4: Feelings and emotions that stories evoke
● How do stories make you feel? (Connection,
● Character Mobile
Perspective)
● Story Setting Review
● How do stories make your audience feel?
○ Students look at different settings and
(Connection, Perspective)
share how those settings make them
feel. What emotions does it create for
them? ● How do stories make you feel? (Connection,
● Book Review Perspective)
● How do stories make your audience feel?
Students will be asked as a class, and individually
on what is the message of the story and/or the
characters. Messages of main stories in class will
be posted on a paper and placed beside the
chart.
Messages can also be expressed in a form of a
drawing.
Students will be grouped into stations that will
allow them to explore the ways a story is told -
book, puppet, audio, and video. They will also
watch a theater play outside school for them to
see a different way a story is told. They will get a
chance to act out in the classroom too.
Students will reflect on the stories they read, see
or hear. A book review on the feelings and
emotions will be done by placing happy, scared,
or sad faces on a chart.
 (Connection, Perspective)

Going Further
● Activities to challenge and extend
● Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated.

● Visit other levels and watch how they present stories, talk about stories, reflect on stories.
● Visit the library and librarian.

Drawing conclusions
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated. Students draw conclusions of what they have learnt. This is an
important time to evaluate the success of the unit and the needs and achievements of individuals. This is where students put it all together.

● Students were successful in sharing their stories and understanding the unit. However, improvement for students in putting the whole unit together, is to explain
how they can improve their story or play.

Reflecting and Taking Action

To reflect on what has been learnt and process of learning. It is important that students be given opportunities to act upon what they have learnt. Actions are things that students can themselves and from which they
can see results.

● Students are encouraged to make their own short stories at home or in school during their free play time, reminding them of the elements of the story. These stories
can be made in paper, or even using their electronic gadgets.