Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: 5th Grade Age group: 10-11

To inquire into the following:
School: Adams Elementary School code:
 transdisciplinary theme
Who We Are Title: Making a Difference
PYP planner
An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical,
Teacher(s): Maryanne Lipovsky & Kim McMahan
mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families,
friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means
Date: September/October
to be human.
 central idea Proposed duration: 6 weeks
People are inspired by the lives of others.
Summative assessment task(s):
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central 2. What do we want to learn?
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
Student Interactive Notebooks: Interactive notebooks will provide evidence perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
of understanding in all disciplines. Students will compile notes, add
reflections, respond to questions relating to the theme and central idea. *causation *perspective *responsibility

Students will assess their understanding using a rubric supported with

evidence from their notebooks.
Teacher assessment will consist of a checklist and a rubric.
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
 how people are inspired
 ways choices influence how we interact with others
 how people reflect on and evaluate choices

What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

 How are people inspired by the lives of others?

 How do our choices affect who we are and the people around us?
 How do the choices of others affect who we are?
 Do we have a responsibility to make the right choices?
 How do we know what choices are right?

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Planning the inquiry

4. How best might we learn?

3. How might we know what we have learned?
What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the students to engage
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?” with the inquiries and address the driving questions?

What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills?
What evidence will we look for?
 Morning journal (Denizen Dossier) writing about someone that has
 Use read aloud to discuss how characters are influenced in positive and negative ways by other
characters
 Small group novel discussions and choice novels discussing and reflecting on how characters are
influenced by others

inspired them. Reflect on how they have changed a decision or action  Connect the people we learn about in social studies (producers/consumers, ancient people, early
in life. Native Americans and explorers) and reflect on how they are influenced and inspired by the people
around them
 Define Learner Profile Attributes in morning journal.  Research how people are influenced by other people

 Class discussion and web documenting how people have inspired
others.
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
 Explore, research and conduct lab experiments on the systems of the human body and how they
connect and influence each other.
 Research mathematicians and the relationships of numbers.
 Reflect, write and infer how people and events could change based on the inspirations in people’s
lives. Evaluate examples of different inspirations and determine the positives and negatives.

 Topic paragraph writing about a person that has inspired them  Explore how writers are influenced by others and their own lives to create books (connect to
characters)
supported with evidence.
 Create montage of inspirations
 Topic paragraph writing about a person (real or fictional) inspired by What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the attributes of the
another person supported by evidence. learner profile?

 Students making connections to characters in novels, people in text and Transdisciplinary skills
: Thinking skills – acquisition of knowledge, comprehension, inferences, synthesis; Social skills – respecting
real life experiences. others; Communication skills – reading, writing, presenting.
Learner profile
 Thinking map : Reflective- look back and evaluate how people are influenced by others.
: Principled-evaluate if choices are good choices; if people are good influences
 Evaluating self, peers, characters and people using a rubric evaluating Attitudes
:Respect- people are inspired by people they respect
the Learner Profile :Empathy – learning about why people do what they do and how different circumstances can influence decisions

5. What resources need to be gathered?

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
*curricular text, novels (Maniac Magee, Number the Stars, Project Mulberry, Long Way From Chicago, The Giver, Boy), videos (Bill Nye/Magic School Bus/You Tube) on
human body systems and how they work together

How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Parent or community member in the health care profession sharing knowledge, job and career inspirations, parent or family member Mystery Reader (surprises class with
a book and sharing inspirational authors), Midland Center for the Arts: Project Art Museum-students meet and talk with local artists and learn about the art exhibit

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

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 were engaged and motivated throughout the unit. Their involvement
was obvious and this facilitated the learning and teaching. Students were able to
come up with the central idea and state it using their own words. It was evident
in daily discussions as students brought up and connected to the Learner
Profile, theme and central idea.
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.
The rubrics worked well to assess students and using the same rubric multiple
times allowed students to really reflect and understand the purpose of the rubric.
Assessment was not only used for me, the teacher, to assess students, but for
the students to also assess themselves.
I would like to have opportunities for students to create rubrics in the future,
especially for self assessment.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea
and the transdisciplinary theme?
Students read, wrote and spoke about the connections between human
relationships and beliefs/values. How people are inspired by different people
and how it is connected to their beliefs and values.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
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?”
 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.
Key Concepts:
:Causation: Students developed an understanding of causation by evaluating how
different influences affected decisions and their results. Students also inferred how
those results could be different with different influences.
:Responsibility: Students shared personal inspirations and the inspirations of others.
Then evaluated the importance of making good choices when others look up to you.
:Perspective: Sometimes people seem to make the wrong choices, but sometimes
those choices don’t seem so wrong when you understand the perspective of the
person making those choices.
Transdisciplinary Skills
:Thinking Skills: evaluating relationships between people and how they are
influenced by each other.
:Communication Skills: listening and sharing
:Social Skills: respecting others
Learner Profile
: Principled-evaluate if choices are good choices; if people are good influences
: Caring-how does being caring connect to being inspirational
: Inquirer-what makes people act and react the way they do; do our choices have an
effect on others/
: Knowledgeable- students obtained, evaluated and synthesized new and old
knowledge to make connections
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 For my first attempt at a unit planner the journey was a lot of work and I
that were incorporated into the teaching and learning. look forward to attempting this again in the spring with the help of my
To encourage student thinking we have I Wonder cards on our desks. This gives us colleagues.
a place to write out wonderings if the timing of our wonderings isn’t the best time to Overall, I was very impressed with how my students connected to the
share. Learner Profile and used the Learner Profile to connect to the central idea.
-“I wonder how we can make a difference?” The discussion we had in class about how people inspire others in
positive and negative ways was very interesting and insightful.
-“I wonder what Salva Dut is doing today? How can he be so courageous, especially
at such a young age?”
-“I bet we could create a plastic replacement for cartilage in the knee. I wonder if
DOW has already created this?”
-“How can a government not want to have all citizens educated?”
-“What would happen if we were all purposefully kind to one person every day?”

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 began to observe the world around them and how their own actions affect
their world. Community action included student initiated playground clean up,
students helping others more purposefully, and random acts of kindness being
practiced and noticed.
 Interactive Notebook Rubric
Theme: Who We Are C.I: Each of us is inspired by the lives of others
Name: Subject:
Totally * Writing goes beyond the basic requirements and shows in-depth understanding of the theme and
Awesome central idea
* Shows in-depth reflection of the learner profile, theme and central idea
10 * Contains all components outlined in class
* Labels, color, neatness and creativity makes your work almost “gross” it’s so awesome!

Awesome * Writing follows the basic requirements and shows understanding of the theme and central idea
* Shows in-depth reflection of the learner profile, theme and central idea
9 * Contains all components outlined in class
* Labels, color, neatness and creativity is great it just lacks the “totally” in “awesome”

Pretty * Writing follows the basic requirements and shows basic understanding of theme and central idea
* Shows honest reflection of the learner profile, theme and central idea, but it is limited
Sweet
* Contains about 90% of the components outlined in class

8 * Labels, color, neatness and creativity are present for the most part
* Some requirements are met, but your notebook lacks criteria in different areas

Kick It Up * Follows basic requirements and shows limited understanding of the theme and central idea
a Notch * Limited reflection of the learner profile, theme and central idea
* Contains about 80% of the components outlined in class
7 * Labels, color, neatness and creativity is not present consistently
* Few requirements are met and your notebook lacks criteria in different areas

Bust a * Shows misconceptions and lack of understanding of the theme and central idea
Move * Very limited or no reflection of the learner profile, theme and central idea
* Contains about 70% of the components outlined in class
6 * Notebook lacks organization, color, creativity and basic conventions
* Few requirements are met and your notebook lacks criteria in many different areas

Are You * Shows misconceptions and lack of understanding of the theme and central idea
Kidding? * No thoughtful reflection of the learner profile, theme and central idea
* Many components are missing, lots of blank and undone pages
5 * Notebook majorly lacks organization, color, creativity and basic conventions
* Hardly any requirements are met

Notes:
 performance self-Assessment:
Name: assignment:

inquirer

Thinker

communicator

Risk-taker

knowledgeable

principled

caring

Open-minded
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Well-balanced

reflective

Central Idea: