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IB Nano PD - Action in the Early Years and Beyond

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IB Nano PD - Action in the Early Years and Beyond

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1. Connect: How is action taking place in a PYP classroom?

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Peer-feedback and how it can be used to exercise agency in the early years, based on Austin's butterfly video (Ron Berger, 2012) Imagine you have an incredible learning experience with your class. All students are engaged in learning and developing their approaches to learning. You feel ecstasy while being part of this beautiful process. Suddenly, you [...]

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Peer-feedback and how it can be used to exercise agency in the early years, based on Austin's butterfly video (Ron Berger, 2012) Imagine you have an incredible learning experience with your class. All students are engaged in learning and developing their approaches to learning. You feel ecstasy while being part of this beautiful process.

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Examining Learner Agency in Your Setting

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Examining Learner Agency in Your Setting

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1 hour recorded workshop - Strengthening Student Agency in the Enhanced PYP

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1 hour recorded workshop - Strengthening Student Agency in the Enhanced PYP

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About the Talk

What's all the buzz about "Agentic Learning" in the Enhanced PYP and how do we make it happen? How do we keep "action" from being another tick box, and ensure it is authentic and purposeful, while also developing the other essential elements of the PYP? Through this workshop, develop strategies for creating learning environments that nurture agency and action in students.

Intentions for the Talk

Understand the core features of human agency

Explore strategies for creating learning environments that nurture agency

Examine the interconnectedness of agency and inquiry

Explore the Service Learning Framework to support the development of skills and mindsets for agency

Amplify agency in your classroom community with Toddle!

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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Explore strategies to create learning environments that nurture agency. Examine the role of agency and inquiry to make student action authentic and meaningful.

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Visible thinking routines - Does this fit with agency?

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Visible thinking routines - Does this fit with agency?

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PZ's Thinking Routines Toolbox | Project Zero

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The Toolbox organizes the Thinking Routines into categories that describe the types of thinking the routines help to facilitate. Some routines appear in more than one category, and some routines have different versions that offer modifications for specific age groups or more specific conceptual challenges.

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

What will it look like?

How do we implement it?

How do we measure it?

Why is it important?

How do we discuss it with the parent community?

How will it impact our daily planning?

Which PD do we need to attend to understand it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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As part of their International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP), our Year 6 cohort produced an outstanding exhibition of independent research projects focusing on protecting the environment.

"Our students were introduced to a range of topics related to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals a few months before the projects formally began. This allowed them to connect to different topics and have time to select the exact scope of their research," explains Assistant IB PYP Coordinator Wendi Hunter. "We felt that giving them the agency to select their own topics was of the utmost importance. We then began the process in April, and our students had approximately eight weeks to complete the entire project."

With the help and guidance of teaching staff, the exhibition was an in-class project, with specialist mentors providing assistance whenever possible.

"We gave the students time each day to collaborate with their group (if working in a group) or to do independent research. Teachers would also give mini-lessons on topics such as finding valid internet sources, how to cite accurately, and how to write their own Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry."

In line with IB requirements, students were required to have a Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry with associated Key Concept Questions to frame their research.

"Students were able to choose how they wanted to fulfil these requirements and were assisted by their mentors, experts, and teachers," says Ms Hunter. "They had a great passion for their topics and handled the bumps of virtual learning, took in feedback and completed wonderful projects. Everyone involved with our Year 6 cohort is extremely proud of them."

Vanessa Ellison, IB PYP Coordinator, couldn't agree more. "This year has presented so many challenges for our Year 6 students, yet they overcame them so successfully, and they should be very proud of themselves. Our students 'lived our vision' of being creative, innovative problem solvers, and confident users of technology throughout this process. The quality of the presentations was outstanding.

"Our students amazed me with their confidence during their live Q&A sessions with our ACG community, navigating their way through the questions, and answering them with such passion and understanding of their research," adds Mrs Ellison. "I hope they use this experience in the future and remember how resilient and strong they were."

Undertaking these comprehensive projects has undoubtedly been of great benefit for our Year 6 cohort, and the students themselves have confirmed many of the lessons they have learned.

Ari, who chose to focus on the plight of endangered animals, particularly enjoyed researching his topic and exploring the project's different components.

"I love animals, so this felt like the right topic for me'" he says. "I liked completing the art component because it was fun and different from other people's work. I wanted to show the earth and created it using string and glue mixed with corn starch to show how fragile it is, so we shouldn't be so harsh and uncaring.

"The hardest part was finding reliable, true information. Ms Faaiza [Year 6 teacher] helped me loads, so I can now filter information and question if it is relevant and reliable. Paraphrasing was difficult, and I am still working on that skill."

Classmate Jade, who also researched endangered animals, took a slightly different approach with her project.

"I chose this topic because I wanted to know more about the industries and brands that test on animals," she reports. "I think animals should have the rights; they need to live and breathe in peace just like we do.

"I really enjoyed making the diorama with my project partner Maryam, and we got to make a video on awareness of animal extinction and poaching. But the research was the most challenging because it was hard to find websites that were appropriate and that I understood. The biggest lesson I learned from the project was that time management and planning are very important."
Take a virtual tour of our PYP exhibition yourself to experience the phenomenal work of our Year 6 students.
For additional articles on the success of our students at ACG School Jakarta, please visit the following: International Baccalaureate paves path to success and The ten Haves: "It's a great learning environment."

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Our Year 6 students' phenomenal PYP exhibition | ACG Jakarta

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As part of their International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP), our Year 6 cohort produced an outstanding exhibition of independent research projects focusing on protecting the environment. "Our students were introduced to a range of topics related to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals a few months before the projects formally began.

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I am not certain if this has relevance here, but I tried something like the above once with a class that I was finding challenging. It gave voice to the students about how the class was going and about where we could make positive improvements. It was super uncomfortable for me as a teacher, but really worthwhile as we talked in general terms about the results and made positive changes to the classroom. I guess a student survey like this could be used at a subject specific basis.

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