Got your first interview for a PYP job?

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Making the PYP Happen" before? Well it has a few different meanings depending on the context. I would like to explain my understanding of the phrase in this blog post. This should give you a head start in your first interview with an IB school.

First of all, "Making the PYP happen: A curriculum framework for international primary education" (2009) is a manual that thoroughly explains the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program. It is one of those amazing manuscripts that every time you pick it up you learn something new from it. You can Google it and find it easily online.

Making the PYP Happen is also a Category 1 course that is offered by the IB's professional development department. It may be done in a face-to-face workshop, which may be over two or three days. It may also be done online over a period of four weeks. All the information you need to get on the course may be found on the IB website. When a PYP school comes to its authorization or self-study stage all teachers must have taken this course. It is an excellent introduction to the curriculum framework.

If you are looking for your first job in an IB school I would advise you to take this course yourself. It will be in your favor when you have your interview. I would like to share some advice here for that first interview.

The IB mission statement which may be found on the website is taught to students through what is called the learner profile attributes. These are 10 attributes that we wish to pass on to our students as they progress through the program. The IB consider the development of these 10 attributes to be international mindedness, an important concept within the programme.

There are five essential elements to the PYP. They are: Knowledge, Concepts, Skills, Attitudes and Action. It would be worthwhile to learn about these five elements in the book Making the PYP Happen, mentioned above.

Two other very important parts of the program in my opinion are inquiry and understanding by design. A definition of inquiry may be found on p. 29 of MTPYPH and a good video describing UbD (which is our assessment theory) may be found here. To me however, inquiry is guiding students to socially construct their own meaning.

A good model to follow for a lesson would be: 1. Introduce the lesson and assess students prior knowledge. 2. Have the students create groups and work to socially construct meaning. A concept map like I mention in this post would be a good way to document this. 3. Have the groups come up one by one to share their learning. 4. Stick up the students concept maps on the wall.

I have been a recruiter at Search Associates fairs for two years now and I would like to leave you with one gem. In your confidential references there is a question: "How does the candidate affect school climate?" It is on a scale from 1-10. It is very important that you are a positive person at your school. Unfortunately there are too many naysayers out there. Do not be one of them, it will get you nowhere! I hope this helps. 

The Role of Mathematics in the PYP - Day 3

Our first activity on day three was to order these into which you do from most to least: Written computations, mental computations, estimation or calculators?

After this we had two readings: Nine Ways to Catch Kids Up by Marilyn Burns and 10 Big Math Ideas by Marilyn Burns. We read them in pairs and then had to use post-its to write a Word-Phrase-Sentence. You do not then need to read all of the two articles to get the gist. You can differentiate the articles by reading ability.

Word-Phrase-Sentence

Ma & Pa Kettle math videos on Youtube were suggested as a good resource. A good idea was to use strips of paper to display the length of students limbs. Another strip was used to measure the circumference of the head. These were then attached to the wall. 

Use all three forms of assessment: assessment for learning, assessment of learning and assessment as learning. Summative assessment tasks should be UbD. Everything is done in UbD. MTPYPH should be brought to all planning meetings. Simple oral check, can I say my big numbers on a sheet. Students could do this in pairs.

Tania Mansfield Sharing

An example of a summative assessment task would be to plan a field trip. They would work out transport, accommodation, research hotels, food and pay for activities. When reporting use the Math scope and sequence to highlight where every child is. Do it at each reporting period in different colors. Summative assessments do not have to be grand projects they may be simple and are to assess the central idea. Cooking something would also be a great example of an assessment task.

Planning

If it does not fit, do not try to make it! Do not be scared to change your yearly plan! If in doubt, leave it out!

Transdisciplinary Planning

Tania gave us a table with the six units across the top and the five math strands across the side. We then looked at a summarized scope and sequence document and just ticked what would fit naturally. We then went on to look at a year long overview, which are also broken up into six week plans. Everything that does not fit in is then done on stand alone planners. The same central idea might be used throughout the whole school.

It was a fabulous three days of learning and as Tania said from the start, they way she taught was explicitly inquiry. I learned a lot!

The Role of Mathematics in the PYP - Day 2

When we came in for day two our work was up on the walls. There was a photo slide show on the whiteboard of our work yesterday. It was obvious that our work was being celebrated. We then began with a Math song. It was a funny one in karaoke style.

Student work on display

We read MTPYPH p.82 Constructing meaning about mathematics, Transferring meaning into symbols and Applying with understanding. We also read the introduction sections to the mathematics scope and sequence. Tania mentioned INCA assessment similar to MAP.

When we went on to applying with understanding market days were mentioned when the students have to use money in real life situations. Tania suggested 60% of the time on constructing meaning, 10-15% on transferring meaning and 25-30% of the time on applying with understanding. Plan a field trip would be another example of a summative assessment.

We then did a "Loopee" - I have 49 who has 5x5, I have 25 who has 3x4. This needs to be in a safe environment where mistakes are not frowned upon.

First, second, third, kids on little bikes

Kids have to share half during their snack.

Look at the 5 strands, use a picture of a bicycle.

We did the same activity with a map. There are multiple ways to learn the strands of number and shape & space by looking at the streets, parks, shapes on the map. We decided to use string to measure the distances of the ring road. At the end we had a gallery walk where we walk around and look at each other's work.

Sorting shapes

We were sorting shapes. There were no right or no wrong answers.

After lunch we played Making 10s. For this game five cards are put down. The idea of the game is to get the most cards. To do this you have to make 10. You may do this in anyway, but a picture card is 10. 

Concept map is a good assessment.

Concept Map

TED Talk from Dan Mayer was a very good video. 

We should have Math journals. Students need to reflect on their Math learning. This is another way to get the conversation going. Dialogue journals build up a great relationship with you and your students. 

The Role of Mathematics in the PYP - Day 1

In November I had the pleasure of learning from Tania Mansfield on the Role of Mathematics in the PYP.

She told us from the very start that, explicitly the things we do in the workshop are things you can use in your classroom.  The live binder for example is where Tania shared all of the workshop documents. This seems to be similar to Edmodo but I prefer the Edmodo interface. One of the first strategies we were taught was to show fingers if we needed more time. She also reminded us to tell her if she is speaking too fast.

We introduced ourselves using Maths. Tania pointed out how the who we are unit, is at the start of the year. We introduced ourselves using mathematics: favorite number, height & birthday. Other ideas were: I have 3000 ruppeses in my wallet, impotent dates to me or I have flown xxx miles.

The Blob Tree below was used determine prior knowledge and how we were feeling.

Blob Tree

Session two began with Tony Ryan’s Thinker Keys. The Reverse Key - Think of something in life that is not a Math problem? Everything is related to Math. How we organize ourselves is a transdisciplinary theme that lends itself to Math. 

Wonder wall – What are we wondering? It is for the children to question and ask. Make sure you use it…

Wonder Wall

Lines of inquiry and summatice assessment criteria given at the start. We wrote our essential agreements through the PYP attitudes. EAs should be few in number, refer to things done, be positive, observable & agreed by everyone. We did a Think-Pair-Share 

Next we did Living Graphs to represent: the level you teach, years teaching the pyp, stand nearest to the strand you prefer, when you were in school how you felt at Math (3D). We also looked at Mathematical Glyphs - students make their faces using shapes. Biography Glyphs - Parents have to guess if no names are on there.

Living Graph

Next we did a C.O.R.I. - Collect Organise Represent Interpret. This activity had all five of the strands in it. We all had a sticker on our book. This determined who we would work with. It was another strategy for mixing up the class. There were always lots of resources on hand and we had to do a two minute presentation at the end. Everything was stuck up on the walls after the presentation. We learned from each others work and saw that our work was celebrated. A CORI could be used for creating a rubric. Visual dictionaries, could be used to support EAL students. We need to be sure whether we are checking for math understanding or language understanding. We played another  game with two coins called heads up. We had our hands on our heads or bottom while Tanya tossed a coin.

For our final session we were asked to come up with a definition of a Math learner. We played a game called place value bingo and then did some reading. We did the 3 Rs - Review, Remind, Reflect before going on to an activity where we were asked to estimate a length of string. People used a number of different strategies to guess the length of string. The point was that we all come into the activity with prior knowledge. 

Reading RRR - Review, Remind, Reflect

The day wrapped up with rocket writing - we had to reflect by writing for 3 mins. What a day!

Writing Central Ideas

When people first begin writing enduring, essential understandings, they are often very general and obtuse. The overuse of the verbs impact, affect, influence as well as the verbs is, are and have is a major reason for these weak statements. Learning how to scaffold your thinking using questions is a powerful tool for tightening, clarifying, and developing generalisations to deeper levels of sophistication. To scaffold a generalisation from a weaker Level 1, use and answer the questions "How?" "Why?" and "So what?" Read through the following example of a scaffolded generalisation from the bottom up (Level 1 to Level 3).

Level 3: Severe disruption of a community's social and economic infrastructure leads to feelings of loss, anxiety, confusion, and anger. Or, severe disruption of a community's social and economic infrastructure requires strong leadership with the ability to problem solve, communicate effectively and collaborate to get things done.

So what-is the significance, or effect, if the social and economic, infrastructure is disrupted?

Level 2: Natural disasters can disrupt the social and economic infrastructure of a community.

How do natural disasters impact a community?

Level 1: Natural disasters impact a community.

Note that we want to drop the weaker Level 1 generalisations in our units and teach to Level 2. Teaching to this level will raise academic standards because we are teaching deeper, conceptual specificity. Level 3 can be used to differentiate and challenge advanced learners, or you may wish to take all the students through to Level 3.

Here are some additional scaffolding samples from a ninth grade physics unit on constant acceleration developed by Matt Watson and Cathy Harne, Twin Valley School District, Elverson, Pennsylvania:

Level 3: The velocity of an object can be determined from an x-t graph even if the x-t graph is curved.

So what is the significance?

Level 2: By drawing secant chords and solving for the slope of the chord, one can determine the instantaneous velocity of the object at an intermediate clock reading.

How does the slope determine the velocity?

Level 1: The slope of an x-t graph can determine the velocity of an object.

Erikson H. L., 2007, Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom, Corwin, CA.

Creating a Concept Based Inquiry Lesson - Part 2

The following lesson has been taken once again from the work of Lynn Erickson. Her work has perhaps been the biggest help to me as I prepared for my new role as PYP coordinator.

Marianne Kroll, a master teacher featured in the ASCD video Designing Integrated Units: A Concept-Based Approach, shares a lesson she used for helping third grade students see how facts provide a "pattern of evidence". This evidence can be used to develop timeless, transferrable big ideas (generalisations). Marianne explains, "The teacher keeps the generalization in mind as the lesson is planned, and constructs a chart using the concepts from the generalization as column headings" (See Figure 1).

 Grade 3: Lesson on Natural Disasters

Enduring understanding: "Natural disasters affect daily lives and the economy of a community."

Guiding Question:

• "What is a natural disaster?"

Teacher Note: After discussing the idea of a natural disaster and having students name some different kinds of natural disasters, provide them with internet or other appropriate reading material on Hurricane Kartina. Ask them to use sticky notes as they read, to mark places that tell about the impact of the hurricane on the daily lives or economy. Then use the following questions and fill out the Hurricane Katrina example on the chart with student responses. Leave the "Big Idea" column until each row has been filled in.

Figure 1               Natural Disaster Graphic Organiser

Natural Disaster	Impacts: Daily Living	Impacts: Economy	Big Idea
Hurricane Katrina (2005 southern U.S.)
The tsunami in Southeast Asia (2004)
Forest Fires that threaten a community

Source: Marianne Kroll, Curriculum Consultant, Eleva, Wisconsin

• How did Hurricane Katrina change the daily lives of people in communities like New Orleans?
• How did Hurricane Katrina affect the business and economy in New Orleans and other involved communities?

After taking students through the Hurricane Katrina example, provide them with resources to compete the same process (in cooperative groups) of filling out the chart  related to the 2005 tsunami and forest fires. You could either specify a particular geographic location where forest fires threaten communities, such as southern California, or you could have them generalize how forest fires would threaten the daily lives and economy of a community based on their work with the disaster just studied. It is important for the teacher to keep the relationship between the concepts in mind when constructing the chart.

Reference

Erikson H. L., 2007, Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom, Corwin, CA., p. 103-104.

Creating a Concept Based Inquiry Lesson - Part 1

What is inquiry and what is an inquiry lesson? I hope to begin to address these questions in this blog post.  The following paragraph has been taken from Page 29 of Making the PYP Happen and is the definition of inquiry that I have heard used on the different IB courses I have taken. It is a good start at defining inquiry, now lets figure out how to make the PYP happen!

Inquiry, interpreted in the broadest sense, is the process initiated by the students or the teacher that moves the students from their current level of understanding to a new and deeper level of understanding. This can mean: exploring, wondering and questioning, experimenting and playing with possibilities, making connections between previous learning and current learning, making predictions and acting purposefully to see what happens, collecting data and reporting findings, clarifying existing ideas and reappraising perceptions of events, deepening understanding through the application of a concept, making and testing theories, researching and seeking information, taking and defending a position, solving problems in a variety of ways.

The work of Lynn Erickson helped me further understand how to plan quality lessons and deepen my understanding of the inquiry way of teaching. In her book Concept Based Curriculum  and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom she does a great job of unpacking what a concept based education should look like. The following is taken from Chapter 4 of her book, the chapter is on lesson planning. 

Quality lesson plans meet certain criteria. They are:

• coherent - There is a clear link between what students must know (factually), understand (conceptually), and be able to do (skillfully).
• interesting - The lesson is motivating to students. They want to participate. 
• time-worthy - The lesson is worth time spent.
• standards aligned - The lesson supports the deeper intent of academic standards (the often-implied conceptual intent) as well as the factual and skill-based expectations. 
• differentiated - The lesson meets the learning needs of different kinds of learners to maximise successful learning. 

On the final point of differentation the work of Tomlinson and Edison (2003b, p.3) is quoted. I will again use it here as a reminder to myself and others of the classroom elements that can be differentiated or modified.

• Content - The subject matter and skills
• Process - How students create a personal connection to what they must know, understand, and be able to do
• Products - The evidence for what students know, understand, and are able to do
• Affect - The synergy between thought and emotions
• Learning environment - The classroom "climate" and operating procedures

I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me understanding how to develop an inquiry lesson. If you would like to have a closer look at the PYP curriculum documents they can be easily found by doing a Google search. I found them here.

References

Erikson H. L., 2007, Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom, Corwin, CA.

International Baccalaureate Organisation, (2009), Making the PYP happen:  A curriculum framework for international primary education, (2009) International Baccalaureate, Cardiff, Wales.

Tomlinson, C.A., & Eidson, C. A. (2003b). Differentation in practice: A resource guide for differentiating curriculum, grades 5-9. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.