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Reading Pages 1-12 in the document below

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Reading Pages 1-12 in the document below

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Review the last two resources from Agency/ Action and Collaboration/Planning Section

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Review the last two resources from Agency/ Action and Collaboration/Planning Section

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Early Childhood Series - Inquiry Based Learning

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Since the inception of the enhanced PYP, educators across the world are thinking about how learner agency impacts student learning and well-being. Another challenge is to consider practical ways in which educators can support learner (and their own) agency within schools.

Agency is a complex phenomenon that constantly reveals new intricacies as we deepen our understanding of the connection between learner agency and personal, cultural and historical perspectives around children's identities and rights. It requires ' each of us to step out from behind our singular perspectives' (Jennifer Davis Poon) and to reflect on our own perception of the degrees of autonomy, choice and influence students should have within their learning communities.

Agency can be defined as ' the capacity and propensity to take purposeful initiative' (Harvard: The Influence of Teaching Beyond Standardized Test Scores: Engagement, Mindsets, and Agency). ' Students with high level of agency tend to seek meaning and act with purpose to achieve the conditions they desire in their own and others' lives .'

As an early childhood team at a recently authorised IB PYP school in the Netherlands, we are committed to achieving high levels of collaboration and being responsive to our students' preferences, suggestions, opinions and their ever-evolving interests, ideas and theories. This commitment has impacted the way we organize and share our learning spaces and materials and the way we plan collaboratively.

We view children as curious, inquisitive and capable in the way they connect with people and the world around them. Children seek to understand their worlds and are constantly asking questions. In this way, children create an image of themselves and their surroundings and constantly adjust this based on new information. Therefore, we observe and document their interests, ideas and theories and this forms the basis of our planning for individual children, small groups and the entire group.

Our planning meetings evolve around questions that helps us to make sense of our observations and documentation of children's experiences, interactions and learning processes . These interpretations then guide our planning of questions and provocations. This is how we ensure provocations are embedded in the children's thinking and support them with their research.

Some of our questions are:
How do the children connect with the lines of inquiry and the central idea? What do we notice about how the children co-construct conceptual understandings, knowledge and skills? How do the children apply their understanding and knowledge in new situations? What options are there for the children to receive feedback from teachers and other children and how can this impact our planning? What proof do we have of agency? What action do we observe?

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Since the inception of the enhanced PYP, educators across the world are thinking about how learner agency impacts student learning and well-being. Another challenge is to consider practical ways in which educators can support learner (and their own) agency within schools.

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https://player.vimeo.com/video/253809448

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Explore one of the Unit Planners From This School District

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Explore one of the Unit Planners From This School District

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Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy at A. Maceo Smith

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Add at least 1 new learning and share any further questions

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Add at least 1 new learning and share any further questions

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Using Perspective to Coax Students to Think Critically

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Agentic learning in kindergarten | SharingPYP Blog

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Think-Pair-Share

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This article illustrates the importance of listening to students' voices and the powerful learning that can happen when allowing them take the lead. Planning for inquiry
As we made our way through the first year of our Primary Years Programme (PYP) journey, teachers at Summerhill International School shifted their focus from planning a unit of inquiry with their teams to a collaborative process that included the learners' voices in the planner.
Listening to the students' voices
Our five-year-old class was exploring the central idea, Members of a community can cooperate to achieve their common goals under the transdisciplinary theme How we organize ourselves. During circle time, the students discovered that their teacher had gotten engaged during the break and were excited to hear about her wedding plans. Upon hearing that their teacher had not yet had the time to plan for her wedding, one learner said, "It's ok; we can help you plan". Everyone was very excited about that idea and the Wedding Project was born.
Letting students lead

One way of thinking of learner agency is when learners have the 'power to act'. When learners move from being passive recipients to being much more active in the learning process, and actively involved in the decisions about the learning, then they have greater agency.
~ Derek Wenmoth, CORE Education 10 Trends

The students started by thinking about what they needed to plan for the wedding. As they started to share their ideas, they decided that they needed some way to record and remember their thoughts. They recorded their ideas on cards and stuck them on the wall. A system to organize all the ideas and everyone's roles and responsibilities soon emerged as the students were readying to put their ideas into action. After a group discussion, the students decided to organize their ideas into categories and delegate who would be doing what.

As they got started, they began to take on roles within their wedding plan. The students negotiated their responsibilities with their friends, managed their own materials, and then chose a space to store their on-going project. They also used the calendar to manage their own time by counting how many days were left until the wedding party.
Putting it all together
After all of the wedding preparations for the bride, the students turned their attention to the ceremony and celebration events. They had decided that since they would not be able to attend the actual wedding, they would have a class wedding party with their teacher. This launched a new query into how people celebrate their weddings. The children took on roles as wedding planners by planning and organizing the schedule of events, the guest list, what to wear, and how to set up and decorate the room. They even found a way to make sure that the groom was present at the wedding!
What we learned
Throughout this unit, we witnessed the power of learner agency when we involve students in the planning process. Both students and teachers learned a great deal during this inquiry. With reflective dialogue the teachers realized the power of following the students' lead and how empowering this is when students have ownership over the direction of the inquiry, and are truly invested in what is going on. As teachers became more comfortable with the capacity of young learners to steer the inquiry, the depth and quality of the inquiry rose substantially.

At the beginning of our PYP journey, we tried to plan for student-led inquiry by filling in all the boxes in the planner without leaving room for the learners' voices in the planning. As a school that is new to the IB Primary Years Programme, we felt comfort in knowing that the unit was planned for and in a sense, "completed" before we began the learning. Now we have shifted our thinking to a having a planner that starts off with just a few good provocations and an inviting environment. This means that there is space for children's ideas in the planner. Student-led inquiry can only happen when we listen to and honor the children's ideas and take the time to plan the unit together.

Reference:

Wenmoth, D. (2014) "Ten trends 2014: Agency ". Edtalks. http://edtalks.org/#/video/ten-trends-2014-agency
Jenny Yan is the PYP Coordinator at Summerhill International School, and IB candidate school. She has been a PYP educator for seven years and is passionate about supporting the development of critical and creative thinking in learners.

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Supporting learner agency in the early years

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This article illustrates the importance of listening to students' voices and the powerful learning that can happen when allowing them take the lead. Planning for inquiry As we made our way through the first year of our Primary Years Programme (PYP) journey, teachers at Summerhill International School shifted their focus from planning a unit of inquiry with their teams to a collaborative process that included the learners' voices in the planner.

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This article summarizes how reflections help learners choose how they want to act. It shares a real-time example and utilizes an opportunity to appreciate the beauty of the PYP and how implementing it ties together all the elements!
As a committed PYP practitioner for five years, I keep appreciating the uniqueness of the programme. However, moving from theory to practice is not always an easy journey. The PYP stresses achieving a balance between acquisition of essential knowledge and skills, development of conceptual understandings, demonstrations of positive attitudes, and taking of responsible action. Making this a realty in a classroom and making it meaningful for learners will bring the outcomes of the programme to fruition.

The IB approaches to learning are unarguably the most important to acquire not only in the units of inquiry, but also for any learning and teaching that occurs within the classroom and in life outside the school. The five categories and their respective sub-skills encompass what is needed for a learner in the 21st century. In this dynamic, fast evolving world we need people who are not just knowledgeable but are critical thinkers and problem solvers.

Year after year I work with a new set of learners, each of them unique in their own way. This year I am working with learners who are highly energetic, curious and incredibly open-minded. We often engage in reflection sessions during which we discuss how we are learning in classroom, what is going well and what is not. Learners come up with sincere reflections including that we often fall short at displaying our skills.

Learners reflected that if they could work consciously towards displaying all the sub-skills, they would resolve most of the problems they face in and out of the classroom. In tandem with this thought process we as a class managed to develop a means to help assess our commitment to display these skills in classroom - The skills wheel.

This assessment model is based on Carol Dweck's theory of Growth Mindset and the idea of "NOT YET" (Dweck, 2014).

Learners set up a skills goal for a period of 2 weeks. We display all the sub-skills of that category in an accessible area so that students know what they will be assessed on. After the observation period, the class meets up to discuss how they displayed each sub-skill. Learners provide each other feedback and those learners who have consistently made efforts to display the particular skill will be placed in the pink circle and those learners who have "not reached there yet" will be placed in the yellow part. Gradually, learners who try to work on their goal areas will be moved to the pink area too.

I have experienced a positive change in learners' thinking and learning behaviour in the classroom while utilizing this tool. Learners evidently show more ownership to their actions as they are a part of this solution. It also encouraged learners to show commitment to their choice and be more open minded to feedback.

Although small, I feel this model acted as an effective means for me to make approaches to learning categories and sub-skills more meaningful for my learners. It gave our learners the opportunity to choose to act; to reflect and decide the course of their actions. That, I believe, is responsible action.

References:
https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve

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Rachana Kothapally is a PYP facilitator at Silver Oaks School Bangalore, India. She has been an IB practitioner for 5 years and is passionate about developing critical thinking and problem-solving abilities of learners.

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This article summarizes how reflections help learners choose how they want to act. It shares a real-time example and utilizes an opportunity to appreciate the beauty of the PYP and how implementing it ties together all the elements! As a committed PYP practitioner for five years, I keep appreciating the uniqueness of the programme.

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This article is based on an example of listening to learning within a pre-kindergarten classroom and how teachers tuning into student voices helped to shape the direction of our inquiry into the transdisciplinary theme of 'How we express ourselves'.
Within our school in Suzhou, China, our pre-kindergarten learners shine brightly as leaders in their quest for understanding and experts in their play. As a co-teaching partnership, my colleague Anna and I understand that often our job is to listen to learning and to take our cues from what we hear.

As we began our inquiry into the central idea that "imagination extends our ability to think, create and express ourselves", Anna and I were supervising outside morning play and talking about how to get started. What provocations might we set up? What stories might we share? As we were talking, a most extraordinary thing was taking place, not five feet from us. One of our students had bent down in concentration, another had joined, and another, until a little group huddled closely, and the buzz of their excitement was reaching us. As I approached, one of our students exclaimed: "Look! Look what we found! It is a blanket from a fairy!" The "blanket" was a golden sweet wrapper, cradled carefully in the hands of a 4-year-old child. As I examined this treasure, our students began to add to the fabric of the tale. "There must be a fairy house nearby! Where could it be?", said one learner. "I hope the fairy is not cold without her blanket!", add another one. Little voices erupted around Anna and I, brimming with excitement and ready to seek out magic.

In The learner in the enhanced PYP communication, it is said that "agency is present when students partner with teachers and members of the learning community to take charge of what, where, why, with whom and when they learn" (IB, 2017). Student agency is supported when teachers marry the interests, talents and skills of the children to the inquiry. Samuellson (2008) notes that play, initiated by children, is often separate to learning, initiated by the adults around them. Within the early learning framework of the PYP, there is a strong case to be made for teachers leveraging students' play and making it the foundation of inquiry, enhancing the status of play and celebrating the competency of children.

Immediately, we realized that the provocation we were seeking had come straight from the perspective and imagination of our learners. Immediately we sought books about fairies from the school library. Supporting our line of inquiry, which was to bring stories we read, share and know to life, we became consumers of fairy mythology. Designing clothes and homes, making beds and blankets, we gave life to our theory of fairies in our playground through shared belief. We naturally began to explore our second line of inquiry, imaginative use of everyday materials, as we played and built.

That evening, I painted a small fairy door and hung it on one of the trees. The next day at play, a shriek of excitement told Anna and I that it had been found. We began to sketch fairies, talk about who might live behind the door, and whether we could only see it now because the fairies knew we believed in them. When the fairies sent us a letter with ingredients for a magical potion, we mixed the ingredients and began to wonder if a small fairy school existed behind the door, where making potions and flying lessons were taught. Students talked, played, drew, sculpted and danced their ideas of what magic might exist around us. We effortlessly explored our final line of inquiry, which was different ways to express ideas.

It may be said that often times, we unpack our central ideas through looking at the words on a page or through a conversation without context. Had Anna and I ignored the voices beside us that fateful day in the playground, we could have had a very different inquiry. Our lesson that day was that the possibilities for magic and wonder that exist when we listen, trust and follow the leads of our students is simply phenomenal.
References:
Pramling Samuelsson, I. & Asplund Carlsson, M. 2008. "The Playing Learning Child: Towards a Pedagogy of Early Childhood". Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. Vol. 52, issue 6.

Primary Years Programme. The Learner in the enhanced PYP. December 2017. http://blogs.ibo.org/sharingpyp/files/2017/12/2017-December-The-Learner.pdf
Niamh Price is from Ireland and has been teaching for ten years. She has been a pre-kindergarten teacher at Suzhou-Singapore International School in Suzhou, China for 6 years. Prior to this, Niamh enjoyed 4 years of teaching and working with children and families in different areas of Dublin, Ireland. Niamh holds a Masters degree in Drama in Education, with a research specialization in play and creativity in the early years classroom. She believes in the importance of establishing relationships with every student who crosses the threshold of her classroom and is committed to finding out not just what each child can do, but who they are. Creating environments that invite beauty, curiosity and collaboration is an essential feature of her practice.

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Listening to learning: Agency in the early years

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This article is based on an example of listening to learning within a pre-kindergarten classroom and how teachers tuning into student voices helped to shape the direction of our inquiry into the transdisciplinary theme of 'How we express ourselves'.

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Choose 1 of the following resources to further think about ATLs and then complete the task in the next column to the right.

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Choose 1 of the following resources to further think about ATLs and then complete the task in the next column to the right.

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The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a global leader in international education-developing inquiring, knowledgeable, confident, and caring young people. With more than 7,700 programmes being offered worldwide, across over 5,600 schools in 159 countries, an IB education is designed to develop well-rounded individuals who can respond to today's challenges with optimism and an open mind.

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- Clock Appointments
- Helps Me/Hinders Me
- KWL
- See Think Wonder
- Word-Phrase-Sentence
- Connect-Extend-Challenge
- Think-Pair-Share
- I used to think....and now I think

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A class of 6-7 year olds in the United States inquires into the central idea, "A community is impacted by the involvement of its members" under the transdisciplinary theme of How We Organize Ourselves.

A class of 7-8 years olds in Germany inquires into the central idea, "The properties of construction materials influence the design of buildings and structures" under the transdisciplinary theme of How the World Works.

Signs and Symbols

A class of 5-6 year olds in Australia inquires into the central idea, "signs and symbols can be used to communicate a message" under the transdisciplinary theme of How We Express Ourselves.

Language and Race/Ethnicity

A Theory of Knowledge class in the United States explores language as a way of knowing by reflecting on the question, "How does the language we use shape the way we think and understand race and ethnicity? Does language construct reality or describe reality?"

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All for One and One for All A class of 6-7 year olds in the United States inquires into the central idea, “A community is impacted by the involvement of its...

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The Role of the Teacher & the Advantages of Inquiry Learning

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The Role of the Teacher & the Advantages of Inquiry Learning

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Inquiry learning requires careful planning.

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"Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing
and right-doing, there is a field.
I'll meet you there."
― Rumi
I started writing this post about a month ago and it has taken an unusually (agonisingly) long time to complete. In fact it is not complete. Blogs should ideally be short, to the point and accessible. This one isn't. Each time I have returned to it, I have felt much more like I was writing a journal article than a blog post! It's too long. The solution to my dilemma came to me today. Break it up. Take your time. Allow some space in between. So, here's part 1. And it's still too long. Sorry.
One of the most persistent criticisms of inquiry-based approaches is that learners are insufficiently supported because teachers, so the argument goes, expect them to 'go and find out' with minimal guidance. This argument depicts the inquiry teacher as a warm but arms-length, non-interventionist 'guide on the side' who is little more than a '\resource person'\.

I have said this many times before but it can't hurt to say it again. When understood well, inquiry learning actually demands careful design of authentic learning experiences, attention to existing schema, deft questioning, ongoing assessment, the cultivation of curiosity and the ability to plan and teach through concepts. The teacher's role is critical. Even when experiences are planned to allow open exploration (while teachers observe and document) the work is highly intentional. Nevertheless, both the image of inquiry as a kind of 'free for all' methodology and the criticism of its effectiveness prevail. In this series of posts, I want to address some of this criticism: not in defence, but rather to consider what we can learn from it.

So - let me first lay my rather obvious cards on the table. Thirty-five years of teaching combined with the wisdom of many great minds in education leave me in no doubt about the power of inquiry. I have seen time and time again the potent effect of valuing learner's questions, the gains in understanding when we support the learner to do the heavy lifting, the palpable thrill of 'figuring out' and the capacity for children to take their learning SO much further and deeper when unnecessary teacher-imposed restrictions are removed. I am regularly astonished at the way learning erupts when the learner is curious and hungry to find out. I have seen learner agency beautifully demonstrated when teachers allow learners take action about big ideas that matter to them. It is also easy for me to cite numerous examples of research that supports the approach (see for example, Hmelo-Silver, C., Duncan, R., & Chinn, C. (2007) or Barron, B., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2008), Friesen & Scott, 2013.) There are plentiful studies arguing the case for a more learner and learning centred approach to contemporary curriculum. Our curriculum here in Australia identifies inquiry skills as integral to several learning areas and this is echoed in programs and curricula around the world (PYP, The new Curriculum of British Columbia, the New Curriculum in Wales, The NZ Curriculumn to name just a few).

I could comfortably stay in an echo chamber of theorists and practitioners who think what I think and believe what I believe...but...

...I also know the dangers of doing this. I know that my passion for this approach to teaching and learning must not blind me to its pitfalls. I know that to develop deep understanding depth about a concept I need to be able to view it with an open mind and from multiple perspectives. (Somewhat ironically, that is one of the underpinning principles of inquiry learning itself.)

So, that's what I have been doing lately - re-visiting research that contends inquiry is ineffective. And in the spirit of Rumi's famous call to meet in the space between right and wrong, I offer my thoughts on what we can learn from those who argue the case against inquiry learning.

Each time I re-read this work, I find that my points of difference are more a matter of emphasis rather than conflict. Polarised views are rampant in education (whole language vs phonics being one of the most obvious) but ultimately unhelpful. Holding extreme views, refusing to acknowledge some validity in positions very different to one's own simply stifles dialogue and ultimately prevents all of us from moving forward. I've always been much more interested in dialogue than diatribe.

The bulk of the criticism of the effectiveness of inquiry learning centres around its lack of sufficient support for learners, the absence of clear intentions and the need for more explicit teaching. Of the research that suggests inquiry learning is ineffective, two fields interest me in particular. One is around cognitive load theory (see, for example,, Kirschner, Sweller & Clark 2006). The second is related work on episodic vs semantic memory (see a useful discussion on this at https://www.educationnext.org/best-way-to-help-children-remember-things-not-memorable-experiences-excerpt/ )

What is the essence of this research? At the risk of oversimplification and acknowledging I am far from an expert in the field of cognitive science...and because this is a blog post not an academic article, I offer the following:

Cognitive Load Theory is a way of explaining brain's processing of information and the transfer of information from working memory to long term memory. Working memory is vulnerable to overload and this overload can compromise learning. This research suggests that learning experiences need to be designed in ways that reduce the strain on working memory to promote schema construction for deeper, long term understanding. Related research into memory 'types' while taking a different tack, arrives at a similar conclusion to that found in discussions of CLT. Episodic memory is a kind of 'autobiographical' memory - linked to sensory experiences and emotion. We might, for example, remember laughing at an hilarious joke someone told us a week ago...we remember that moment, but possibly not the joke itself. We remember 'episodes' in our lives relatively easily. Remembering is, of course, not necessarily knowing. Semantic memory, on the other hand, refers to the facts, concepts and understandings we have stored in our long term memory and no longer context bound. Unlike remembering what you had for breakfast this morning, semantic memory needs work and is potentially more robust : "the deliberate building of semantic memory is much more likely to result in long lasting, flexible and transferable memory."

The work on cognitive load and memory types draw similar conclusions about the ineffectiveness of problem solving or inquiry - particularly in the early stages of learning about something. Much of this criticism is based on a definition of inquiry as involving little or no teacher instruction or guidance. If teachers truly understand the critical nature of their role in an inquiry classroom then I believe we actually have more in common with this research than we might think. So this remains an important point to make. When people claim inquiry learning is ineffective, it is important to ask: What do you mean by inquiry learning? If the definition emphasises minimal guidance and suggests learners are expected to simply 'go it alone' then for the most part, I am inclined to agree (with some caveats I'll discuss next time)

Rather than spend any more time analysing definitions and explaining the research itself (this is a blog post after all - I may have already lost you!!) I want to share some of the ways it helps inform my practice as a dedicated inquiry-based teacher. In other words, what can I learn from those who have a different view? Over the years, as I listen to dissenting voices I have learned to ask myself:

What is it about my thinking/being that is resisting this work? Why?

Where do we have thinking in common?

What is resonating with me most strongly?

What am I doing that actually aligns with this work? (as it turns out, more than you might expect)

How is this helping clarify or bring into focus the principles that underpin inquiry?

What new questions does this raise for me? What am I curious about?

In parts #2 and #3 I will share the lessons I have learned from those who argue against inquiry as an effective approach....they have taught me a lot

Stay tuned and keep wondering....

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Inquiry learning: pitfalls and perspectives #part 1 (of 2) - Kath Murdoch

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"Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." ― Rumi I started writing this post about a month ago and it has taken an unusually (agonisingly) long time to complete. In fact it is not complete.&

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If I'm to be honest, teaching elapsed time is not my favourite thing to do. It's pretty close to pulling my own teeth, but of course, ultimately, far more rewarding. 🙂 With interactive timelines things get far more interesting.

With 3rd grade, it is such a tricky concept to grasp, particularly with hours and minutes. And then when you throw in years and A.D and B.C ( now also known as Before the Common Era /B.C.E and the Common Era/ C.E) , we can really end up quite tied in knots. But once they've got it, by golly, the wee angels are soaring! And their teacher is on cloud nine with them!

The review, by the time we get to 4th and 5th grades, isn't quite as painful, thank goodness, and fine tuning those time lines and introducing more complex variations can even become a fun experience for all involved with great digital variations that the kids love exploring. I'll get to more of those in a bit.

There are numerous ways to teach elapsed time and I wanted to share a few favourites of mine. As always, within the IB PYP, I like to keep things as inquiry based as possible and make the experience an authentic learning experience. Kill and drill worksheets, in my opinion, make math oh so boring.

Using timelines is a great math tool to effectively illustrate the passage of time in addition to the events that occur over time. They are a great way to add math to any unit of inquiry that looks into the past and/or compares the connections between past, present and future. There are many strategies out there for teaching the tricky concept of elapsed time. Given that we have a myriad of different types of learners, I wanted to share a few that I have found to be particularly effective with my kiddos.
I like to review this concept with my students before setting them out to create their own timelines, particularly when it comes to B.C.E (B.C.) and C.E ( A.D.) Pick & choose the journey for your class for easy differentiation.You will know where to start with this for your own class.

The Toilet Paper Timeline

Key Concept: Form Following on from math where we learned about measure and scale behind elapsed time,( how many days in a year, years in a decade, century, millennium etc), I posed the problem, "If each square of toilet paper is one century, how many squares will we need to show from 6000BC to 2015AD?" This was an eye opening inquiry as the children "saw" that all of life today fits into one single square!! Great visual for recognition of how very old the world is and how very tiny we are in the whole spectrum of time passed. We then taped our toilet paper time line around the room to reinforce the visual representation of time behind us and where we stand on that timeline.

The Interactive Timeline

Key Concepts: Change and Connection
Using an interactive timeline in our class during an inquiry allows the children to not only add dates of major events to the timeline, but also to see the connections and changes over time, categorise events and key players, compare other timelines and even infer how the timeline of events may end. Can you change history? What advice would you give to people of that time? There's really so much you can do.
This of course instigates further independent inquiries from the children and

I encourage them to do their own research to find the answers to their questions. We actually add our questions and answers to our timeline, together with observations of change & connections across time, with sticky notes.

Deeper Thinking: To add rigour for my older kids, I will have them create their pattern on their timeline independently, thus showing their understanding of elapsed time. For example: 2018 to 1900. The child may choose to jump back in a pattern of multiples of 6 until they reach the year 2000 rounding down and then for the remainder, show the leap in multiples of 50, utilising the correct number of circles in the timeline, until they reach the year 1900. These patterns will vary according to the children thinking it through. See the example below. This shows a set pattern that adds to the higher level thinking that will require the children to think through the pattern of numbers/multiples for creating their timeline. Time lines can then be compared and discussed amongst others. The mathematical conversations that arise are fantastic!
The Number Line
Key Concepts: Form & Function The good old number line ties in well visually with the timeline above. Students actually get to see the jump in time as we round our time up to the nearest multiple of years or minutes, record the time "jumped" and then add them altogether. This is a good tool, I have found, for those kids who are more visual learners or they have less of a grasp with their number sense and prefer to really see the jump in time and draw the jump for themselves.

Integrating Related Content with Math: Elapsed time &
Literacy: Non fiction text features

Key Concepts: Function & Form I have used this as a homework activity.
It can also be used in class in small groups or individually.
As part of our non fiction text features, I showed the children an example of various types of timelines.
We noted the connections and chatted about the different layouts.
Then the children selected their own style, did their research and created their own differentiated timelines.
Reflection: The children presented their timelines, relaying the time passed and the dates of major events BM ( before me) and AB. (after I was born)
We then compared those timelines to our class interactive timeline.

Digital Timelines: A Technological Storyboard

Key Concepts: Form, Function & Connection The web is filled with great tools for creating digital timelines. These that I am mentioning are all free, kid friendly and are really great fun to use. My fifth graders have used these with maths inquiries and within their exhibition presentation. The finished products all look professional. Great way to add technology to your maths. Click on the links and explore away! 🙂

Sutori - almost like a slide show but better. It allows you to embed pictures, audio and video clips and has ready-made templates. Probably better for older kids or those kids who are very techy. ( in other words they don't need me when it gets tricky!)

TimeGlider -this is a great one that is similar to Google maps in that it allows you to zoom around places and add the images to your timeline.

ReadWriteThink - kid friendly and can be used in conjunction with literacy too! One of my faves for a more basic digital timeline. Better for the younger kids I think.

Tiki-Toki - the basic version is free and allows you to create fabulous animated timelines. This is a popular one with the kids!

The T Chart

Key Concepts : Form & Function Oldies but goodies. I create most of the anchor chart with the children present rather than in advance. Thus they get to see it in creation, interacting with the process of the strategy rather than as a pre-prepared work of art. It hangs for all to see, analyse and copy as a working document. 🙂 With less visual representation of the jump in time as the Number Line, it too shows the rounding up of time and then totalling the time in order to find the elapsed time. It's great to have them practice with their own t-charts in their notebooks as a strategy for solving time problems. I find that this T chart is more successful with those kiddos who have a better grasp of number sense.

The Inquiry Based Math Project

Key Concept: Depends on the inquiry These are my favourite! I have a previous post about integrating math into the IB PYP which you can link to here. These projects are fantastic tools for exactly that. There are two projects currently in my store that look at elapsed time problems and inquiries and others, listed below, that focus on other maths skills and standards

The Great Time Travel Adventure is geared towards 4th and 5th grades standards and phase 3/4 of the IB PYP and is so much fun, particularly with the design of their own Time Travel Machine. Kids are SO TOTALLY engaged with this one. As well as elapsed time and timelines, it also covers place value with large numbers, measure of area and distance and math inquiry into well known structures across the world as the children travel across time.( The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Standing Stones of Easter Island, China's Terracotta Warriors etc.)

The Pilgrims' Journey to America is suitable for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades with the story of the pilgrims' journey across the Atlantic towards America. It also includes measure with scale and distance with a mapping inquiry, planning a Thanksgiving feast, scale and measure of the Mayflower ship and fractions suitable for IB PYP phase 3 & 4.

Other inquiry based math projects that you may like to look at include:
If the World Were A Village - Area, Volume, Operations, Ratios
O ur School - Number, Measure & Geometry
Planning A Popcorn Party - Measure, Data Analysis, Number The American Revolution - Problem Solving, Place Value, Finding Fractions, Scale Design A Haunted House - Area, Volume, Polygons & Polyhedrons, Data Analysis
Truly, integrating maths into your unit of inquiry adds to the holistic authenticity of the learning. I know that it can sometimes be a juggle and even a struggle with this task but I hope that some of these ideas and tools can help make your job that wee bit easier.

Please share your own thoughts, ideas and tools in the comments below. I am always keen to learn new ideas from my peers.

Enjoy!

FOLLOW ME HERE, FOLLOW ME THERE.....

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If I'm to be honest, teaching elapsed time is not my favourite thing to do. It's pretty close to pulling my own teeth, but of course, ultimately, far more rewarding. :) With interactive timelines things get far more interesting. With 3rd grade, it is such a tricky concept to grasp, particularly...

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Learning how words work doesn't have to be a boring, mundane drill. There are ways to turn your students into enthusiastic explorers of words by getting them engaged in active thinking about language and how it works. Fountas and Pinnell have developed a lesson structure for phonics, spelling, and word study that uses a balance of direct teaching and inquiry, which will encourage students to become active examiners and analyzers of print.

"Children learn much more than we can teach them; they often astound us with the creativity of their insights." ~Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell

Fountas and Pinnell believe that in the tug-of-war between direct teaching and discovery, going to extremes can be dangerous. It's dangerous to leave everything to discovery because students may not acquire the understanding they need, but it's equally dangerous to let students learn only through direct teaching and neglect the excitement that makes learning real. Below is the structure Fountas and Pinnell use in their phonics, spelling, and word study lessons, which provide well-planned, organized direct teaching of language principles, but also contain an element of inquiry.
The Simple Framework
Each phonics, spelling, and word study lesson that appears in a Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™
resource follows a simple structure: teach, apply, and share. Ideally, these lessons would be embedded in a design for responsive literacy teaching that offers a coherent, organized combination of experiences, each of which contributes uniquely to students' literacy development. Here's what a lesson looks like:

TEACH whole-class lessons based on a principle related to phonics. Each principle is listed and explained in The Comprehensive Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study Guide, and each incorporates an element of inquiry. The inclusion of inquiry, where possible, rivets students' attention to discovering something about language; it makes the lesson enjoyable, even exciting! Students become pattern seekers and word discoverers, which, hopefully, will be a lifelong habit.

APPLY through hands-on practice to apply the principle. Students can learn much more through these hands-on activities because they provide an experience in constructing their own knowledge. You can choose to have all the children do the Apply activity simultaneously, individually, or with a partner after the lesson, or they could rotate to a word-study center to engage in the activity during independent work time as they develop the ability to manage their own learning.

SHARE, as students meet briefly in a whole-class meeting, to talk about the discoveries they made. This brief sharing time gives you a chance to assess the effectiveness of your lesson, return to the principle and summarize the learning, and link to reading and writing so students know how to use what they have learned.

A general goal in presenting any lesson is to pique students' curiosity about words. We want
them to seek patterns, notice similarities, take words apart and reassemble them, think about various chunks of words and what they mean, and more. When students perceive word study as word play, an important instructional goal has been achieved.

To learn about all of the Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ resources that contain this effective phonics, spelling, and word study lesson structure, click here to read last week's blog. And don't forget to keep an eye out this August for the NEW Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study System for grades K and 1!
~The Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ Team

Join the fastest growing community in the field of literacy education. Get your free membership and stay up to date on the latest news and resources from Fountas and Pinnell at www.fountasandpinnell.com

For a well-organized, searchable archive of FAQs and discussions that are monitored by Fountas and Pinnell-trained consultants, go to our Discussion Board at www.fountasandpinnell.com/forum

For more collaborative conversation, join the Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ Facebook Learning Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/FountasPinnell/

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Teaching Phonics with Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™

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Learning how words work doesn't have to be a boring, mundane drill. There are ways to turn your students into enthusiastic explorers of words by getting them engaged in active thinking about language and how it works.

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Inquiry-Based Learning with ELLs — DiversifiED Consulting

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Teachers who aim to engage English learners in inquiry-based learning often feel overwhelmed at the idea of merging two seemingly separate bands of learning. However, upon closer examination, there is a significant overlap in best-practices facilitation of English Language Development (ELD) and stud

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Encouraging students to show agency throughout the inquiry process

by Fabricio Miranda, Andino Cusco International School, Peru.

Our third-grade students engaged in an interactive triggering activity, an auction role-play where they observed different objects for sale.

I presented objects such as pencils, notebooks, candies, chewing gum, and fruit and, at the end of the auction, students answered the following questions:

Why did you decide to buy that object?

Was it a good decision?

Why?

Students then completed a thinking routine, writing their ideas and questions for the unit. That was how our unit of inquiry began - with the transdisciplinary theme "Who we are" and the central idea: "The decisions we make affect our well-being".

An important objective was to encourage student agency. Students were completely in charge of planning, designing and demonstrating their own learning - and action - actively participating in different learning experiences. One of these was to research the concept of "decision" and students shared their inquiries in groups by using the ' museum' technique.

After reading a book on decision-making, students connected the story to their daily lives; on the moments they had to make a decision and reflect whether the decision was easy or difficult to make. Students then connected our unit of inquiry to one of the IB attributes; they chose "balanced" which the IB defines as "We understand the importance of balancing different aspects of our lives-intellectual, physical, and emotional-to achieve well-being for ourselves and others. We recognize our interdependence with other people and with the world in which we live." ( IB learner profile, 2017). They understood that making decisions can affect their bodies, feelings and emotions, and well-being, so they decided to take actions that demonstrate "agency" including:

Creating healthy menus

Brainstorming a list of healthy habits.

Developing an action plan to make good decisions at school and at home. (This was a great opportunity for parents and children to work together).

Creating a plan for healthy eating habits for a week.

Putting into practice everything they wrote in their journals.

Identifying and reflecting on situations in which they had to make decisions.

I enjoyed observing my students engage in these different learning experiences, such as:

sorting information about healthy habits, food pyramid, and well-being

using graphic organizers to show their understanding of the information they gathered

writing paragraphs about their favorite foods

participating in different speaking activities, sharing about the foods they liked and disliked as well as the activities they practice at home to stay healthy

singing a song and reciting a poem - they also recorded their presentation to share it on our social media platforms so that our learning community could put into practice the IB attribute "balanced".(Blog)

inviting a teacher to practice mindfulness with them and brainstorming ideas about how to keeping spiritually healthy and respect all the different perspectives including religion, soft music, Yoga, etc.

As a final action, my students decided to invite students from Kindergarten to Fourth grade to share their final portfolio - including all the learning evidence they had collected throughout the inquiry process.

They assessed themselves as a group and as individuals.

They reflected on their learning and wrote their reflections in their journals.

From a teacher perspective, I noticed that our students developed positive attitudes towards making decisions, understanding that every choice affects our well-being. Thanks to the experiences in this unit of inquiry, they expressed feeling comfortable when demonstrating to their community that they can be balanced and take initiative, express their interests and be aware of their own learning goals. They showed agency throughout the entire learning process.

References

RAMOS VALDIVIEZO MARIA MILAGROS, "Aplicación de la técnica del museo para mejorar la planificación de la sesión de aprendizaje de las docentes de la i.e.i. n° 64 -callao". Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, 2017. Web May 29, 2019. "Definición de la técnica del museo" http://repositorio.upch.edu.pe/bitstream/handle/upch/3936/Aplicacion_RamosValdiviezo_Maria.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

International Baccalaureate Organization (2013) IB Learner profile. Recovered from: https://www.ibo.org/contentassets/fd82f70643ef4086b7d3f292cc214962/learner-profile-en.pdf

Fabricio Miranda, PYP English Teacher and Early Years-Primary English Coordinator at Andino Cusco International School in Peru is passionate about helping students to learn by constructing significant and relevant concepts through inquiring and collaborative work. After moving from Trujillo to Cusco because he wanted to work in an IB World School, Fabricio joined Andino in 2017 where he is pursuing his dream to let more people know about an IB education.

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by Fabricio Miranda, Andino Cusco International School, Peru. Our third-grade students engaged in an interactive triggering activity, an auction role-play where they observed different objects for sale. I presented objects such as pencils, notebooks, candies, chewing gum, and fruit and, at the end of the auction, students answered the following questions: Why did you decide to buy that object?

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In January 2018, the elementary teachers in our district’s two PYP schools set out to explore the enhanced PYP content that make up the docu…

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Please use the sentence starter: I used to think.... and now I think... and post your reflection below with your name in the title.

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Please use the sentence starter: I used to think.... and now I think... and post your reflection below with your name in the title.

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I used to think.... and now I think...

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How to structure an Inquiry Based Lesson

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Having just 1 year experience, what attracted me the most to the IB was inquiry-based learning, hence I kept digging into it. This article and yearlong practices are the product.

"Strong inquiry schools have a distinct climate - a climate that breeds curiosity, a relentless passion for investigation and a genuine fascination with learning."
~ Kath Murdoch

How I wonder that since the whole world, its machines, approaches to finance and life have changed completely in last few decades; why has education not changed? The IB does promise to bring that transformation and indeed it has. Classrooms in the IB PYP schools are led by curiosity and inquiry both from teachers and students. Our learning and teaching is focused on 'what our students know' and 'what they can do'. Guiding an inquiry based classroom is challenging, but fun! Certain practices of an inquiry based classroom will take your learning and teaching to another level.
Effective planning
Planning for inquiry takes time. Teachers need time and space to collaborate and come up with flexible plans for guiding inquiry in their classrooms. No matter how experienced you are; planning collaboratively and regularly reflecting on your planning weeks ahead will always be important. Deeper conversations, curiosity and research are from which powerful teaching comes into existence.
Groundwork for inquiry
For an effective inquiry, prior preparation is the key. To go ahead with any concepts, one should be well informed and well equipped for it. For example, our school has a practice of sharing all the work samples and study material on Google Drive in a folder called Resource Pool. We can refer and access any grade's materials and resources for our own inquiry and for vertical and horizontal planning. For new teachers it is a valuable resource. They can have a look at the previous year's activities, planners, learning engagements, etc so that they do not have to begin from scratch. It also helps in self-assessing our own work from last year. We can always improve learning and respond to the students' interests and inquiries better when we have all the samples in one place. Therefore, practices like these, where you refer and learn from yours and other's experiences, make a strong foundation for a productive unit.
Inquiry into what students already know
Provocations are open-ended invitations for a child to explore and express a variety of thoughts, interests and ideas. Schools can sometimes overlook the importance of provocations and take them lightly, whereas they are the foundations of a strong and active inquiry based learning. For example, our grade 2 students were inquiring into 'workplaces'. To get them engaged, we took them for a visit around the school especially to the unexplored administration block. They were full of curiosity and bursting with ideas. This experience acted as a perfect provocation.

Prior knowledge is more than the building blocks for knowledge and learning. It can facilitate learning and provide a kick start to the knowledge, skills and conceptual understandings being taught. Prior knowledge activities should be equally engaging and interesting as they help us to understand from where we need to begin.
Drive the relevant inquiry
Once the teacher or the student understands what inquiry is, next they need to know what it is not. At times it happens that students ask questions that might be outside the scope of the ongoing inquiry. For example, while facilitating a unit inquiring into efficient use of machines, one student kept asking questions about how robots are made. I did not want to stop his excitement and curiosity, so we ran with that. But I had to bring the inquiry back to where it was supposed to be headed. Hence, I took his question, wrote it on a post-it, displayed it on the board and told him "we will come back to it". Later, I posted a question to the class "How do you think people might use robots efficiently or inefficiently?". This made my students thinking about the efficient ways to use robots or any machine and it also sufficed for the student's query. Fuel students' curiosity and try not to discourage any inquiry.
Connecting ideas with opportunities/reality
Inquiry-based classrooms lets students experiment, innovate and explore, encouraging their creativity and imagination. If they are not interested in the way you are teaching them; change the way you teach. For example when my students were learning about multiplication, it began to make sense to them when I told them that multiplication is used when we need to add a number certain times. I designed a party menu where 20 guests were invited. Each guest would be offered 5 burgers, 2 pastries and 3 chocolates. This got students excited as they love the idea of organizing parties. And there started our application based learning. Students understood that situations like these (and even more complicated ones) need quick solutions that multiplication offers. As they finished making the party menu, we planned and organized an actual party at the end of the unit using multiplication skills learning during the unit.
Assessments: An inquiry by teachers
During assessment teachers positions themselves as inquirers into the learning of their students. They choose inquiry based methods not just to teach but also to assess the students' understanding of any concept. We observe, analyze and question to know what they have understood and what learning needs to happen next. Each student experiences the unit in a different way as we all are unique. When we were learning about measurement, the whole unit was full of hands-on activities. When it came to assessment, we planned it with even more rigour. We gave the students a shopping list and made stations based on different products and standard units. They were divided into different groups and their task was to shop the exact amount of products as written in the list, for example: 1 litre oil, 2kg rice, etc. This assessment not only tested their understanding of standard units, but also its real life application. It enhanced their social, communication and critical thinking skills. Inquiry-based learning and assessments help students to personalize the content and make it meaningful to them.
Reflection, a step towards meaningful action
The IB recognizes reflection as an integral and essential part of learning process. We learn best when we reflect on our experiences. We know how inseparable reflection and PYP are, hence we must emphasize inquiry oriented reflections. We have a working action cycle in our class where students put their reflections under Choose (what was the problem?), Act (how can I solve it?) and Reflect (what worked and what did not?). This gives them a clear understanding of both reflection and action.

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Mishkaat Khan is the homeroom teacher for grade 2 at Eastern Public School in India, with 1 year experience. She is a dedicated academician with a vision to create a positive difference in the field of education. You can follow her on Twitter @mishkology.

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Having just 1 year experience, what attracted me the most to the IB was inquiry-based learning, hence I kept digging into it. This article and yearlong practices are the product. "Strong inquiry schools have a distinct climate - a climate that breeds curiosity, a relentless passion for investigation and a genuine fascination with learning."

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kgN9cZDug5t0BYAhtx72DSrGKDwbe4yZC4JiBklRVLI/edit?usp=sharing

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I noticed that students are very active in the process of deciding the journey for the units, and it all starts with their questions. This process does impact on the standards to be developed and also the action piece. At EAC, we may start reflecting on the process we use to design the units ...

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It makes sense to me that an Inquiry-based curriculum provides opportunities for students to make their own connections with teachers being the mediators and "leading" them to an independent inquiry. In order to succeed, teachers need to be knowledgeable of the concept.

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I'm trying to figure out how the timetable and planning would be like with specialist classes.

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I'm trying to figure out what it will look like working with ELL students with low levels of English proficiency in inquiry. That being said, I can see how there are many opportunities to teach BICS in an inquiry classroom.

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I'm trying to figure out how to include students more in the planning of the units while still making sure all necessary standards are addressed. We also have the issue of the action piece: here at EAC teachers are asked to define it BEFORE the unit starts, so students don't have much say in it.

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I noticed that in the Seeing LP in Action article, the learning profiles are listed in the planning. I'm wondering if these are explicitly introduced to the students (and if so, how, especially in the early years?), or if these are something the teacher just kept in mind during the lesson.

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I'm wondering what assessment might look like, especially in terms of summative assessments. Generally, we use backwards planning to design these at the start of the unit and base them on the standards that are to be covered within the unit. How can we allow for open inquiry and learning based on authentic interests while also ensuring that our students learn the curriculum?

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Help me understand why creative thinking really works for PLL class. When creative inquiry is worked through project based experiences, it challenges our limits, generating novel ideas and considering new perspectives and expanding our opportunities and our vision of what is possible  to learn in a new  language and culture.

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I wonder how it will be to engage ELL student in discussions and keep them motivated.

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I think that teachers play a key role in the process. They are essential to supporting students and their acquisition of new skills. Providing opportunities to practice is the key. Knowing their students is the base for better supporting them, considering the students’ existing competencies is ideal to plan accordingly. Based on that, teachers can offer individualized opportunities.

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•I'm trying to figure out how to keep the sense of wonder in students that occurs in the initial questioning process through to the nitty gritty of  finishing a project

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I think that through collaborative work, teachers consider student profile attributes and identify with approaches to learning. At EAC, we explore working in small groups and sharing with the whole group. Students are actively involved in the activities and are proud of their discoveries.

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I wonder how it will be to engage all the BP teacher and students in discuss about inquiry creating opportunities to high motivated everybody.

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Start to plan your action plan (upload here in separate document)

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Start to plan your action plan (upload here in separate document)

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One year ago, when the enhanced PYP was published, all PYP teachers were discussing the word Agency by asking the following questions:

What will it look like?

How do we implement it?

How do we measure it?

Why is it important?

How do we discuss it with the parent community?

How will it impact our daily planning?

Which PD do we need to attend to understand it?

As a PYP educator, the word was not only new to me, but also not easy to translate in some languages like Arabic or French. However, if we read in detail the document published by the IB, we discover that many practices are already in place.
Here are few examples: The relationship between a teacher and a student is viewed as a partnership
The IB uses the words choice, voice and ownership to define Agency which reminds me of an article that I published in 2015 on the PYP blog: Do you hear their voice?

This article discussed how students are partners with teachers and how they decide on the units of inquiry, design learning experiences and reflect on the units during the collaborative planning time.
Teachers monitor learning and provide feedback
This sentence reminded me of all the daily practices in our classes and all the feedback provided by the teachers. The parent-teacher-student conference ( the 3 way conference) is a great example to illustrate this practice where our teachers prepare a document with the strengths of the student, their areas for improvement and in the presence of the parents they discuss them and write an action plan together with the student for the last term of the year.
Students voice opinions
Our assemblies are a great example because they are prepared by students for students where the share their learning with the whole school community. Each week a class leads the assembly and shares new ideas with others.

Our student council is another practice that we have in place were student voice is valued. At the beginning of each academic year, each class hold an election (from grade 1) and they will vote for 2 students who will be part of the student council.

The student council meet with the leadership team once per month (Principal, IB coordinator, Finance team) and share ideas to improve the school. Some of the ideas might be related to the food in the cafeteria, equipment in the playground, designing a garden and more and more...
A learning community that supports agency offers opportunities for students to develop important skills and dispositions, such as critical and creative thinking, perseverance, independence and confidence.
We introduced an idea connected to flexible timetabling to promote the spirit of the family and the one community of learners. This idea was implemented between January and March every year, during one session per week. We mixed all our students from grades 1 till grade 5 into 10 different classes. Each class had students from grade 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and usually we kept siblings together.

The classes worked with 2 teachers for 10 weeks to learn and prepare a presentation about one country. The presentations took place at the end of the term during our International Day celebration and showed a lot of creativity and confidence.

The implementation of Agency starts with very simple actions from day one of this academic year. Once you write your essential agreement as a community of learners, once trust and respect are shared, once you involve the students in designing the learning environment you will be preparing yourself and your students for a rich and unique experience of learning and growth.

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One year ago, when the enhanced PYP was published, all PYP teachers were discussing the word Agency by asking the following questions: What will it look like? How do we implement it? How do we measure it? Why is it important? How do we discuss it with the parent community?

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How can we make reporting manageable?

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In what ways can students become more involved in planning of units?

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Add burning questions for school administration in the separate column at the end

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Add burning questions for school administration in the separate column at the end

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I used to think that the teacher needed to be the one that "manages" the class and now I can see how allowing for student agency in the classroom can be a powerful tool for building student engagement AND achievement.

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I used to think that agency (student voice and choice) was just about giving students options, and now I think that it's so much more. Now I understand that it's allowing the students to be completely in the driver's seat of their learning and in the decisions that are made in the classroom as well.

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I used to think that the action piece HAD to be thought out by the teacher and now I can see that students should really be involved in planning/thinking it. I also used to think of agency more  in terms of providing student with choices and now I can see that it is actually letting them take ownership of their learning.

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I used to think structured-inquiry based teaching didn't allow students for inquiry AND now I see it can also be engaging for students.

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I used to think that Agency was a synonyms for independence, autonomy and responsibility (as individuals) and now I understand that agency involves the three above, but is more than that. It is about students using these skills to be part of the community in an active way, to have voice, to take action, to be reflective and caring, to advocate (for others, for themselves, for their passions and dreams and needs, etc), to be global minded citizens.

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Why do we need to come up with the action piece in our carrousels prior to the unit starting, without any student input?

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I used to think that inquiry would always look like an open inquiry, and now I think that for specialist classes a balance between Guided inquiry and Structured inquiry would work really well.

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I used to think that teachers were expected to be facilitators in the learning process while students were in the spotlight and now I realized how important is the role that teachers play in the PYP implementation. Teachers are the focus point of making everything happen. Without knowing the students and where they are, their needs, strengths and weaknesses, there’s no way to set a plan to move forward, considering what the students already know and building from that, in order to provide opportunities to exposed students to new skills, to further develop the ones they already mastered and also be able to apply and transfer skills across subject-areas, as well as outside school environments. Only then, fully equipped with every tool they need, students can be the leaders of their learning.

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I like the idea of having a student council to support students in developing choice and agency. How can we offer something like this in a way that is fair and equitable (aka not a popularity contest)?

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I used to think that student agency was developed implicitly now I think that the teacher can help students develop their learning skills by explicitly discussing and building them with the students

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Action component discussed during Carousel meetings

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Action component discussed during Carousel meetings

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Up until this point, the expectation has been for HR and BS teachers to come to the Carousel meetings with an idea for an action component for the unit, prior to the beginning of the unit. Can this be modified to allow for more student-driven inquiry that will then support student-led action?

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I used to think that student agency was about giving students choices, but now I understand it is much more than that. We should allow them to be part of the planning as well.

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I used to think structured-inquiry based teaching was the write one for my classes but now I can see how agency ( student rithm, and perspective) can help them much more.

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I used to think that the student needs to receive from the teacher the broader information and content that would give him the basis to start an investigation on a certain subject. And now I see other important ways (Agency) that the student can choose to get involved, investigate, find answers and learn, as he is the manager of his own learning, with the teacher as a mediator of this process.

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How can we implement more personalized learning (students choosing order of tasks, subjects) in homeroom classrooms?

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/18lvmU_fkvmPbVrRX-xmnhlcLhDI0rcs-XNQ4FaAxrqw/edit?usp=sharing

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qj6-VqsTmS2Sjjk2H5DDgEOUE12AkAlrCL_Thx3CpJ0/edit

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Assessment, Collaboration, and Timing of Carousel Meetings to allow for student-driven inquiry

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Assessment, Collaboration, and Timing of Carousel Meetings to allow for student-driven inquiry

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Should we re-evaluate the timing of our meetings to allow time for students to drive the inquiry of these units? How can we check in throughout the unit to ensure that we are all aligned across disciplines to support students in developing meaningful connections?

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JpVx8W1_csNq8freSA9y5x7b0mpWPBO7Ub375co3z2s/edit?usp=sharing

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IB educator Mariel Reid shares insight on student agency and her classroom experience trialing a well-being hub with the IB. After working with her students to develop and implement their personal and social education (PSE), Mariel let her students take the reins with the trial, leading to an uptick in interest and engagement at all [...]

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Approaches to learning | Search Results | IB Community Blog

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IB educator Mariel Reid shares insight on student agency and her classroom experience trialing a well-being hub with the IB. After working with her students to develop and implement their personal and social education (PSE), Mariel let her students take the reins with the trial, leading to an uptick in interest and engagement at all [...]