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Portfolios/Reflection/ Assessment/Conferences The Power of Student Reflection We aren't using assessments correctly What reflection can do for learning How to make grades about students again...

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About the Talk

The second of the 3-part webinar series 'Leading Inquiry in the Single Subject Classroom,' by Andy Vasily, this webinar focuses on how you can personalize learning in the single subjects, for students. Through a wide range of examples from real classrooms, Andy demonstrates how teachers can promote student autonomy be it in physical education, music, visual arts or more. Based on research and evidence supported by Self-Determination Theory, he shares a framework for delivering teaching and learning that helps students find their own challenges and, ultimately, their own entry point to learning the units in the single subjects.

Key Insights You'll Gain

Strategies to personalize learning for students in the single subjects

Structure that promotes deeper autonomy in the single subjects

Authentic assessment strategies that provide evidence of student progress

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Disclaimer - This event is organised independently of and not endorsed by the IB. Toddle's events and webinars are organised to enable an exchange of practices and ideas within the educator community and are not a replacement for official IB workshops. Views and opinions expressed by the speakers are their personal views and should not be construed as official guidance by the IB. Please seek assistance from your school's IB coordinator and/or refer to official IB documents before implementing shared ideas and strategies in your classroom.

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Personalized Learning in the Single Subjects

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Explore strategies to personalize learning for students in the single subjects and create authentic assessments to gather evidence of student progress.

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With no prior experience with teaching in an IB PYP school, starting out last year in my new school as the Classroom Music Teacher was quite a daunting experience. I was truly blessed though to have great support in my Principal and other staff members who encouraged me to teach my music program from my previous school and try and link in to the class UOI's where I could.

As I do in any situation I set about trying to impress as much as I could and link as often as I could to the classroom UOI which I thought would be the best PYP inquiry teaching.

What I found though was the skills/techniques I wanted to teach the children were not being done chronologically/developmentally as I tried to focus too much on the OUI taught in the classroom. I was a little frustrated with this and didn't understand how I could honour my discipline of teaching musicianship and authentically link to the PYP units being taught.

At the beginning of this year I went to the 3 day course "Making the PYP Happen in the Classroom". This was my first experience of IB PYP Professional Development and yes at the start I was completely overwhelmed by the whole thing.

While I learnt an incredible amount about how to teach using the PYP inquiry method my biggest question still wasn't answered:

How can I teach classroom music in an IB school, using the inquiry methodologies to AUTHENTICALLY link to the class UOI and at the same time HONOUR my developmental curriculum.

This answer came 3 months later at an Arts Workshop for Single Subject Teachers presented by Theo Mandziy ( Coordinator of Primary Single Subject Programme and Visual Arts teacher, Australian International School, Singapore)

At this workshop I realised I was focusing too much on the 'UOI' and not on the skill development of the children because I mistook linking with the classroom to be more important than the skill set I was teaching.

I was focusing on the topic/theme/idea eg using an indigenous song and then singing, dancing or playing instruments to it, rather than focusing on the skills & techniques and using my language during my lesson to link into the "concepts" being taught.

Theo presented 3 ways of planning:

This may be a wonderful concept & idea but Theo said it is very hard to pull off, especially if you are only part time. This is where the Specialist subject teacher/s plan the UOI and the classroom teacher links in with it.

Specialist teachers don't need to link with every UOI, as long as you find at least one UOI to link with in the year that is suffice. To find this UOI look for authentic and purposeful links to the work in both classrooms, which allows you to honour the discipline that you are teaching.

You can write your own UOI that links with it or even take a line of inquiry from the classroom UOI.

The best way to link in is with the PYP Concepts being taught. Here the key is ensuring the language (key words/ideas) used in both class settings is the same or similar.

These links can be done before, during or after the class UOI is taught. For example this year I have linked with the Year 6/7 OUI on Ancient Civilisations by teaching my Ancient Celtic Music unit before the class did theirs and this worked fine.

Single subject teachers don't need to teach all 6 transdisciplinary themes because it is unrealistic & not authentic to the disciplines being taught. So while we need to teach 6 UOI over the whole year it may be more appropriate to teach from certain themes eg. "How we express ourselves".

Our Stand Alone Units may also be taught throughout the whole year with no fixed start or end date. For example you may use Musical Elements as your UOI. Beat for example can be taught all year round as you refer to it along the way.

How have I now implemented this in my classroom?

I have since revamped my program have a look at my example overview from my Reception (5 yr olds) class:

view a pdf version here: IB PYP Single Subject Overview planner

I have 6 UOI, 4 year long ones & 2 that link to the classroom UOI.

To honour my discipline, I still use my developmental curriculum 'The Interactive Music Room: A developmental classroom music program for interactive whiteboard, Book 1- beginning primary' which I have adapted from 'Music Room: A developmental classroom music program, Book 1 - Beginning Primary'.

However while this resource has been written with inquiry learning in mind, I always add other resources to this to enhance the UOI being taught and bring personal meaning to the students learning.

In the future I will post a blog on how I present and display this in my lessons.

I am and will be constantly looking at how I can better improve this. And in no way do I believe I have conquered this task of a 100% answer to my initial question, on how to authentically plan a PYP UOI as a specialist/single subject teacher. But I do believe I am now on the right path, or at least on the verge!

For me I have loved (and will continue to) the chase of aspiring to plan in the most effective and authentic way in a PYP school. I am becoming a better teacher for it and can't wait to see the results.

How has it changed me as a teacher?

The skills, techniques, activities, songs and instruments haven't changed. It has been the vocabulary I use when teaching which has changed as I focus more on the way I deliver information to the children to keep the lines of inquiry at the forefront of my lessons.

My questions to other PYP specialist/single subject teachers out there are: How do you plan? What has worked for you in your school? How do you link to the classroom UOI while staying true to your discipline?

Read part 2 in this series showing how we developed the programming further in 2014 onwards.

Teach to transform!

Cheryl

If you like my work, please support me by buying me a coffee. thank you for your support.

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Planning IB PYP in the Specialist / Single Subject Classroom

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With no prior experience with teaching in an IB PYP school, starting out last year in my new school as the Classroom Music Teacher was quite a daunting experience. I was truly blessed though to have great support in my Principal and other staff members who encouraged me to teach my music program from my...