Every child meets or exceeds expectations on a different day at a different time, or quite possibly a different year. The expectation we have to emphasise with learning standards is that it's a journey, not a race.
The expectation we have to emphasise with learning standards is that it’s a journey, not...
Engaging the families of our IB PYP students and getting them on board is so important for all involved and not least for bringing that cohension to our learning community. Often times, it is the parents in our learning community who are the last to understand what exactly it is that we do. I receive many questions and requests from teachers, coordinators and school leaders who are presented with this job of bringing the PYP to the parents. Do any of the questions below sound familiar?
So, what exactly is the PYP?
How is my child actually learning?
What do you mean that you're a FACILITATOR?
I'm a little concerned about this student-led inquiry thing?
Well, here's my advice for you if you've been given the soapbox to step upon and deliver the message of why we encourage inquiry based learning, support student agency and proudly fly the flag of being a PYP school. These tips are designed with ideas to pick and choose. Obviously, what you do depends on time, space and your...
Thinking routines help our students to think critically about...
This article is bringing you some creative ideas for developing the IB PYP communications skills with your students. These are all practical and simple ideas that I've used in my class over the years with much success, much laughter and a lot of meaningful learning too. As I was listening to Claire, from The Art Engager podcast, this quote stuck with me, as I thought about how to better support my learners and reminded me of a really simple activity for mindful listening.
"Becoming more aware of your listening skills is the first step to improving them. "
The Art Engager Podcast
LISTENING MINDFULLY
Listening is often overlooked as a communication skill and so I like to begin here to remind the children that this is really a big part of collaborative discussions. We need to be able to listen to respond to others rather than listening to react.
And so, a simple but effective activity for all ages that can be done indoors or outdoors is to just simply stop and listen. If you throw...
This form of learning enables a multitude of sub-skills and ALL of the IB PYP Approaches to Learning Skills. It brings meaningful experiences to learning and allows our students to work towards a higher level of thinking as they build upon each others' thoughts and ideas.
The Inquiry-Based Math Project in the IB PYP
Integrated maths inquiry, concept based maths, project based learning….it doesn’t matter what you call it, well designed projects support learning through a guided inquiry that has enough scope to ensure that maths concepts are approached authentically and with a student-led perspective. These projects naturally lend themselves to support all types and levels of learners. They are transdisciplinary in nature, allowing concepts and skills to be transferred and applied towards an end product that has largely been created with the children's voice as an obvious part of the process. They're open-ended enough to allow your students room to expand and direct the project yet structured enough to support those learners who aren’t quite ready to take that leap into independent inquiry. As you watch the following video, where I share my strategies together with Parvana Guliyeva (an IB PYP grade 4 teacher, currently in...
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Within my student journal, Journey Through the PYP Exhibition, you will find ideas for mentors as well as clarifying...
I’m delighted to have teamed up with PYP teacher, Parvana Guliyeva again, to share these strategies for integrating maths into the inquiry authentically. Parvana is currently teaching PYP4 at The International Sharing school in Lisbon, Portugal. You can reach her on Instagram @space_for_learning. Scroll down to watch the video below. You may remember Parvana from a previous collaboration when she shared her ideas for inclusive assessment and bringing a greater degree of AGENCY to our students with reflection & assessment. You can read more about assessment tools and strategies here and link to the video in this article.
And of course, if you are looking for a ready-to-go professional development workshop packed full of practical strategies for bringing agency into assessment for ALL age levels, take a look at my workshop package.
As you watch the following video, consider our transdisciplinary approach and how we plan to investigate through...
With a simple question and fun images, the children are asked to relate themselves to the pictures. You can choose to use words or simply begin with only the images. This adds to the thinking. I have done it both ways, depending on the students abilities with language, the vocabulary of the PYP and their thinking skills etc. Ask them: Are you more of a lion when it comes to learning, or are you more...
Over the years, Ive chatted about inclusive assessment as a practice that needs to become embedded within any student-led, inquiry-based classroom. This message has been spread far and wide that this is a really important part of our daily routine. The IB themselves shifted towards on-going reflection, we have student agency as all the buzz ( and hallelujah for that!), numerous educators within our community are sharing their rationale for the value that inclusive assessment brings and none of this could have come a moment too soon. Yes, its that vital.
If we consider assessment as a key element within education, then we have to reconsider the role our students play within that element.
If you'd like to catch up with my 3 part series of articles, you can link to those here. They cover the form and function of assessment in the inquiry-based classroom, together with strategies for developing inclusive assessment in your...
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