Using internationalism as a driving force, a Primary Years Programme school community in Germany developed a mini-unit focused on highlighting individual and collective cultural identity and to celebrate yearlong learning experiences.
Tag Archives | concepts
Time for exploration and tinkering
In this article you will read about how the first grade team has made changes each year to a unit of inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme “How the world works”, based on the developmental level, interests and inquiries of students.
Exploring the concept of perspective through stories
This article is about exploring the concept of perspective and how it is vital to understand and respect different perspectives which is core to the IB values.
Developing conceptual understanding of a system
In this article you will read how grade 1 students developed conceptual understanding of a ‘system’, under the transdisciplinary theme How we organize ourselves.
Asking the right questions
In this article you will read about planning units of inquiry that integrate the four critical aspects of concept-based pedagogy illustrated by Erickson and Lanning (2014) to foster a classroom environment in which students can achieve synergistic thinking, which, in itself, is a way of promoting differentiation.
From surface to deep learning: The importance of knowledge
This article illustrates how the use of the SOLO Taxonomy allowed our students to progress from shallow to deep thinking.
Why do we organize ourselves in the way we do?
In this article you will find reflections on the connection between whole school professional development and the action cycle.
Assessing students’ artwork – Collaboration between visual arts and music
Based on an example from grade 5 How we organize ourselves unit of inquiry, a visual arts teacher describes how she and music teachers collaborate on assessment strategies tools.
Dancing in the dark
This video shows a physical education/art integration for grade 3/4 students. It is a movement unit that involved light painting and fire dancing.
The ascendancy of conceptual learning
This article talks about how looking through a conceptual lens allows a learner to integrate thinking between conceptual and factual levels.
Seizing a teachable moment in a kindergarten class: Pedagogy of listening
In this article the author describes how early years students have developed a rich conceptual understanding by not only initiating their own learning and taking ownership, but also working and solving problems together.
Empowering students and giving them ownership
This article looks at students taking full ownership of the inquiry process from primary years all the way up to grade 5.
Transdisciplinary theme and the exhibition
This article shares how a PYP school explored Grade 5 students choosing their own transdisciplinary theme for the exhibition.
A concept-driven learning
This post is an excerpt from a post entitled “Don’t lock me into 8 key concepts” by Shannon O’Dwyer. The full post explains concepts in a nutshell and why concept-driven teaching is both easy and hard. This excerpt provides an insight into how teachers can make it happen.