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Assessment in the Primary Years Programme- p84-85

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Assessment in the Primary Years Programme- p84-85

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Assessment in the Primary Years Programme

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I've spent twenty years studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy, and I recently completed a seven-year study on brave leadership. The goal of Dare to Lead is to share everything we've learned about taking off the armor and showing up as leaders in a skills-based and actionable playbook. Here are a few of the big ideas that emerged from this research:

You can't get to courage without rumbling with vulnerability. Embrace the suck.

Daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100% teachable, observable, and measurable. The foundational skill set of courage-building is "rumbling with vulnerability." Once we have built these rumbling skills, we can move on to the other three skill sets: Living into Our Values, Braving Trust, and Learning to Rise. Our ability to be daring leaders will never be greater than our capacity for vulnerability.

Self-awareness and self-love matter. Who we are is how we lead.

The greatest barrier to courageous leadership is not fear-it's how we respond to our fear. Our armor-the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that we use to protect ourselves when we aren't willing and able to rumble with vulnerability-move us out of alignment with our values, corrode trust with our colleagues and teams, and prevent us from being our most courageous selves.

To scale daring leadership and build courage in teams and organizations, we have to cultivate a culture in which brave work, tough conversations, and whole hearts are the expectation, and armor is not necessary or rewarded. We have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard, and respected.

The skill sets that make up courage are not new; they've been aspirational leadership skills for as long as there have been leaders. We just haven't had the courage for real talk about courage. But it's time. And if you want to call these "soft skills" after you've tried putting them into practice-go for it. I dare you. Until then, find a home for your armor, and I'll see you in the arena.

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Daring leadership requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with our whole hearts.

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💬Learning Engagement 1📝                    Activity 1: What is an IB education?

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💬Learning Engagement 1📝                    Activity 1: What is an IB education?

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mentimeter link: https://www.menti.com/al9gzaub3o6x

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Backward design begins with the learning objectives of a lesson, module, or course - what students are expected to learn and be able to do - and then proceeds "backward" to create assessments that demonstrate students have learned what was outlined in the learning objectives. Finally, instructors create learning activities and instructional materials that align with and support the achievement of the learning objectives.

The Three Steps of Backward Design Are:

Identify desired results. Upon completing a module or lesson in your course, or by the end of the semester, what knowledge, skills, or abilities should your students have achieved? In other words, what are course goals or learning objectives?

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What content and activities will promote achievement of the learning goals and objectives?

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Determine acceptable evidence. What forms of documentation do you need to evaluate students' progress toward proficiency of the learning objectives and course goals? In other words, what assessments will you incorporate into your class for students to demonstrate their learning?

Plan learning activities and instructional materials. What engagement activities and direct instruction will you provide to support students' achievement of the learning objectives and course goals? How will you scaffold the learning process? In other words, what learning activities and instructional materials will you utilize to move students progressively toward self-directed learning (Brookfield 2009) and achievement of the learning objectives and course goals?

Alignment is the degree to which learning objectives, assessments, learning activities, and instructional materials work together to achieve the desired course goals. The learning objectives that instructors create should direct the formative and summative assessments in their course, which will then determine which instructional materials and learning activities are used to support students' achievement of the learning objectives.

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Once you have worked through the three steps of backward design, you should make sure that all elements (objectives, assessments, learning activities, and instructional materials) align with each other.

Learner-Centered vs Content-Centered Approach

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Traditionally, instructors have applied a forward or content-centered approach to designing lessons, modules, or courses. This approach begins with selecting content such as the sequential chapters of a textbook, followed by building learning activities to help students practice skills or acquire new knowledge about the selected content, and then creating assessments to determine whether or not students learned the content. This approach typically ends with crafting learning objectives to connect the content learned to the assessments.

A content-centered approach to instructional design risks creation of poorly-defined learning experiences where students aren't clear on how the learning activities or learning objectives are supposed to support their learning of the content. After an exam, for instance, instructors might hear students express their frustration with statements such as, "that test wasn't fair" or "that question came out of left field".

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What students are likely really saying is that they don't understand how the test reflected the content they thought they studied or learned. Or perhaps they don't feel they were able to adequately demonstrate what they did learn based on the types of questions they were asked on the exam. In other words, they don't see an alignment between what they learned and what they were tested on.

Whatever the case may be, there is an alternative approach that helps instructors avoid these pitfalls and mitigate student frustrations with their learning experiences. Backward design takes a learner-centered approach to course design, facilitating the creation of more cohesive, clear, and intentional learning experiences for students. A learner-centered approach goes beyond engaging students in content and works to ensure that students have the resources and scaffolding necessary to fully understand the lesson, module, or course.

Benefits of Backward Design

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A study focused on a group of library science instructors who used the backward design framework to revise a lesson on information literacy instruction in first year writing classes. Four assessment methods were used to measure the effectiveness of the new lesson plan: (1) a group activity completed in class, (2) a recommended follow-up assignment for students to complete after their library session, (3) librarian reflections, and (4) a faculty survey. Results indicated that backward design is a valuable planning model that may increase student learning and collaboration with faculty (Mills, Wiley & Williams 2019).

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Buehl (2000) states that Backward Design offers these advantages:

Students are less likely to become so immersed in the factual detail of a unit that they miss the whole point of studying the topic.

Instruction focuses on global understandings and not on daily activities; daily lessons are constructed with a clear vision of what the overall "gain" from the lesson, module, or course is going to be.

Assessment is designed before lesson planning, so that instruction is crafted to best facilitate student learning-students are not completing learning activities just for the sake of doing them (e.g., what students might refer to as busy work).

Backward Design Emphasizes the Following Elements In Your Lessons, Units or Courses:

Backward design is implemented in three sequential stages:

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

In the first stage of backward design, instructors identify what students should know, understand, and be able to do by the end of the course, lesson or module.

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Identify the Big Ideas

Start with a focus on the "big ideas." If you ran into one of your students years later, what are one or two big ideas or core ideas that you would hope they would remember from your course? Wiggins and McTighe describe big ideas as:

A core concept, principle, theory, or process that should serve as a focal point for prioritizing content.

An organizer for connecting important facts, skills, and actions. Big ideas connect discrete knowledge and skills to a broader intellectual frame and create a bridge to specific facts and skills.

Transferable to other topics and contexts, issues, and problems.

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Found in the following forms that exist across the disciplines: concepts, themes, issues or debates, paradoxes, processes, problems or challenges, assumptions, and perspectives.

An abstraction that is not immediately evident to students and which requires uncovering via direct instruction and well-designed learning activities (Wiggins and McTighe 2004, 69).

These "Big ideas" may be interpreted as course goals, which are broad statements of what you hope students will learn or take away from your class at the end. Course goals may use verbs associated with student outcomes that are not readily observable and do not lend themselves easily to measurement (e.g., know, understand, value, appreciate).

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Transform the Big Ideas Into Essential Questions

After you have identified the "big ideas" you will transform these into essential questions. Wiggins and McTighe describe essential questions as:

Not a right or wrong answer, but are meant to be debated. Essential questions promote inquiry and argument that foster inquiry and research. The student draws conclusions rather than recites facts.

Designed to be thought-provoking for students, while also focusing on learning and the final assessment.

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Often address important issues, problems, or debates in a given discipline.

Thought-provoking and generative. Essential questions often lead to additional questions that may cross disciplinary boundaries.

Promote ongoing rethinking of big ideas and assumptions. (Wiggins and McTighe 2004, 91).

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Craft Learning Objectives

Once you have identified the big ideas and essential questions, you will then translate these into learning objectives ,link to learning objectives teaching guide/>. A key to writing useful learning objectives is to make them SMART, i.e., specific, measurable, attainable, relevant (and rigorous, realistic), and timely. Five basic elements should be included in such objectives:

1. who

2. will do

3. how much or how well

4. of what

5. by when

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The objective should include 1) the subject (your students), 2) an action verb, and 4) a noun that describes an intellectual operation or physical performance, as well as 3) a criterion and 5) the conditions for completion (Thomas and Abras, 2016).

Bloom's Taxonomy is a great tool in helping to identify action verbs appropriate for measurement. Another framework for constructing learning objectives is Fink's Taxonomy of Significant Learning, which encompasses domains of knowledge and competencies beyond scholarly matters and also addresses humanistic dimensions of caring and lifelong learning.

Consult CATE's Learning Objectives Teaching Guide for a fuller exploration of this topic.

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Prioritize Content

Because typically instructors have more content than can reasonably address within the available time frame, they must make choices. Wiggins and McTighe (1998) offer a three-layer conceptual model to aid in narrowing the focus of content when crafting learning objectives:

The outer circle of the framework identifies knowledge worth being familiar with or what students should "hear, read, view, research, or otherwise encounter."

The middle circle identifies what is important to know such as important knowledge (i.e, facts, concepts, and principles), as well as skills, processes, strategies, and methods.

The inner circle identifies enduring understandings or big ideas that students should retain after they have forgotten many of the details (Wiggins and McTighe 1998, 9-10).

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The three-layer conceptual model framework.

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Guiding Questions For Identifying Desired Results:

What should students hear, read, view, explore or otherwise encounter?

What knowledge and skills should students acquire?

What are big ideas and important understandings students should retain?

Stage 2: Determine Appropriate Assessments

In the second stage of backward design, instructors create the assessments students will complete in order to demonstrate evidence of learning and even progress towards achievement of the learning objectives.

Types of Assessments

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Assessment refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students.

There are two broad categories of assessments: summative and formative.

Summative assessments: assessment of your students' learning - how much a student has learned or become proficient in knowledge and skills associated with your course. Characteristics of summative assessments include:

Purpose for students: Evaluate learning, enter and graduate programs, and achieve professional credentials

Graded: Usually (with incorrect and correct responses)

Timing: Periodic, and typically occurs after learning activities

Feedback: Often delayed, and in the form of a grade on an assessment

Stakes: Usually high stakes (contributing to a large part of the student's final grade) with one opportunity to perform well

Examples of summative assessments include exams, portfolios, presentations, written work.

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Formative assessments: focus on assessment for learning. Formative assessments play a critical role in providing scaffolding for learning, opportunities to practice and build on prior knowledge, as well as integrating new concepts. Formative assessments help instructors and students gauge progress towards learning objectives to better equip students for studying and preparation for higher stakes summative assessments.

Characteristics of formative assessments include:

Purpose for students: Enhance students' metacognitive skills and studying behaviors, and guide their learning and skill-building in your course

Graded: Sometimes (e.g., as participation points)

Timing: Frequent and ongoing throughout the course

Feedback: Immediate, with repeated opportunities for practice and reflection

Stakes: Usually low stakes (contributing minimally to a student's final grade) with multiple opportunities to improve

Examples include homework, group problem-solving, polling questions, brief writing exercises like one-minute papers, and draft presentations and reports.

Consult CATE's Summative Assessment Teaching Guide and Formative Assessment Teaching Guide for a fuller exploration of these topics.

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Three-layer Conceptual Model and Assessment Types

Wiggins and McTighe identify a link between the assessment format and the type of understanding students need to demonstrate. For example, if the goal is for students to learn basic facts and skills, traditional quizzes and tests might be the most appropriate type of assessment to use. However, when the goal is enduring understanding, more complex and authentic assessment strategies might be needed to assess student learning. The illustration below shows an alignment between specific assessment types and the different types of evidence they provide.

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(Wiggins and McTighe 2004 141)

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Six Facets of Understanding

Wiggins and McTighe propose a framework called Six Facets of Understanding as a guide for building effective assessments. It is made up of six non-hierarchical 'domains' or 'facets' that they identify as indicators of understanding.

Understanding is revealed when students autonomously make sense of and transfer their learning through authentic performance (Wiggins and McTighe 2005 82-104). Wiggins and McTighe contend that students demonstrate true understanding when they can express their learning in one of six ways:

Explain concepts by putting them into one's own words, teaching it to others, justifying their answers, and showing their reasoning.

Interpret by making sense of data, text, and experience through images, analogies, stories, and models.

Apply what they know in diverse, real-world, and relevant contexts - the student can "do" the subject.

Demonstrate perspective by seeing the big picture and recognizing different points of view.

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Empathize or find value in what others might find odd or implausible; make perceptions based on prior direct experience.

Exhibit self-knowledge and show metacognitive awareness; should be aware of their position and what they do not understand as well as how that shapes their understanding. ⇒

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Guiding Questions for Developing Assessments:

How will I know if students have achieved the desired results?

What will I accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency?

Do the assessments address the learning objectives of the course?

Stage 3: Plan Learning Activities and Instructional Materials

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Now it is time to plan the lessons, determine reading assignments, method of instruction, and other classroom activities to support student learning. With students' needs in mind, instructors can choose the most appropriate methods to help their students achieve the learning objectives.

In the past, classroom instruction has focused on the instructor and the ways in which the subject matter could best be presented to the student.

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The emphasis was on "lectures" and "discussions" and the assumption was that learning largely consisted of a passive activity in which students received information and ideas from authoritative sources.

Research over the past several decades has shown that students learn more and retain their learning longer if they acquire it in an active rather than a passive manner. To learn more, consult CATE's Active Learning Teaching Guide.

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Learning Activities and the WHERETO Framework

Wiggins and McTighe have created a six-part checklist built on the acronym WHERETO that consists of key elements that should be included in your instructional materials and learning activities.

W: How will you help your students to know where they are headed, why they are going there, and what ways they will be evaluated along the way?

H: How will you hook and hold students' interest and enthusiasm through thought-provoking experiences at the beginning of each instructional episode?

E: What experiences will you provide to help students make their understanding real and equip all learners for success throughout your course or unit?

R: How will you cause students to reflect, revisit, revise, and rethink?

E: How will students express their understanding and engage in meaningful self-evaluation?

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T: How will you tailor (differentiate) your instruction to address the unique strengths and needs of every learner?

O: How will you organize learning experiences so that students move from teacher-guided and concrete activities to independent applications that emphasize growing conceptual understandings as opposed to superficial coverage? (Wiggins and McTighe 2005, 195-226).

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Guiding Questions For Developing Learning Activities:

What enabling knowledge and skills will students need in order to achieve desired results?

What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills?

What will need to be taught and coached, and how should it best be done?

What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals?

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Objectives, assessments and learning activities are three cornerstones of backward design.

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Backward Design and Alignment

A defining feature of Backward Design is its alignment between learning objectives, assessments and feedback, and learning activities and instructional materials.

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Backward design begins with the learning objectives of a lesson, module, or course - what students are expected to learn and be able to do - and then proceeds "backward" to create assessments that demonstrate students have learned what was outlined in the learning objectives.

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PYP: From principles into practice. The learning community. Creating learning environments. Connecting pedagogy 
and design. Figure LE01

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💬Learning Engagement 1📝                    Activity 2: Why an IB education?

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💬Learning Engagement 1📝                    Activity 2: Why an IB education?

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Developing Approaches to Learning holistically

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Developing Approaches to Learning holistically

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The PYP Program Model and International-mindedness

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The PYP Program Model and International-mindedness

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The IB develops inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through education that builds intercultural understanding and respect.

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Example- School Mission and student interpretation

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Example- School Mission and student interpretation

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💬Learning Engagement 2📝: Learner Profile

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💬Learning Engagement 2📝: Learner Profile

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Examples of How to promote L.P. in Learning and Teaching     

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Examples of How to promote L.P. in Learning and Teaching     

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Learning environment:

LPA posters in all classrooms and around the campus

--Students handmade posters,

--LPA Posters with students' photos there (photos from ASA, class activities, school events, etc.)

For students (show products):

1. LPA postcard design competition

2. LPA winners every week in all subjects

3. LPA song creation

4. LPA Gallery Walk

5. LPA-related activities: match the LPA with photo

For teachers:

1. Have certain LPA in the planner for all subjects

2. Spiderweb discussion during PYPC meeting

3. Explicitly teach LPA in class: stories, books, videos, activities, poem writing etc.

4. Use the vocabulary all the time

Learning community:

1. PYP workshops for parents from all subjects

2. Use the vocabulary with the parents during PTC

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Activity 1:  How could the learner profile enhance what we already do?

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Activity 1:  How could the learner profile enhance what we already do?

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Click and enter

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Central Idea: Shared values and goals strengthen a unified community

Learner Profile：Open-minded, Caring, Communicator

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example sentences

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Upload the photo of Hong Kong that has a strong meaning to you

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Upload the photo of Hong Kong that has a strong meaning to you

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Collaborative planning in action- PYP Teacher Support Materials (TSM) video 

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Collaborative planning in action- PYP Teacher Support Materials (TSM) video 

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🧠Activator💡: What could agency look like in my classroom?

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🧠Activator💡: What could agency look like in my classroom?

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Questions to think:

What philosophical shifts would you need to make to create a learning environment that invites student agency or the process of the exhibition?

What physical shifts would you need to make to create a learning environment that invites student agency or the process of the exhibition?

What challenges and opportunities do you see in making these shifts in the learning environment?

Choose a question and type your answer below

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Option a) Explore what agency might look like in a classroom.

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Option a) Explore what agency might look like in a classroom.

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Option b) Empowering Exhibition Experiences

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Option b) Empowering Exhibition Experiences

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Highly effective assessment shares the following characteristics:

authentic: supports connections to the real world

clear and specific: including learning goals and success criteria

varied, developmental: with an emphasis on progress within each individual

collaborative: teachers and students are both engaged in assessment development and analysis, interactive, feedback to feedforward (feedback is provided to inform what will support future learning (Hattie, Timperley 2007) in order to raise motivation

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💬Learning Engagement 1📝: How might we increase agency now?

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💬Learning Engagement 1📝: How might we increase agency now?

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with the activator group OR grade level & subject area group

1. Reflect on one area in which you would like to immediately provide opportunities for more student agency.

2. Create a brief action plan that you will start this week.

Questions to consider:

How will you gauge how students feel about the changes?

How will you measure or evidence success of your changes?

What potential obstacles do you see that you could plan for?

3. Share your plans

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from Building your IB programme: Primary years planner

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💬Learning Engagement 2📝:  What is the power of collaboration?

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💬Learning Engagement 2📝:  What is the power of collaboration?

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1. Collaboratively plan how the action plan could be executed keeping the school context and culture in mind.

2. Create a visual model of the collaborative planning process you used including goal or objective setting, roles, information gathering, decision-making, monitoring and evaluation, adjustments, review, and reflection.

3. Make or upload your visual model to our discussion sandbox

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The collaboration among

Schools: 4 IB schools in SZ hold joint PYPx kick-off

Departments (MYP & DP support)

Teachers (mentors)

Families: research, field trip, experienment

that empowers learner agency.

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🗣️Reflection💭: What's our collaborative vision?

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🗣️Reflection💭: What's our collaborative vision?

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1. Vision statement for effective collaboration

2. 3 essential agreements for effectivel collaborating

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The PYP curriculum framework begins with the premise that students are agents of their own learning and partners in the learning process. It prioritizes people and their relationships to build a strong learning community.

PYP students use their initiative to take responsibility and ownership of their learning. By learning through inquiry and reflecting on their own learning, PYP students develop knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills and the attributes of the IB learner profile to make a difference in their own lives, their communities, and beyond.

The framework also emphasizes the central principle of agency through the recognition of the importance of fostering an individual's self-efficacy. Students with a strong sense of self-efficacy are active in their own learning and take action in their learning community.

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Transdisciplinary learning through agency- example from IB

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Transdisciplinary learning through agency- example from IB

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What is the difference?

The following provides the most basic definitions of the terms.

Interdisciplinarity is concerned “with the links and the transfer of knowledge, methods, concepts and models from one discipline to another” (Padurean and Cheveresan 2010: 128). Disciplinary boundaries may blur. The transfer of knowledge can sometimes yield a new discipline. For example, when the disciplines of nuclear physics and medicine came together, they yielded a new treatment called chemotherapy (Choi and Pak 2006). Again, in everyday analogy, interdisciplinarity is represented as stew, where ingredients are partially distinguishable (Choi and Pak 2006).

Multidisciplinarity is concerned with studying a topic “in not just one discipline only, but several at the same time (Nicolescu 2014: 187). Multidisciplinary learning begins and ends with the subject-based content and skills (Beane 1997). The boundaries among the subjects remain. Using an everyday analogy, multidisciplinarity is represented as a mixed salad where the ingredients remain separate and distinguishable (Choi and Pak 2006).

Transdisciplinarity “concerns that which is at once between the disciplines, across the different disciplines, and beyond all disciplines” (Nicolescu 2014: 187). Nicolescu notes that a key imperative of transdisciplinary learning is to unite knowledge for the understanding of the present world. In transdisciplinarity, the disciplines are no longer distinguishable, like the ingredients in a cake, and the result is something completely different (Choi and Pak 2006).

Transdisciplinarity transcends subjects. It begins and ends with a problem, an issue or a theme. Students’ interests and questions form the heart of transdisciplinary learning. It is a curriculum-organizing approach where human commonalities rise to the top without regard for subject boundaries. Subjects become an instrument/tool/resource to explore a theme, problem or concept in depth. The result is a different or new organizing framework (Beane 1997; Klein 2006).

Last update: 12/08/2022

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Effective teaching, Albright (2016: 532) believes, “is implicitly transdisciplinary”, and, by design, multiple elements of the PYP bring to life transdisciplinary learning and teaching. These elements provide the foundation for students to develop transdisciplinary thinking, to explore real-life issues and to effect change. They support the development of “internationally minded people who recognize their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet” (IBO 2017: 2).

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A new approach in education

These themes are worth exploring regardless of where PYP students are in the world and with which ethnic or cultural group they identify. Framing the programme of inquiry, these globally and socially driven themes provide a starting point from which students can examine issues and opportunities as they are being experienced in the real world. Taken together, these themes provide students with authentic learning experiences that are not confined to the boundaries of traditional subjects because real-world problems have no boundaries.

Last update: 12/08/2022

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Transdisciplinary learning and the PYP framework

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UOI: Sustainable City

Math: Perimeter & Area & 3 Views- planning the city

Literacy: Opinion Writing- Why our city is the best to live in?

Art: Landmark and painting

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Example: Transdisciplinary learning and student action

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Example: Transdisciplinary learning and student action

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UOI: Biomes and Animals

Literacy writing: poem

Student Action: Write poems calling for the protection of biomes, and design and use the reusable bag as a role model for the community

New plan: complain letter to the aquarium

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There should be a direct and explicit connection between the lines of inquiry, the central idea of the unit and aspects of the designated transdisciplinary theme

Lines of inquiry should be distinctive yet connected to one another, in order to provide a coherent context for learning.

Lines of inquiry should be relevant to the experience of the students within a particular developmental range.

As students engage with the lines of inquiry, they of course, will be working towards meeting the success criteria established for the unit of inquiry

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Example: success criteria and assessment strategies

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Example: success criteria and assessment strategies

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Teaching focused on conceptual understanding

Juxtaposed with learning based on memorization of facts and algorithms, learning in the PYP is anchored on goals of developing conceptual understandings. Concepts (which may transcend time, contexts, and cultures) are the basic building blocks of units of inquiry in each PYP school; they are relied upon to deepen disciplinary understandings and to help learners make connections and transfer learning to different contexts. True understanding looks like a learner being able to use learning from one context and apply it to another context; concepts transcend contexts and can connect knowledge. (PSP realised)

Concepts are fundamental and abstract ideas which can often be expressed in a single word (i.e. change, patterns, perspective, responsibility) which support the development of conceptual understanding. Concepts fall at varying places on continuums of abstraction and universality and serve a variety of purposes in the learning environment,

not limited to organizing content (what learners will learn), organizing curriculum, serving as the basis for objectives, assessments, and learning engagements. (PSP realised)

Concepts are fundamental and abstract ideas which can often be expressed in a single word (i.e. change, patterns, perspective, responsibility) which support the development of conceptual understanding.

Concepts fall at varying places on continuums of abstraction and universality and serve a variety of purposes in the learning environment, not limited to organizing content (what learners will learn), organizing curriculum, serving as the basis for objectives, assessments, and learning engagements. (PSP realised)

“Teaching for conceptual understanding is supported by the approaches to teaching. In particular, collaboration and inquiry activities support the development of a learner’s conceptual understanding. In turn, teaching for conceptual understanding enhances the process and outcomes of inquiry.” (PSP realised)

Teaching developed in local and global contexts

Contextualized learning places an emphasis on students processing new information by connecting it to their own experience and to the world around them. In this approach, learning occurs when students “process new information or knowledge in such a way that it makes sense to them in their frame of reference… This approach to learning and teaching assumes that the mind naturally seeks meaning in context—that is, in the environment where the person is located—and that it does so through searching for relationships that make sense and appear useful” (Hull, 1993, p. 41).

Grounding learning in real-life contexts is one of the six pillars Claxton (2008) identifies as fundamental to student engagement. He goes on to state that grounding learning and teaching in local and global contexts can help make it

more authentic and more meaningful for students; the exploration of real-life problems can be more interesting for students because they are relevant and authentic. It also helps students see the purpose or ‘why’ they are learning. (Claxton 2008).

Teaching based on inquiry

Teaching and learning in the PYP is based on inquiry. This means that a very significant emphasis is placed on learners finding their own information and building their own understandings. IB PYP teachers lean heavily into inquiry as the most fundamental strategy for teaching and learning; they understand that meaning-making is unique to learners and their contexts. They value exploration, negotiation, questioning, and cooperation because these practices play a vital role in the development of conceptual understanding.(PSP realized)

Deeply woven into inquiry practices is the understanding that language is crucial to the building of understanding and ways in which it is communicated. Language provides a way for learners to explore their inner worlds and the worlds of others, broadening the perspectives and appreciation for diverse world views and interpretations. Technology is a particularly useful resource that contributes greatly to the meaning-making within classrooms. (PSP realized)

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Learning and teaching strategies for concept-based learning

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Learning and teaching strategies for concept-based learning

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(whole school purchase)

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Specified concepts and examples of additional concepts (2)

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Specified concepts and examples of additional concepts (2)

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Example- specified concepts in the classroom

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Example- specified concepts in the classroom

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Designing learning experiences around strategies for conceptual understanding 

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Designing learning experiences around strategies for conceptual understanding 

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The following features will always be present in a unit of inquiry.

A transdisciplinary theme

A central idea, specified and selected additional concepts, and lines of inquiry

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Success criteria for writing a central idea

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Success criteria for writing a central idea

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Central idea: The central idea is a statement that frames the transdisciplinary unit of inquiry. It provides teachers with a structure to introduce concepts that span across national, cultural and subject boundaries to support students’ conceptual understandings of the underlining transdisciplinary theme. Central ideas are globally significant and invite student inquiry. In developing or revising a central idea, consider the following questions.

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Getting to Grips with Central Ideas – Key Learnings from Toddle Talks Webinar

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Central Ideas are the driving force behind every PYP unit! Access this webinar to get Ideas and printables to take to your planning meetings

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💬Learning Engagement📝:  What’s the connection? Steps/instructions:

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💬Learning Engagement📝:  What’s the connection? Steps/instructions:

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1. With your group of 3-4 participants, review the titles and descriptors of the six transdisciplinary themes (Who we are; Where we are in place and time, etc.)

2. Share units with your group members that you currently teach or facilitate that might fit under, or within, some of these transdisciplinary themes.

3. Collaboratively select one transdisciplinary theme and then select one unit that you all agree works well under the selected transdisciplinary theme.

4. On the PYP planner template, write your group’s transdisciplinary theme in the appropriate space.

5.After viewing the first video of the PYP Nano entitled Concept-based learning, briefly discuss the word “transfer” and its impact with your group members.

6. Now consider the natural conceptual connections to the different subject areas in your unit, ensuring there is a balance of subjects to support understanding of the selected transdisciplinary theme. Note down the concepts that connect across the different subjects.

7. Next consider the specified concepts that will drive your inquiry.

the concepts selected for the central idea can also be used in the next inquiry where LOIs will be created

8. Identify 2-3 concepts that connect your disciplinary knowledge and transdisciplinary theme. Add them to your planner template.

9.Keeping what you learned about ‘transfer’ in mind, view the first video of the PYP Nano entitled Strong Central Ideas.

10. Use some action words or verbs to connect how your concepts relate to each other as a start to building your central idea.

brainstorm some words together – influence, develop, create, design, curate, connect etc.

11. Work collaboratively to create a central idea to fit your unit of inquiry. Rewatch the PYP Nano if needed.

12. When your group has crafted a central idea, use this checklist to see if your central idea meets the criteria.

✅ Does it offer students opportunities to explore the commonalities of the human experience?

✅ Does it promote the associated conceptual understandings?

✅ Is it broad enough to offer multiple lines of inquiry?

✅ Is it underpinned by concepts?

✅ Is it relevant to students in all cultures and contexts?

✅ Will it engage students in thinking critically and creatively?

✅ Does it present an opportunity for students to co-construct meaning of the conceptual framework being explored?

✅ Is it open to a range of student responses?

13. When your group is satisfied that your central idea is complete and meets the criteria checklist, add it to your planner (Note: assessment related parts will be covered Inquiry 5)

14. Upload and save the completed planner on padelt (below this section), as it will be used for Inquiry 5 tomorrow.

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2 Stars ⭐️

1 Wish🎐

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💬Learning Engagement 1📝: Can we help each other develop understanding? 

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💬Learning Engagement 1📝: Can we help each other develop understanding? 

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With your inquiry 4 planning group:

1. Review the transdisciplinary theme, the central idea and the specific and additional concepts you have selected.

2. Taking into consideration the subject areas that will be part of this unit and the big ideas from the concepts you have selected, together view the Teacher Support Material (TSM) School B: Scope and sequence programme of inquiry development. Discuss how this school collaboratively created lines of inquiry that draw from the central idea.

3. Collaboratively write a line of inquiry (see success criteria below) that is connected to the central idea of your unit. This line of inquiry should help define the parameters of your unit as well as unpack the concepts in the central idea.

4. Brainstorm the opportunities you have just created through your line of inquiry to support the transfer of learning across, between, and beyond subjects. Are there connections to learning within and outside the unit of inquiry? Can you ensure that learning is purposeful and connects to local and global challenges and opportunities?

5. Document your group’s thinking in the ‘Connections’ box of the planner (from inquiry 4).

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💬Learning Engagement 2📝: Can we help each other develop understanding?  

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💬Learning Engagement 2📝: Can we help each other develop understanding?  

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1. In your unit planning groups, explore and interact with the PYP nano resource, Developing Superpowers—Learners in an Assessment-Capable Culture – Part 2 – Explore: Assessment-capable learners.

2. Review the transdisciplinary theme, the central idea, the concepts and the lines of inquiry on your planner (from Inquiry 4) and discuss how you will monitor, document and measure student learning of the knowledge, skills and conceptual understandings of this unit. Use the following prompts.

• What assessment strategies will I use – observations, rubrics, checklists?

• What assessment tools will I use – anecdotal records, portfolios, learning stories, self-assessment?

• What evidence of learning will I gather – student work samples, reflections, self-assessments?

3. Remember to also consider how your assessments are aligned with the central idea, the lines of inquiry, and the specified and additional concepts.

4. In the ‘Prior Learning’ box on your planner, document the tools and strategies you will use to note evidence and the ways of gathering evidence of what students already know, understand and can do regarding their understanding of the central idea and lines of inquiry.

5. Next, consider what student questions may arise because of their prior knowledge, experiences and interests.

Write these questions in the ‘Student Questions’ box.

6. Consider both ‘Ongoing Assessment’ and ‘Student Self-Assessment and Peer Feedback’ sections of the planner – how will you use ongoing assessment to ensure learning is engaging, accessible and student-centred. Complete the ‘Ongoing Assessment’ box.

7. In the box, ‘Learning goals and success criteria’, write a general learning goal or outcome that could answer a student’s questions: “Where am I going in my learning?” and “What do I need to get there?”.

8. Again with your group, discuss how you and your students will measure success.

9. In the same box you just wrote in, document how you will co-create specific and measurable success criteria with your students. Success criteria can answer the questions: “What does successful learning look like?” and “What are we looking for during learning?”.

10. Now reflect on the opportunities you will provide students to self-assess and self-adjust based on feedback

from teachers and peers. Complete that box.

11. Finally, synthesize your learning and understanding of PYP assessment by brainstorming potential assessment tasks for evidencing student learning for this unit.

12. Save the completed planner, as it will be used for Inquiry 6.

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🗣️Reflection💭: What are the impacts of a shared assessment culture?

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🗣️Reflection💭: What are the impacts of a shared assessment culture?

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With a partner:

1. Brainstorm and then write down two ways in which a shared assessment culture could enhance collaboration among teachers.

2. Now, reflect on how collaboration among teachers on assessment practices could impact students. Write these ideas down too.

3. Debrief your words and develop a six-word memoir that represents your ideas.

4. Be prepared to share and explain your memoir.

Add the memoir below

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1. Review the five Approaches to learning categories.

2. You will participate in a scavenger hunt to find examples of each approaches to learning skill category. Your facilitator will share the spaces you can explore.

3. Identify as many approaches to learning skills as possible for each category.

For example: Communication – an example of effective communication could be a well-designed notice or bulletin board or a sign with clear information.

4. Share with the whole group some of the examples you found. (upload below)

5. Whole group discussion on why each skill is important and how it can be applied in different academic and real-life situations.

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💬Learning Engagement 📝:                              What’s my strategy?

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💬Learning Engagement 📝:                              What’s my strategy?

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1. View the video Thinking skills in the PYP.

2. With a partner, discuss these questions：

Which of these different thinking strategies stood out to you, and why?

Are you using any of these thinking strategies in your own classroom? If so, what impact have they had on student learning?

If not yet, what impact do you think they could have on student learning?

3. With your collaborative unit planning group:

Consider what skills your students will be able to know, do and understand as a result of this inquiry.

4. Write the relevant approaches to learning skills in the ‘Approaches to learning’ box in the planner. (save the planner for Inquiry 7)

5. Finally, create a learning experience that highlights the use of one of the ATL skills you have identified on your unit planner.

6. Share you plans and learning experience to the whole group.

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Scroll down to the "Multilingual development in IB programmes" page

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Individually:

1. Write down one word that comes to mind when you think about language development.

2. Share your word with your assigned or self-selected group. Together, create a slogan from all your words that describes your groups’ ideas about language development.

3. Share your slogan with the whole group by posting it on the walls.

With your collaborative unit planning group:

4. Wearing your ‘language teacher’ hat, review your progress on your unit of inquiry.

5. Share with your group any new perspectives or insights on the unit through this new lens.

6. Discuss and make adjustments where warranted.

7. Save the planner for Inquiry 8

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Individually:

1. Locate the self-audit tool for determining how multilingual your school is.

2. Download the entire table and complete your self-audit.

3. Review the IB language tenets.

4. Select one tenet that is a strength for your school based on the self-audit and one tenet that is an area for further development.

5. Write a brief action plan of how you will continue to sustain the tenet which is a strength and how you will enhance the tenet that needs further development.

6.Share your plan with the whole group.

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🗣️Reflection💭:  How do we create a classroom culture that celebrates multilingualism?

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🗣️Reflection💭:  How do we create a classroom culture that celebrates multilingualism?

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Independently:

1. Read the Teacher Support Material-Student Language Agreements

2. reflect on how you could involve students in the creation of a classroom culture that respects and values a variety of languages. (add comments below)

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🧠Activator💡: What are the components of an effective learning environment?

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🧠Activator💡: What are the components of an effective learning environment?

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1. In your assigned learning space group, further investigate the learning space consideration you were assigned.

2. Investigate by doing desk research and by keeping the six approaches to teaching in mind.

3. Together, create a graphic organizer outlining how your learning space considerations contribute to one or more approach to teaching.(paper or sandbox)

4. Be prepared to share and explain your graphic organizer to the whole group.

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💬Learning Engagement📝 How do we design effective learning environments?

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💬Learning Engagement📝 How do we design effective learning environments?

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With your shoulder partner:

1. View and interact with the digital resource from the PYP Playlist: Designing Learning Spaces.

2. Each share something new you hadn’t considered as part of a learning environment.

Return to your collaborative unit planning group:

4. With the chart paper provided (or on discussion sandbox), map out a classroom that ensures learning is engaging, flexible, accessible, co-constructed, and student-centered.

Share the learning environment of your class/school to the group

5. Now add potential for local (or global) community members who may broaden perspectives for learners or inspire student-generated inquiries.

6. List any field trip opportunities.

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1. Reflect on the different aspects of effective learning environments you have read about in this session.

2. Celebrate one aspect of a learning environment that already feels effective in your classroom.

3. Identify one aspect of a learning environment you believe you could adapt to your own classroom.

4. Open your calendar or reminder app and write a reminder to yourself outlining, with bullet points, the changes you would like to make.

5. Set the reminder or calendar date to two weeks following the end of this workshop.

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🗣️Reflection💭: What impact does an IB education have on your current practice?

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🗣️Reflection💭: What impact does an IB education have on your current practice?

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Consider what you have learned about the aims of an IB education, international-mindedness and the IB learner profile using the Harvard Project Zero visible thinking routine, Connect, Extend, Challenge.

Write in the section below:

how what you learned connects to what you already know and do

what new ideas you got that broadened or extended your thinking in new directions

what challenges or puzzles emerge for you.

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💬Learning Engagement📝: How can we plan for student action initiatives?

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💬Learning Engagement📝: How can we plan for student action initiatives?

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1. Self-select a group of 3-4 people to collaborate with – if you’re from the same school, consider forming a group!

2. As a group, decide upon a type of student action.

You may decide upon your own or select one of these suggestions.

Starting a school garden

Organizing a student-run assembly about the learner profile attributes

Minimizing food waste in the cafeteria

Creating a visible space for acknowledging student-initiated action

Inviting parents in for a writing share

Keeping classroom supplies tidy and replenished

3. With the paper provided, create a ‘placemat’ with ‘Transdisciplinary learning’ written in the centre.

4. In the box for ‘Transdisciplinary learning’, add a few words to describe the type of student action your group has selected.

5. Label each of the four quadrants with the following headings:

Skills & Knowledge Required

Connected Subject Areas

Potential Learning Community Involvement

Challenges & Opportunities of Implementation

6. With your group, envision planning for time for a small group of students OR your entire class to carry out this action. Complete the four quadrants.

7. When your four quadrants are completed, collaboratively create a presentation (in any medium or format) for your school community on the student action you would like to plan, taking into account all four quadrants of your placemat

8. Be prepared to share your presentation with the whole group.

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additional example and guidance of the PYP planner

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additional example and guidance of the PYP planner

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please upload the your group's unit planner below 🔽

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please upload the your group's unit planner below 🔽

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With the help of GPT, your question will be evaluated on a rubric from Level 1 to Level 5 aligned to Bloom’s Taxonomy

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1. Book Creator

2. Padlet

3. Kahoot (interactive learning app)

4. Google Classroom

5. storylineonline.com

6. teacherespayteachers.com

7. Whiteboard -Microsoft

8. mentimeter.com

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example of designing the ATL based learning experience

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example of designing the ATL based learning experience

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The video link above demonstrates how to use jigsaw in a middle school language arts class and how it helps students understand complex text. It states how giving students a responsibility and allowing then to be the experts in a group helps build their comprehension skills, confidence, and social skills.

The picture above and below are two ways that demonstrate how this strategy works. There is one expert in a group and they share their findings with their new group, which for ELLs makes them accountable for their learning as well as gives them the collaboration and communication aspect to deepen there understanding and gain confidence in sharing to their group! These are two good diagrams that teachers could use for visual aids in the classroom to help student understand how to do the strategy. (Jigsaw, 2013).

​In this video, to the right, it goes through how to do/use the jigsaw strategy. It goes through home groups and expert groups as well as how to pick out articles related to the topic. Then the strategy is demonstrated in a classroom. This video will help teachers realize how to effectively engage students while using the jigsaw strategy. This would be a good video to show students before actually doing an activity, because then they can see how it words, and this will eliminate some questions.

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Justification: The jigsaw strategy is a student-centered strategy that increases students' participation, which creates a supportive and motivating environment. This strategy incorporates reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, but it also develops students' interpersonal skills and encourages them to communicate and collaborate with their peers. Reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills are necessary in developing for student literacy development.
Aronson along with others from University of Texas and the University of California had the original research that gave credibility to the jigsaw approach for reading comprehension. He states that having student's complete jigsaws allows them to build confidences and emphasizes cooperative learning in the classroom. By providing students an opportunity to actively help each other it build comprehension, social skills, as well as helps them look at the same information differently (Aronson, 2015).The benefits of using Jigsaw for reading compression is it encourages students to share ideas and increased their learning through the communication and discussion with others. It teaches students cooperation, responsibility, teamwork, critical thinking and social skills, which are all skills that students need to be successful in the twenty-first century (Clarke, 2013).

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The video link above demonstrates how to use jigsaw in a middle school language arts class and how it helps students understand complex text. It states how giving students a responsibility and allowing then to be the experts in a group helps build their comprehension skills, confidence, and social skills.

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Calm-down space: The stuffed animals and soft textures create a safe, comforting environment for students to regulate emotions like frustration, anger, or anxiety.

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Calm-down space: The stuffed animals and soft textures create a safe, comforting environment for students to regulate emotions like frustration, anger, or anxiety.

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Communication skills: students communicate and collaborate with each other :)

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Communication skills: students communicate and collaborate with each other :)

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communication with other peers

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research skills

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Thinking skills

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communication in collaboration projects

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The calmness of the mountains and water promotes thinking skills