Planning an Inquiry- Level 5 (Term 1), Asima Raffad 2019-2020

Term I
Week 1-5
Transdisciplinary theme: Where we are in
space and time
Plan: UOI, Literacy, Islamiat
Planning an inquiry
1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: Year 5 Age group: 10-12 yrs
1a) To inquire into the following: School: Kingston College School code:
● Trans disciplinary theme - Where are we in place and time Title: Where are we in place and time
● An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and Teacher(s): Asima, Quratul Ain,
journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the
relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and
civilizations, from local and global perspectives Date: November 11th 2019- December
● central idea Proposed duration: 60 number of hours over 5 number of weeks
Human migration is a response to challenges and opportunities.
 1b) Summative assessment task(s): 2. What do we want to learn?

What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the

What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective,
central idea? responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?

causation, perspective, reflection

Students will:
Related concepts: Partition, Revolution, migration

 create a photo story board o

What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

1. An inquiry into…..why do people migrate

2. An inquiry into…..how different perspectives lead to different interpretations of migration

 write a narrative from the point of view of one person who has migrated or is
a refugee because of one of the reasons we have looked at (economic, religious,
political, lifestyle etc.)
 create a timeline of your family events
3. An inquiry into…..the effects of migration on communities and individuals.
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
Exploration leading change
Change being brought by different aspects coins, telephones and transport through wheels
 What is it like to be a migrant?
 What cultural markers can we use to identify different influences migrant groups
have in our community?
 What are some of the opportunities and struggles migrants face? Provocation: a
suitcase appears in the classroom containing a few items such as a pencil and paper, a
book, clothes, etc. Students can add or remove items but must justify their actions.
The owner of the suitcase may change throughout the unit to include a forced
refugee, a migrant fleeing religious persecution, a migrant seeking a better economic
future etc

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 possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills? What evidence
will we look for?
Students contribute to brainstorming session on stories of personal links or items above using dictionaries, books and online resources.  Students create an
from news that they associate with topic, understanding of vocabulary related to
the unit. “Pack a suitcase” what would be important to you if you were migrating to
a new country, town, or city? What was important to you when you moved to a new
country? What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of
the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Students are able to:
 create a survey of appropriate questions for distribution to families to find out recorder, questioner and summarizers.  Invite guest speakers representing migrant
about their migration history and experiences
 analyze and display information gained from survey as a graph and make links with
what they discovered through research
 order historical information on a time line and understand that migration is an
ongoing process
What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage
the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions?
Use a mindmap or have a brainstorming session to note prior understanding of
terms including migration, immigration, refugees, asylum seekers. Define terms
interview/survey sheet for school families to determine the reasons for migration
such as economic, choice, environmental, religious, race, political, force/choice. 
Through discussion, identify the things new migrants would want/need when they
arrive in a new place. Decide on cultural markers in the community that show
influence of migrants, including food, architecture, dress, and business, religious, art
and cultural sites.  Collect photos to create photo essays to record and comment
on. Some markers may include businesses, restaurants, libraries, temples, China
Town, mosques.  Literature Circle: using a variety of migration/refugee stories,
students discuss the common themes, situations and settings in the stories,
answering questions and taking responsibilities for the various roles of time keeper,
groups to speak to students about their experiences, specifically to talk about risks,
opportunities and challenges.  In art class, students create a collage in response to
the teacher questions (box 2) to show awareness that people use arts as an
expression of their beliefs and practices where they live.  Students work with
teacher-librarian to locate and select suitable resources; correctly reference
resources using bibme.org; think of questions to ask guest speakers; and design,
create and share presentation using VoiceThread. Students look into the similarities
and differences between celebrations eg Loy Kratong (Thai holiday story) and The
Moon story (Muslim holiday story). Students design a pamphlet for new students
which includes significant events and places, cultural expectations and behaviours to
observe.

Week 1: geo - Unit 6: Settlements unit

 create a world map, plotting places where migrants come from/go to, using
Week 2: Geo: unit 7: places Sci- Matter and Energy, Force, Motion and Energy Reading-Theme,
results of survey from families and stories and make assumptions based on research
Summaries
for the journeys outlined on the map
Week 3: SS- Everyday life in the past; Sci-Matter and Energy, Force, Motion, and Energy Reading-
Theme, Summaries
Week 4: SS- The British in India;
 recognize elements in the stories of personal migration by reading, discussing, Week 5: Muslim expansion • Islam marches into Europe;
sharing answers to lines of inquiry questions found in texts. Students respond Day One and Two 1, Animal Migration: Nature Works (
appropriately to stories showing comprehension, empathy and understanding (see http://video.nhptv.org/video/1491137382/ ) Teacher guide to video :
resource list for fiction stories)
http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nwep4tg.htm
 ask guest speakers higher order questions based on their initial research about Provocation in classrooms ­ explore items and do ‘I see, I think, I wonder’ and lead into
follow-up questions
migrants and refugees. “How did you feel…?” What is your life like now?” Students
contribute to class discussions related to the teacher questions and lines of inquiry

 What is history like?

 What do you notice about how people change?
 keep a written journal over the course of the unit which will show growth in  Why does work look different for people across the world?
understanding of the topic. Narrative reflects an understanding of the various  How is the “world being made and remade every instant?”
reasons people migrate, written from different perspective, illustrating empathy and
 How are confidence and change related?
understanding.

Connections to Reading- Students will be reading literary nonfiction novels and historical fiction novels that
discuss people’s journey to make changes in the world. They will delve into the exploration of individual’s
journeys throughout their lives and make connections to their personal journeys to find their place in the
world. They will write about their connections with the people being discussed.

Connections to Math - Students will show a vertical alignment of math with a specific expectation such as
fractions, decimals, multiplication, number sense, mental math, etc.

What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of inquiry? What
evidence will we look for?

project- look to see if they understand the effect of geography as well as the need for individuals or groups
to adapt Various reflection questions that are added to reflection journals regularly throughout class in
response to class discussions (interest based
KEY FOR TD SKILLS, LP ATTRIBUTES AND ATTITUDES:

 Thinking skills and Research Skills

 Inquirers and Thinker
 Curiosity and Respect

Islamiat :
 Surat Quraysh
 Surat Al-Maa’un (Help)
 Surat Al-Kaafiroon (The Disbelievers)

Recitation: Dua-e-Qunoot
Literacy grade 5:
Literacy textbook: Unit 5 and 6
Verb tenses
Literature: Charlie and the Chocolate factory Questions/Answers from 10-15 chapters
and summary
Composition: story writing and biographies
Literacy grade 4:
 Literacy: unit 3 and 4 
 Literature: Frankenstein novel 1-3 chapters summaries, reading of
chapter 4-5 with questions and answers
 Composition: Story writing
5. What resources need to be gathered? What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?

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

Non-fiction articles about scientists and mathematicians journey, Examples of biographies/personal histories Science- Evolution of Organisms throughout time

1, Animal Migration: Nature Works ( http://video.nhptv.org/video/1491137382/ )

Teacher guide to video : http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks/nwep4tg.htm

3. Early Human Migration: https://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/ca/books/bkf3/imaps/AC_02_047_migration/AC_02_047_migration.html

4. Khan Academy: Migration Patterns: https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/big-history-project/early-humans/how-did-first-humans-live/a/activity-human-migration-patterns

5. Voluntary: Entry into the US: The Ellis Island (http://www.tec-coop.org/lesson-plan/immigration-experience-4th-grade-unit)

6. YouTube video describing expository style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50GwjMXhSjU

7. https://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/system/assets/uploads/files/90/aeaexp_textstructure-1.pdf

use video and digital still cameras to record information on field trips to record guest speakers

 web-based collaborative software www.voicethread.com

 book resources including: “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan, “The Island” by Armin Greder

 teacher notes including resources used for research and for literature circle books

 newspapers and TV news programs: local and international: our region is often a focus of news about forced migration, refugees, illegal migrants etc.
6. To what extend 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.
The purpose was achieved through lots of inquiry based learning. This was
indeed one of those themes that interconnected literacy, history, geography
and Islamiat also. As our central idea was regarding exploration through
migration, the students enjoyed making connections. Timelines and especially
migration causes and students perspective was fruitful. Eveidence is in the
form of notebook tasks, presentation and peer observation.
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.
Well there are improvements needed in terms of assessment. The students require
reinforcement. Formative assessment is being done through rubric, but I as a
teacher feel is one summative task should be in form of a written assessment could
be done.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea
and the transdisciplinary theme?
Poster making, presentations
7. To what extent did 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?"
they wanted eagerly to learn about various factors that led to the
development of land , telephones, money, and leading the Britishers in
India
 demonstrate the learning and application of particular
transdisciplinary skills?
They were working as inquirers by using how and why question
strategy.
They showed thinking skills while having discussion and solving an
issue arising in land development area. They also demonstrated their
research skills in terms of Mughal Emperors
 develop particular attributes of the learner profile attitudes?
They were inquirers, curious and respected each others point of view.
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and
highlight any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning:
9. Teacher notes:
As this was more of inquiry evoking the students inquiries
As some of my students were exposed to this theme the first
While studying migration causes a student asked:
time, I started with exploration as the key word. It became
 Why did Akbar ask the British people to come for trade why didn’t
they do it by themselves?
easier for them to understand that exploration led to the fact
 If a potter was the first to discover wheel, then why didn’t he make
anything else?
about how some things became a part of our lives. What were
While doing timelines of exploring telephones the students had watched a
video on Graham Bell. They came up with questions like what was the use of the reasons our people migrated. Why the birds migrate for
acid in a phone? How did he find out about waves ?
what reasons. Times lines helped them in understanding the

At this point teachers should go back to box to box 2 “What do we want to
learn?” and highlight the teacher questions / provocations that were most
effective in driving the inquiries.
Indeed students while making connections for migration had a lot of questions
in the form of 5 Ws
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.
importance of change has changed the whole outlook of an
individual.
I wanted them to interview people who have had the
opportunity to know how migration laid and effect in their lives
but that will be merged with the next theme as students are on
their way towards studying partition.

Their perceptions regarding what they felt went wrong which caused
migration? Divide and rule policy