# data[].attributes.headline
Tips to help improve student communication sklils

# data[].attributes.subject
Tips to help improve student communication sklils

# data[].attributes.body
A blog post from Wabisab Learning

# data[].attributes.headline
IB PYP Approaches to Learning - Editable Document

# data[].attributes.subject
IB PYP Approaches to Learning - Editable Document

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Editable Approaches to Learning Combined ATL03 ATL04

# data[].attributes.body
Blog Post by Thinking Pathways

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Learners tend to learn more effectively when they are clear about the purpose of learning. Knowing where you are headed does not mean that the tasks needs to have every single detail mapped out for you, but it does require a clarity of the purpose of learning.

There is a multitude of research out there that confirms the value of sharing quality learning intentions with learners that clearly articulates what the teacher wants the students to know, understand and be able to do as a result of the learning.

The intentions we have for students' learning should be clear. They should never be a secret or guess what's in the teacher's head. Kath Murdoch in her book The Power of Inquiry states that instead of documenting an intention as an inevitability - 'We will learn...' an inquiry teacher may pose the intention in the form of a question - 'How might we...' This then allows the learning intention to become transferable.

One effective strategy for sharing learning intentions, with learning assets as the focus, is to use Guy Claxton's split screen teaching approach. Creating a split screen learning intention reminds us all that we are continually focusing on learning to learn while we are learning about a concept or exploring a question. This highlights for all parties that learning is indeed layered and complex. For example:

Or use a triple split screen that identifies the content, skills and dispositions central to the learning task. For example:

However, I believe that we often miss a crucial element when we give students learning intentions and success criteria - THINKING! Where is the thinking we want students to use?? (see blog post)
​
We need to explain the type of thinking students are required to use during a learning task as well as highlight what a sound example of what this thinking looks like in order to be successful. This also means students need explicit guidance and practice in knowing how to think in different ways and be able to apply this to a variety of everyday situations. ​

Read about the importance of Learning Intentions from AITSL below:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learners tend to learn more effectively when they are clear about their purpose.

# data[].attributes.body
Edutopia blog post

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Students should be invited into the process of managing learning in the classroom. Here are some tools many teachers have used to empower students to self-manage.

© Lise Gagne/Getty Images

As educators, we have so many tasks to handle each and every school day. Student absences, assessments, phone calls, meetings -- these can pile up on our plates. Classroom management is often considered one of the tasks we need to take on. While this is true to some extent, perhaps we can take some of the classroom management load off the teacher and put it on the students themselves. Management doesn't have to be, nor should it be, something teachers decide or handle on their own. Students should be invited into the process of managing learning in the classroom. Here are some tools many teachers have used to empower students to self-manage.

Team Operating Agreements

Agreements or contracts created or co-created with students can be a great tool to help them own their challenges when it comes to self-management. While you might have class or school norms, students may not find a true attachment to them. When students create norms, they are more likely to follow them. In addition, students can create norms and agreements that are personalized. While one team might need an agreement about keeping their hands and feet to themselves, another might need one about the free expression of ideas. Norms and agreements should meet the needs of students, not simply be imposed upon them. When students help create the norms, it's more likely that they will meet the students' needs.

Task Lists

In addition, students may need scaffolds to organize their thinking, planning, and overall work. They can use task lists to assign tasks to specific team members. Sometimes these sheets have places for teachers, team leaders, and others to sign off when tasks are completed. Scrumy is an online tool I have used with students to organize their work -- it functions as an interactive planning tool. Task lists are also great tools for assessment and conversations on equitable collaboration.

Checklists and Rubrics

Of course, rubrics and checklists are tried-and-true tools for self-management. There is nothing new here, but it's a good reminder that assessment tools are also great management tools. They promote reflection and goal setting, as well as ownership of the work. Checklists and rubrics are more powerful when they are co-created with students, as students tend to understand and take ownership of expectations. Keep checklists and rubrics available to students and plan intentional time for students to use them to assess themselves and their peers, to help manage projects, and to keep constant momentum in the learning process.

Time Management Logs

Using time management logs, students document how long they spend on specific tasks, assignments, or collaborative work. They can do this over the course of a week or longer. The intent is to document and then reflect upon the time they spend learning and working. The log may surprise students and inspire them to use their time more efficiently.

Flexible Seating and Spaces

I'm a big fan of classrooms that have a variety of places for students to work. Some students need quiet zones while others need collaborative tables. Some students work well with exercise balls as seats while others prefer standing desks. There are many possibilities for meeting students' needs in classroom seating and arrangement. Meeting those needs can promote student ownership of how and where they work and learn. As the teacher, you can coach them through the process of selecting appropriate spaces to work and learn, and students will learn to self-manage this choice as well.

Reflection and Goal Setting

All of the tools above are completely ineffective unless they are paired with reflection time. Just as we take time to reflect on content learning, we also need to take time to reflect on the learning process. All of the tools above provide great opportunities for students to reflect on how they have learned in targeted ways and to set goals. Learning logs are a great tool for this as well, as they promote the process of learning, not just the product. Don't forget reflection on self-management -- it's critical.

Remember, the greatest tool for management is engagement. Even when our students are engaged, they still need tools to manage themselves. Different tools work for different students, so try experimenting with a mix of the tools above to have students take more ownership of managing their learning process.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Students should be invited into the process of managing learning in the classroom. Here are some tools many teachers have used to empower students to self-manage. © Lise Gagne/Getty Images As educators, we have so many tasks to handle each and every school day.

# data[].attributes.body
Ideal for teaching social, communication and self-management skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ultimate Camp Resource is a free Resource for Camp Games, Camp Songs, Camp Skits and more. Ultimate Camp Resource is a website by camp people, for camp people. This webpage features Circle Games

# data[].attributes.body
How could this be adapted to help teach the other skills?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Teaching social skills has become one of the most significant teaching strategies in elementary education today. Indeed, the lack of these skills is the biggest contributing factor to the downfall of almost any type of teamwork today.

Fortunately, social skills and effective communication can be taught. The foundation of teaching social success consists of many distinct skills: Accepting others, listening actively, resolving conflicts, and taking turns, among others.

By learning these traits, children can learn how to interact with their peers, maintain a conversation, and develop personal dialogues with their classmates.

Educators should follow these teaching strategies to educate students how to interact and become productive members in your classroom.

1. Discuss Social Skills

Before you can teach social skills you will have to explain and discuss the need for them in the classroom as well as the world at large.

Students will be able to understand this more easily if you relate it to what they already know. Have students take turns discussing any problems they have had in their existing groups. Point out that this is because of a lack of communication or a social skill.

The need for working social skills should be related to something that happened outside of the classroom. Discuss how good communication and social skills are important in forming relationships.

2. Select a Social Skill

Focus on one skill at a time. Create a list (like the one below) and choose one skill, or have the students choose one skill from the list. Choose a skill to work on each week, and create a bulletin board around that specific skill. This way, you can refer to the bulletin board as you work on the skill throughout your week.
Social Skills

Asking for help

Accepting differences

Apologizing

Being patient

Being responsible for behavior

Communicating clearly

Complimenting others

Disagreeing politely

Encouraging others

Following directions

Listening Actively

Participating equally

Resolving conflicts

Sharing materials

Staying on task

Taking turns

3. Teach the Skill

Once you have chosen the skill, it's time to help students identify what they need to do to improve at that skill. You can begin by brainstorming what that skill looks like and sounds like. Together as a class, create a T Chart graphic organizer and list what the skills looks like in the left column, and what it sounds like in the right column.

Examples of the "Following directions" skill:

Looks like: Eyes are on the speaker, sitting quietly, listening carefully, and thinking about what is being said.

Sounds Like: Being quiet, asking questions if needed, following directions.

4. Practice the Skill

After you discuss what the skill looks like and sounds like, then you need to practice it. If you taught following directions as the social skill, then you would give students a list of directions to follow. For example:

Take out your history books

Turn to page 25

Read the first paragraph to yourself

Close the book when you have finished.

If you just taught students about active listening, the best way to practice this skill is to gather students into small cooperative learning groups, and have them do a "think-pair-share" activity. This is when each member of the group thinks about a question, pairs up with a member from the group to discuss their responses, then shares it with the rest of the group. This is an ideal choice because every member of the group gets a chance to practice active listening.

Extension Activity: Extend student practice by giving them an activity sheet to reinforce the skill learned. For example, when working on the following directions skill, give each student a worksheet that has a list of instructions in no particular order. Instruct students to cut out each instruction and put them in the correct order.

5. Review Skill Learned

After the specified social skill has been taught, reflect back upon the graphic organizer that was used in step three. Discuss with students if they thought the skill looked and sounded like what they brainstormed. Ask each group how well they think their team used the skill, and how they can improve next time.

By teaching social skills, we are reducing problematic behaviors and increasing the chances for successful appropriate interaction among students. This will in turn maximize our teaching time, and encourage students to use these skills at home.
How do you teach social skills to your students? Do you have any tips that you would like to share? Share with us in comment section below, we would love to hear your thoughts. Janelle Cox is an education writer who uses her experience and knowledge to provide creative and original writing in the field of education. Janelle holds a Master's of Science in Education from the State University of New York College at Buffalo. She is also the Elementary Education Expert for About.com, as well as a contributing writer to TeachHUB.com and TeachHUB Magazine. You can follow her at Twitter @Empoweringk6ed, or on Facebook at Empowering K6 Educators.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Strategies: How to Teach Social Skills

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teaching social skills has become one of the most significant teaching strategies in elementary education today. Indeed, the lack of these skills is the biggest contributing factor to the downfall of almost any type of teamwork today. Fortunately, social skills and effective communication can be taught.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The power of ummmm... | Kath Murdoch | TEDxWestVancouverED

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This article illustrates how the use of the SOLO Taxonomy allowed our students to progress from shallow to deep thinking.
Of the five essential elements in the PYP, is there one that often gets overlooked when planning units of inquiry?

The planner prompts us to think explicitly about attitudes, skills, action and concepts. But what about knowledge? It can sometimes be challenging for teachers to identify a body of knowledge for a particular unit; it can feel uncomfortable identifying specific knowledge to be learned because it can direct the inquiry in a way that takes control away from students. I would argue, however, that identifying some essential knowledge needed to understand a central idea gives more power to the students and encourages them to become self-directed, assessment capable learners.

In Making the PYP happen (2009), the section on whether it is possible to "identify a particular body of knowledge for PYP schools" is addressed by explaining that, although there are some "core commonalities" that represent shared human experiences (which led to the selection of the six transdisciplinary themes in the PYP framework), schools should develop their scope and sequences to reflect their unique circumstances. But do our scope and sequence documents always document the knowledge associated with units of inquiry?

Lynn Erickson's Structure of Knowledge (2002) is often used in the PYP workshops to illustrate how concepts and knowledge interact to help students form a principal generalization (similar to the central ideas we all have in our programmes of inquiry). The foundations of being able to form these principal generalizations (or understand a PYP central idea) are based on identifying the essential facts that will interact with the chosen macro and micro concepts (or, as we call them in the PYP, key and related concepts).

John Hattie and Gregory Donoghue (2013) define learning as:

The process of [students] developing sufficient surface knowledge to then [enable them to] move to deeper understanding such that one can appropriately transfer this learning to new tasks and situations.

Hattie states that there is a right time for interventions and the use of deliberate learning strategies. Based on his 800+ meta-analyses of now over 50,000 research articles, Hattie has argued that allowing students to inquire without structure too early does not work, having an effect size of only 0.31, less than an acceptable year's growth (the 0.4 'hinge point' which defines a typical year's growth).

This is where the SOLO Taxonomy can come in handy. Although it was developed by Biggs and Collis back in 1982 it seems to have had a resurgence of interest recently. Hattie (2012) describes it as "the most powerful model for understanding these three levels of understanding [surface, deep and conceptual]". In her new book entitled The Power of Inquiry (2015), Kath Murdoch writes that the SOLO Taxonomy "explicates the work of John Dewey, who wrote extensively about our understanding arising from our capacity to see connections". And Pam Hook (2012), who has released a variety of publications to help schools implement the model across a whole range of subject areas, states that it offers solutions to "ensure cognitive stretch for all students, build interest for all students, build confidence for all students and share power amongst all students."

In the SOLO model, there are four levels of thinking. At Seisen International School we have simplified the names of these levels for use with our students: unistructural (which we have renamed 'one idea'), multistructural (which we have renamed 'many ideas'), relational (which we have renamed 'connecting ideas') and extended abstract (which we have renamed 'going further'). The first two levels are surface level learning and require students to find information and collect ideas. The last two require deeper thinking where students have to process the information they gathered in the first two levels. If students are not at a stage where they have an idea about the concept, topic or subject, they are said to be at the pre-structural stage (which we renamed 'getting started').

At Seisen we have had some success adopting the SOLO Taxonomy. Students refer to the levels when reflecting on their progress and setting goals. It has become our language of learning, having aligned it with our own inquiry cycle (Getting Started - Investigating - Connecting Ideas - Going Further). Using a list of appropriate verbs at each level, learning engagements are designed across the continuum so that students can identify where they are and select their next steps. The students become evaluators of their own learning and teaching teams have a tool to use to answer the question posed in box 3 - What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?

By the time the students approach their exhibition year, consistent use of the tool is enabling students to plot their own learning progressions using the SOLO verbs at each stage of their independent inquiry. Isn't this our goal as teachers to structure inquiries in a way that encourages students to become independent, self-directed, assessment capable learners?

Here you can find links to some grade-level examples of the SOLO Taxonomies being used for units of inquiry on our blog.

Are you currently using SOLO in your PYP school? Are you interested in learning more about SOLO? Please contact us at pyp.curriculum@ibo.org.

-
Michael Hughes an experiences PYP Coordinator, currently into his fourth year at Seisen International School, Tokyo. Before this he worked in international schools in Singapore and Jordan and has ten years experience in the PYP. He is a work- shop leader in the Asia Pacific region.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
From surface to deep learning: The importance of knowledge

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This article illustrates how the use of the SOLO Taxonomy allowed our students to progress from shallow to deep thinking. Of the five essential elements in the PYP, is there one that often gets overlooked when planning units of inquiry? The planner prompts us to think explicitly about attitudes, skills, action and concepts.

# data[].attributes.headline
Early Years in the PYP: Educators' Perspectives

# data[].attributes.subject
Early Years in the PYP: Educators' Perspectives

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This publication has been withdrawn in HTML, a PDF version is still available from the programme resource centre. You'll be redirected there shortly. Esta publicación ya no está disponible en formato HTML, pero puede consultar la versión en PDF en el Centro de recursos para los programas. Se le redirigirá en breve.

# data[].attributes.body
Links to resources, webinars and slideshows to help unpack the Enhanced PYP in an early years setting.

# data[].attributes.body
From Pam Hook's Website

# data[].attributes.headline
Tools and Strategies to Support inquiry and SOLO

# data[].attributes.subject
Tools and Strategies to Support inquiry and SOLO

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Differentiated Thinking Tools and Strategies (Public)

# data[].attributes.body
This template only represents these two boxes. When planning a full PYP unit, please ensure you are going through the appropriate process.

At Seisen we have merged this with the Bubble planner.

Click here to see an example

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Copy of Inquiry Process Planner (Box 3/4 of the Bubble Planner)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SOLO Taxonomy and Inquiry - Summative Assessments

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SOLO Taxonomy and Inquiry - Exhibition SOLOs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SOLO Taxonomy and Inquiry - Specialist SOLOs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SOLO Taxonomy and Inquiry - Sharing The Planet

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SOLO Taxonomy and Inquiry - How We Organise Ourselves

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SOLO Taxonomy and Inquiry - How The World Works

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SOLO Taxonomy and Inquiry - Where We Are In Place And Time

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SOLO Taxonomy and Inquiry - How We Express Ourselves

# data[].attributes.headline
Teacher Support Material: The SOLO Taxonomy

# data[].attributes.subject
Teacher Support Material: The SOLO Taxonomy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We promised to make it easier for you to access your IB systems and resources with one username and password, and we are delighted to invite you to register with My IB to enable you to do just that.
My IB is a gateway, it is where you log in to access the programme resource centre that replaces the online curriculum centre (OCC) as the place to go for all your IB teaching materials and resources. You can also network with your peers in the programme communities that replace the forums on the OCC as the place for IB educators to connect, share and collaborate.

The OCC will not be updated with any new materials from August 2017. The OCC will be phased out in the next few months.

The first step is to get you registered with My IB

My IB is ready for teachers, librarians, counsellors, and all other IB roles in your school to register.

NOTE: IB programme coordinators, heads of schools, and members of the IB Educator Network (IBEN) have been registered automatically with My IB and can log in using their My School and/or IBEN Central login credentials - you can all log in using your My School and/or IBEN Central login credentials and start using the applications available to you. Please avoid re-registering and creating duplicate records. The steps below are for all other IB staff at your school who have yet to register.

Three steps to register

Step 1

Register with My IB. You will receive an email to confirm your registration.

Watch this three-minute video to see how to register:

Tip: Unsure if you already have a My IB account? Click ' Forgot your password ' and enter your email address. If you receive a password reset email, you know you already have a My IB account and can avoid creating a duplicate account.

Step 2

Log into My IB > click on 'IB roles' > select and register for the role(s) you fulfil at your school. One person can register for more than one role as relevant. You can also find the link to the My IB login screen in the blue bar at the top of ibo.org.

Step 3

After registering, your school's IB programme coordinator will receive an email to confirm your details (they'll log in to My School to do this). Once confirmed, you can log in to My IB to access the following.

Programme communities - for all IB educators - replacing the forums on the OCC for peer-to-peer networking and sharing of expertise

Programme resource centre - for all IB educators - replacing the OCC as the place to go for all your IB resources and teaching materials

IBEN Central - for members of the IB Educator Network - to access their latest assignment information

IBEN Engage - for members of the IB Educator Network - a forum to network and share resources

Workshop resource centre - for workshop leaders - coming soon to My IB

My School - for programme coordinators

IB Answers - for everyone - coming soon to My IB

Note: The OCC will be phased out gradually over the next few months. The OCC will not be updated with any new materials from August 2017.

Queries?

If you have any queries, please contact IB Answers.

Thanks in advance for registering with My IB. Enjoy using the resources available and connecting with your peers when you log in.

From everyone on the My IB team

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why should IB educators register with My IB?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We promised to make it easier for you to access your IB systems and resources with one username and password, and we are delighted to invite you to register with My IB to enable you to do just that.

# data[].attributes.headline
From Principles into Practice: Learning and Teaching

# data[].attributes.subject
From Principles into Practice: Learning and Teaching

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
PYP Principles into Practice- Learning and Teaching (2)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
PYP Units of Inquiry and Levels of Processing Theories

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Levels of Processing Theories 1 - Hattie and Yates