Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: 1 Age group: 6-7 year olds

To inquire into the following:
3. 4. HowSchool: BNI we School
best might learn? What code: are the learning experiences suggested by the
 How might we know
transdisciplinary what we have learned? This column should be used in
theme
conjunction with “How best might we learn?” What are the possible ways of teacher and/or students to encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and
Where we and
assessing students’ prior knowledge are in placeWhat
skills? and time
evidence will we look for? Title:
address the driving questions?
An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and TUNING IN
 After
journeys; listening to the
the discoveries, visitor, students
explorations write on of
and migrations a graffiti boardand
humankind; the the
most
Teacher:
• Students Afshanabout
write and illustrate Jabeen their own family history.
distant memory they know about their families (could also be a
relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, memory Teachers read fiction and non-fiction books about family histories. Students PYP drawplanner
and
shared by a parent or grandparent, not necessarily only the student’s write Proposed
about them duration:
and share their work 4-6 withweeks
classmates.
from local and global perspectives.
memory). • Students bring photos of their ancestors and talk with the Art teacher about how their
 Frontloading: The teacher builds a timeline with the students’ help and families have changed and how they look now. After that, they will draw their families as
 central idea
displays it across the room to record the history of the class. They will they are now.
Learning
start about previous
the timeline generations
in the current dayhelps
andus understand
then the relationship
move backwards over time. 2. What
• Create familydo we and
trees wantdiscuss
to learn? the people represented on it and what is known about
 The teachers will look for any evidence regarding the students’ prior
between the past and the present.
theseWhat
familyare
members
understanding the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
Summative assessmentoftask(s):
the concept of time. Students create a family tree to • Bringing in artifacts
perspective, significant reflection)
responsibility, to their family
to be emphasized within this inquiry?
show family members and record what they know about those family • See think wonder – old photos of our part of the world. What do you think has
What aremembers.
the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central Key Concepts: Causation,
changed? Why (wondering whyChange Connection
it changed)? A video about the history of our country to
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the see what is the same and/or different. heritage
Related Concepts: Time, continuity,
(Putting
lines you in theWhat
of inquiry? picture)
evidence will we look for? • Sharing stories and folk-legends to explore how stories/information is often passed
Students will draw and write the most important things they have learned about their What lines
• Discussing of inquiry
diaries will define
and letters the scopethe
that document of the
past.inquiry into the central idea?
We want Teachers
families. the students
will to
useunderstand that:
this drawing and writing to discuss this with them on a FINDING Ways
OUT to find out about the past
one-to-one basis and assess their level of understanding of the central idea.
 they have a family tree and they present and explain their family  How
• Students takeaspects of the pasthome
some questions still influence us today
to interview their relatives in order to find out
(Anecdotal record)
Studentstimelines.
will present their drawings to the class and will compare them to the
 Whyabout
information sometheir
behaviours
ancestors andandpractices
aspectshave changed
of life or remain
in the past, the same
will share over of
the results
 useon
information the graffiti
primary board
sources to see
(such the differences
as parents between what
and grandparents) they out
to find knew
about time to look for connections and comparisons between the past and present.
the interview
about their
lifefamilies at the beginning of the unit and what they know by then. They will
in the past • Students will build a timeline of their family histories or write it down to sequence
talk to their classmates about them. They will self-assess and reflect on how this
 compare and contrast the past with the present eventsWhat
and teacher
support the questions/provocations
narrative. Students present will drive these
it to the inquiries?
class.
makes them feel at the end of the unit. (Reflection journal) • Pair interview: Guest speaker – listening to and responding to a personal history.
 identify
Students how to
will be able the past has and
recognize beenshowdocumented
an understanding of the fact that their
 How have our ancestors influenced our own way of living?
GOING FURTHER
 histories
family appreciate
havetheir own heritage
developed over time and that they have explored and identified
theirpersonal histories throughout thisofinquiry. •StudentsmayHow choose
havetoourbring information
family traditionsabout
changedthe traditions
over time?and rituals of their
explore and share instances change and continuity in their personal
Studentslives
will and
be required to talk about how they have:
their family.  How
families. They may prepare
can we know a drawing
aboutorour a brief text
family to present to the class.
past?
 How have
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary
significant historical eventsskillshavedevelopment and for
shaped personal the
or family
 inquired
sequence
aboutevents,
the pastroutines, personal histories in chronological order.
development of the attributes of the learner profile?
histories?
 identify differences
What sparked their curiosity between families,
about cultures
their own and
family, ideas of others.
wonderings they have
 How
Communication skills
do –people
present viewtimelines
history?and other pieces of work to their classmates
had
5. What resources need to be gathered? Thinking skills – how do we find out about the past?
 Become knowledgeable about life during previous generations and what Research skillscomes
– howtotothe develop questions, record
Whatconnections
people, places, A visitor class with a mystery boxdata and present
containing results
artifacts fromofher family.
theyaudio-visual
have made materials,
with their related
own life.literature, music, art, presentations
computer software, etc., will be available? Once theand interviews.
students have guessed the three things in the box, the visitor explains
 Become more appreciative of their own family’s heritage Communicators:
how these thingsExplainaretheir findings
related to her.to others.
Then, she starts telling them the story of her
 Artifacts brought from home for the museum, family photographs, maps Inquirers:
familyAsk
by questions and findtimeline
using a backward information about
(starting attheir familiesand
the present andworking
past.
and flags of countries that their ancestors came from. Knowledgeable:
backwards).Students will learn about different cultures of the world to acquire the
 People: Parents and other adults in the school community. in-depth knowledge of how past rituals and beliefs affects their life's and customs.
 Fiction and non-fiction books about family histories and cultures. Open-minded and principled: Listen to a range of histories and traditions and develop
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
respect for other people and other customs.
Planning the inquiry

7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?

What were the learning experiences that enabled students
to:
 develop an understanding of the concepts identified in
“What do we want to learn?”
Causation: Students interviewed in pairs and listened to
each other talk about their family histories. They could
notice that all families were different and that no history
is better than another one; just different. After that,
they reinforced this concept by drawing about all they have
heard (including traditions, customs, events, etc.) and
understood why is it important to know about our histories.
Connection: Biography (connection to family) and Family
trees.
Change: Students prepared a chart with drawings of things
that have changed over time in their families (e.g. toys,
clothes, communication In English, they prepared a chart to
reinforce the concepts of “then” and “now”.
 demonstrate the learning and application of particular
transdisciplinary skills?
Social skills: Students worked as a group and adopted
different roles when working as group. They also cooperated
and accepted responsibility as a whole.
Communication skills: They did several presentations to the
class: Report of the interview, the timeline, the tale and
also sang songs that passed through generations in their
families.
Research skills: They carried out research on their family
timelines and family traditions. For this, they used actual
historian tools such as interviews and timelines.
Self-management skills: They had to organize themselves to
do their group work in presentations and discussions;
develop fine motor skills when making drawings in relation
to different activities, especially the family drawing.
Thinking skills: They discovered new things about their
families and their classmates’ families during the
presentations and conversations, so they understood why
they are all different.
• develop particular attributes of the learner profile
and/or attitude?
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Open-minded: They showed respect for and acceptance of
cultural differences and traditions when listening to
classmates’ presentations. Communicators: They expressed
themselves in a variety of ways – oral presentations,
Reflectingon
Reflecting onthe
theinquiry
inquiry

family
8. To
6. stories
What student-initiated
what inquiries
extent did we achieve our arose from the
purpose? 9. Teacher notes
learning?
Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence Most of the learning experiences and assessment
Record
of a range
students’ of student-initiated
understanding inquiries
of the central and
idea. The strategies were directly connected to language in its
student questions
reflections of all and highlight
teachers any that
involved were
in the planning and three interactive aspects: Learning language, learning
incorporated
teaching into
of the the teaching
inquiry andincluded.
should be learning. through language and learning about language.
Why summative
The are old things important
assessment task in a family?
demanded that the students • Students carried out oral presentations.
explore family histories and identify what had changed • They listened and talked to each other during pair
Where does my family come from?
from the past to the present. When teaching the unit, we interviews and when interviewing their grandparents.
How were
found thatthings a long
we really didtime ago?
stick to the family history
aspect instead of diverging. • They wrote about their families.
Why did my family come to Pakistan?
Some of the students made connections to the values of
• They listened to stories.
their
Why arefamilies
families – such as work ethic, high expectations,
different?
protectiveness etc. • They learned new vocabulary.
Where were
Students my grandparents
understood born? are all different and
that families
•Connections to mathematics were made when exploring the
that
What their
did mypersonal and family
grandfather do whenhistory
he was has been built
a child? concept of time and developing timelines and working
over time. During whole class reflections we recorded
Students like
showed great backwards.
comments this: “I interest
know what init
knowing
is to beanda finding
Resear
out about their family histories. They enjoyed
Pakistani.” This student grasped the idea of being the and •The concept of great-grandparents was not fully
activities
living as a in which they could have long conversations
Pakistani. developed. Some students showed confusion at the
withyou
How their family.
could improve on the assessment task(s) so that beginning nut understood it after making a family tree.
you would have a more accurate
At this point teachers should gopicture
back toof box
each
2 student’s
“What do
understanding of the central idea. Most of the student work, including reflections, was
we want to learn?” and highlight the teacher done through oral activities. This was because the
questions/provocations
It was a good idea for the thatstudents
were mostto effective in
explore family students were at the beginning of the learning-to-write
driving the inquiries.
histories as they could access information from primary process. However, at the end of the unit, all of them
sources in their home language.
What student-initiated It was
actions arose wonderful
from for the
the learning? were able to write some sentences with their final
students to find out more about their families. reflections.
Record
The student-initiated
“Putting you in the picture” actions assessment
taken by individuals
task was or
groups showing
effective since their
studentsability to reflect,
had the to choose
opportunity and a
to create
to act. that represented their family histories as well
drawing
as putting
Students themselves
reflected on inthethe drawing to
importance of explain their
respecting their
role.
own and others’ family histories and traditions.of their
They grasped the idea of being the result
family history. However, this task could be improved by
One student decided
differentiating to learn
according Punjabi to better
to presentation preferences
Stand oflearning
understandthe her cultural
styles background.
and allowing the students to choose
the
Manyway to represent
students mentioned theirthat ideas.
they For
willexample
take morethey could
care
present orally, or dramatically
and will love their grandparents more. – not just by drawing or
writing. Some students found it difficult to represent
their understanding clearly in this way.
The interview tied in well with the biographies –
together these gave us a more rounded view of their
understanding.
© What wasBaccalaureate
International the evidence that
Organization 2007connections were made between
the central idea and the transdisciplinary theme?
Students had the opportunity to find out their family
histories over several generations and this helped them